A/N: I wrote this in a matter of nothing and I didn't double check it because I knew if I did I wasn't going to post it. So, if there are mistakes or incongruences please forgive me. Now let me tell you this, this chapter was both easy and hard to write… easy because everything flowed so nicely and hard because one, I don't know anything about giving births complications and two, because well… it was just hard to write an 'emotional filled chapter' for me. Anyway, hope you like it…
LoVe DrUnk
"This is all my fault." Ted said absentmindedly as he sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs that were strategically placed in line at the waiting room of the hospital Maryse was rushed into. He said the words without lifting his head, choosing instead to keep it cradled into his hands as he doubled over so he could rest his elbows to his knees.
For the past hour or so of his life he has been like that… waiting. Sometimes he waited while pacing around, sometimes he just stood beside the door that lead into the maternity ward and sometimes he just sat, his mind racing a thousand miles per second as time flew away with little news about what was going on.
He didn't like the waiting, in his mind a lot of things could be going on behind those doors and while everything was happening in there he was being kept in the dark and with no clue of what to do or what to think anymore.
So… while sitting there, Ted couldn't help but to think that it wasn't fair… he wanted to know… he needed to know and if he didn't get any kind of news in the next ten minutes or so he was going to walk right through that door and find out for himself.
"It was an accident, Ted, don't beat yourself for this." The woman sitting beside him said, her voice coming of as anxious and maybe a little worried.
Shaking his head, Dibiase straightened his back to the chair and looked at her. "I should have seen the car coming, Nattie… the car was coming right our way and I didn't see it until it was too late."
So yes, in his mind it was definitely his fault, because if he hadn't been too engrossed in whatever nonsense he has been thinking back at that moment, he would have seen the car coming and Maryse and his baby would be fine and perfect instead of being at the hospital being checked out for any kind of trauma.
After he mumbled his last words, the third generation Diva who was keeping him company while he waited shook her head as well and placing her hand over his she breathed out. "Just don't blame yourself, okay?"
Chuckling bitterly, Ted closed his eyes and bit on his lips. He wasn't in a mood to argue with Natalya so he said nothing, but if something happened to Maryse and his baby he was going to carry that burden for the rest of his life.
"Hey, I came as fast as I could. How is she?"
Opening his eyes, Ted looked up and saw that Randy was walking his way. He had what Ted considered a genuine look of concern in his face and the younger man couldn't help but to go back in memory lane to a past conversation he had with the current champion.
The conversation has been just after Ted casually told his friend that he was going to be a father. Back to that moment, Ted remembered how the other man had smiled and congratulated him and yeah, he will always remember that Randy has been the first person and probably the only one he ever told that ended up being happy for him instead of lecturing about how irresponsible he has been for knocking out one of the 'girls'.
According to Randy, becoming a father was the best thing that happened to him and the way he always talked about his daughter always made Ted smile and think about the unborn child Maryse was carrying within.
But now it was this, total chaos.
Blowing out a breath and watching as Randy took a seat at his side, Ted scratched his jaw and recited back what the Doctor told him in his last update.
"I don't know… because of the impact she had a placental abruption… that's when the placenta tears from the uterus and… well, the doctor says that depending on the severity of it and the distress it cause or something… I can't remember exactly but he said that in the severe cases both fetal and maternal mortality are very high. They are still checking on them to see."
"Jesus, that's…" Randy said and out of the corner of his eye, Ted could see Natalya wiping at her eyes. "Did you call your dad?"
Ted nodded. His dad was the first person he called and his old man promised to take the first plane he could to be there. In the meanwhile, he promised that he was going to keep Maryse and the baby in his prayers.
His next call has been Randy and then Natalya… and he would have called Maryse's mother or something but he didn't know how to reach her. Thankfully, Natalya said she was going to take care of that so he didn't stress about it.
"How about you, did you get that checked?" Randy said and Ted knew his friend was referring to a stingy cut he had on his forehead. His neck was also bothering him but that didn't matter in that moment.
"I'm fine."
"He didn't want to get check." Natalya said and Ted shrugged. He got it clean by the woman's insistence and that was about it, because he wasn't going to leave that waiting room for anything in the world.
"You should…"
Before Randy could finish his words, the doors opened and the same doctor who talked to Ted a while back came out. Ted immediately got to his feet and walked to him. "How is she? Is the baby going to be alright?"
"We are going to induce labor." The doctor said and Ted felt both alarmed and relieved. "The mother loosing too much blood and she is what we call clinically in distress. Now, the baby is just twenty-eight weeks so there might be some complications and we will have to use an incubator as soon as the delivery is done. Come on, you can come in."
Ted didn't waste any time and without looking back to where Randy and Natalya were sitting, he walked after the doctor until he was lead into a room where a few nurses gave him scrubs to wear and even patched the cut above his eyebrow. They also gave him a few instructions that he agreed without paying attention and after that he was taken to the room Maryse was in. It was only when his eyes fell on her he was able to breathe normally.
Sure, she was looking way to pale and her eyes were tightly closed; but he could see her hands clutching hard at the bed sheets and that was a good indication that she was alert and awake. He has been afraid that he was going to find her passed out and bleeding to death.
