End of Innocence- November 1963

Keeping the Faith

Overcoming the immediate shock and excitement that suddenly took over him as he processed the words Jackie had just uttered, Bobby became a rambling mess as he began to interrogate her,

"Oh my God Jackie, how did this happen? When? How far along are you? Does Jack know? Of course he doesn't know! Jackie, this is amazing news!"

"Bobby!" Jackie giggled, "Breath!" She exclaimed. "You have 8 children Bobby, I'm sure you know how it happened," she giggled.

"I can't be that far along, Patrick is only three and a half months old and Jack and I didn't start, well you know, begin being intimate again until around our anniversary and I would never have imagined I would get pregnant again so quickly."

Returning her gaze out the window, Jackie's excited tone suddenly became rot with concern, "I'm scared Bobby! This is everything Jack and I have always wanted, to have more children, but why now? Why now that he's like this? What if he doesn't make it and this baby never knows his or her daddy? Or what if I lose the baby or something happens and Jack isn't with us? You know the difficulties I had with Patrick. What if it's too soon? Oh Bobby, I'm so scared!" She cried as she turned to embrace Bobby.

"Shhhhhh, it's going to be okay Kid," Bobby tried to comfort her. "Everything is going to be just fine. You're going to be fine; the baby is going to be fine and Jack, well he's going to be fine too. He's going to make it and you all are going to have a beautiful new baby by this time next year and all this sadness and craziness will be behind us. You'll see." Bobby reassured her.

Wiping away the tears that had fallen upon her cheeks, Bobby raised Jackie face to look up at him, "I love you kid and I'm going to be here for you and the baby and the children and for Jack, always! We're going to win this okay." He continued.

Just then a knock came to the door

"Bobby, I don't want anyone to know yet, okay?" She hurriedly whispered as she broke from their embrace wiping the rest of her tears away with the palm of her hands.

"Come in," she choked.

"Mrs. Kennedy, General," Dr. Burkley greeted as he and the president's team of doctors entered the room. "May we speak to you about the president's condition?" He questioned. "We have an update of the president's last rounds of test as per your request." He stated.

"Absolutely," Bobby spoke up as Jackie continued to regather her composure. "Gentlemen, I hope you have some good news for us," he questioned?

"General, Mrs. Kennedy, we want to be a hundred percent upfront with you and give you all the information we possibly can regarding the president's prognosis and our continued concerns for his recovery." Dr. Burkley began. "Unfortunately, we don't have the results we could have hoped for. The cards seem to be stacked against us. The president's Addison Disease is not cooperating with our attempts to save his life. His fever remains dangerously high and his blood counts are dangerously low. If his body doesn't begin to fight back soon, the bullet wound to his brain isn't the only thing we'll have to concern ourselves with as he's going to have permanent brain damage from the fever."

As Jackie's eyes began to swell with tears, Bobby looked away from the doctors, over at Jack, trying to fight back him own tears.

Stepping forward, Dr Field spoke up, "Mrs. Kennedy, I know you're wanting to hear something positive regarding your husbands condition and we don't have too much good news to share yet but I can report something good in that the president's motor skills and brain activity levels are much better and higher than we ever expected given the nature of his injuries. His pupils are responsive to stimuli and his EEG test is showing next to normal results, especially for someone in his condition which is a very positive thing. That being said, make no mistake, the president's continued state of high fever and lengthened coma are of grave concern to us. All these great improvements can easily be reversed if we can't control his fever."