The World Doesn't Stop for You
Chapter 4
Ellie looked at the clock and noticed that is was 4 in the morning. She didn't realize how much time had gone by while she was working on the graphics for work. She was so happy the design company had no problem with her working from home. Yeah it was a summer job but she needed one with the baby coming soon. She hoped that if she did really well then maybe they would keep her on during the school year. Having a kid on your own wasn't going to get any cheaper. She hated that Alex and Jay kept saying that they didn't mind getting stuff but she minded. Ellie got up from her chair which was a challenge in itself. She looked at the calendar. "Looks like five more weeks till I can meet you." She said rubbing her stomach. Ellie left her room to get a glass of water from the kitchen. On the way she noticed Jay was asleep on the couch. "We should have gotten the place with four rooms and just have you move in." Ellie said to the unconscious boy as she placed a blanket on top of him. When Ellie made it into the kitchen she was hit with a horrible pain that she had never felt before. She tried to grab onto the counter for support but ended up crumbling to the floor. She let out a scream of pain.
Jay heard the scream and sat up looking around for where it came from. He spotted the kitchen light was on and ran over to see what was wrong. When he got there he found Ellie on the floor. "Red are you ok what's wrong." He said running over to her and kneeled next to her.
"I don't know but it hurts. Is something wrong with the baby?" she asked for the first time thinking that something could be wrong with her son she burst into tears.
"ALEX WAKE UP WE NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL." Jay yelled down the hall. "I will be right back I have to put on shoes and we will get you to the hospital." Jay ran into the living room knocking over a lamp.
"What is going on?" Alex said entering the living room trying to tug on a jacket.
"Its Ellie we need to go now."
"Ok I will get her bag and everything I will meet you in the car."
"OK" Jay said heading back to the kitchen. "Come on Red its time for us to go. Lexi is going to get everything." Jay said leaning down to pick Ellie up. He carried her to that car and got her in the backseat just as Alex ran outside.
Alex through the stuff in the front seat and got in the back with Ellie. "El its going to be ok." She said trying to comfort her friend. "When we get there and you are with a doctor I will call Marco and your mom and whoever else you want."
"It's too soon Alex what if something is wrong." Ellie said crying.
"Everything will be fine."
Jay got them to the hospital in record time. With the help of Alex they got her out of he car and into the emergency room. "We need help she is pregnant and something is wrong." Jay said trying to get someone's attention.
"Put her here." A nurse said motioning in a bed. They started wheeling her down the hall. Alex and Jay followed. "I'm sorry only family is allowed."
Alex looked down at Ellie and then other at Jay "I'm her sister. Jay make sure you call Marco and her our mom." With that Jay was left in the hall way.
Part of him was pissed that he wasn't in there with her but he knew that Alex was the best person for this out of the two of them. He looked at his watch as he pulled out his phone. 4:30.
"Hello" Marco said sleepily into the phone.
"Its Jay Ellie is in the hospital I don't know whats going on all I know is that Alex is with her."
"OK I'm on my way. I will call Craig and have him pick me up. I'm sure he will want to be there."
"OK see you soon." Jay hung up. He didn't want to make the next call. He didn't know what to do. He searched Ellie's bag for her phone and found the number.
"Hello?" the voice on the other line questioned.
"Hi Mrs. Nash um I brought Ellie into the hospital we think that she was in labor but I don't know for sure."
"Oh my god. Is she alright, is she alone, scared?"
"I don't know but Alex is with her now she told them they were sisters. Do you need me to pick you up or something?" Jay asked. He felt so useless in this situation.
"Um no I can make it on my own if you see her before I get there tell her I will be there soon."
"Yes ma'am." Jay said before he heard the dial tone.
Jay looked down at his watch it was almost 5 and he hadn't heard anything yet. It was driving him crazy.
"Jay man do you know anything?" Marco asked running toward him with Craig.
"No not yet. Ellie was screaming in pain so we brought her to the hospital. Her mom should be here soon then maybe we can get some information." He told the boys.
"Everything is going to work out it needs to Ellie has been through too much." Craig said sitting down and running his hands through his hair.
That's when they noticed her. "Hello can someone tell me about my daughter Ellie Nash she was brought in a little while ago." She asked the people at the desk.
All three boys walked over to her hoping to hear any type of news.
"Oh Marco thank god you are here." Mrs. Nash said when she spotted the boys.
"So do we know anything?" He asked.
"Are you Ellie Nash's mother? Your daughter Alex said that you would be arriving soon." A nurse said.
"What oh yes Alex, yes Ellie is my daughter. What is going on?"
"Well it looked like the baby was in distress so the doctors thought that it would be best to do an emergency C-section. Your daughter is in the middle of the surgery." The nurse told them.