Not that the sight wasn't a bit disheartening, after all there were a few cables glued to her stomach and connected to a few machines and Maryse seemed to be in a good deal of pain. She was breathing hard, she was clearly tensing her jaw and her skin was moist with a thin layer of transpiration.
But overall, she was alive and that was all in mattered to him.
Swallowing hard and once he walked to her, the Southerner ventured to use his hand to brush a strand of platinum blonde hair out of her face and then without even thinking about it he leaned forward and kissed her lips briefly.
At the contact, Maryse opened her eyes and tilted her head towards him. Clearly recognizing him, the French-Canadian closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again. "They want me to deliver the baby, Ted… it's too soon, I can't."
Still using his hand to soother her by running it through her hair, Ted leaned even more into her and kissing her a second time he pressed his forehead to hers. "It's for the best, the baby is going to be alright… you'll see."
The blonde shook her head. "It's too soon." Then, a second after her words were out a beeping sound started to come out of one of the machines and Ted's eyes moved to it. The sound was accompanied by Maryse's crying out in discomfort and Ted couldn't do anything but to watch her suffer her pain alone.
"What is it?" He asked, worried.
"That's a contraction." One of the nurses said while approaching Maryse to check on her. Once the so called contraction was done she suspiciously placed herself right between Maryse's legs and Ted assumed she was checking her down there. For some reason that made him feel a bit uncomfortable and he tried not to look. "She's seven centimeters already, good."
But then, another machine went off and Maryse cried out once again. She blindly fumbled for Ted's hand and once she found it she almost strangled it, clutching at it with all the strength she apparently had in her.
The nurse, who just a minute ago was telling him about how good it was that Maryse was seven centimeters already, took a look at the machine and without spearing them a second glance she walked out calling the doctor.
Ted didn't like that at all but because Maryse was painfully holding to his hand, he wasn't able to walk after her to ask her what was going on.
"It's going to be okay…" He whispered, using his other hand to tentatively touch her belly. The first thing he noticed was that it was hard as a rock and he wondered if that was good too. He also couldn't help but to remember what Maryse told him, twenty-eight weeks was too early.
As he mused about all that and while Maryse gasped out loud, the doctor finally rushed in and Ted watched as in a dream as he checked the monitors, Maryse and consequentially the monitors once again.
"Should we prepare her for a c-section?" The nurse asked and Ted did a double take.
"What's going on?" A c-section? But why...? He didn't get it.
"No. There's no time, we have to deliver this baby now or we can lose them both."
The words hit Ted like a blow to the stomach and for a moment he couldn't speak, he couldn't breathe and he definitely couldn't move. Things happened in a blur, everything happened so fast. A few more nurses rushed in, the doctor sat between the gap in Maryse's legs and then he and one of the nurses started to urge Maryse to push.
Meanwhile and holding her hand while feeling all the blood drain down to his feet, Ted focused his attention in Maryse. Apparently, the efforts of pushing a baby through a seven centimeter opening wasn't as easy as it has been for him to put it in and just to think about it was making him feel her pain too.
It was a cliché, but he really felt like fainting and the only thing that was keeping him alert was the memory of what the doctor said. Somehow, he was afraid that if he did as much as blink too slowly, he was going not only to lose sight of Maryse forever, but he was also going to lose a baby he never got to meet…
So no, he wasn't going to faint or blink until he was certain that they were going to be alright.
So that's how the next fifteen minutes or so went by, with Ted mumbling a few encouraging words to Maryse while the blonde kept pushing and pushing until the doctor said he could see the baby's head and that he needed one big push for it to be over.
He wasn't sure, but almost as if he was walking in a dream, he didn't took his eyes away of Maryse's strained face while she gave that one last push and then, according to the doctor that was it.
Feeling his eyes get blurry, Ted moved them away from Maryse and prayed in silence for his ears to detect even if it was the faintest cry coming from where the baby was; but he didn't, he didn't hear anything at all.
"Is the baby ok?" He asked, holding his breath and watching as the nurses took a very small baby that could only be his own. Then, before he could take a good look they took it away in a rush.
Ted followed them with his eyes, but once they were gone and just when he was about to demand the doctor to tell him what was going on, he saw that Maryse was still lying there, with her face hidden behind her hands as she cried in silence.
He didn't know what it was, but for a second he honestly forgot about the baby and his attention was back to her. So leaning forward, Ted took Maryse's hands in his and moved them away so he could assume the same position he took when he came in, the one where he was resting his forehead to hers.
"They didn't even let me see my baby." Maryse sobbed and for a third time he kissed her full on the lips. He didn't know why he did it, but under the circumstances he just felt like doing it and he would do it a thousand times if he could.
"They must be checking everything is fine…" It took all the effort he had in him to say those words without choking on them because he didn't know what was going on. For all he knew the baby died and only to think about it forced him to swallow hard as he felt his eyes watering.
"Go and check, I don't want the baby to be alone… Ted, please…" Maryse cried and wiping at his own eyes he nodded.
Yes, Maryse was right. Whatever was going on with their baby, he or she shouldn't be alone… if the baby was alive and he was going to put all his faith in that, he was going to be there, watching over until Maryse could go and do it herself.
