Scottish Gold (An Outsiders Fic)

Chapter 44: She Was My Wife

Two-Bit's POV

Pain and emptiness was all I felt as I sat against the wall outside her room with my knees tucked up to my chest. My heart felt like it was going to explode as tears cascaded silently down my cheeks, soaking the knees of my beaten blue jeans where my head rested. Everything around me felt like it was crumbling as the door in front of me opened and two doctors walked out. I shot my head up, hoping that they would give me some sort of update. One of them stopped when he saw me, and the look in his eyes told me everything.

I just looked past him as the door opened once again and I saw the blood. There was no beeping noise in the room anymore, not even the ringing of a flatline. Everything was covered in her blood, the floor, even the white sheet that rested over her now lifeless body.

She was gone.

An older woman, I came to recognise as one of her nurses, stood front of me, blocking my view. She had grey hair in a bun on the top of her head and a face that showed she had sympathy and love. Her chestnut eyes were full of compassion and sorrow.

I sniffled, wiping my eyes and trying to put on my tuff greaser facade. I could tell she could see right through it, but I refused to look weak in front of this woman, or anyone. My tears had subsided by this point as she looked down at me.

"I'm going to have to ask you to go into the waiting room." She said, she looked around before whispering, "the doctor is delivering the news now."

I knew what she meant. She probably wasn't allowed to officially tell me until the "family" was notified, but I was her family too.

"I'm sorry, hun." She said softly, shaking her head.

My jaw was getting sore from clenching my teeth, it was all I could do to restrain myself from lashing out. I stroked the braid rope I had tied around my wrist from our handfasting ceremony. My heart constricted in pain. She was gone forever. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and stood up.

She led me to the waiting room, where everyone was waiting, all looking in the same direction. It was toward a room off of the continuous hallway, and I did not see Vikki or Clint or Karen. Darry looked over at me, and I saw his chest fall, a visual of my heart sinking. I looked back at the hospital room, that I knew Cookie's lifeless body rested. I imagined her walking out of the door, laughing without a care in the world. The sound of a door hinge squeaking softly in the silent hospital brought me back to reality.

Clint, Karen, and Vikki walked out of the room. We all knew the answer. We knew ever since the doctors pulled them into the room. Cookie was dead.

Those faces I was going to remember for the rest of my life. The faces of the doctors and the nurses that tried effortlessly to save her. Vikki just received the worst news of her entire life, and I knew that she was never going to forget their faces either. Her pain was the biggest thing in the room.

"Two," Clint spoke up. He lifted his head up, and his red eyes looked over at me. "They want to talk to you."

I walked past them, into the room with the doctors and one nurse. They told me to sit down, and I was too shocked to object. They stood in front of me, and looked at each other before reverting their attention back to me.

"Mr. Matthews, I am Dr. George, Cookie's doctor," One doctor said, with the name Dr. George sewn onto the left side of his white coat in thick navy blue thread over his teal scrubs. "Dr. Allen and I are going to meet with the Banks, but this is Nurse Claire. She has the details on Cookie."

Dr. George and Dr. Allen excused themselves, and shut the door behind them.

"Mrs. Banks told me that you were Cookie's significant other." Nurse Claire said. She wore light pink scrubs and had her dark hair pulled back in a messy ponytail.

"Yeah," I said.

"We are so sorry," she began, "but they both died."

"They?" I asked, tilting my head. "Ponyboy and Johnny are fine."

"No," she said, "Cookie and the fetus died from their injuries."

"What fetus?" I asked before it finally clicked.

"Cookie was pregnant," Claire said, handing me a paper from her blood test. Beside Pregnant? was a check mark. "Our deepest condolences."

I don't know how else to say that I was shocked. My head swam with confusion. My emotions were flying everywhere. Surprise turned to confusion, which transformed into happiness, then finally utter and complete desolation. I wanted to hit something, break something. They were dead. I was a father and I lost my love and my unborn child at the same time. I shook my head, staring at her tennis shoes. My mouth opened and closed, trying to form a word as tears filled my eyes once again. I was speechless. I had no idea what to say to the nurse as I felt like a window that the universe threw a baseball through.

"No," I finally said, "I didn't know."

"Take as much time as you need," the nurse said, before leaving me alone in the room.

I curled farther and farther into myself once the door closed. I wailed into the palm of my hand, feeling the tears pool at my fingers. I had never expressed an emotion like this before.

The door squeaked open softly, and "Two?" came Soda's voice as I looked away from the floor and up to the gang that crowded the doorframe. The blinds were closed so I could not see the waiting room, but since I did not see Karen or Clint or Vikki, they were probably with her by the chairs. They had already heard the news... they knew she was gone.

No one said anything. I rocked in the chair, trying to comfort myself as they looked at me. I finally said, "I was a dad."

Darry nodded, "I am so sorry, buddy."

The feeling of sadness succumbed to the feeling of anger and energy. I wanted to scream, or kick something. I needed to beat the shit out of someone.

"She was..." Darry asked, his eyes widening as he leaned out of the room and glanced over to the closed door that led to her lifeless body.

"Knocked up?" Came Steve's question, earning him a really hard smack on the back of his head by Darry and Soda at the same time. "Ow!" he cried.

"Yeah." I said, wiping my nose on the neck of my t-shirt. I didn't know what else to say. I was a dad. I felt wrecked. I needed a drink. I needed to get as wasted as possible. I grunted, stood up and walked straight through the gang. They separated their line, and I saw Vikki sitting in a chair with Clint and Karen rubbing her back. She was almost like a doll, expressionless. She wasn't crying, she was probably in shock. I was almost mad that she wasn't crying. It fueled my anger as I walked briskly to the door and out of the hospital. I needed a drink and I needed to hit something and I knew just where to find both: The Rumble.