What a Catch

Chapter 17: Burning House

Chapter 17: Burning House

I've been sleepwalking

Been wondering all night

Trying to take what's lost and broke

And make it right

Although she was exhausted, Lexie couldn't get herself to stop worrying enough to drift off to sleep. Her mind ran a mile a minute going through every possible outcome for the next few months. No matter what she came up with, it wasn't going to be easy. Her child was stuck in intensive care and there was nothing she could do about it. Being a surgeon, her job was to fix people, yet there was nothing she could do for her own child and it was eating her up inside. There were so many variables, there was nothing she possibly could do to change that. Finally, the sheer exhaustion took over and she drifted off to sleep.

Lexie was jolted awake to the sound of her phone ringing. The clock read just before three in the morning. Tiredly, Lexie put the phone to her ear. "Hello." She mumbled.

"I'm sorry to call you at this hour." Lexie placed Addison's voice at the other end of the line.

"Addison? Is he okay?" A million possibilities ran through her mind at once.

"I'm afraid not. His condition seems to be declining rapidly. The PDA is worsening. He's showing signs of excess blood flow which is worsening the bleed in his brain and increasing his intracranial pressure. I believe operating is our next step."

Lexie took a second to take it all in. "I'll-I'll be there soon. 15 minutes or so?"

"I'm really sorry, Lexie."

"Thank you." Lexie ended the call and woke up Mark, explaining the situation to him. "Do you-do you think we should wake Brooklyn up?"

"No. She has school in the morning. I'll come back in the morning if we're not home by the the time she needs to leave." Mark reasoned and Lexie agreed.

Arriving at the hospital, the couple ran up to the NICU to see Mason before he was taken to surgery. "We're going to go in and close the artery. Hopefully that alone fixes the bleed so he doesn't need a second surgery and shunt placement. There is a lot of risk to this surgery because of his condition and babies usually don't take to anesthesia as well but we're going to do everything we can for him." Addison explained.

"Can I have a minute with him?"

"Of course. Take all the time you need."

Lexie nodded and walked toward the baby. "Hey baby boy." She smiled trying to hold back tears. "You're being so strong. You're going to make it through this surgery because it's what we do. We fight, Mase. Okay? So keep on going. You're gonna be okay."

Brooklyn woke up to her alarm. Barely. Groggily, she turned it off and got out of bed. The lack of sleep the past few days meant that even standing up made her exhausted and weak but she knew she had to go to school. There were assignments and tests that needed to be done even though she didn't know how well she would be able to focus. She hoped that her teachers would at least be understanding enough to let her make and take any phone calls or texts necessary.

Messily, Brooklyn threw her dark brown locks up into a bun on the top of her head, too tired to wash her hair, she had to get it out of the way. This was unusual for her. Usually, her hair and makeup were done before anything else. She tried to hide the bags under her eyes with concealer but there wasn't enough cover up in the world to remove the bags from lack of sleep and crying over the past few days. She put on a pair of black leggings and an old Harvard hoodie she stole from her mom a while back before slipping her feet into a pair of old white converse that were now more a dirty yellowish grey rather than white. Moving from her room, she realized that the house was oddly quiet. She was met at the bedroom door by Nova but that's the only sign of life she heard in the house. Curiously, she walked into the kitchen and found the note from Mark on the counter. About the time she went to read it, the lock clicked and the front door opened. "What the hell?" She said as she met the man at the door. "Why didn't you wake me up?"