Chapter 11
Lucas couldn't stop crying, he had no idea if she was alive, he had no idea where his son was. Why he couldn't hold him. The officer sat on a bench outside a hallway of recovery rooms, everytime he heard any sort of noise he'd stand up and look for her. His fingers ran through his hair and he just now realized his hands were shaking. "Please God, if you're listening please." His knee started to bounce, "please don't take her away from me." The green eyed man gulped and pictured Wyatt's face. His chubby cheeks, and the little noises he was making, how long he was, which was even more impressive, 22 and a half inches. He flicked the tears off of his cheek when the double doors opened, Lucas jumped from his chair recognizing the doctor. "Where is she? Is she okay?" His palms were sweaty from the tight fists he's had them in for the past 45 minutes.
"She's great, she's in recovery with your son." A flood of emotions washed over him, thankfulness, happiness, every good feeling imaginable was rushing through his body.
"Where is she?"
"Down the hall second door on the right." His feet took off and he even passed the recovery room and had to turn back around.
"RILEY!"
"Hi baby." The brunette looked exhausted, but it was evident that she'd never been this happy.
The officer didn't know why he started to cry when he sat beside her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm perfect." Her eyes moved to their son, Wyatt made a cooing noise and they both giggled. "Are you done eating? Oh that's great, because daddy is here." Lucas sat up and kissed her on the head.
"I'm so glad you're okay, what happened?" His lips found hers. "I thought you said those were routine, and nothing bad happens?" He kissed her again.
The doctor giggled, "he's a big boy, the incision wasn't big enough. So long story short I bled a lot more than 1,000 cc's."
Lucas stroked his son's head who was fast asleep. "How much is 1,000 cc's?"
"About a quart of blood." The officer's face went pale and he started to kiss her again. "You looked behind the sheet, didn't you?"
"Yeah. On the way back from seeing Wyatt the first time." Riley's finger touched his cheeks.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Her head fell back on the pillow.
"Your insides were out baby. That's the scariest thing i've ever experienced, but like the best moment of my life." Lucas cuddled into the bed with his girlfriend and son. "I love my family." He whispered.
"Why don't you go get the rest of the family, guarantee they're in the waiting room. They can come in, but tell them to be super quiet." The officer didn't move, his head rested on hers and Wyatt snuggled into his mommy, with his dad's hand on his head.
"Just a few more minutes."
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"Something went wrong." Cory paced around the waiting room, biting his nails and trying to distract himself from the fact it had been almost 2 hours since she had gone back.
"Honey, take a seat. Nothing went wrong, they're probably just spending time together as a family." Topanga mentioned, and laughed along with Josh and Maya. A woman, not much older than Topanga walked to the labor and delivery receptionist desk. Mrs. Matthews smiled and didn't mean to eavesdrop.
"Hi, i'm looking for Lucas Friar and Riley Matthews."
Topanga stood up, knowing immediately who this was. "Mrs. Friar?"
"Yes?" The woman turned on her heels, and her green eyes reminded her of Lucas.
"Hi, i'm Mrs. Matthews. Riley's mom." The mothers shook hands, "they're not out yet but you're more than welcome to wait out here with us. It should be any minute now."
"Hi! It's so nice to meet you."
"Likewise, this is my husband Cory and Riley's best friend Maya and Uncle Josh." They sat down in the uncomfortable black plastic chairs.
"I wasn't sure what to expect." The strawberry blonde laughed, "I got a phone call a little over a month ago saying he was in love with this woman named Riley and he was having a kid."
"A month ago?" Maya questioned.
"Yes." The blonde grinned, that was before Riley even went into the hospital. Before she made up her mind about Lucas being involved in her sons life. "It was a huge shock! Especially when he said it wasn't his, she did IVF?"
"Yes, that's right." Mrs. Matthews smiled. "She was never one to wait on a man. Never one to do things the traditional way."
"I'm just proud of Lucas, stepping up and helping support her."
The blue eyed girl smiled, "you have no idea what all he's done for her. She's been on bed rest and he set up Wyatt's entire room, he took off of work and took care of her. He's a wonderful man."
Mrs. Friar's green eyes brightened, Cory cleared his throat. "What was your first name?"
"Helen." The white double doors opened and Lucas smiled seeing his mom and Riley's family.
