Love me like you do

Chapter 11

Connie suddenly woke from her slumber

"Where....where am I?" she was confused and all mixed up, then it hit her like a rock. She was at St. James, she'd given birth to her beautiful baby boy, and she'd lost Jacob.

"Grace? Where'd you go baby?" then she noticed a small note, folded up on her bedside table, she unfolded it.

"Connie,

Taken Grace home, poor girls shattered, I'll look after her, don't you worry about her, spend time with your beautiful baby boy, see you tomorrow, love you Aunt Con, kisses, Meils. xxx"

There was a small knock at the door, at first, she thought she'd imagined it, as the nurses and consultants normally just walked in. She glanced at her watch ten to eleven. She decided she would pop on a bit of make up and head upstairs to NICU to see her baby boy, after all, he had to be her priority from now on. She'd have to see Hannsen about that, much as she hated him, unfortunately, he is the CEO of the hospital. She heard another knock at the door, she definitely didn't imagine it this time.

"C...come in?" she stuttered, just loud enough for whoever it was to hear her. The door crept open, Connie had her back to the door, she was fixing her make-up.

"Hello Connie" she heard a familiar voice. She'd have recognized that voice anywhere!

"Elliot" she cried, she ran into his arms and he embraced her in a hug.

"I...I thought you were in Glasgow for a few months?"

"I was, but Charlie called me and suggested that maybe you need me right now?" She was so glad to see him. Much as she loved Charlie and he would be there for her no matter what, she and Elliot had been through thick and thin together, Charlie felt the magnitude of this situation would perhaps take just more than himself to get Connie back on her feet.

"Charlie's been so supportive, I wouldn't even be here right now without him!"

"I know, but I think you might need us both"

The pair chatted away together, Connie made her hospital bed and they both sat on it together, she rested her head on his chest.

"You'd have loved him Elliot, you really would"

"Yes, I've heard he's quite the character"

"I miss him so much already. He was so exited about becoming a father, honestly, I remember the day we found out I was pregnant. It was amazing, but, bittersweet. I'd been pregnant before, I miscarried at just under twenty weeks. Twenty weeks Elliot! I felt like I'd lost a child, well, I had, but you know what I mean? I mean, I used to see pregnancy loss all the time, and to us it was just a fetus that didn't survive, but this, this was a baby, he had arms, and leg, and I felt him move all the time, and then one day, I just didn't. I was so devastated, but, I didn't let it show. I could see how hard it hit Jacob and I had to be strong, for him. I already had Grace, he didn't have anything. I promised him we'd try for another baby, and we did - a bit too quickly after losing the first one, but, time wasn't on my side. It just wasn't happening, nothing, we'd been trying for 6 months, I never told him this, but i'd taken fertility tests and looked into IVF, and then when my doctor called me, I was expecting the worst"

Connie paused, tears were rolling down her face and she was really starting to lose it. Elliot tucked her hair behind her ear.

"You don't have to go on Connie, I know this is hard for you"

"No...no I want to... I want you to know all about this amazing man who swept me off my feet - quite literally, he used to run up behind me and pick me up out of the blue all the time. Anyway, he called up and he told me there was something very interesting in my test results 'It's me isn't it? I'm too old!' I couldn't believe it when he actually said 'Quite the opposite, you're pregnant' It was those two words. You're pregnant. I honestly felt like this huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Anyway, I had to see if for myself, so I pretended I had to go sign a consent form for Grace to go on a school trip and went out and bought a pregnancy testing kit - when I came back - I told Jacob to come and see me in my office immediately. When he got there, I put on my best performance I could.I told him i just 'felt pregnant' and wanted to do a test. I'd already done it, but i genuinely hadn't looked. I wanted to look at it with him, anyway, when the time was up, he took it out the box, and there it was, two thin blue lines. He almost hit the roof he was so exited. We decided to keep it secret, until I was at least twenty weeks this time. We told the important people, Charlie, his Mum, Hanssen - although i'd rather not have had the displeasure of that - and of course, Grace."

"That's lovely Connie, what are you going to call him?"

"I haven't totally decided on his middle name yet, but I'm thinking Jacob, that way the memory of his father can live on in him, it will anyway, he looks just like him"

"I've never seen you talk so lovingly about anyone before, not even when you were with Michael, he's certainly made a huge impact on your life"

"He really has" Connie burst into floods of tears and Elliot pulled her against his chest.

"You'll be alright, you're strong, and you have two beautiful children to be proud of"

Elliot stayed with her for another hour, chatting, crying and the occasional bout of laughter.

"Right, I best be off, It's almost 1am!"

"Do you want to see him? My baby boy? I was just going up before you came in"

"Of course, let's go!"