"But the baby will be 6 weeks early is he still going to be ok?" Marco asked.
"It is possible for premature babies to be ok but there is no way to tell I only know what they told me before the procedure started. I'm sorry I will let you know when she is out of surgery."
"God its been hours." Marco said pacing the waiting room.
"Its been 1 hour Marco it just feels longer because he have no idea what the hell is going on." Craig said throwing a magazine back on the table. He was thinking about how he should call Ash or maybe email her but without knowing what was going on he didn't want to cause worry in a situation that might not need any. That's when he noticed the doors open. "Alex." He said almost tripping over a chair trying to get over to her.
She held up her hands "Let me talk first and the questions." She paused they all nodded. "Um well Ellie is ok she is resting in her room if you want to go in there Mrs. Nash. The baby oh god he was so small. They took him away so fast. As far as I know he is as ok as he can be. They rushed him to the NICU."
They all wanted to question Alex but they knew that everything that she knew she already told them. A couple of hours later they were told the Ellie had woken up. After her mother had seen her Marco went in. "You gave us quite a scare Ellie." Marco said sitting on the bed.
"You know I still haven't been able to see him. My mom was in here and I couldn't tell you what she said because all I can think about is how I have no idea what my son looks like." She told him.
"Ok than lets go." Marco said before disappearing to get a nurse to take them to him.
"God Alex was right he is so tiny." Marco said as he looked in the incubator.
"Yeah he is. He needs a name. He is here now he needs a name."
"I like Marco Jr." he joked.
Ellie laughed. "Sorry Macro but I was thinking Hunter. Hunter Sean Nash actually."
"Really El that is an amazing name, and you are still giving him part of his father. I can't wait to tell the guys that I got to meet little Hunter before they did. Let's see what Jay says to that."
A week had passed and Hunter was still in the NICU and it was still touch and go. The doctors kept telling Ellie that it would be a while before Hunter was out of the woods, that he wasn't fully developed. She spent every day with him she didn't want to leave her son for a second for fear that the second she did would be the second that she lost him.
"El you need to shower get some fresh air something." Alex told her when she found her by Hunter wearing the same cloths for the past 3 days.
"I don't want to leave him alone."
"You won't take my car and I will stay with him ok. Craig is outside if you want him to take you. Please Ellie you need some time way."
Ellie closed her eyes. "Fine I will go. But I will only be gone for an hour."
"Great but in that hour be sure to eat something."
Ellie rolled her eyes and headed toward Craig. "Hey do you want to give me a ride home so that I can shower and then the Dot for some food so Alex can get off my back."
"Sure" Craig said laughing.
Craig waited in the living room while Ellie got ready. It was easy to tell that no one had been in here for a while.
"Let's get some food." Ellie said walking out of her room. Part of her was glad that she put some of her darker cloths in storage. She liked the lighter feeling of jeans and I t-shirt.
"Good because I am starving."
Craig was the first one to enter the Dot so he seen him first. "Maybe we shouldn't eat here." he said trying to keep her from entering the Dot.
"Why not Craig we are here and I want to get back to Hunter." Ellie said pushing him to the side and headed to the counter. That's when she heard it, the laugh that she hadn't heard in months. The laugh that haunted her dreams. Turned around to face him but he didn't notice her. Ellie could see the parts of him that he had given to the son that he knows nothing about. The son that she cries over every night to be ok. She felt Craig touch her arm. "Sean, Sean Cameron."
At the sound of his name he looked up. Sean realized that it was Ellie that called his name even before his eyes landed on her. He noticed that her wardrobe had changed along with the fact that her body had a lot more curves to it. She looked better then he could have imagined. He smiled and started to get up from his seat when his eyes reaches hers and he seen nothing but hate in her green eyes. "Ellie you were going to be my next stop." He said approaching her.
"Right. Well I shouldn't be surprised that your first stop was to Emma." She said gesturing over to Emma and Manny who were still sitting at the table.
"I didn't go to her first I came here because I was hungry. Well actually I went to our old place but they said you moved out a long time ago."
"What did you think would happen Sean that I would stay there forever? You left and the place was getting a little small for me and Alex." She wasn't prepared to say why yet. She didn't want him to come in and be the concerned father now. Not when her son was in the hospital fighting for his life.
"I didn't mean it like that."
"Save it Sean. I can't go through this now ok. There is too much for me to worry about. I just I can't."
"How is Hunter? Everyone has been talking about it." Emma said behind Sean.
"Oh no." was all Craig said. He knew that nothing good was going to come of this.
