June 29th, 2013
June 29th, 2013
Tree Hill, North Carolina
Tree Hill Regional Hospital
"Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Brody,
Happy Birthday to you!"
Lucas Scott listened as his wife sang softly to his son, holding the small boy in her arms as his daughters slept happily in their carriers, on the floor. He listened as his wife sang, her not so talented voice soothing the now year old infant back to sleep. Technically, Brody, Bailey and Avery wouldn't be a year old for another twelve hours, but today was their birthday. One year ago today they walked into Tree Hill Regional Hospital, and he became a dad for the first time. Now, a year later, he was back. His wife was singing happy birthday to their first born children, in a pair of sweatpants and an old Raven's sweatshirt, sitting in a cold, hard hospital bed, while her youngest child slept in the NICU, two floors above them.
Lucas sighed, and Peyton looked up at him, knowing without a word being said what was plaguing her husband's thoughts. It was the same thing that had been in her mind for the past eight days. Twenty Four. Twenty Four weeks. She was twenty four weeks pregnant when her son was born. Twenty four was too young.
Lucas looked back at her, at the sad, defeated look in her eyes and he knew that it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that Peyton had to go through this. It wasn't fair that she hadn't even seen her son yet because she was too afraid of losing him. Not that it made much of a difference. Lucas had been up to see him several times, and all you could really see was tubes. Tubes and wires. The ventilator that he needed to breathe covered most of his small face, and the rest of his body was wrapped in a radiant blanket, to keep his body temperature normal. And then there were the tubes. Tubes to help him eat, tubes to keep him hydrated, tubes to keep him from getting an infection. He. Lucas couldn't even call his own son by his name, and he knew that. He knew that even mentally he shied away from the name that had seemed perfect a mere nine days ago. But now the name, picked to hopefully give the young boy inspiration seemed to mock him. Life. And then maybe a reminder of everyone who loved him.
He was supposed to be named Aidan. Little fire. This little boy was nothing like a fire. He was nothing like anything Lucas had ever seen, and that scared Lucas, and he knew that it scared Peyton. It had been Brooke who had come up with the new name. It had been the first word out of her mouth when she had gotten to the hospital. She had been on the phone with Lucas for the past few hours, so she knew how Peyton was. But Lucas wouldn't say a word about his baby. He just couldn't bring himself to say that they baby was okay, but he was small, and he might not make it. But Brooke had always been a smart girl, and as soon as she had seen the small boy, the name had fallen out of her mouth, and it had just seemed to fit.
That didn't make it fair thought. It wasn't fair that Lucas and Peyton had given up on their favorite name in the desperate hope that this new name and its meaning would rub off on him. It wasn't fair that there was a pretty good chance that he would never yell this baby's name out, or cuddle with him and Peyton in their oversized bed. Honestly, there was a pretty good chance that this baby would never even see that bed. And what was by the most unfair about this entire thing was that it was happening to Peyton. After everything that she had been through, she should have been allowed at least one pregnancy that went smoothly, one thing in her life that was perfect. This should have been perfect. Lucas felt the anger rising in his chest as he thought this, and it wasn't until he heard a strangled noise from next to him that he shook himself out of his daze.
"I'm sorry Luke." Peyton sobbed from next to him, tears falling down her face at a startlingly rapid pace as she turned herself away from the panicking face of her husband, and pushed herself closer to the edge of the bed, away from him.
Lucas quickly walked the few feet over towards the bad and then climbed in, pulling his arms around her, hoping to calm her down. He couldn't deal with her being sick now too, and he knew that a person who has suffered from a panic attack once was likely to suffer from another one.
It was hard to believe that he had actually been relived when he had found out that that's what had happened. A panic attack. That was all. No heart attack, just a common panic attack. He had let himself feel relived for a minute before he looked back up at the doctor and asked about his child. He had known from the second he'd asked that it was ad, and he hadn't been disappointed when he had been told that his baby had to be delivered because Peyton's panic attack had triggered pre-term labor that he hadn't been able to stop. The doctor hadn't had to tell him that the chances of the baby surviving were about 50, and the chances of the baby being perfectly healthy for the rest of its life, if the baby survived, were about 40.
Lucas pulled him wife close to him and stroked her hair softly, whispering un her ear. "Baby, it's not your fault." He said it over and over again, as if it was their own personal mantra.
"Then whose fault is it?" She asked a few minutes later, after she had calmed down a bit. "I was the one who needed to go to that trial." Lucas knew that Peyton blamed herself. Everyone felt some sort of blame. He knew that Brooke blamed herself because she didn't take Avery, and Haley, Nathan and Lindsay blamed themselves for the same reason. Derek blamed himself for not killing Ian when he had the chance to, and Lucas, Lucas blamed himself the most. He knew that it was his fault. He was the one who had let Peyton, and then Avery go to the damn trial in the first place. He should have told Peyton that he thought it was a bad idea. More than that, he was told that it was a bad idea, and he didn't do anything. So if it was anyone's fault, it was his.
"You didn't do anything wrong Peyt. The doctor said it would be fine if you went, no one could have predicted this. This was not your fault." He whispered, kissing her softly again, and sighing when he felt try to push herself away. "Peyton. Blondie." He pulled himself to that they were both under the covers, and then he gently wrapped his arms around her, avoiding the scars still fresh on her abdomen, as he let them cry themselves to sleep.
