I'm With You

Chapter 26

Miguel sat in the relatives' room with Mackenzie, both of them completely silent as they waited for any kind of update on Eira's condition. A whole team of doctors, nurses, and a surgeon were waiting when they arrived at the hospital and Miguel had to hold Mackenzie back as she tried to follow her sister. It tore him apart to see her just eventually give up fighting altogether, going limp in his arms and allowing him to guide her to the relatives' room. The last update they had was that they had taken Eira to surgery, but that was over two hours ago, although it felt like a lifetime ago. Miguel had sent a text to Donna and Lauren after he and Mackenzie had scrubbed their hands and arms clean of blood, telling them that they'd found Eira and she was in the hospital, that he was with Mackenzie. It was the early hours of the morning, so he didn't expect them to get the text until they woke up in a few hours.

"She was protecting me... she could die protecting me." Mackenzie breathed, all out of tears to cry.

"It isn't your fault," Miguel assured her, but Mackenzie slowly shook her head. "You know, Eira acted the same way when you were sick," Miguel said and Mackenzie looked up at him as he sat opposite her.

"Sh-She did?"

"Of course she did... blaming herself for not taking care of you, doing all she could to keep you warm... she'd do anything for you, and she's in the hands of the best doctors and surgeons in the country. She's got a chance at this... we just have to believe in her."

"Y-You know, back when we first became homeless, we used to talk about our dream futures to try and cheer ourselves up," Mackenzie said, a sad smile on her face that Miguel mirrored. "I would always say the same thing - that Mom would magically come back and save us... that Dad would get better and say he's sorry and it would all be okay... I was too little to really understand any different and Eira never once told me it was stupid, or that it was impossible... I even got upset when we read that Dad died... that we were orphans... she comforted me, even though I know deep down she was so happy he was gone. It meant he couldn't hurt us anymore... her dream would always be about family, being in a real family, and being the Mom to her kids that our Mom was to us." Mackenzie's eyes dropped down into her lap, shaking with grief and she leaned into Miguel when he moved to sit beside her. "Sh-She feels the same way about you, you know... it's why she panicked, why she left you..." Mackenzie trailed off and Miguel rubbed her arm slowly, comfortingly.

"I know." He said and Mackenzie looked up at him.

"You do?"

"She told me after we kissed that she wasn't good enough for me... not even for a second have I been mad at her or judged her." Miguel said and Mackenzie let out a sob, even though she couldn't cry anymore.

"Neither of you are going back on the streets again, that I can promise you... you're gonna have a safe place, a home." Miguel vowed, holding Mackenzie close to him as she sobbed without tears and he kept rubbing her arm as she slowly fell asleep against his chest.

Mackenzie woke up to the sound of the door opened, both Mackenzie and Miguel recognizing the doctor as one of the ones who met them at the ER.

"You're here for Eira Perez?" The doctor asked, recognizing Miguel but the two of them had never worked together before.

"Yes." Mackenzie breathed. "I-Is she okay?" She was standing with Miguel, gripping onto his hand out of pure fear that she'd hear the news that her big sister had passed away. She had no idea what she would do without her sister, it had always been just the two of them since their Mom passed away.

"The surgery went as well as we could have hoped it to go - we had blood rushed here from across town so we could hook her up to a transfusion and she's responding incredibly well to it. Her vitals are all starting to stabilize now the bleeding has stopped, but we've had to remove her appendix as the knife punctured it in the attack." The doctor explained, Miguel and Mackenzie numb with relief that Eira was improving.

"Can we see her? Is she awake?" Mackenzie demanded and the doctor nodded his head.

"Yes, she's awake and she's asking for you both but she is still extremely tired and needs rest... but there is something else that came up during testing." The doctor said and the two of them held onto each other tighter, automatically thinking the worst.

"What is it?" Miguel asked.

"Eira is in the very early stages of a pregnancy." He said and Miguel was instantly lightheaded, Mackenzie's eyes wide with shock.

"Does... does she know?" She choked out.

"Not yet. There aren't any signs of miscarriage yet, but this is now a very high-risk pregnancy... we need to keep her here for at least a week to monitor her and the baby."

"Can we see her?" Miguel breathed, the doctor nodding his head and they both immediately started to silently follow the doctor towards Eira's private recovery room.