"How can you even ask that? How can you act like you care? Do you think that it is going to impress Sean that you would ask about Hunter? Hell I don't think that Sean would even give a damn." Ellie knew that wasn't true. She knew that if Sean had known about him from the beginning he would be with him right now.
"Wait what is it that I wouldn't give a damn about?" Sean asked.
Ellie ignored him. "Emma don't act like you give a damn about my son. Because we all know that you don't. If you did I can't think of a single reason why you would sit here eating cheese fries with Sean and not tell him his son is in the hospital." Ellie said to the girl. "Yeah that's right Sean remember when we had sex before you left. Well I got pregnant and you were nowhere around."
"How the hell could you not tell me about this?" Sean yelled. He had never felt so angry in his life.
"When was I going to tell you? Maybe in one of the long conversations that we had on the phone, or in one of the letters that we wrote to each other? Oh wait none of that ever happened I never heard from you. Come on Craig lets go." This time she got to walk away from Seam but she knew that she wouldn't get far before he came after her.
"El you ok?" Craig asked as he got into the car with her.
"No I just want to get back to my son. I know Sean he will find me and I will have to deal with it."
The ride back to the hospital was a quite one. Craig didn't want to give Ellie anything more to worry about. And Ellie could only think about two things Sean and Hunter. Craig dropped her off saying that he would stop by later and bring some food for her.
"He is back." Ellie told Alex when she walked into the room.
"Who is back?"
"Sean I seen him in the Dot he was with Emma." She said as Alex led her out of the room and into the hallway, where Ellie slid down the wall to sit on the floor hugging her legs.
"What? Does he know about Hunter?" she asked.
"Yeah he does and he isn't all that happy about being kept in the dark about this." Sean said walking down the hall towards the two girls.
"Hi Sean. Well maybe I should go well somewhere and let you guys talk." Alex said walking way.
Sean looked through the glass window at the babies that were in the room. It took him a little bit of time to find the tiny baby that said Nash on the side of the incubator. "God is that him? He is so small."
"He was born premature about a week ago. Alex and Jay rushed me to the hospital. I've been here every day until visiting hours are over." Ellie told him from her spot on the floor.
Sean sat down on the floor across from her. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked again this time keeping his temper under control.
"I didn't know how to tell you because we haven't spoken. I tried calling you when I found out but you never picked up the phone or returned my calls. I could imagine leaving a message telling you that you were going to be a dad. Then there were letters but I never really knew if you read them because you never wrote back. I didn't want to be here waiting to hear from you and wondering if I ever would. Jay asked if I wanted him to give me a ride to see you."
"Why didn't you?" Sean asked. he couldn't lie it scared him to think about returning her phone calls thinking it would just be her telling him that she hated him. That's why he never read the letters. He kept all of them he even opened some but he couldn't bring himself to read them.
"I didn't want to chase you down in fear of you telling me that it didn't matter that you wanted to stay. It would just leave me where I am now. When you said that you didn't want me was on thing I don't think that I could have got to you after that and tell you that even though you didn't want me you were stuck with me because we were having a baby. And what would I do if you told me that you wanted nothing to do with me or the baby." She said playing with her bracelet.
Sean moved across the hall to sit next to her. "I am so sorry if you thought for one second that I didn't want you. For the past 7 months all I could do was think of you. About how much I screwed up. Like what if you moved on and then I lost any chance with you. I love you Ellie and I love that little boy in there. I really do love him just from seeing him in there I can't imagine not knowing him."
"I can't promise you anything Sean a lot happened in the time you were gone. But I never stopped loving you even if I told everyone I was over you. The only thing that I can do is take you in there to meet your son." Ellie said standing up and extending her hand to Sean.
"Just knowing that you still love me is enough for now. So his name is Hunter Nash?" Sean asked. That was what he had heard other people call him.
"Yup well its Hunter Sean Nash. I didn't know the next time I would see you but I wanted to have a part of you with him."
"He looks like you. If he had red hair he would be a mini Ellie." Sean said when they got closer to Hunter.
"Really all I can see is how much he looks like you. I can't wait to take him home. You can't imagine the nursery that Jay had put together."
"So Jay helped out a lot while I was gone?" Sean asked. When he left Ellie and Jay couldn't stand to be in the same room alone.
"Yeah he is a huge help. He and Marco are even friends. I know the odds of him and Alex getting back together is slim but they are now 2 of my favorite people. I'm glad that we all can still hangout."
"Ellie I hate to do this but visiting hours ended 2 hours ago." A nurse said doing her rounds.
"Oh thank you so much." Ellie said. She and Sean said good bye to Hunter. "Um Sean do you have anywhere to stay, you can fight Jay for the couch."
"That sounds great."