Chapter Eight
Okay folks...last chapter! I want to say thank you for all the reviews - for my first fan fiction you've all been so supportive! I'm working on another Reba story - coming soon! Thanks again!
Chapter Eight
Everyone sat downstairs. A gray cloud hung around the outside and inside of the house, filling them all with grief. It was like they'd lost a best friend.
A car pulled into the drive.. They're attention turned to the door as Brock slowly opened the door. He had been crying.
Cheyenne stood and approached her father. "How is she?" she murmured.
Brock shook his head. "She's stopped crying. She won't let me look at her face or even respond when I say something."
Cheyenne hugged him tight. "Mom's strong, she'll pull through this. I know she will."
"I do, too, it's just…" Brock shook his head again as they broke apart and looked around at his family. "She really didn't want to lose this child. She thought it would be like starting over…but instead it's a bad start."
"You can try again," Cheyenne pointed out.
Brock looked down, and then sat. Still not looking up he said, "I wasn't sure how to tell you guys this, but I might as well now." He looked up and sighed. "They had to tie her. She's not going to be able to have anymore children – they said that if she even got pregnant it could kill her."
The silence was worse than before. Everyone knew that Reba wanted a child badly, had been so excited, and now…this.
Kyra, who was actually crying hardest, got up and hugged her father. Cheyenne joined then Jake and Van.
Barbara Jean burst in, tears rolling down her cheeks. Once seeing the group, she began to cry harder and joined in.
The moment was broke by the phone. Barbara Jean screamed.
"I got it," Cheyenne , who seemed most controlled, pressed talk and held the phone to her ear. "Hello? Um, this is his daughter, I can talk…she can? That's great, it really is what she wants then... Okay, we'll be down soon…Yes, thank you very much." She hung up and said, "That was the nurse – Mom can come home, and she's apparently eager to."
Barbara Jean jumped up. "Can we all go?"
"No, I'll get her. Everyone else, hide in the kitchen," Brock ordered. "She probably isn't ready to see everyone yet." He was gone, then back in two seconds. "Oh, can someone get her bed ready?"
Reba hated having to let Brock push her in a wheelchair– she wanted to walk. The last thing she needed was more people staring at her, but Brock was quick enough as they left so that not many people got a good look at her.
She didn't talk the whole way home, and Brock didn't make her. They drove in silence for awhile, Reba trying to stay awake. Not being able to take it anymore, she turned on the radio.
"…she's got my nose; she's got her mama's eyes…" George Strait 's song played. Click.
"…oh man, we were livin'…goin' crazy in the kitchen…" Jason Aldean. Click. No more radio.
When they pulled in the drive, the family inside looked at each other nervously.
"Let's go hide in the kitchen," Cheyenne sighed. They followed her in. Nobody was really very hungry, but they pulled down some snacks and pop to occupy themselves with.
They could hear Brock thumping up the stairs, and assumed that Reba was obviously not ready to walk yet and that he was carrying her.
"Poor Mom," Jake spoke sadly. "Wouldn't it have been cool to have another baby? Mom was gonna name her Katarina. "
"Yeah, even though Auntie Katarina would have been younger than her niece," Van shrugged.
"That doesn't matter," Kyra said, feeling tempted enough to roll her eyes for the first time all day.
"No, it doesn't," Barbara Jean, who was eating ice cream from the bucket, agreed. "But I wish Reba could have another child – it's ridiculous that Reba AND Brock each had to-"
Barbara Jean cut off as she and the rest of the family heard Brock coming through the living room. They looked expectantly at him as he joined them.
Brock smiled at their anxious faces. "Not a word," he ordered quietly.
They looked at each other, confused. "What?"
Then they heard a scuffing of footsteps across the living room carpet. They looked at him, horrified.
"You let her -!" Cheyenne began, her voice rising just about a two-inch volume.
"Not a word." Brock repeated.
Reba was in the kitchen now. She looked broken, exhausted, but determined.
They thought she was going for the coffee, but she merely pulled a spoon out of the drawer, all this very slowly, and went towards Barbara Jean.
