That Blue-Eyed Boy

22. SWEET BABY GIRL

POV:  BEAU

 "Stel." I whimper against her hand as I press a kiss into her palm while tears are leaking out of my eyes. A nurse is trying to explain to me what is going on, and what a placental abruption means, but I can't get past the fact that I might lose the two most important people in my life on this operating table. I had at least three nurses try to stop me from coming into the surgery room, but like hell was I not going to be here with the love of my life while she's fighting for hers.

The doctor performing her surgery is yelling at different nurses who are hustling around the room with different equipment, but all I can focus on are Stella's lips that are beginning to turn a light shade of purple. "Should this be happening?" I ask, frantically trying to get a nurse's attention.

"She's losing too much blood!" The doctor shouts, before he pulls out a very blood baby girl and a nurse hurries and snips the umbilical cord before bustling off with my daughter, who I hope beyond anything is alive and healthy.

"Stel, you have to keep fighting." I whisper, clutching her hand and kissing her fingers while I listen to the steady beeping of her heart monitor.

"Her vitals look good for now, sir." A nurse tells the doctor before he starts cleaning up her uterus and sewing her stomach back up, but soon a loud panic beeping startles me out of my seat and I watch in horror as the heart rate monitor on my Stella flat lines. "We're losing her! Starting CPR now."

I can't do anything but watch as a nurse climbs on her knees on the table beside Stella to start compressions, and another nurse drags me out of the room. I'm too numb to protest as everything in my world begins to slowly start crashing down around me. Stella is my world. Without her, I literally am nothing, having nothing, want nothing. The nurse leads me to the hall where Stella's friends are waiting, and I'm sure they want answers, but I have none to give them. I press my back against the wall and slide down it until I'm sitting on the cold, sterile floor of the hospital with my head buried in my arms while I cry like I've never cried before.

It feels like I've sat here forever with tears streaming down my face before a nurse comes to get me. She leads me into another room where my daughter lies in one of those hospital crib things with a pretty pink bow on her head, wrapped in a light pink blanket.

"Hi Amora." I whisper to my daughter as I softly touch her precious little cheek. "I'm your daddy."

I gently pick my daughter up and cradle her tenderly in my arms while a nurse fills out a birth certificate, and after a lot of begging on my part, goes to find out a status on Stella. Gemma, Connor, and another guy I don't know, who I'm assuming is Connor's boyfriend, finally make their way into the room I'm in with Amora after being granted permission, and I offer Amora out to Gemma who shakes her head.

"You and Stella should be the first ones to hold her. I'll hold her as soon as Stella does." She weakly smiles before leaning into Connor's side. I nod at the man who played a major part in my break up with Stella, but that's water under the bridge now. It has been for years.

I finally break down again and have to put Amora back in her bed before sinking to the floor again at the thought that Stella may never get to meet our daughter that she tried so hard to keep from me. The daughter who ultimately is the reason I can call her mine again, starts crying after she felt my touch disappear, and as soon as I put my hand back on her blanket she stops crying.

"It's okay, babe. Everything's going to be okay." I whisper to my daughter, not sure if I'm trying to convince her or myself. After what feels like absolute eons, the nurse finally comes back in with a smile on her face.