"I'M A DAD!" He picked his mother up off the ground and spun her in a circle, while the family cheered. Maya snapped a quick picture and gave him a hug. "8 pounds 5 oz, 22 and a half inches long, born at 3:31, and he's perfect. Absolutely perfect." It was evident he'd been crying.
"It took you over an hour to come get us?" Topanga questioned.
"There was a small complication during the c-section," Cory's eyes widened, "but she's fine. She's safe, she's awake and fed Wyatt, she's forcing herself to stay awake just to watch him while he sleeps."
The family awed. "Can we go in?"
"Yes, but she said and I quote 'if anyone wakes him up I will murder them' end quote." He exhaled and his lips curved upwards while he led the laughing group into her inpatient room. Everyone tip toed in and watched as Riley mouthed the words hi. Helen sauntered towards the bed and Lucas stole Wyatt away from his mom. "Everyone wash your hands please."
"Riley?" Her brown eyes stayed on the bundle of joy as everyone gazed upon him.
"Yes?" The doctor turned towards Helen and smiled, opening her arms to hug her. "Hi Mrs. Friar." The green eyed man fell more in love, watching the 2 most important women in his life bonding within seconds of knowing one another. "I'm so glad you could come."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Helen leaned back and cupped her face, "she's a good one Luke."
"Yeah, she's pretty amazing." The new parents stared at each other, but her eyelids felt like weights. "You wanna meet your grandson?" Mrs. Friar nodded, and hurriedly washed her hands. The blanket and beanie covered a good portion of his face, it wasn't until Wyatt was in her arms that she gasped. "He's beautiful right?" The new father admitted with pride.
"Oh yeah, he's gorgeous. He looks exactly like your baby pictures Luke." Everyone was wide eyed, even Riley who had pretty much fallen asleep.
"What?"
"Yeah, I brought a picture in my purse. Mrs. Matthews you're more than welcome to dig in there and pull it out." Topanga did so, and in a hurry. "Same nose, same cheeks and chin." Riley's mom placed the picture beside Wyatt.
"Mom?" Riley questioned.
"This is Lucas' son." The brunette covered her face and started happily sobbing. "There's no denying it."
"He was always my son." Lucas stated. Cory had a hard time not liking this guy, everything he said and did was freaking perfect. The doctor continued to cry and he laid beside her. "Baby it's okay."
"I know. I just can't stop crying, freaking hormones!" Her head landed on his chest. "Congratulations daddy." There was a light knock on the door and the nurse walked in.
"Riley, you need to get some sleep girl." She giggled, "you know that, you lost a lot of blood." The nurse adjusted her drip and sauntered back out of the room.
The officer cleared his throat, "she's right sweetheart. It's so obvious how exhausted you are."
Riley was able to get out one word before falling asleep, "Wyatt."
"I got him baby, I can take care of our son."
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Lucas rocked in the glider, moving forward and back again, keeping his son asleep. He had held Wyatt for 2 hours, studying him, learning every detail of his face. Riley would wake up occasionally and offer to take him, but would fall back asleep before being able to finish her sentence. She fell asleep while taking a drink of water and ended up spilling it all over her. It wasn't until Wyatt started crying that she opened her eyes for longer than 5 seconds. "I'm up!"
"I think he's hungry momma." The brunette unbuttoned her dress and helped him latch on.
"There you go baby boy." Her finger grazed Wyatt's cheek before laying back on the pillow and meeting up with Lucas' meadow eyes. "I'm on enough pain medicine to sedate a horse."
"You went through a serious surgery baby. I'd rather you be drugged up then in pain."
The doctor disagreed, "i'm afraid I won't remember anything. I want to remember all of this, every noise, every word, every feeling. No matter how weird it is." She glanced down and laughed at Wyatt nursing. "Oh, that's not a good idea. No laughing."
"Yeah, that can't feel good." The officer moved some hair out of her face. "Does that feel weird?"
"Yeah, extremely. But I love it, it's a great bonding experience." Her eyes moved around the room, "where's everyone?"
"They left, giving us our privacy. They're going to come see us tomorrow and they set up a schedule to make dinner for us. So it's just my little family for the rest of the day." Lucas loved that, his family, his girlfriend, his son. Everything was his.
"How do you feel knowing he's yours?"
"The same way I felt before I knew. I loved him Riley, I loved him the moment you stood up and showed your belly. I loved him when you said he wasn't mine, I loved him even though he brought you into the hospital, and I loved him when I thought the worst today. I love Wyatt, it's just a bonus that he has the same DNA as me."
