Olive Tree (WAIK Sequel)

Chapter 13 - "Why are you smiling?"

11 PM 

Beatrice and I decided to stay at the hospital to check on Anne. We hadn't heard anything for the past hour and we were starting to get extremely worried. She leaned her head against my bony shoulder and grasped my hand tightly. 

"Do you think she's okay?" Bea asked, tears filling her eyes.

"Shhh, don't cry, please don't cry," I caressed her hair as she cried into my t shirt. "I bet she's just fine, and so is the bump."

"The bump?" She lifted her head and cocked an eyebrow, laughing between tears.

"Yes, the bump," I chuckled along with her as she steadily leaned on my thighs and gently fell asleep.

2 AM

It was early in the morning and the maternity unit was open 24/7 to everyone. The rest of the hospital was quiet, you could hear a pin drop, and dark. There were sounds of mothers giving birth here there and everywhere. Now I understood why the maternity unit was sectioned off from the rest of the hospital. Babies' cries erupted like volcanoes after the screams like thunder after lightning. 

A mother was screaming, her yelps sent shivers down my spine. They carried on shivering throughout the rest of my body. It was like a sharp sensation teasing me. 

It was Anne.

"She can't give birth now," I panicked and woke Beatrice up. "She's not due for another 2 months."

"What are you mumbling about now?" She snapped open her eyes and sat up. We were quiet for a minute. We just listened to her agonizing screams for a good half an hour before I got curious.

I went to the window, Bea following me, and couldn't see past the orange curtain surrounding my best friend. All the other mothers were sat up in their beds, not even acknowledging Anne's cries, holding their newborns as happy as day and actually allive. I threw myself up against the wall and sobbed. 

What if the baby didn't make it?

4 AM

The screams lasted for 2 hours straight. Beatrice was curled up into a ball in the waiting room just around the corner so I couldn't cry loud. Eventually, I went to sit with her and held her in my arms.

"She's not okay, is she?" Bea asked again, tears filling her eyes as a repeat.

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

She then bawled into my shirt and didn't stop until the screams did. It was silent once again. We waited for the baby's cries that followed like lightning, but there was nothing. No cry. Nothing. 

The whole hospital was silent for a few minutes before I stood. Bea twiddled her thumbs as tears dropped down her cheeks. My heart broke and so did my knees. I tumbled down to the floor and placed my very sweaty head between my just as sweaty hands. I brushed through my hair and just held my posture for a few minutes. Boys don't usually cry in front of their girlfriends, but I was letting it all out there and then. I was sobbing. My chest began throbbing and I could feel my concious whispering in the back of my mind. In denial, I shoved the voice away because I couldn't stand to be faced with the reality. The reality of the situation that my best friend's baby was probably dead. Apart of her, that tore her genital apart, made her be judged because of how young she is, just died. As simple as that. 

All hope was battered until someone's warm arms hooked around my shoulders and lifted me from the hospital's cold, tiled floor. I turned to face them and discovered that they were a doctor. 

"Olly?" The doctor asked, smiling. 

"Why are you smiling?" I replied harshly, leaving the nurse in shock. 

There was a few second delay before her reply; she was interrupted by a sharp baby cry. A baby girls's cry. The nurse's face lit up and whispered. "That's why."

Beatrice and I greeted Anne's hospital room. The walls were painted peach with stickers of tiny baby elephants in pink tutus holding balloons, balancing on their left foot. The windows were open; letting the ice cold summer breeze flow around. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon, but it was still needed to have every single light on in the room. The incubator was placed next to the hospital bed. It was connected to all sorts of tubes flowing all around the room to different ports. Anne was led between the sheets. She looked like death. She had tubes running through her veins and into different bags of fluid. Her skin looked grey and exhausted. 

"Olly," Anne whispered with what seemed like all her power. She still had her eyes closed, but I know she was listening. "I've never felt that much pain until I had appendicitis in year 8."

"Well another person did just come out your vagina," Bea laughed behind me and leaned up against the door. "Well, where is the baby?"

Anne's eyes slowly opened and grinned. She gestured towards the incubator and then reclosed her eyes. "She's over there. Or, Josh is hogging her again."

"Guilty." Josh said, happy and jumpy, rushing into the room with their newborn baby girl. 

Bea came from behind me and stood at my side, not taking her eyes off of the baby girl. She was acting like a fat kid in a sweet shop.

"What did you call her?" Beatrice pondered aloud as Joshua gave Anne the baby back to her. She took her hand and smiled down.

"Sapphire," Anne smiled and handed her over to Bea. 

"Well hello there, Sapphire," She cooed in her baby talking voice. She cradelled her, rocking side to side. Sapphire reached up and touched Bea's face. It was a heart warming moment. "My name is auntie Bea," She bent down into the little baby's ear and whispering into her ear. "Don't call me Beatrice, it's a grandma name."

Sapphire giggled as her breath tickled her ear. Bea then handed her to me and my word stopped. As I looked down at Anne's decendent, my heart melted. She was so cute. Her eyes weren't open yet, and they wouldn't be for awhile, but her nose was outlined extremely well. She had cute, little ears like Josh's and Anne's button nose. She even had Anne's hair rapidly growing on top of her head.

She was going to be beautiful; it was obvious.