To the moon || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 49

I sighed, looking at our little baby girl in the NICU.
She had been breathing on her own the entire day so the doctor said she was doing really good but it still made me anxious to see her like this.
To prevent her from getting any kind of infection, we were not allowed to hold her yet.
We could only just watch and stick our hand inside the NICU as long as we had it disinfected right before.
I could hear some quiet shuffling behind me and I turned around, looking at the guys.
'Hey' I smiled at them, waving them over so they could take a look.
Luke stood beside me, taking a hold of my other hand as he looked at the guys.
'Guys, meet Lilly.' He smiled proudly.
They all crouched down so their faces were levelled with the little girl and looked at her in awe.
'It's kind of a combination of our names,' Luke continued.
'Since Ivy is a plant and my name starts with an L. And yes, I know that a Lilly is a flower, not a plant but it's practically the same'
'She's adorable,' Michael mumbled, almost pressing his nose against the glass.
'Look at those little toes' he said.
'She's the size of my hand, what the hell' Ashton mumbled, pressing his hand against the NICU.
'Why's she in this thing?' Calum asked, averting his gaze to us for a minute.
'Because she's born premature. Any kind of bacteria or virus that gets to her she might not survive and she had trouble breathing on her own when she was born' I said, looking at the little girl.
'She'll be okay though' Luke said, more confident now that he had actually seen her.
I looked up at him and smiled sadly, not believing a word of what he said.
Luke had told me a nurse showed up after I had fallen asleep last night and asked if he wanted to go take a look at Lilly.
He went to see her and he said she was attached to this tube to help her breath.
The tube was gone now but the oxygen tank was still standing beside the NICU, ready to be attached to her when she needed it.
I looked at Lilly, her tiny hand clutched around my finger as she slowly opened her eyes and turned her head around, looking at all the different faces that were looking at her as she softly started kicking and moving her arms.
She turned her head around again, facing me and yawned.
I smiled and looked at her face. I just couldn't get my eyes off of her for longer than a few seconds.
She barely even looked human because she was born so early but I just couldn't look at her and not love her.
'What happened that she was born earlier?' Ashton asked, not sure if we wanted to answer that question.
I could feel Luke's gaze on me, leaving it up to me to decide whether I wanted to say it or not.
'It's called a eh...a placental abruption. Which basically means that the placenta separated from my uterine wall.' I said, repeating the exact same thing the doctor had told us a few hours ago.
'That's the reason why my stomach started aching and my back started hurting and...basically everything that went wrong. It's not very common but when it happens it'll usually not risk anyone's health or get worse as long as you're on complete bedrest. But since I wasn't on complete bedrest it didn't stop.'
The guys nodded, looking back at Lilly.
She was like a magnet. No matter how hard you tried, you just had to look at her every few seconds.
'At least she's doing good now,' Michael said, placing his hand on my knee.
'Luke's right, she'll be okay'
I looked at him, appreciating his effort to try and make me see this in a little bit more of a positive way.
'You know what, I'll prove to you that I truly believe that she'll be fine' Luke said, taking his phone out of his pocket and taking a few pictures of Lilly.
'What are you doing?' I asked, frowning slightly.
Luke crouched down beside me so that I could watch what he was doing.
'Which one is better?' he asked, scrolling through the pictures he had taken.
'Better for what?'
'Just pick one'
'Luke...I don't think posting a picture of her on Instagram is a very good idea' I said as soon as I caught on to what he was planning.
Luke turned around slightly and looked at me.
'She is going to be absolutely fine and if you don't believe me when I tell you, I'll prove it in another way' He said, looking back at his phone.
I shook my head and took his phone out of his hands, quickly clicking away Instagram.
'Don't post it yet.' I said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
'I want to believe you, I really do but I can't bring up that much hope and courage only to have it all come crushing down if she won't'
Luke sighed but nodded and took his phone back, putting it back in his pocket.
He took my free hand in his again and softly pressed a kiss against it.
'Alright,' he said, looking at Lilly.
'I understand where you're coming from'
'Just wait a few more days. Once the doctors starts talking about her being allowed out of the hospital you can post it. I just really don't want to risk it because it'll only hurt more if she doesn't survive' I said, swallowing away the lump in my throat.
Only just the thought of losing her hurt and made me tear up a little.
We fought so hard for this, I wasn't sure if I could cope with it if we would lose her now.