The Storm

Chapter 1

Davis

I am tapping my feet I'm so excited. Sabrina looks over at me, giving me a tired smile. She has her dark hair pulled up into a messy bun; her eyes are shadowed with fatigue. Soon, the doctor said, soon our boy will be here. Sabrina has been in labor for nearly seven hours with little to no progress. When they checked her ten minutes ago, the baby had still not turned. The nurse was conferring with the doctor to see if they were just going to go ahead and give her a caesarian. 

For ten years we have been waiting for this moment. Ten long years of trying, waiting, praying for a child. Thousands of needles, pills, procedures to get us to this day. Sabrina yawns, rubbing her belly, careful to not jostle the monitor strapped to it. 

"I want a peanut butter milkshake when this is over," she tells me. 

"Anything you like, my sweet," I promise her. I'd give her anything she asked for at this moment. My beautiful Beana looking gorgeous with a giant swollen belly. Our boy just waiting to be born. I'm sending out text updates to our families, keeping them abreast of everything that is or isn't going on. My sister Billie is driving over because she doesn't have the patience to wait at home like everyone else. 

The doctor returns to tell Sabrina that she's going to need a c-section. The baby is still in a breech position and Sabrina's blood pressure is starting to rise. Not dangerously so, but they don't want to take a chance. 

Suddenly it's a flurry of activity, nurses prepping Sabrina for her spinal injection, me putting on scrubs, a mask, and gloves. One nurse tells me what to expect when we get into the operating room. 

"Bring the camera," Sabrina reminds me as she tucks her hair into a plastic cap. The orderly comes into the room to wheel Sabrina down to the operating room. Before she settles back onto the bed she crooks her finger at me. I walk to her and place my hands on her belly. 

"Gimme a kiss," she says with a tired smile. I kiss her softly on the mouth. 

"Everything is going to be fine. I'll be right beside you. We are finally going to meet our boy." I can barely keep the excitement out of my voice. She gives me a bigger smile now, tears gathering in her eyes. 

"I love you," she whispers, kissing me quickly again before settling herself back down onto the bed. 

"I love you too Beana," I whisper back. 

The operating room is stark and cold with bright lights. A curtain is drawn up at Sabrina's collarbone and her arms are strapped down. I am seated at her head. The nurse takes a picture of us together, both of us smiling at our impending parenthood. 

The medical team moves quickly, talking quietly as the procedure begins. I whisper back and forth with Sabrina, talking about how tall we think our son will grow up to be, what color his hair will be, if he will have hair at all. 

"I'm definitely doing the IVF again, Davis, I don't want him to be an only child," Sabrina insists. 

"Beana, let's get this first one born before we are talking about the next one," I say with a laugh. 

"Oh okay," she says with a little laugh. 

I watch as I see Sabrina wince, biting her lip. 

"What?" I ask in a panic. 

"Just a lot of pressure," she breathes. 

Then I hear it, crying. 

"We have a fat little boy here," the doctor announces as he holds our son up over the curtain. 

"Hello, Archer," Sabrina calls out to our son. Tears of joy stream down my face as I look at the beautiful face of my boy. The doctor hands him off to the nurses who begin to clean and coo at him. 

"Beana, he's perfect," I whisper to her and kiss her face. She smiles at me, trying to stretch her neck to get another peek at our son. 

"Here ya go, Daddy," the nurse announces, handing the swaddled bundle to me. I take him into my hands with an ache in my chest. My son, our son is finally here, in my arms. 

"Hello there my sweet boy," I whisper to him, staring in wonder. I turn him to so Sabrina can see him. She cries as I hold him close to her, his cheek pressed to hers. 

"Oh Davis, he's so perfect. Archer, it's Momma, I love you." She presses a kiss to his cheek and he gives a little grunt. 

"He's hefty," I exclaim feeling the weight of him in my arms. 

"He's nine pounds," the nurse tells us. 

"No wonder I couldn't get comfortable the past month," Sabrina says with a sigh. 

"We are going to take him down to the nursery and get him all checked out," the nurse says. "Give momma another kiss and say 'see ya later'" 

I lean Archer over to Sabrina and she kisses his cheek, nuzzling him. 

"I love you so much," she whispers to him. 

Just as the nurse whisks our son away, I hear a grumbling behind the raised curtain. 

"Shit," I hear one of the nurses say. I look down at Sabrina and her face has gone white. Then the beeping starts, the equipment is sounding alarms that I don't understand. 

"Get him out," the doctor orders the nurse. 

Suddenly I'm being pulled out of the room. 

"Sabrina!" I scream to her in a panic. She looks over at me with sleepy eyes. 

"Davis," she says in a near whisper. 

I'm dragged out into the hallway and into a smaller room and told to wait. My heart feels like it's going to pound out of my chest. No one is telling me anything and I don't know what's going on. I see nurses and doctors running back and forth but no one stops to tell me anything. My hands are shaking as I collapse against the wall, sliding down until I hit the floor. I can't even form a coherent thought as to what the problem could possibly be. Everything was fine. The baby is fine, Sabrina is fine. What's happening?

It may have been moments or hours, I couldn't guess how long I sat there until finally, a doctor approaches me. I scramble to my feet, my eyes wild as he rests his hand on my shoulder.

"Mr. Pedersen, Sabrina went into cardiac failure. We did everything we could but I'm so sorry. We couldn't save her." The doctor's voice is hoarse with emotion but my brain can't seem to register what he's telling me. 

"W-w-w-what?" I say in a faraway voice. Couldn't save her? What does that mean? The doctor takes a deep breath, rubbing his forehead. 

"Your wife's heart failed. We couldn't bring her back. She's dead," he tells me bluntly. 

"Sabrina's dead?" I repeat stupidly, my feet frozen to the floor. I feel my life flash before my eyes, or at least my life with Sabrina. The first time we met in the ninth grade, our prom, graduating, then onto college, our wedding. All of it. Everything I've done in my life, I've done with Sabrina next to me. I don't understand what this means. Sabrina is 33 years old, we just had our son, we are going to grow old together. 

She can't be dead. 

The doctor turns and says something to someone who has come into the room. A nurse I think but I can't be sure. I can't focus. I feel like I'm outside my body, watching this happen to someone else. 

Beana, my mind screams, they are joking with me, right? You can't be dead. Archer, our boy. You are his Momma. 

The doctor holds onto my shoulder as if he's holding me up, steadying me. The door opens and my sister Billie appears. She's crying. 

"Oh God, Davis," she wails as she puts her arms around me. I feel the sensation of her touch, her hug but it's like I'm in a fog. I can't see anything now, my vision is blurry. 

Sabrina, my wife, is dead. 

I can hear something, an awful sound like a keening. It's a loud and horrible noise filling the room. A cry of agony. The searing pain of a shattered soul. 

Then I realize it's me. 

I'm screaming, and I may never stop.