Thank you to HeartRevolution for helping me search for the right song for Wyatt! *hugs*


You lived inside my world so softly,
Protected only by the kindness of your nature.
You are my sister,
And I love you.
~ You are my Sister,
Antony and the Johnsons.


Fiddling with his phone as he stopped at a stop-light at the turn-off to the I-75, heading out of Tampa, Wyatt was desperate to get Melissa on the phone. But it was getting late and she had a performance that night. He'd wanted to call her away from it before she went out on stage, but he knew he'd run out of time. She was uncontactable and he knew that he couldn't wait around for her to be finished. He'd already called the baby-sitter, explaining the situation and she was more than accomodating in keeping the children until Melissa was on her way home. He just wished he could have found her so that he could have let the terror in his heart out, in just the smallest measure. He knew that he probably shouldn't be driving, but he'd found no one to carry that load and knew that if he'd managed to get Melissa, she'd be bawling her eyes out and absolutely no aid to him anyway, as far as staying on the road was concerned.

He just needed to get to Miami and he needed to be there as soon as possible. He explained what was going on, in a text message to his wife and even as he set the phone down on the passenger seat, he knew that that was likely the worst way he could have told her. But she needed to know that Calleigh was in trouble and he didn't want to wait around to tell her. She'd call as soon as she got the message and he hoped, that he'd be half-way through Port Charlotte by then, at the very least.

As he drove down the highway, staring blankly at the road ahead, Wyatt couldn't help but worry whether she was going to be alright. He couldn't ever imagine his little-big sister suffering, yet again, and being unable to conjure the strength to fight it. He'd seen her through her Cancer, and it had only reaffirmed that she was the strongest person he knew. But the idea that she was facing the loss of her child and her life, the former being a stronger fear to her than the latter, he couldn't even gather the strength to picture her face. He'd spoken to Eric on the phone, minutes before dashing out the door and jumping in his car, promising the man that he'd be there as fast as he could. He'd heard tears in Eric's voice over the phone and that in itself had frightened the life out of him. Because if anyone could be more stoic than Calleigh, should the situation call for it, it was Eric.

"They've taken her into surgery, Wyatt." Eric spluttered and within seconds, Wyatt was dragging his car-keys out of his desk drawer and making his way out to the parking lot with his phone still pressed to his ear.

"What happened?" He asked and there was silence on the line for a moment, but for Eric's deep breathing.

"I don't know, Horatio said that she just doubled over in pain at work and the doctors said that her uterus ruptured. I've seen her, man, but I haven't heard from them since they took her in for an emergency ceasarean."

"When was that?" Wyatt was starting up the car and he knew that Eric would be slouched over in a chair with a hand covering his face.

"About half an hour ago." He breathed.

"Alright, Eric, It'll take me about four hours to get there, but I'm going to be there tonight, alright? You just make sure my sister gets through this. Can you do that?"

Eric paused and Wyatt could feel his heart pounding against his chest before the man answered faintly. "I don't know."

"She's going to be alright, Eric, we have to believe that." He insisted, taking a turn with one hand on the wheel, knowing that he shouldn't be driving with his cell-phone to his ear; but he didn't particularly care in that moment, he just wanted to make sure that along with Calleigh and the baby, Eric was going to make it through this too.

"I want to," Eric whispered, but he still sounded as deflated and lost as he had when Wyatt had answered the phone. The man sounded completely beaten down and it broke his heart as the pair of them hung up and Wyatt tossed the phone back to the passenger seat, feeling his foot press down harder on the gas as his heartbeat quickened yet again.

He couldn't imagine that Calleigh wasn't going to get through this. But by the way Eric had sounded on the phone, the possibility was far too real for Wyatt's liking. A world without Calleigh, to him, was just unfathomable and as he thought about it, an Eric without Calleigh, was just impossible. "Come on, little one." He whispered to himself, praying internally for his sister to be there, with a smile on her face and his niece or nephew in her arms, when he arrived at the hospital. He knew that that particular scenario was wishful thinking, because he'd be lucky to find her awake. But he just wanted to get there to see that she was fine, bruised and battered, a little pale and sore, but fine.

