Chapter 21

Charlotte and Cooper greet Noah and Marley at the front door with hugs. "How was your flight?" Charlotte asks as they walk into the living room. Noah carries in only his bag since Marley will be staying at her mother, Jolie's house.

"Our flight was good, long but good." Noah plops down on the couch.

"So, how's life at John Hopkins's?" Cooper asks.

"Fun but a lot of work." Marley sits next to Noah on the couch. She pulls a tiny blue t-shirt out of Noah's bag. It says, 'I love Maryland,' and has a big red heart on it." We bought this for Chase and Michelle's baby." Marley holds up the tiny blue shirt.

Charlotte and Cooper focus their gaze on the t-shirt but don't say anything.

Marley notices their sullen expressions. "It only came in pink or blue. We figured a girl could wear blue more than a boy could wear pink but I'll take it back if you don't like. We plan to get them something nice when the baby is...-"

Charlotte holds her hand up to stop her. "It's not that. The shirt is adorable." Charlotte hesitates before telling them. "Michelle had a miscarriage last week."

"Oh?" Marley shoves the shirt back in the bag. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't say anything when you see them." Charlotte warns. "They're both taking it pretty hard."

"I won't say anything," Marley agrees.

"That's too bad. They wanted a baby really bad." Noah looks over at Marley. "We can save the t-shirt for…never mind." Noah stops himself, remembering he's not supposed to tell anyone Lila's pregnant.

"For who?" Cooper asks. "Who can you save the t-shirt for?"

"A friend of ours who is also pregnant." Marley responds. "She got pregnant about the same time as Michelle, she's early too."

"Who?" Cooper asks.

"Just a friend, dad." Noah shrugs.

"It's you isn't it?" Charlotte asks Marley.

"NO!" Marley exclaims. "Why would you think that?" Marley checks her belly to see if she's looking fat.

"Because." Cooper explains. "Usually when someone refers to a friend and doesn't want to mention the name they're talking about themselves."

"It's not me." Marley tells them. "We're very careful. My mother would kill us if I got pregnant before I was married."

"So, this friend is pregnant and not married?" Cooper asks.

"Right." Marley nods.

"It's Lila." Charlotte narrows her eyes. "Isn't it?"

"How'd you know?" Noah asks.

"We don't know any of your friends in Maryland, why else would you with-hold the name unless it was someone we knew." Charlotte explains. "And Violet told me Lila's been acting strange lately."

"How is she acting strange?" Marley asks.

"Lila told Violet she wants to drop out of medical school and become a photographer."

"Really?" Marley asks. "Lila didn't tell me that."

"She just decided. She told Violet her heart wasn't in medicine. She only applied to med school to please Violet and Pete. She wants to follow her dream to be a photographer."

Marley shrugs. "Well, Lila was always the artsy type. She's an excellent painter too."

Cooper snickers. "That's because Vi used to have her paint pictures as a young child to express how she was feeling, it's a hazard of having a shrink for a mother."

Noah reminds Cooper. "Just like you were always chasing us around the house with your otoscope to look in our ears when we were little."

"Hey!" Cooper protests, playfully. "I always caught your ear infections before they got bad. You should be thanking me."

"Who's the father?" Charlotte asks.

"What father?" Marley tries to play dumb.

"The father of Lila's baby." Charlotte folds her arm and asks.

"Huh?" Noah tries to get out of answering.

"Good God, is it you, Noah?" Charlotte asks.

"No." Noah screws up his face. "Why would you say that?"

"Because, again," Cooper points out. "You're avoiding the question."

Charlotte's eyes twinkle with a thought. "It's Dylan isn't it?"

"Damn, momma, you're good." Noah smiles.

"But you can't say anything to anyone." Marley warns them. "We're the only ones who know that Lila's pregnant, Dylan doesn't even know so you can't tell anyone."

"I didn't know Lila and Dylan were a couple." Charlotte tells them.

"They're not." Noah tells her. "It was a one time thing. Lila lives at Duke University and Dylan's in Texas."

"So when did they get together to concieve this baby?" Cooper asks.

Charlotte answers. "At Chase and Michelle's wedding."

"Momma gets it again." Noah high fives Charlotte.

Charlotte shrugs. "Doesn't take a rocket science to figure it out, Marley said Lila got pregnant the same time as Michelle. We know Michelle got pregnant on her wedding night or the honeymoon."

"Life is whacked." Noah rubs his head. "Lila's still pregnant and didn't even try to be, yet Michelle lost her baby. Chase and Michelle are married and ready to have kids. Why did Michelle lose her baby instead of Lila?"

"Things happen for a reason." Cooper pats Noah on the back. "We don't always know what the reason is but things happen for a reason."

Harper hops down the steps. "Is dinner ready yet, momma?"

"Yep!" Andie calls out. "Poppa and the boys are at the table, we're just waitin' on you."

Harper scampers into the kitchen and hops into her seat. "Yay! Sketti and meatballs, my favorite."

"We wanted to talk to you about something, rabbit." Nicky tells his daughter.

"What?" Harper twirls her spaghetti on a fork.

"Well." Andie starts. "We might be able to bring baby Hope home next week."

"Yay! I can't wait to see my little sister."

