Hidden in Plain View: Normily 2

Chapter 35: Lessons

Chapter 35: Lessons

She hadn't truly cried ever since she came home. They'd put her to bed and she'd sleep through the night with no problems or stirrings. When she needed changed, thy just knew and when she was hungry they were there before anything could start. They were good at keeping the baby happy, so when the quiet house fills with murderous out break of crying wails, Emily and Norman knew something was wrong.

Waking up at 4:30 in the morning after a long day is not something neither Emily nor Norman wants to do. But hearing Beth cry out in blood curdling screams, they spring from their beds to the infants room to find the tiny pink baby pale and in sweats. Picking her Up Emily rocks her and tries to fibre out what's wrong.

"Norman...What's going on?" She pa nicely asks as the baby just cries harder.

"I...I don't know." He comes over and places his hand on the baby's forehead then the back of her neck. "She's burning up babe...we need to take her to the hospital."

"Dad?" A tired Mingus comes strolling into the crying baby's nursery and Norman just fake smiles.

"Ming, we're taking Beth to the hospital, jus go back to bed, you have school tomorrow, bud." Norman nicely says and Mingus shuffles back to his room without question. "Come on, let's go Em."

Getting in the car, Norman just watches out of the corner of his eyes while Emily is holding the baby close and just trying to gather herself amongst other things. She has the look of terror on her face and above anything else worried-ness. When they arrive at the hospital, they rush into the ER and the one nurse takes Beth to the back with her whole making Emily and Norman sit in the waiting room filling out papers. But Emily is too jumpy and panicked to gather herself. She holds her glasses in her hands for a few seconds as she rubs her crying eyes and tries to just figure things out. Rubbing her back Norman remains calm, but inside he's dying. To not only see his baby hurt, but also Emily, crushes him to non-existence.

"It's okay Honey. Emmy, she's gonna be okay, baby."

"We don't know that Norman....what did I do wrong? She's been fine for weeks and now..." She cries harder and wants answers to calm her nerves, even if they're bad.

"You did nothing Emmy. Babies get sick...this isn't yer fault honey. It isn't." Holding her close he leaves a kiss on her temple and when he sees a doctor come out they pull apart.

"Mr. And Mrs. Reedus?"

"That's us, yes." Norman stands up and shakes the doctors hand.

"I'm Dr. Mark Alma, Dr. Shia wasn't into look at Beth tonight, why don't you follow me back an we can discuss Beth." They follow him down hallways and finally end up in a lower floor NICU/ICU for children. Going in they find Beth hooked up to monitors and different things, causing Emily to start to panic a bit. "So, Beth had a strange random case of Sepsis of the Blood. That's where an infection can effect blood, organ function, anything really. Now we ran several tests to find where it started and caused inflammation. And because she's an infant under 3 months, we checked the most obvious place first, her ears. It seems she started with an inner ear infection and it turned into Sepsis. Now the reason she's having a fever is cause her body is fighting off the infection, but you said you noticed wheezing and an increase in her heartbeat, this is common with Sepsis. See the heartbeat rises so it pumps the bad blood faster, hoping that the fever will kill the infection, she's wheezing because her lungs have been infected also. So we have her on an IV to flush the fluid out and help regulate her blood, oxygen to help her breath more clearly, and a broad spectrum of antibacterial medicines to kill it at the source. Also a heart monitor so we can watch her closely. Any questions?"

"How... how did she get the ear infection?" Emily shakes as she looks at Beth sleeping soundly.

"Most likely from getting a lil bit of water in her ear. It happens more commonly that you know in babies cause their ears aren't developed like ours yet, so the water gets trapped ten times easier in her ears than in ours. What we recommend to do, when washing her head, is to out lil cotton balls or wax balls in there until her ears are fully developed. That'll help water from getting in there."

"Thank you for helping her." Norman says as he watches Emily rub Beth's cheek with her finger.

"No problem. She's gonna be fine. Ot was good you brought her straight in. It could have spread to her kidneys and that would've been really bad. I have to go check on my other patients, but I'll be back to check on her." Dr. Mark leaves and Emily just cries. Pulling her to his chest and laying her head against him, Norman just rocks sideways trying to calm her nerves.

"I told you she'd be fine. Honey, it's alright. Okay? She's gonna be alright baby." He kisses her and she's still shaking. "Hey, this is what being a parent is. You worry and it scares you when they get sick, but they get better, Emmy. I'm 46 and done a lot with Mingus when he was lil and sick. It's scary, but look at him, he's a beast. Haha, Bethy's gonna be just fine and so are we."

"Okay...okay." She sweetly says wiping her eyes and kissing his chest. It was scary seeing her baby like that, but the fact she had Norman helping her, made everything better.