Elijah Paul Puckerman-Karofsky
He's lost so much blood and there was only so much we could do. The rest is up to him. I'm sorry Mr. Karofsky but you should prepare for the worst.
A nurse walks up to escort Dave to see his newborn son, Elijah Paul Puckerman-Karofsky. Dave doesn't want to see his son without Noah being there.
You need to hold him Mr. Karofsky, to bond with him. He needs you to be with him just in case…
Dave hates those words, just in case, as much as he does prepare for the worst.
Dave hated those words, he hated the hospital and most of all he hated the argument that had happened in their home last night. An argument that should never have happened in the first place.
The chain of events before the accident Dave remembers well.
Their morning had started off as usual with Noah making a small breakfast for them before they each headed to their jobs. Noah was working on one of the old buildings in the Village designing the renovations to turn it into a yuppie co-op. While Dave was a counselor for one of the inner city burrow's high schools. He loved working with the troubled youth, helping them get out of the system and in to a good college.
They text each other that day more often than they ever did. Noah blamed it on the fact that Eli was due and Dave blamed it on the baby hormones that Noah dealt with every five minutes. Happy or sad, upset or calm, pissed or totally going to rip your face off, whatever mood Noah happened to be in Dave had stayed calm and sane for the last seven months. But the fight last night was not with him but with some people that Noah thought were his friends.
The members of Noah's old high school show choir were all going to be in New York City at the same time and somehow they had tracked Noah down to make an appearance at their doorstep. And all hell broke loose the moment they found out he and Noah were a couple and that their child was due at any time.
Accusations, slurs, disbelief were thrown at them in their own home. Rants of how could you fall in love with someone like him were directed to Noah about Dave. It isn't natural for a man to have a baby, it goes against God. So this is why you have been hiding you didn't want us to know you were gay. How can you love a man that you hated for so long? Did he force you Puck?
Noah had tried to talk to them, well over them. But nothing he said even registered in their small minds. Dave listened to his pregnant husband defend him for over thirty minutes trying to make them understand. He told them how they found each other in their freshman year of college and that they had worked through all the left over bullshit from high school. He told them he was happy with Dave.
When he started telling them how excited they were about Eli being due any day, that was when the argument took a truly nasty turn. Dave stared in disbelief at Quinn Fabray-Evans when she screamed at his husband, "A MAN HAVING A BABY IS NOT NATURAL! IT IS AN ABOMINATION!"
Dave watched as Noah's body physically jerked at her words. Noah jumped up from the chair he was sitting in grabbed his car keys and fled out the front door of their brownstone, all while clutching his swollen belly. Dave tried to go after Noah but Noah was pulling away from the curb when he reached the last step on the stoop.
Dave went back into their home to grab his keys and let Noah's so called friends have it. You came into our home telling him that he was wrong for loving me! That he was hiding from you because he is gay! And you have the nerve to call our son an abomination! This is exactly why he never told any of you! He knew how you all would react to us, to the baby!
I don't give a flying fuck what you think about me or say about me but you just attacked the man I love with all my heart and our son! If you are still here when we get back I will fucking rip you all apart! Especially you Quinn! You had no right saying that! God and love created that child! So get the fuck out of our home!
Dave drove around their neighborhood, to all the places Noah liked to go but he couldn't find him anywhere. Just as he was turning around to head back home his cell phone started ringing. Answering it brought Dave's world to a skidding halt as the person on the other end asked him if he was Noah's husband and that their had been an accident that it was bad for both father and child. He needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible.
Noah was driving through an intersection when a speeding taxi failed to yield the right of way. The small eco-friendly coupe was broadsided by the much larger Yellow Taxi. The air bags had saved the baby but the force of the collision ripped through Noah's fragile body causing internal injuries.
The doctor's delivered Eli with little complications to the baby but the trauma to Noah's body had been tremendous. The blood loss was extensive, the torn tissue hard to repair due to the many blood vessels and the umbilical cord had been torn away from Noah's reproductive system. They had no choice but to remove the injured organs from Noah's body.
The doctors explained to Dave that the body could shut down due to all the things happening in Noah's body at once. An uncomplicated male pregnancy was difficult in itself, but to add everything that Noah's body suffered in the wreck, made the outlook extremely bleak. The doctors tell him they will inform him when Noah is moved to a room.
