Chapter Eleven
"Are you really taking all this stuff to the thrift store?" Snow asked, poking his head in one of the boxes stacked by the door.
"Yeah. There's no way I'm bringing everything on a plane. And I donated my furniture; it gets picked up in a few days." Hope folded down the top of another box, this one full of dishes. "I didn't realize how much stuff I had."
"Donated?" Snow whistled. "Wouldn't it have been better to sell?"
"Would take too long, and I figured it'd be the better thing to do. Thanks again for helping me," Hope added, rubbing the back of his neck. His palm came away with a fine sheen of sweat.
"No problem," Snow said with a wink of a blue eye. "Future sibling and all."
Hope laughed softly. "I guess so," he said, walking over to the thermostat and turning the heat down a few degrees.
"I can't believe you're leaving too," Snow remarked. "I mean, I get why…but…"
"I know. It's weird."
"Maybe I'll move there too," the taller man mused. "Not like I got much left here."
Hope ducked his head, fiddling with a fraying edge of cardboard on another box. "Yeah. You're going to be an uncle."
Snow grinned. "Damn right! The best uncle that kid's ever gonna have."
Snow was never told the extent of why Lightning had suddenly left - only that she had left for better opportunities that her dishonorable discharge prevented her from having here. He had bought the story easily enough; since Serah's death, the man seemed mostly preoccupied anyway. Even after Lightning had left, Hope had tried to keep in touch with her brother-in-law, for his sake more than anything. Snow had latched onto the proffered friendship like a drowning man to floating driftwood. Hearing about her pregnancy had seemed to cheer him.
"The only one," Hope pointed out as his phone began buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out; seeing Lightning's number, his heart plummeted. She rarely called him this late.
"Light?" he answered briskly.
"It's Noel. Listen…"
"Did something happen to Light?" he interrupted. Please, please no.
"Yeah. I don't know. I'm following the ambulance now. Her stomach's been cramping all day and she started bleeding, I don't know. It might be premature labor."
Hope dragged a hand down his face. "No," he groaned. "God, no. It's too early. She's barely twenty eight weeks."
"I know," Noel answered, the misery palpable in his tone. "We're heading to Oerba General. Labor and Delivery."
"I'll be on the first plane there. Keep me updated, please. And…take care of her."
"I will. I swear," Noel said, then hung up.
Snow was staring at him from across the room. "I'm going too," he said.
Hope hesitated, then nodded. "Okay," he acquiesced, dialing the airline's number. "Two seats, then."
Snow folded his arms as he waited for Hope to speak with the travel agent, tapping a booted foot anxiously.
"We gotta leave now," Hope told him after he had booked the flight, shoving his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. "The flight leaves in less than an hour."
"Then let's roll." Snow grabbed Hope's keys off the counter and tossed them to the other man. "We can get clothes or something there."
Hope pulled on his coat. Please, god, he thought as he followed Snow to the elevator. Please let everything be okay. We've been through so much already - for once, let everything be okay.
…
"Are you the father?" a bespectacled woman in a white coat asked Noel as she stepped into the otherwise empty L&D waiting room.
Noel stood abruptly. "I…no. I'm not. I'm a friend. A good friend. Noel Kreiss."
"I'm Dr. Bhakti," she said, offering her hand.
He accepted it with a brief shake. "How is she?"
"We've found the source of the problem. Placenta previa."
"And what the hell does that mean?" Noel snapped, his nerves beyond frayed.
"It means," the doctor explained, ignoring Noel's outburst, "that the placenta is covering the cervix. Normally the placenta attaches closer to the top of the uterus, but when it attaches near the bottom, it causes this condition. It commonly causes bleeding at the end of the second trimester or beginning of the third, which Lightning just entered."
"So…?" he prompted.
"Often with placenta previa, the bleeding can become serious enough that the baby needs to be delivered by C-section before labor actually occurs. Otherwise the mother can hemorrhage and die."
"Is Lightning in labor?"
"No," the doctor answered, and Noel let out a relieved sigh. "But she is bleeding a lot," she added, adjusting her glasses. "It has worsened since she arrived here. If we can't stop the bleeding, then we will have to perform an emergency C-section for both her and her baby's survival."
Noel swore under his breath. "Is he going to be able to survive?"
"He will have better chances than a baby born earlier than twenty-eight weeks," the doctor answered, "but we're hopeful that we can stop the bleeding." She inclined her head slightly. "We will keep you updated, Mr. Kreiss."
Noel sank down in a chair, burying his face in his hands, the same desperate litany running through his head as it had for the past couple of hours. Please let her be okay, please let the baby be okay.
He lifted his head and gnawed savagely at a hangnail, staring at the floor. Please let her be okay, please let the baby be okay. Please let them both be okay.
It was unfair. So unfair. And yet, in spite of the intense worry, his mind kept flitting back to the kiss they shared in his living room. And now Hope was on his way - the veritable calvary riding to the rescue; but even in this, Hope would have no power to make things better.
It's not my place to interfere, he told himself.
Or is it? the devil on his shoulder whispered. Haven't you been there for her this whole time? Wasn't it you who took her to the hospital four months ago? Wasn't it you accompanying her to her ultrasounds? Don't you deserve her and her son?
"If everyone in the world got what they deserved, I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place," Noel mused. The nurse at the reception window gave him a queer look, which he disregarded.
The minutes stretched to another hour. He stared at the door that the doctor had entered by, with its sign that read "Only Hospital Staff Beyond This Point", but it remained firmly shut. He fought the manic urge to go through it himself and run down the hall, shouting demands to know what was happening. How long could it possibly take to stop bleeding - or figure out that they couldn't? What if they were performing a C-section on her right now and hadn't bothered telling him?