"We need to talk to you about that."

"Why?" Harper bites into a meatball.

Andie swallows before she begins. "Hope Charlotte doesn't look like other babies that you've seen."

"What does she look like?"

Andie starts out explaining. "She has black hair like daddy and Michael Nikolas and light eyes like me, you and Charley...-"

"What's so different about that?" Harper shrugs.

Nicky takes over. "Hope Charlotte has something wrong with her heart that makes her skin look a blue color and it turns even more blue when she cries."

"What's wrong with her heart?" Harper asks.

"It's called Tetralogy of Fallot and it means there are a few different things wrong with her heart but I don't want you to worry. The doctors are going to fix her heart and make it all better with surgery but we need to wait until she's a little bigger and stronger." Nicky explains.

"Hopie's heart will be better?" Charley asks.

"Yes," Andie smiles at him. "Hopie's heart will be better."

"So, her skin won't be blue anymore?" Harper asks.

"Right." Nicky nods. "After the surgery she won't look blue anymore but before the surgery she's going to have a tube in her nose to give her oxygen."

"Oh." Harper twirls more spaghetti onto her fork.

"Hopie also has a problem with her upper lip and mouth." Andie tells the children.

"What's wrong with her lip and mouth?" Harper slurps on her spaghetti.

"They didn't close up in the middle like they should have so there's a split in her mouth and lip but the doctors will fix that with an operation too."

"Oh." Harper looks confused.

Nicky takes over. "And because of these problems she can't eat like other babies so the doctor put a tube in her tummy where we can pour her formula in."

Harper scrunches up her face. "You mean I can't feed her a bottle?"

"You can after she has the surgery." Andie tells Harper.

"When is that going to be?"

"In a few more months."

Harper pouts. "I wanted to feed her now. I told all my friends that I had a new baby sister and I could feed her bottles."

"You can after her surgery, rabbit." Nicky tells her.

"Hopie is really a sweet baby." Andie tells Harper. "She's like a little doll. I know your going to love her once you meet her."

"Do you have any pictures of her?" Harper asks.

"As a matter of fact I do." Nicky pulls out his smart phone and finds the picture to show Harper and Charley. He holds the phone in front of them so they can see.

Harper's eyes widen at the same time her jaw drops open. She pushes Nicky's hand holding the phone away from her. "I don't want her! I don't want her! I don't want that sister!" Harper runs out of the kitchen.

"That baby looks yucky." Charley tells Andie and Nicky.

"She's not yucky, Charley." Andie pleads. "It's just her mouth that's broken but we're going to fix it. Look at her eyes. Aren't they pretty?"

Charley doesn't look back at the picture. He gets out of his seat and leaves the kitchen in search of his big sister.

"What do we do?" Andie asks Nicky.

Nicky shrugs, twirling his spaghetti on the fork. "Honestly, Belle, I was shocked when I first saw the baby's mouth. Hope looks beautiful to me now that I can see past her mouth and it'll be the same way with Harper and Charley. They need to get over the initial shock, it's better that we prepared them for it now than waited until Hope came home."

"Okay." Andie finishes her dinner, hoping Nicky's right about that.

Chase joins Michelle on the couch. "You sure I can't make you anything for dinner?" Chase asks. "You've hardly eaten this past week."

"I'm not in the mood for food." Michelle says, somberly.

Chase squeezes Michelle's knee. "You heard Addison Montgomery; a lot of women miscarry the first time. We'll try again next month."

"I wish I could just fast forward to next month and be pregnant again." Michelle grumps.

"If you try not to think about it the time will pass faster." Chase offers his advice.

"I wish I could stop thinking about it. The next time I get pregnant we're not telling anyone until I'm at least four months. I hate when everyone asks me how I'm feeling. I have to explain to them that I lost the baby. It feels awkward and they feel terrible for asking. It's a mess."

"You should send an announcement out on your facebook page so nobody says anything." Chase suggests.

"Not everyone looks at facebook, Chase, and besides that's too personal. I don't want to do that."

"What can I do to cheer you up?" Chase asks.

"Nothing." Michelle shrugs. "Do you think it was a boy or girl?" Michelle asks.

"I don't know." Chase tells her. "You weren't even six weeks yet when you miscarried, there's no way of knowing."

"I can't imagine women who lose their babies later on like when there six months or more. That's got to be horrible." Michelle rests her head on Chase's shoulder.

"Or" Chase adds. "If they lose the baby after birth or even in childhood, that's really sad."

"Yeah," Michelle wipes her tears away. "Look at your sister and Nicky. Their baby has to have major heart surgery and other surgeries besides that. That's got to be scary."

"Everyone's got their own junk to worry about." Chase tells Michelle.

"I feel selfish now." Michelle tells him.

"Why?"

"I'm sitting here crying over a baby who wasn't even developed enough to have a heart beat and your sister and Nicky are going through hell with worry over Hope Charlotte."

Chase puts his arm around Michelle. "We both wanted this baby. We had big plans for him or her. It's okay to grieve for the dream, Michelle."

"I love you." Michelle kisses his chin.

"Right back at ya, kid." Chase holds Michelle tight and flips on the television with the remote. Michelle rests her head on his shoulder and feels a little better now.