They were awoken in the morning by none other than the doctor. Well, more accurately, they were woken by the doctor trying to quiet the now not sleeping year old babies. "Cooper?" Peyton asked sleepily, pushing herself up and pulling Lucas up with her.
"And Addison." Another voice said from behind the door as the red heard walked into the room, a large smile on her face. "I have some good news for you two." She frowned as she saw neither of them smile, she knew that they were worn out, and tried of hoping, but this was nearly heartbreaking. "You're going to like this news." This at least got a bit more attention from the couple. "We finished the tests up on the baby this morning, and I just got the last results back." She watched as Peyton's eyes lost all hope, and Lucas's eyes filled with tears. "He's doing great." She smiled just a bit as the blonde mother looked up, her mouth slightly agape. "Granted, it's not full term great, but it's at least thirty weeks great. He's remarkably well developed for such a short gestational age, and he's big baby. It's not going to be an easy road, but from what I can see, your son is going to live, and as far as I can tell, we can't see any permanent damage. You guys are very lucky."
"He's going to be okay?" Peyton asked, tears in her eyes, not quiet able to believe it.
"I think so. We're probably going to keep him in the NICU for about two months, just until he's able to eat and breathe on his own, and even then he'll only be about 32 weeks adjusted gestational age, so he might not be ready, but with all the advances that we've made in the past five years, I honestly think he's going to be ready a bit before that." She paused for a second before she continued. "What's going to happen is that he's going to spend a few more days in the NICU General, and then he'll be moved to a more private room on that floor. You two are still going to have to be checked out for infections every time you go in, and you'll have to be in full coving, but he'll be alone in the room, with maybe another baby, and some nurses. We usually do this to protect the babies from infection, and it does help, but it leaves them alone a lot. Of course Cooper and I will make sure that this baby is always with someone, but we usually recommend a CD, or a movie, just so that he'll hear people talking."
Peyton nodded, smiling along with Lucas. She knew that this would sound horrible to most new mothers but to her, just knowing that her baby was going to make it was enough. This was just a small price to pay. "So I can…"
Addison nodded. "Peyton, you can go see your son." Peyton nodded, happily crying, and then after a quick report from Cooper saying that the triplets were fine, Peyton thank them both, and the left her and Lucas alone.
"He's going to live." Peyton whispered, smiling as she fell back into Lucas' chest, happily letting him wrap his arms around her.
"He's going to live." Lucas repeated.
"I want to see him." Peyton said suddenly. She hadn't seen him since he was born, she had been too afraid of losing him.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Peyton responded, kissing her husband on the cheek. She knew that deep inside, it was killing him that she hadn't seen her baby yet.
"I think it's a good idea too." A familiar voice piped in.
"Brooke!" Lucas and Peyton both exclaimed, laughing. "When did you get here?"
"A while ago." The brunette said, walking in the door. "I thought you can Lucas needed some alone time though, so I hovered at the door for awhile. Congrats guys. I'm so happy for you. Now go see my little nephew. He's gorgeous, I promise." She winked at them, and Peyton laughed, getting up out of the bad and then hugging her best friend carefully taking a deep breath.
"Let's go Lucas." She said, smiling. He took her hand and he silent led her up the staircase and through the elevator doors, holding her tighter when he felt her breathing become quicker, and he knew that she was getting nervous.
"It's going to be okay." He whispered, kissing her. Addison was standing to the ICU when they couple got there, and when she saw the frightened mother standing in the doorway, she smiled, ushering Peyton and Lucas over.
Peyton almost passed out when she saw the little baby in front of her. Or, more like when she saw the mess of wires in front of her.
"He looks so sick." She whispered, tears falling down her face as she looked at her tiny son. "Is he really going to make it?"
"He's actually doing very well Peyton. He's improving by leaps and bounds every hours." Addison replied. "You can touch him, if you want." She added, smiling softly as both Lucas and Peyton's faces dropped. Peyton nodded almost immediately, and Addison quickly outfitted her hand with the proper gloving, and then showed the blonde where the isolette had a spot for her to put her hand in.
Very slowly Peyton moved her hand into the specifically crib, terrified that she would hurt him. She carefully directed her hand towards her son, it being the only part of him she could see completely. She laid her index finer in his impossibly tiny hands, and she felt Lucas' arms wrap around her waist. "Hello Chaim Kasen Scott, I'm your mom."
A/N: Okay, about the name of the baby. I'm not really sure about it, but I wanted to do something different. The triplet's all had first name's that I just liked, and middle name's that honored a dead relative. Sawyer's name is in honor of Peyton and Ollie is Ollie because that is by far my favorite name in the world, and Logan is Logan because, well, actually, it's an extremely stretched nod to Chad Michel Murray (Logan, from Gilmore girls date's Rory, and Tristan, also is in that wonderful show. Like I said, stretched.) I wanted this baby's name to be more meaningful. I wanted his middle name, like his older siblings, to reflect a lost loved one, and the only ones I could use were Andy and Karen. In my mind, it felt more like they would want to honor Karen. But Karen isn't a guys name, so I went for the next best thing. Karen means pure, and Kasen is the only guys name that I could pronounce, and spell easily, so it won the vote. Chaim was easier. It means life, and that's what they needed him to have.
Other than that, I'm just sorry about how long it's been since I posted. School is crazy. I'm starting a new story, but finishing this one is my propriety. I don't really know how many chapters are left, but I'd take a guess and say four or five. Maybe.
Review, please, tell me what you think of Chaim Kasen, anything! 120?