Biting his lip, he changed to the fast lane and let out a deep breath, setting his eyes on the lights ahead of him. He tried to stop himself from thinking the worst, but that only brought him back to thinking of Calleigh in other ways. Like when they were kids he'd steal food from her dinner plate and instead of screaming like any other child would, she'd hold out her plate and ask him if he wanted some more. When they had ice-creams down at the beach, if he'd drop his - which he often managed to do - she always gave him hers and when they played soccer, she always pretended to trip in the wrong direction, so that he'd score a goal.

On a Sunday back when she was ten and he was eight, he remembered the image of her screaming out of church in the dress she used to describe as - "The most disgusting thing I've ever seen in the history of the world." - which was pink and had a lacey trim around the collar and the puffed edges of the sleeves. He remembered her dashing down the stairs because Mass came out at eleven-thirty and the first shooting class their Dad had allowed her to sign up for, because she was nearly eleven and wouldn't stop telling him so, started at twelve-noon and it was at the other end of Darnell. She'd talked about it for weeks, that she was going to learn about hunting and handling a rifle. She hadn't known that she was going to be so poorly recieved and Wyatt hadn't known that her response to that reception was going to have him respecting his big sister for many, many, years to come.

The boys in the class had laughed at her and called her names. They'd poked fun at her dress and they'd pulled on the bows on the end of her pig-tails. They'd told her that a girl couldn't use a rifle, but little did they know, telling Calleigh Duquesne - "You can't." - was the strongest incentive she needed to prove them wrong. And Wyatt had watched from the treeline, out of sight because he as too little to join the class, as his sister who was touching a rifle for the second time in her life - the first being when she'd finally broken their Dad down and convinced him to take her hunting with him, just that one time - as she'd hit two bullseyes and grinned triumphantly up at the teacher. Wyatt laughed to himself, remembering the teacher's expression and how proud he was of her in that moment. She hadn't been able to repeat the fluke shot for weeks after that, realising that it really had been a fluke, but since that day - and regardless that she was a tiny little spitfire with more bark than her bite - he'd no longer been afraid to tell other kids in the playground that his big sister was Lambchop Duquesne.

He refused to imagine living in a world where he couldn't say that every day.


Pray God you can cope.
I'll stand outside,
This woman's work,
This woman's world.
~
This Woman's Work,
Maxwell


He wasn't ready yet, to look up from his palms that were pressed against his closed eyes. He'd been sitting there for nearly two hours, in the same position with his elbows on his knees but, he didn't need to look around the waiting room to know who was there. All of their feet told him clear enough, who they were, where they were and how they felt. He could hear his father's anxious pacing across the room, where the chairs stopped on either side of the doors and a small potted tree stood emaculately maintained. Duke's destinctive shuffle lead him in the opposite direction, both men crossing each other's path as they paced before the motionless doors like palace guards.

Natalia was a row behind him, three seats over and tapping the heel of her stiletto against the floor nervously. A couple of times he'd heard Ryan's whispered voice shush her and by the gentleness of his tone, Eric could imagine the calloused hand resting on her knee to still her. Alexx' feet were the calmest, walking slowly around the cluster of chairs, stopping every now and then - and it was in those moments, he could feel her eyes on him.

Charlotte was two seats down with his mother, he could smell her perfume and even though they had been in the same room for over an hour, Eric was glad she and Duke hadn't yet spoken. He wouldn't imagine they'd start any form of bickering now, when their daughter was fighting for her life three rooms over, but he was grateful nonetheless, for the near perfect silence. He didn't need to hear Horatio's feet to know where he was, he could sense his presence in the corner of the room where the light bounced awkwardly off the walls. The one moment he had looked up, when he'd seen them all come rushing into the room, he'd set eyes on Horatio's white shirt , still soiled in Calleigh's blood and he hadn't been able to look up since. Her blood had dried on the older man's hands and with each frustrated movement, Eric swore he could hear dried blood rustling within the folds of his jacket.

"Baby," Alexx started, but Eric's obvious flinch silenced her for a moment. He turned his body away from the sound of her voice, scrubbing his hands over his face before letting his elbows sag on his knees, feeling that he was running out of the energy to keep himself sitting up. "baby, she's going to be-"

He cut her off, looking up suddenly and stunning all of the faces in the room. "You don't know, Alexx." He snapped.

"I'm a Doctor, sweetie, trust me, her odds are good." She justified, but he scroffed, standing from his seat and starting to pace more anxiously than the two men he considered fathers, though neither were really his.