Riley started to tear up, "that's the sweetest thing i've ever heard." She started crying again, which made her boyfriend laugh. "Shut up!" His fingers wiped away her tears. "Thank you." Every emotion within a matter of minutes.
"Can I hold him?"
"No he's eating! You've had him for hours! And you were the first one to hold him, hashtag jealous!" He laid down beside her in the bed. "I love you." She whispered, "thank you for being there for me, for us. He's got the best daddy in the world."
"I will always be here. I will always love y'all." They kissed again.
"You know you've never told me about your dad." Riley whispered, since he was falling back asleep.
"I don't really know him." Lucas stated and gazed into her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"I know beautiful," His fingers helped raise her chin and he softly kissed her. "Just know that I will never leave him, like he left me. I'm gonna put you first, and he is an extremely close second."
"Me first?" The doctor questioned.
"Yeah, you and I need to be a strong foundation for him. Being a child of divorced parents, I know the impact it can have on a kid whether they know it or not. You come first, for Wyatt. You come first, so he can see how happy he should make a woman, how he should treat a woman." Every word out of his mouth was oozing with passion and love.
"Lucas?"
"Yes beautiful?"
"Will you marry me?" She questioned, his eyes moved to peer into hers.
"That depends." He replied with a smile.
"On?"
"Are you going to be too doped up to remember that you asked me?"
Riley started laughing and Lucas leaned down to kiss her. "Absolutely not."
"Then yes." The new parents started kissing, "it just so happens that I have, wait where'd I put it." Her eyes turned to a confused glare, "oh there it is." His fingers dug in his pocket and pulled out an engagement ring. "You beat me to the punch."
She divulged a beautiful smile and her shoulders touched her ears, "i'm sorry."
"I love you." Lucas stared at her with a smirk and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"I love you too." He leaned in, so close to touching her lips when Wyatt started to cry.
The green eyed man started to laugh, "and so it begins."
"Our lives are not our own now." The brunette pulled him off and started talking to him, "mommy and daddy are getting married. You know normally i'd be going crazy, marrying the man of my dreams but you've worn me out already." Wyatt stopped crying and kept his eyes on his parents. The officer gently lifted her left hand and slid the ring on. "You know he probably can't even see us right now."
"Really?" He questioned.
Riley nodded, "yeah, babies are born with practically no vision."
"So how will he recognize us?"
"Well eventually he starts to see, obviously. But, right now it's our voice, and especially my smell since he searches for breastmilk." Her eyes moved towards her finger. "This is the best day of my life."
"You're telling me." Lucas kissed the top of her head and then kissed Wyatt's.
"It's beautiful baby." Not even the fluorescent lighting of the hospital could ruin how gorgeous the princess cut ring was. The nurse knocked on the door.
"Riley, did you want to take him to the nursery so you can get some sleep?"
"NO!" Lucas spouted, "I mean. No thank you i'll take him so she can rest." She nodded and left them alone. "Wow that was loud. Come here baby boy." Wyatt left his mothers arms. "You remember that pretty awesome book I was telling you about earlier today. You know the one, brown bear, brown bear what do you see? I brought it with me. Let's read, shall we." Riley let out a small smile and slowly fell back asleep. The last thing she heard was, 'I see a red bird looking at me'.
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Riley slept great, when she wasn't nursing or being woken up by the nurses to take medicine, or when Wyatt didn't cry. Okay, so she was still extremely tired but felt a lot better, she had a lot more energy than the day before. "Riley." Her gaze was on Wyatt. "Riley, i'm sorry but his pediatrician is here to do a check up on him." The brunette nodded and placed him in the rolling bed they had for him. "While he's gone we're going to pull the catheter out and remove the IV and drip." Lucas was sleeping on the pullout bed beside her. "As you know we're gonna get you up and moving today."
"Okay thank you."
"You might want to see if your husband can help you stand the first few times, since we took the epidural out it's going to be pretty painful." The doctor smiled, knowing all the information the nurse just said but it was out of habit. "How's your incision feeling?"
"Incredibly sore, i've never been on the receiving end of this surgery before." The officer threw himself off the bed quickly.
"I'm up!"
"I'll send in the other nurse to get you unhooked." Wyatt was being wheeled out of the room when Lucas woke up.
"Where's he going?"
"His pediatrician is here to give him a once over and a shot or two. They're going to unhook me off all this mess and i'll be walking around today. My incision already hurts so i'm not looking forward to that." Her hands rubbed her eyes and the emerald eyes of her fiancee grinned at the sight of her ring.
