Love

Wendy called Suzie's hospital room. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered. Wendy nearly hung up in fear that Warren would answer and ask her a lot of questions. Just as she was about to place the receiver back on the hook, someone picked up the phone.

"Suzie Carter's room," a voice said.

"Mother?" Wendy gasped.

"Wendy?"

"Yes, Mom, it's me. I am calling to check on Suzie and the baby. How are they?"

"Not well, honey. You need to come home. Suzie needs you," Stephanie said as she stood over the hospital bed of the dear young woman she had always regarded as her own daughter. When Suzie's parents died when she was a child, Stephanie had always been there to look out for her. Suzie and Wendy had always been somewhat like sisters. They had grown up together.

"Mom, I want to be there, but I can't come right now," Wendy replied. Her own son was in NICU. He was doing well, but the doctors wouldn't release him until he reached a certain weight and was breathing on his own.

"What's going on with you, Wendy?" Stephanie asked with a frown. "You haven't come back to Henderson in months. You're hiding something from your mother."

"I'm not... hiding anything. I just need some time. Mom, I gotta go. Give Suzie and the baby my love."

"Wendy!" Stephanie cried out, but it was too late. Her daughter had already hung up the phone. She listened to the dial tone as she looked down at Suzie. The doctors had given Suzie medication to help her sleep. She had been so distraught by her son's condition.

"It's going to be alright, Suzie-Q," Stephanie said as she caressed Suzie's hair. "We're going to get you through this..."

~*~o~*~

Meanwhile, Warren and Cagney continued their conversation in NICU. "Do I love Suzie?" Cagney repeated.

"Yes... yes," he admitted. "Of course I love her... which is more than I can say for you."

"I have been there for her when you have not. I'd like to be with her... but she only has eyes for you," Cagney revealed.

"You're a good man, Cagney McCleary. You've been a wonderful friend to my wife. I know that you'll be there for her... after I break the news," Warren spoke.

"It's going to kill her that her best friend slept with her husband."

"Do we have to tell her it was Wendy?"

"What do you think?" Cagney said in exasperation. "Don't you want to come clean with her...and tell her the absolute truth? Doesn't she deserve at least that much?"

"Suzie deserves way more than I can give her. She deserves a good man like you," Warren said as his shoulders slumped.

"Look, I know I have made a mess of things; I can't change that now. All I can do is try to be there for him," Warren said as he looked down at his son.

"I'm going back to Suzie now," Cagney stated. He walked out and left Warren Carter in NICU.

~*~o~*~

The doctors allowed Wendy a chance to see her son. "He's so little," she said as she peeked into the heated incubator and saw her infant son lying upon a blue blanket.

"He weighs a little over four pounds," the nurse announced.

"Could I hold him please?"

"I'm sorry, but the doctor left strict orders that he can't be removed from his incubator yet."

Wendy's arms ached to hold her baby, but she could only stare at him through the glass. As she gazed at her child with so much love and tenderness, she knew she couldn't give him up. She would have to make other plans, because she definitely couldn't part with him.

"Have you thought of a name for him?" the nurse asked.

"His name is Warren Carter."

*Warren Carter Junior,* she added in her mind.