Please let them both be okay.
He didn't even notice the entry door opening until he heard Hope say his name. His head snapped up to look at the other man; snowflakes were melting in his hair and dusted the shoulders of his jacket, his face was creased with exhaustion and worry. And behind him…
"Snow?" Noel sputtered in disbelief.
Hope gave him a confused look before comprehension dawned on his features. "Right," he said. "Noel, this is Snow Villiers, Lightning's brother-in…"
"I know who he is," Noel cut him off.
Snow was giving him an appraising look. "You look familiar. Have we met?"
"We went to high school together," Noel grated out, balling his hands into fists. Why am I so angry?
"Small world, huh?" Snow gave him a winning smile. "I guess you do look familiar…"
"How is Light?" Hope said, stepping forward.
"Don't know really," Noel answered, flexing his fingers. "It's not labor. Yet. Something about the placenta being in the wrong place and causing bleeding."
"Placenta previa?"
Hope and Noel looked at Snow. His face was bloodless, his lips trembling.
"I think so," Noel said slowly.
"God in heaven. That's how Serah died. That's exactly it. She was hemorrhaging and they couldn't stop it, they were trying to deliver the baby but it was too much blood loss - " Snow spun towards the other door and tried it; naturally, it was locked. He opted to bang on it instead.
"Sir," the nurse at the desk said in alarm.
"She's gonna die!" Snow said, his gloved fist threatening to dent the metal door.
Hope grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the door. Snow allowed himself to be wretched away, his chest heaving, face threatening to crumble. "Stop it. We don't know that for sure." He looked to Noel. "Did they give you a prognosis?"
Noel's own stomach was tying itself into a hundred knots. As history repeats itself. "They're trying to stop the bleeding," he said. "The doctor said if they can't, they have to give her an emergency C-section."
Hope's brows furrowed. "Is the baby viable this early? Did they say?"
"Maybe." Or maybe Lightning was going to end up like Serah.
"You will be asked to leave if he tries that nonsense again," the nurse scolded them.
"He won't," Hope promised, walking over to her. "Is there any way we can get an update on my fiancee's condition? I'm the father."
"What is your name?"
"Hope Estheim."
"I see," she said, casting a dubious glance at the other two and picking up a phone. "If you'll have a seat. I'll let you know if the doctor can tell me anything."
"Yes ma'am. Thank you."
The three of them sat down, Snow settling into a sullen silence, Hope messing with his phone, Noel jiggling a leg and gnawing on his lower lip.
"What are you doing?" he asked Hope after a moment.
"Looking up placenta previa," he answered.
"Is it hereditary or something? How can they both have the same goddamned thing?" Snow wondered aloud.
"Well, if you give me a sec…"
Noel stared at the reception window, which the nurse had closed. Through the dimpled, blurry glass he could just barely make out her form as she hunched over the the phone, her head nodding vague yes's or no's.
"Placenta previa," Hope said after a moment, "is not hereditary."
"Give me that." Snow snatched the phone from Hope's hands and started scrolling down the screen, his lips moving silently as he read whatever website Hope had pulled up.
"It must be a coincidence, then," Snow said. "Or they have weird shaped uteruses or whatever."
Or history repeats itself. "Let's not talk about Lightning's uterus," Noel said.
"Why? It's not irrelevant."
"Guys," Hope said, placating.
"Let me see that," Noel demanded. Snow passed him the phone from where he sat opposite of Hope, and Noel looked through the causes himself. "Abortion," he said after a minute, dropping the phone into Hope's lap.
Snow gave him a weird look. "What?"
"Abortion," Noel said, "can increase the risk of previa."
"So what? Neither of them have had abortions. Or Serah didn't, anyway."
"Are you sure about that?" Noel said.
Hope was watching Noel's face. His eyes widened suddenly, as is recalling a memory. "Wait, Noel -"
Snow stood up so abruptly that his chair fell over in the process. "What the fuck are you trying to say?"
Noel glared up at him. "I'm saying that maybe she didn't tell you everything about her life."
The blonde man yanked Noel out of his chair by the collar of his sweatshirt. "Don't you ever fucking say a word about my wife," he hissed.
Hope furled a hand in Snow's sleeve. "Will you sit down?"
Noel bared his teeth in a fierce grin. "Nothing that's not true. She had an abortion in high school, before she dated you."
"Shut your fucking mouth," Snow growled.
"I know, because it was mine."
He didn't even see it coming, though he knew it would. Snow's fist connected with his jaw in a solid punch and Noel staggered backwards, his vision blacking out. He heard Hope yelling at Snow as they scuffled, heard the damn receptionist screaming for security. He slumped back into another chair, wiping the blood that oozed out of the corner of his mouth. He flinched as a cold compress was pressed against his face and he opened his eyes to see Hope kneeling in front of him.
"You deserved that," he said quietly.
"I know." He took the ice pack from Hope and adjusted it on his face. "Where's Snow?"
"They took him outside. Why did you say that to him?"
Noel gave him a sullen look. "I don't know," he answered.
Hope hesitated, then asked, "Is it true?"
"Yes." Noel swallowed, tasting more blood. He pressed his tongue experimentally against his teeth; nothing was loose, but he did have a cut on the inside of his cheek.
"Light never told me."
"She didn't know it herself, until I told her a little while ago."
As Hope stood up, the doctor came through the door.
"Mr. Estheim?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"Ms. Farron would like to see you. Now."
"Is she…okay?"
The doctor held out her hand. "Come with me," she said.
