Arabella
A.N: Hello to both new and old readers! This story was based on Jacqueline Kennedy's experience with a stillbirth. Her husband was in Europe on holiday when she gave birth to a stillborn daughter that she had planned to call Arabella. With Jack abroad, the task of informing Jackie fell to her brother-in-law, Bobby Kennedy. Some say that the two later went on to have an affair that began after the president's assassination and ended with RFK's. I am a huge fan of Jackie and if you are also interested in her you can follow my Instagram, . I hope that you enjoy this story, please leave a review if you do.
"Where's Henry?" Mary asked groggily, noting that the figure with his head in his hands was not her husband. She tried to sit up but abandoned the idea when a searing pain shot across her stomach.
"Mary!" Tom exclaimed, evidently relieved. Answering her her query, he said carefully: "I've tried to call him at his hotel but apparently he's out."
The expression on Tom's face told her that she had bigger problems than a missing husband. Slowly and in a soft, almost childlike voice she asked: "Where's my baby?"
He took her hand, averting her questioning gaze.
"Tom?" She pleaded as he looked up. Only then did she see the tears in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry Mary." He croaked, squeezing her limp hand. "The baby died."
Mary's stomach plummeted and a single tear rolled down her porcelain cheek. She thought she'd be used to pain, but this grief was different. This was her child.
"She didn't suffer, she never even took her first breath."
"She? It was a girl?"
Tom nodded as Mary began to cry in earnest. Taking her in his arms, he reassured her that all would be well.
"Arabella." She sobbed into his chest.
▫️
"What can I do, Tom? The child's dead."
Tom let all of the anger that he had built up towards Henry spill forth and he shouted down the telephone.
"Listen to me." He snarled into the mouthpiece. "You get back here today or don't bother returning at all."
"Are you speaking for my wife?" Henry asked with an air of proprietorship.
"I'm speaking for a friend who just lost her baby."
"Tell her I'll be there in a day or two. I can't abandon the team now."
With that, the line went dead and Tom flung the telephone back onto the bench, startling a nurse who happened to be walking by.
▫️
When he returned to Mary's bedside, she was staring intently to her right.
"I'm cursed, Tom." She whispered, having heard his footsteps, but not moving to look at him. "Matthew told me once that it was the pair of us, but now I know that it's just me."
"You're not cursed Mary. You've had your fair share of bad luck, but that's not a curse."
"I have this, this pain across here." Mary motioned towards her lower abdomen.
"You had to have a caesarean. After you collapsed in the library, it triggered an early labour and since you were drifting in and out of consciousness you weren't able to give birth naturally."
She was still looking to her right as she nodded, her brows furrowed.
"Would she have lived, had I been able to?"
"No, they say that she had been- that she was always going to be stillborn."
"Why did they put me in this room?" She asked, and suddenly Tom realised that this must have been the room where Mary had introduced Matthew to George. The only time that they had been a family.
"Matthew stood there." Mary pointed with an unsteady hand and Tom wondered how strong her medication was.
"I'll have you moved." He made to leave but he was stopped by a stern "No!"
"I was the happiest I ever was and ever will be again in this room. I'm staying."