Prologue
So this is my first AU story and I would love for you to read it. Trigger warning death. Please be warned. Also check out the AN at the end.
"Mar!" Steffen yells as he opens the front door.
He walks into the kitchen and when he spots her he tosses his keys away. He hears them land, but is more concerned with his wife. "What's wrong?"
He asks his wife who is lying on the floor, holding her stomach as her own blood continues to pool around her. Marlena has a twisted look before Steffen hears her scream out in pain.
Steffen picks up his wife with ease and immediately dread fills his own stomach. She is 7 months pregnant should not it be harder, not easier to pick her up. He grabs his keys that he threw on the floor, and then he races to the car. The yanks the back door open and lays her across the back seat. Steffen runs back up on the porch so he can shut and lock his front door. He darts to the car, climbs into the driver's seat, and throws it into reverse.
Steffen knows he is going too fast; in fact, he is going so fast he is afraid to look at the speedometer; he knows he will get pulled over.
He does not care. All he cares about is getting to the hospital. So, when the cop throws on his blue lights and his sirens Steffen pushes the button for his emergency lights and continues racing towards the hospital, which will take a half an hour from Long Beach, CA.
Out of curiosity Steffen looks down at his dash, but instead of seeing his speed he notices that his gasoline is sitting on empty, so he gets off the interstate with the officer behind him. He quickly pulls into a gas station and gets out to pump some gas. The cop also exits his vehicle and has his hand on his gun as he walks towards him. "Look officer, I am sorry, but my wife is dying in the backseat and I need to get her to the hospital. You can arrest me after I know she is fine and safe." The cop does not say anything but instead goes to open the driver's side back door. Steffen watches as his whole demeanor changes when the cop sees his bloody wife.
"What happened?" The officer asks him concern written all over his face.
"I do not know I got home from work and I found her like this on our kitchen floor." He tells him quickly as he shoves the pump back into the holder.
"Okay," The cop says, trying to process it as
Steffen races to pay for his gas. Throwing a fifty at the cashier and telling her to keep the change. He runs back out to his car "Keep your emergency lights going and follow me." The officer says as he gets back into his cruiser. Steffen barely hears him as he races off again on the interstate. The cop easily gets in front of him and Steffen follows. All the cars get out of their way as they speed down the road.
Half an hour later they are pulling up in front of the ER at Sharp Memorial Hospital. Steffen is still trying to get out of the car when he sees two paramedics yank the passenger back door open and gently but quickly pull his wife out and place her on a stretcher. He finally manages to untangle himself from his seatbelt and rushes to catch up with the nurses. He looks at his wife and in this light she looks like a ghost. He grips her hand and it's almost ice cold. He struggles not to drop her long, slender hand.
They reach double doors and rush through. They nurse easily move her from the stretcher to a bed. They then proceeded to take her vitals, what concerns him is her blood pressure is low and they can barely feel her pulse.
A nurse gently touches his arm and Steffen realizes she has been trying to speak with him but he wasn't paying attention. HE looks up at the nurse, "Sorry." He simply says.
"Let's step out for minute," The nurse says as she takes a few steps out of the room. Steffen follows her silently with a small nod of his head. "So," She starts off," Tell me what happened."
"I do not know I got home from work and I found her like this on our kitchen floor." Steffen tells her repeating what he told the cop.
"Do you remember anything else?" She asks.
"There was blood pooling around her I don't know where it was coming from or even if she's still bleeding or not!" Steffen rushes out.
The nurse nods her head, "Is there anything else we should know?" She asks.
Steffen shakes his head and the nurse starts to head back into the room. "Wait," He states and the nurse turn her head towards him, "She's seven months pregnant." He says. Blood drains from her face as she registers what Steffen just said.
She rushes back into the room with Steffen hot on her heels. The nurse tells everyone that she is pregnant and is bleeding from somewhere. Another nurse exclaims that after a head to toe assessment they found bleeding is coming from her vagina. A nurse takes charge and orders everyone out of the room except himself, another nurse, and the doctor.
Steffen waits outside his wife's room, he is in shock. Eventually a nurse gives him a chair for him to wait outside the room. After a few minutes he notices someone coming down the hall and they have an ultrasound machine, they enter the room. A few minutes later they come back out and tell him he can go in the room again.
