It Takes Two (Katy Perry)

Part 16

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The ambulance arrived just over five minutes later. Katy and Shannon hadn’t spoken, the room completely silent aside from the sound of their crying and Katy’s occasional moan of pain. An insistent knocking on the front door made Shannon jump up and run to let the paramedics in, telling them about the rapid decline in Katy’s condition on the way back to the bedroom.

The two paramedics, a male and a female, assessed her. The male took Katy’s vital signs while the female placed her stethoscope on Katy’s stomach, listening intently for the sound she was sure would not be heard. The female paramedic bent down to Katy’s level, looking at her in the eye. “Katy, you’ve lost a lot of blood, and I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, but…”

Katy interrupted, putting her hands over her ears. “NO!” she cried hysterically. “My baby is not dead! It’s in there still!”

Shannon, who had been staying out the way of the paramedics, moved forward to take Katy’s hand. “Sweetie, please listen to the paramedic. I’m here for you babe, I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered, wiping Katy’s tears.

“Katy, we were unable to find the heartbeat of your baby. I’m so sorry,” said the female paramedic. “Is it alright if I do an internal exam? We might need you to still deliver this baby.”

Katy burst into fresh tears, but nodded her head, unable to form any words. She lay there sobbing as the woman used some different instruments to look inside her, pain ripping through her stomach every couple of minutes.

“Okay Katy, it looks like your body has decided you need to push this baby out. The pains you keep getting are actual contractions,” said the woman. “We don’t have enough time to stabilise you enough to move you to hospital, so we need to do this right here and now. On the next contraction, I need you to push as hard as you can. It shouldn’t take too much pushing as the baby is only tiny still.”

Katy nodded mutely, overwhelmed and distraught. This was all happening so fast, and all she could do was push when she felt the pain. It only took two pushes before the immense pressure released, and all she heard was complete silence. Then, she felt a warm rush of blood leave her body and her eyes rolled back in her head.

“Katy!” She heard someone calling her name, but was unable to respond. She was suspended in a state of semi-consciousness for a moment, long enough to hear Shannon crying, “Stay with me, Kate! Don’t give up!” before it all became too much and her body went slack, her mind going completely blank.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

It had been four days since Katy had blacked out after delivering her baby. In that time, she had been visited by all her friends and relatives and her whole working team multiple times. Angela and Shannon were a near constant presence in the hospital room where Katy had been transferred to after losing consciousness in her own bedroom. Everyone had tried to comfort Shannon, who was almost traumatised by what she had witnessed her best friend go through, and although they tried, Shannon would not accept their love. The only person she wanted was Katy, but the doctors were unsure when she would wake up.

On the fifth day of sitting in the hospital room, staring at Katy’s lifeless body hooked up to multiple wires and tubes, Shannon saw a slight finger twitch.

“Katy?” she whispered, her voice hoarse after days of being unused. “Kate, please wake up!” She grabbed Katy’s hand, hoping for another movement, anything to let her know that Katy was still there and trying to finally wake up. She was welcomed by the feeling of slight pressure on her hand as Katy tried desperately to send a message to her hand through the seemingly never-ending fog in her brain.

“Squeeze my hand again if you can hear me, Kate!” said Shannon, becoming excited. Another soft squeeze, and she jumped up. Kissing Katy quickly on the forehead and promising her she’d be back in just a moment, she ran out the room.

“Katy’s waking up!” she cried into the hallway, and was met with two doctors rushing towards her. As she re-entered the room, she was met with the sound of fast beeping coming from the machines, which until now had been a slow, steady and constant beep.

The doctors surrounded Katy, and a swarm of nurses followed, leaving Shannon stuck in the corner feeling helpless.

A tear of concern, confusion and frustration ran down Shannon’s face, she didn’t understand what was happening. A single nurse broke away from the crowd surrounding Katy’s bed, and approached Shannon.

“Sweetie, she’s going to be okay,” the nurse smiled reassuringly.

Shannon sniffled. “But what’s happening?”

“You know she lost a lot of blood, and we had to give her quite a few blood transfusions over the past few days, right?” Shannon nodded, not saying anything, and the nurse continued. “Well her body has been trying to get used to them, and has been doing quite well, but now that she is starting to wake up, it’s putting an added strain on her heart and she’s struggling more than she was before to pump the blood around her body properly. The machine beeping just means that her heart rate is elevated, and the doctors are just making sure it’s not going to get dangerously high. But look, it’s gone back to normal now.”

“Thankyou so much,” Shannon said, giving the nurse an unexpected hug. The nurse just smiled and stroked Shannon’s long brown curls.

“You’re welcome, honey. Go and sit with Katy, she should be fully waking up very soon I should think!”

Shannon returned to her previous seat where she held vigil at Katy’s bedside, and took her pale hand, stroking the back of it with her thumb, providing Katy with as much comfort as possible.

As she stared at Katy’s beautiful, pale, sleeping face, she felt another squeeze of her hand and smiled softly. Then Katy’s eyes flickered a couple of times, and she slowly forced them open, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dim light in the hospital room.

“Shan?”