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Chapter Fourteen

"I can't believe it" said Marlon.

"Poor Chas" said Belle, "but she's going to be okay now?"

"They're still working on her, but they're hopeful, yeah". Gennie was having a hard time remembering everything the doctor had said. She hadn't understood everything he'd told them about what had happened but she thought she'd managed to relay the main gist of it to the family well enough.

"Can we go and see the baby then?" Belle asked.

"No. Only two in at a time. Cain and Aaron have gone up. Doctor said she's really poorly."

"So was Samson and look at him now" Belle replied. She had complete faith that both Chas and the baby were going to be fine.

Lisa didn't want her to get her hopes up too high, "This is a bit different, love. She's a lot smaller than Samson was, and a lot poorlier. We'll just have to wait and hope."

"I just can't believe it" Marlon said.

"You've already said that," Katie pointed out.

"I know, but I just..."

"Can't believe it?"

"No."

"Tell you what, while you get your head round it, why don't you, me and Gennie go and get some food and coffees for everyone? I'm starving"

"Yeah, okay."

Meanwhile, on the floor above, in a quiet, darkened room, two unlikely suspects were peering into an incubator in awe. The sleeping baby was so small, Cain reckoned she'd fit in his hand easily. She had monitors stuck to her feet and a tiny tube taped to her mouth helping her breathe. The little bobble hat on her head probably wouldn't even fit one of Sarah's dolls.

"She looks like a frog" Aaron said softly. Cain laughed, 'Trust Aaron to say something inappropriate'.

"Well, you can tell she's your sister, look at the hair".

Aaron looked and saw through the gap in the bobble hat that the baby had a full head of jet black hair, just like his mum's. And Cain's. "Was mine like that when I was born?" he asked.

"I dunno kid," Cain replied, "I wasn't really around".

Aaron remembered what his mum had told him about when he was born. He looked at the tiny, fragile creature in front of him and imagined what he'd feel like if he was responsible for its care. At nineteen, it was a scary thought, at fifteen...he couldn't imagine how terrified his mum would have been back then.

"Can we go and see if she's out of theatre?" he asked his uncle. His words came out a bit choked and he was embarrassed, but Cain didn't notice, or pretended not to.

"Sure. Lead the way."

"Do you think I should ring Paddy?" Marlon asked Katie and Gennie as they walked towards the cafeteria.

"Why?" asked Katie, "what's he gonna do?"

"Well, I mean for Aaron. He'll want to know, and Aaron's not likely to call him is he?"

"Yeah, it's a good idea" said Gennie, "why don't you go and call him outside and we'll see you in there?"

Marlon went off in the opposite direction.

"So..." Katie started what she feared may be a difficult conversation.

"What?"

"Well, are we going to address the elephant in the room now it's just the two of us?"

Gennie looked around, but couldn't see any elephants.

"At the risk of sounding repetitive...what?"

"The baby. Or more to the point, the baby's father."

Gennie stopped walking and turned to look at Katie as if she'd just had an epiphany.

Katie laughed, "Don't tell me you've not thought about it. It's all I've been thinking about since you told us about the baby."

They started walking again. "I haven't really been thinking straight" Gennie said, "seeing her all pale and bruised...and then finding something like that out...it's just crazy..."

Katie nodded in agreement. She'd known Chas nearly ten years now, they were good friends. But never before had she seen her look so vulnerable, so weak. "Well, she's going to need all our help when she wakes up. It's a lot to get our heads round, imagine how hard it's gonna be for her."

This time Gennie nodded as they pushed open the door to the cafeteria and headed straight for the coffee machine. "What were you saying about the father?"

"Well, six months ago, she was seeing Nikhil..."

"Oh god!" Gennie nearly let go of the cup she was currently holding under the coffee machine. Nikhil was now her boyfriend, how had she not thought about this before? How would this work – her sister having a baby by her boyfriend?

Katie pulled the cup out of Gennie's hand before she scalded herself. "But..." she said loudly, making sure she had Gennie's attention, "I've been figuring it out and twenty seven weeks ago was when Jackson had just died. Chas didn't see Nikhil around that time, in fact, she avoided him like the plague".

Gennie remembered that too, she remembered being angry at Chas for pushing Nikhil away when all he wanted to do was help. She remembered the almighty row they'd had that night when Chas drunkenly told them that she'd cheated on Nikhil with Carl, of all people. Suddenly the penny dropped.

"Oh my god!"

"That took long enough"

"Carl..."

"Exactly."

"What are we gonna do?"

"Gonna do about what?" Marlon made them both jump.

"Jesus Marlon, creep about much?" Katie scolded.

"Sorry, didn't mean to. What's up? Has something happened?"

"No" reassured Gennie, "did you get through to Paddy?"

"Yeah he already knew, he's on his way in with Charity and Debs, he's giving them a lift. What were you two talking about?" he asked suspiciously.

The girls looked at each other. Katie nodded at Gennie then spoke, "let's get the food and drink first and we'll tell you on the way back down."