Oops (General Hospital)

Precious, Fragile, Little Thing

A Week Later

     "Liz, Liz just breathe." Kim prompts, holding her friend's arm. "I need you to work with me on this. Liz, please Liz."

A Few Hours Earlier

     "Your honor, we have video evidence of the defendant at the scene of the crime." The prosecutor shouts.
     "What you have is a video of him within a block the crime scene around the time the crime may have been committed, with no solid proof that's where he came from or why he was there. In fact, why don't we ask Mr. Baldwin why he was there." The defense suggests, turning to Franco. "Mr. Baldwin, please take the stand."
     Franco gets up, a uniformed officer escorting him to the stand. The defense walks up to the stand. "Mr. Baldwin," he begins, "would you mind telling us why you were where you were?"
     "I was going to my financee's place. We had dinner plans. Plans which followed through. I was at Elizabeth Webber's apartment with her and her three sons all night. I even slept over and it's where I was arrested the next morning. The officer reading me my charges was the first I heard of any murder."
     Liz pulls on Julian's sleeve, holding her stomach with her other hand. He and Kim turn around to face her. "Are you okay?" He asks, placing his hand on her shoulder.
     She shakes her head. "I don't feel good. I need to get out of here." She cries, tears falling from her eyes. She uses the back of the chair to stand, taking a few steps before collapsing into the isle.
     Julian jumps over Kim and drops Liz's side, lifting her into his arms. "Shit. Kim, she's bleeding."
     Franco stands to get a view of what's going on, the officer pushing him back down. "No, I need to see what's happening. She's my fiancee."
     Julian stands, letting Liz rest her head against his shoulder. "It's okay, it's all gonna be okay."

A Little Later

     "Dr. Nero, exam room two is ready for you." Felix says, chasing after them.
     Julian lays Liz down on the exam table, still holding onto her hand. "You're fine, Liz. Everything is fine."
     Liz nods her head but continues to hyperventilate. Kim pulls the ultrasound head over, pressing it to Liz's stomach. "I still need to know what's going on, but I need to know if we're still dealing with an active pregnancy. I'm just looking for the heartbeat, once I find it I'll focus on making sure I stop what's going on.
     "Julian, please try to get her to calm down a little, she's moving too much I can't get a good picture or sound." Kim says, her eyes focused on the screen.
     Julian holds Liz under his arm, giving her a comforting squeeze. Kim turns to them, making Liz panic more, her breathing getting faster and shallower. "Liz, Liz just breathe." Kim prompts, holding her friend's arm. "I need you to work with me on this. Liz, please Liz."
     Liz stops breathing just long enough to catch her breath, starting to take deep breaths. The room goes silent, completely silent.
     Kim swallows, turning back to Liz and Julian. "I'm so sorry, you just had a miscarriage."
     Julian let's his arms go limp, pulling them away from Liz. Kim goes to grab his hand, but he pulls away. "I just needa be alone." He breathes, heading out of the room and down the hallway. He barely manages to get to the privacy of an empty hall before dropping to the ground.
     Minutes pass, maybe an hour. Julian can't quite tell, his hands shaking too badly to read his watch. No one passes him, luckily. He didn't know if he could handle someone asking him what's wrong. Well, not anyone, just most people.
     When he doesn't respond, Lucas sits next to him. "Dad, what happended? Is it your knee?"
     Julian shakes his head, but now that his son mentioned it, his knee was killing him and honestly was probably the reason he fell when he did. "Then what happended? You can talk to me, maybe I can help."
     "It was Liz, she lost the baby. We were at Franco's trial and she got all upset and fell. We got her here as fast as possible but Kim, Kim couldn't find a heartbeat. And Liz lost a lot of blood." Julian whimpers, turning his arms over.
     "Dad, I'm, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?" Lucas asks, moving closer to his father.
     Julian shakes his head. Lucas sighs, avoiding making eye contact. "We should at least get you cleaned up, you can't walk around with someone else's blood on you like this." He says, starting to pull his father to his feet, struggling much more than he thought he would.
     Not for a lack of trying, but Julian just couldn't. Lucas gives up and sits back down. "You can't break down now, you've still got six other babies on the way. They need you, their mothers need you, and I need you. But right now, right at this very second, Liz and Kim need you."
     Julian nods. "I would, but I can't move my leg."
     "I'll wait with you until you feel a little stronger. No one deserves to be alone at a time like this, especially not you."

     "What was it?" Liz asks, facing away from Kim, the blanket pulled up go her neck. When Kim doesn't answer, she asks again. "What was I having?"
     "You don't need to know that, it'll only hurt more." Kim says, running her hand down Liz's arm.
     "Please, I need to know. I can't go on not knowing. I can't live like that." Liz says, rolling over to face Kim.
     "It was a girl."
     Liz's lip starts to quiver, but with all her tears having been cried, that's as it goes. "Audrey. I would've named her Audrey."

I did say things were going to get bad.
I was going to do more in the trial but you've read a million and a half trials and I've written a million, and this isn't Franco's story.