He enters and spots his wife on the bed. She looks tiny with all kinds of wires and tubes hooked up to her. Finally, after seeing his wife hooked up to two IV's and everything else; he lets his dam break, he rushes over to his wife. He finds a spot on her where he doesn't touch any of the wires or tubes, and he breaks down crying into her. "Baby, you cannot leave me like this, you cannot die on me." Steffen says into his wife. Both the nurses and the doctor leave the room to give him some privacy.
Steffen looks up at the doctor as he enters, then at the clock. He realizes it's been fifteen minutes that he has sat with his silent wife. "What's wrong with her?" Steffen asks the doctor in a voice barely above a whisper.
"We're not sure yet. We got the ultrasound and there was a small tear in her womb…"
"What?" Steffen jumps in interrupting him.
"No, no, the baby is still alive, but if we don't do immediate surgery, then that may cease to be true." The doctor finishes. "So, let the nurses get her ready for surgery and all should be well." Steffen nodded but didn't say anything. He stepped away so the nurses could do their job. When they were done, he gave Marlena a peck on her forehead. They rolled her out of the room, leaving Steffen standing there feeling hopeless.
A nurse came in and led him to a waiting room. Steffen sat down in a chair and waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally, after four hours the surgeon came in. Steffen stood up and looked at the clock it was now. 1 a.m. "Is she okay?" He asked the surgeon anxiously looking back at him.
He nodded an affirmation and Steffen let out a breath he didn't realize he had held. Steffen walked up to the surgeon and gave him a hug.
"What about the baby?" Steffen asks when he let's go.
"I'm afraid she passed before we could get her out of your wife. We tried to open her up to massage her heart, but we were not successful in that regard." The surgeon says with dread in his voice. "We then closed both up. Your wife is in recovery and the baby is in the morgue. Who would you like to see?"
Tears fell down Steffens face as he took in what the surgeon told him. He contemplated it for a second before choosing his baby. The surgeon nodded and said someone would be right behind him to lead Steffen down there.
Steffen followed the nurse, leaving a few steps in between them, to the morgue. When they got there she put in a code and walked over to the steel tables. Steffen spotted his baby, before she even lifted the sheet that was covering his daughter, simply because of the size that showed under the sheet. The nurse folded the sheet down, and carefully picked up the child and laid her in Steffens outstretched arms.
Steffen let the tears fall has he held his stillborn baby in his arms and rocked her. As Steffen held his baby he stared at her face trying to memorize her every feature. After thirty minutes of standing there and admiring his daughter, he gave her back to the nurse. The nurse places her back on the table and Steffen said goodbye to her.
"Please take me to my wife now." Steffen asked the nurse turning away because he couldn't watch as his daughter was once again covered with the sheet. Steffen felt his heart-break a little bit more with each step he took leading away from the morgue.
When they finally arrived in recovery, Steffen thanked the nurse and she left him outside Marlena's room. Steffen opened the door and stepped in. A nurse was trying to wake Marlena up, but wasn't having any luck.
"Is there something wrong with her?" Steffen asked, when she didn't stir, fear was clear in his voice.
"No," The new nurse said, watching as Steffen visibly relaxed, "Nothing is wrong. Patients this early out of surgery usually don't wake up the first few times. This is the first time we have tried to wake her." Steffen nodded. "If there is anything I can, you don't hesitate to ask, okay?" The nurse asked, again Steffen nodded. He was too emotionally drained to say anything at the moment. The nurse left and Steffen took a seat beside his wife and wrapped his hand in hers and waited.
The nurse came in an hour later and Marlena woke up for a few second before falling back into a peaceful slumber. And again thirty minutes the nurse came in and Marlena stayed awake long enough to answer a few questions, like where was she? What year was it? And who was the president? She answered the last two correctly, but she didn't know she was in the hospital. The staff of recovery was pleased with her answers so they sent her out of recovery and to her own room in the hospital.
The next morning Marlena woke up and Steffen rose when he heard sobs coming from his wife's hospital bed. He immediately sat down beside his wife and held her in his arms as she cried. After a few minutes he started crying too and knew he needed to tell his wife the news he hadn't dared to speak out loud as of yet.
"Mar," He said his voice shaking; "You need to know. I have to tell you." Marlena shook her head and cried harder.
"No, don't say it. It makes it real." She said. Steffen nodded and tried to console his wife, although he knew there was no use. They lost their baby last night and nothing but time could heal that would.
Okay so I know that was a huge downer and I am sorry. I am sorry if you cried because I cried while I was writing it. But if you liked it please review and tell me what you think. And this is just the prologue for this story. We haven't even met Cameron yet, a.k.a the main character. So if you would like more please let me know.