DN DN DN DN DN DN DN DN
Dave is led to a small room with a rocking chair sitting in the corner. He looks at it knowing that it should be Noah sitting in that rocker getting ready to hold their son, not him. He should be standing beside his husband watching him coo and fuss over their child. But Dave sits in the rocker as the nurse brings out a blue bundle and places it in his arms. He looks down at the son they prayed for, waited for and sees Noah's eyes looking back up at him. "Your daddy will see you soon Eli, I promise you. You look just like him." Dave can't hold back the tears anymore as he rocks their son for the first time.
A nurse walks in telling Dave that Noah is now set up in a room on the ICU-Surgical floor. She offers to take Eli from him so he can go and set with his husband but Dave turns away from her waiting arms. Instead he asks her what floor his husband's room in on and once she answers he walks past the upset nurse to the elevator in the hallway. When she starts yelling about policy Dave calmly tells her to stick the hospital policy up her ass as he steps into the elevator.
Dave is surprised that security isn't waiting for him when he steps off the elevator. He looks around making sure he is going in the right direction when he sees the double doors leading to the ICU unit. He calmly tucks Eli closer to his body and walks straight through the doors. A nurse who appears to be in her late fifties slightly graying stops him on the other side.
"You are Mr. Karofsky and this must me Eli. Your husband's room is right over there and you probably have ten minutes before anyone else shows up." The nurse's eyes are filled with compassion. "He is beautiful baby. Take him to meet his father."
Dave thanks the kind woman and heads to his husband's room. "Time to meet your daddy Eli. He loves you so much baby and so do I." He takes a deep breath before stepping into the room. His breath catches in his throat at the sight of his husband.
Noah Elijah Puckerman-Karofsky is hooked up to several machines including an oxygen line to his nose. Machines beep a slow steady rhythm it is almost melodic in it's sound. His body is pale from the blood loss and the shock of the trauma. Noah's face is bruised from the impact of the air bag deploying on the impact of the accident. His eyes slowly flutter open.
Dave can't stop the tears that begin to flow down his cheeks at the sight of the man he has loved for the last ten years. He walks to the bed and leans over Noah kissing his lips softly. "I brought someone to meet you. Shhh. Don't try and talk right now. Just hold our son for a little while." Dave places the small blue bundle in the bed bedside Noah tucking the darker arm around their son.
"This is the reason you have to live Noah. This little boy needs both of us. I can't do this alone. I can't do this without you. You're my life Noah, you and this little guy. Fight for us baby. Fight to stay with us." Dave wipes at the tears that are blurring his vision, he doesn't want to miss a second of Noah holding their son.
"fight…fa..you….both" The words are coarse and broken but the meaning is clear in the dark umber eyes looking down at his son for the first time. "Love…you…him…much"
"I love you too Noah." Dave kisses Noah's forehead tenderly. "I'm so sorry baby. I don't ever want to lose you."
Dave hears the sound of voices outside of Noah's room and turns around when he hears footsteps walk into the room. A security guard looks around the room and then looks at Noah holding the small baby. He nods at Dave and mumbles into his radio that the room is all clear. He quietly walks out giving the young couple more time together.
Dave walks out of Noah's room a little while later when Eli starts fussing and Dave knows the little one is hungry. He had promised a sleeping Noah that he would bring their son back to see him again later. The nurses watched as Dave walked to the elevators and then called the nursery to let them know Baby Karofsky was on his way back.
When Dave arrived back at the nursery with their son both doctors were waiting for him. After several minutes of intense yelling on Dave's part Noah's doctor finally agreed that the best way for Noah to want to live was to be around their son. And Eli's doctor agreed to have a nurse bring the baby to see his father in an enclosed incubator to prevent any germs from being spread to the child or the injured father. Once Dave was satisfied with the arrangements he went back to sit with his husband.
The next few days were hell on Dave as Noah would regain consciousness for just a few minutes at a time. His body was responding to the meds that were pumped into his body in case of infection and his spirit responded to his son being in the room. Noah would battle with his body to stay awake and hold his son, feed him, just touch the little hands that would try and hold on to his daddy's finger.
After a week they finally moved father and son into the same room and a week later everyone went home. The Karofsky-Puckerman household was complete and full of love.