Baby Maggie

Waiting

Waiting. That's all Alfie feels like he has done. He has tried to make a video but he just ended up crying. He just sits beside Zoe's bedside, waiting. The doctors say she went into a coma because her body couldn't handle the stress of giving birth.

She has always felt so fragile to Alfie.

When they first hugged, she was like a little doll. When he picked her up and spun her around, she was like a feather. When they cuddled he was afraid he would crush her, the same with sleeping in the same bed with her. It sometimes felt like he might roll over during the night and crush her. When they made love for the first time, Zoe had to constantly remind he that he wouldn't break her.

Now here she is in the hospital, because they didn't think it through.

He keeps running through his memories, like flipping through a book. It drives him insane. He sits at her bedside, and cries.

He has held Maggie multiple times, as of now he is the only one allowed. The doctors don't want her to get hurt by being passed around.

He cries because when he looks into his little girl's eyes he knows that she needs a mother, but he doesn't know if she will have one. And that terrifies him.

He can now recite three of Zoe's videos from memory because it's the only way to hear her voice.

He cries a lot.

He sleeps at the hospital still and the doctors are afraid Zoe may not wake up.

That changes, one night, Alfie has yet to fall asleep even though it' three in the morning. Then a scream is piercing his ears. He looks over to Zoe and her body is shaking.

"Get him out of here!"

"Hold her body down!"

"Get him out!"

"Sedate her!"

A flurry of shouts of doctors and nurses cover the sound of Zoe's body rattling the bed. He is having a heart attack. Some male nurses forcefully lead him out of the room. Then one of them leads him away, while the other goes back into the room. He can hear another scream slicing through the air.

-

"I have never been this scared in my entire life. You guys, you don't understand. Every time I hold my daughter's eyes, I realize that she needs a mother and she may not have one. Zoe isn't responding to anything, and I sit at her bedside watching her, for any signs of movement. She just breathes. That's all she does, is breath. I am so scared." The video finishes and Alfie hears someone clear their throat. He wipes the tears off his face before turning to them.

"You know that there is no way that you can upload that video right?" Joe asks, he is leaned up against the door frame. Alfie sniffles and nods.

"I just needed to say it. To the camera, I-I just thought it would help."

"Did it?" Joe asks softly.

"No!" Then Alfie sobs into his hands. This hasn't gotten any easier for him. Joe goes and hugs the sobbing boy.

"You must have faith in Zoe, she is little but a fighter, you know that! She wouldn't leave you and Maggie." Alfie cries a little more before going back to the hospital.

-

"Alfie?" Zoe croaks.

"Zoe!"
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Look at them in that picture, awww