Barbara Jean, who was watching her most scared of all, tried to smile. "H-hey...!" she started to say before Reba clamped a hand over her mouth, took the tub of ice cream, and sat down. She shoveled the mint chocolate chip ice cream into her mouth, and looked up to see her family watching her like she was a time bomb.
"Y'all can talk!" she said loudly, making them jump.
"OH THANK GOD REBA I AM SO SORRY FOR YOU!" Barbara Jean burst.
"Thanks," Reba said, digging into the ice cream again.
"Are you feeling okay?" Cheyenne asked. Reba nodded, stuffing more ice cream into her mouth.
"You're eating fine," Jake murmured enviously, watching the ice cream disappear.
"Look, I said y'all can talk, just you don't have to talk to me!" Reba snapped.
Silence. Reba sighed, ashamed of herself.. Even through her anger, frustration, and broken pieces of hope lying in her heart, she knew she should be more understanding. They were desperately worried about her.
"I'm okay, I'll be fine. You'll see," she smiled sadly at them. "Just keep buying me ice cream."
"God…why us?" Cheyenne wondered aloud.
"What?" Reba put down her ice cream, staring at her daughter.
"That's it, why us, what did we do? And why does it always happen to you – Mom, think about it, just when you're your happiest, something smacks down and you get hurt again!"
Reba thought about this as everyone took in Cheyenne's words. Finally she said, "…yes, Cheyenne…but no. You're right – bad things see me and jump me, but…where would I be without them?"
"What do you mean?" Kyra frowned.
"Listen…" Reba sighed and leaned on her elbow. "If Brock had never left me, would I be this close to Barbara Jean?"
"That's all of a sudden a good thing?" Kyra raised her eyebrows.
"Yes. And, if Cheyenne and Van hadn't gotten pregnant, then look at the life I would have missed with them and Elizabeth. And if I hadn't lost this child…" she paused. Now everyone was leaning in an extra six inches, trying to comprehend.
"Well?" Barbara Jean pressed.
"I don't know…but there's a reason." Reba decided. "There's a reason for this, and as much as I hate to say it, just like everything else, it may just become a bad memory with a good cause.
Does that make sense?"
Van nodded. "Wow, Mrs. H, you're the only person I know that could sit there eating ice cream and philosophize."
Cheyenne, who hadn't spoken, finally took a deep breath. "You really wanted that child, Mom, but look at you. You're really pulled together."
"Look at what I still have," Reba pointed out. "Believe me, if you guys weren't here, there's no way I'd be able to look at it this way."
Barbara Jean began to sob again and hurried to squeeze her tight.
"Barbar... JEAN…oKAY..uh…still BREAKable.." Reba panted through shakes from Barbara Jean.
"No you're not!" BJ denied. "You're perfect…" she broke down again. Reba glared at her family from behind BJ's arm, mouthing "GET HER OFF!"
"Okay, okay, Barbara Jean," Kyra sighed, pulling her away, and instantly regretting it. BJ merely buried her face in Kyra's hair and sobbed harder.
"Okay, everyone should go to bed, it's late," Brock sighed, pulling Kyra from Barbara Jeans clutches. They all hugged Reba lightly (BJ was held back by Van) and went upstairs. Barbara Jean had Henry in Jake's room and was sleeping on a couch in Kyra's room.
Brock and Reba, arms around each others backs, were last upstairs.
As Brock watched Reba sleep that night, he kept going over everything she had said. All in all, everything had made her stronger. But somehow he had stayed with her, and somehow he was here for her. Just like he had always wanted to be, always would want to be, and always would be.
Reba began to stir. He leaned in, just in case she would wake up. But instead she merely whispered, "It's okay…I love you Brock…"
That's when it sunk in for Brock, why this just might have happened. He loved Reba more than anything, but never quite understood what it felt like to be her. To lose something you knew you couldn't live without…but use what you could to pull yourself through. No matter what life threw at them it would work.
Kissing the pale face of his love through her soft red hair, he lay his head down, kept his arms around her, and fell asleep listening to her breathe.
During a few moments of being awake, Reba heard Brock murmur, "Always and forever…" and smiled peacefully as she guessed what he was dreaming about.