"I heard her say something about your epidural being out?"
She nodded, "so i'm not numb anymore. It's just hydrocodone and 800 mg of ibuprofen now." His bottom lip pouted, "awe what's wrong?"
"I don't want you to be in pain." She was about to reply when the entryway creaked open.
"Alright let's get you up and out of bed Dr. Matthews." A few minutes later she was unhooked from all of the machines and the nurse was talking Lucas through the task of getting her out of bed. It was so cute how intently he listened.
"Mhm, I understand what you're saying but couldn't I just pick her up?" The brunette laughed.
"She needs to be able to get up and down on her own, we don't need to know how strong you are." Riley was extremely excited, she hadn't walked in what seems like forever. "You ready Dr. Matthews?"
"Riley, and yes." She let out a few winces of pain from the burning pain in her abdomen, but was eventually on her own two feet, he wiped a few tears off her cheek.
"You okay baby?" His lips touched her forehead as she agreed.
There was a knock on her door and Wyatt was being wheeled back in. "Hey baby boy."
"As you know you'll lean on his bed if you need to. Have fun." She left them alone and neither one of them could stop looking at him.
"Want to go on a walk?" The green eyed man opened the door and was prepared to catch her the entire time they were walking. "Wow this is super uncomfortable." Her feet drug across the tile floor. "I'll get to go home tonight though! YAY!"
"That quickly?" Lucas questioned.
"Yeah, I requested it. I just have to be up and moving a lot today. I want to be home." They barely made it down the long hallway and it had been 5 minutes.
"He's so perfect."
"No kidding. Just like his daddy." They intertwined their hands.
"So for giggles, if later on in life he had green eyes and looked exactly like me would you have told me?"
She chuckled and turned down the next hallway, "like if we weren't together?" Lucas nodded. "I would like to think so, but now I don't ever have to worry about that. You're his father and the best thing that's happened to me." He stopped her in the middle of the hallway and after caressing her face kissed her sweetly, softly, romantically. The green eyed man grasped the back of her head, continuing their embrace. They didn't care who was around, they wouldn't have stopped but Wyatt cooed, causing the new parents to smile.
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"Riley are you sure you want to go home? You can stay for one more night."
"Yeah, i'm sure Dr. Connely. Thank you for everything though, i'll see you in two weeks." Riley finished signing the discharge paperwork. "Did you get a chance to send my prescriptions over?"
"Of course, about an hour ago. I'm sure you know this, but" Lucas became attentive again and somehow pulled his eyes off of Wyatt, "try to take a shower everyday, but don't get your incision wet for another 2 days. It'll be a nice 10 minute break and you'll need it with how emotional you're going to be. Dad will make sure of that won't you dad?"
"No problem, I could hold him for hours." Dr. Connely patted her friends leg and left them alone.
"Hey handsome, can you pass me his car seat and i'll get him strapped in. They have the wheelchair waiting outside." Her arms helped lifted her off of the bed, her incision was on fire no matter how much pain medicine she took. Unless she was laying back completely still or standing completely straight it hurt her.
"I'll take care of him beautiful, you take your pretty little self to the wheelchair. And while you're being wheeled out i'll run and grab your car." She wiped a tear away from her eye, he really was an amazing dad. Before yesterday Riley didn't think she could love him any more than she already did. It's incredible what changes when you have kids, your heart is so full and all you feel is love and joy. Wyatt and his mom were waiting outside with the escort when Lucas pulled up. "Thank you for waiting with them." He shook the escorts hand and took the carseat out of his fiancees lap before helping her out of the wheel chair. Her brown eyes squeezed shut while she rose.
"You're so strong, baby on one hand and me on the other."
He started to laugh, "neither of you are heavy, at all. I laid a sweatshirt in the seat so the seatbelt wouldn't lay directly on your incision." Riley smiled and ducked into the car, then leaned the seat back.
Lucas tightened his car seat a little more and ensured he was snapped in securely. The officer shut the back seat and after buckling his seat belt took his fiancee's left hand, feeling the band of the ring on her dainty finger. The brunette squeezed his hand, "come on baby. Let's go home."
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Thanks for reading this story. I hope y'all enjoyed it.
I actually did fall asleep while drinking water, like she does in the story. Right in the middle of a conversation I was having. So, that wasn't embarrassing at all :D