"Yeah," He swallowed. "so you're a Doctor. Are you in there, Alexx? Huh? Can you save her? What the hell do you know?!" He boomed and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Charlotte jump and his mother's hands wrap around her's. Before him, Alexx's eyes were filled with tears but she didn't let them fall, she knew that his reasons for attacking her were not based in any true disdain. He was terrified and she didn't fault him for it, she was terrified herself, if she could admit it, but seeing him falling apart was breaking all of their hearts.

"Eric," Horatio's calm, controlled voice filled the room, covering Eric's ragged breathing with a hopefully placating tone.

"No, H," He cut him off too. "we don't know that she's going to be fine! We don't know if the baby is going to be fine, we don't know anything!" He grabbed the nearest object, the remote control for the silent television that had stopped working, and threw it across the room. It shattered into tiny pieces against the wall and suddenly, all of the feet stopped moving. All eyes were on him, even Frank's and he'd just walked into the room from gathering up sodas for the long wait, and he scanned the group with his own, internally wishing they would all just disappear so that he could wallow in anguish alone. "It's my wife in there, H, my kid." Eric sobbed, not even remembering when Horatio had stood and crossed the room, taking a stance right in front of him and refusing to budge.

"We know that, Eric." He said firmly. "And we're all here for them, remember?"

Eric took a few deep breaths in and out. Horatio was right, he knew. They were all there because they loved Calleigh in their own way and even though he knew that he'd give his last breath for her, something he wasn't sure the rest were passionate enough to give, he knew that they deserved to be there just as much as he did. Her parents, for all their faults, had given her life and given her the only love they knew how. It hadn't been much, but it was worthy of something and it wasn't his place to refuse them their worry. His parents had adopted her, seven years ago when he'd invited her and Speed to a family barbeque - when Speed had eaten all of his father's chilli and the demure blond had insisted on staying late to help his mother clean up while he and his father reclined on the couch watching a taped football game - so they deserved their patient wait too. Natalia, Frank, Ryan, it wasn't just professional respect they had for her, not entirely. It was something undefined and universally unspoken, but it was there and it blurred the line between work and family and Alexx, well, he knew how much Alexx loved her, because she loved him just the same and knowing how that felt, he couldn't even make himself consider, ever asking her to step away. And with thoughts of Alexx came the guilt for snapping and his anger ebbed away.

"I'm sorry, Alexx." He whispered. "I'm just really scared." He slipped back down into the nearest chair, five seats down from where he'd started because he'd paced and the spanse of his stride had cast him across the room in a single step. Alexx was on the left side now and she turned in her seat to search for his eyes.

"It's alright, honey," She smiled softly, trying to cool his fear. "I understand, we all do."

He nodded dumbly, no longer maintaining strength enough to answer back as he looked up at the ticking clock on the wall above the door. It stunned him, when as his eyes set on the clock, the doors burst open and he was unexpectedly looking upon the weary face of the woman he'd met earlier, still wearing her cap, her booties and her blue scrubs with a few faint smears of Calleigh's blood. "The good news is," She started without preamble, flawlessly continuing on in the face of a swarm of unfamiliar people surrounding her and Eric. "the cancer was contained to her ovaries and fallopian tubes, if we'd have waited any longer a hysterectomy would have had little effect but as it happens, we got it all." When Eric's eyes started to sparkle, she felt the need to clarify a few things. "She's going to need to be closely monitored and unfortunately, medication is going to be a big part of her life for the next few years, but this is good news, Mr Delko."

"And," He faltered. "the baby?"

She took a single, deep breath in and out. She looked upon the anxious faces surrounding her and whilst she wondered on the nature of how they were connected to this woman, she didn't ask any questions. Some would be family and some would not, at least that's the way it usually went and that was all she really needed to know. But, the glance around allowed her a moment of respite before her hardest task was performed.

"Unfortunately, Mr Delko, her lungs are under-developed. We knew that this was a risk at thirty weeks but I had hoped we'd have some luck."

"She," Eric breathed, a small smile gracing his features because he hadn't even considered that he was going to learn the baby's sex. He'd been too afraid and worried and nervous to even realise that he'd meet his son or daughter, that very day. "I have a daughter? A little girl?"

The Doctor smiled and the collective breath the group had all been holding, was released in a gush of relieved sighs. "Yes, Mr Delko. She is on a respirator right now and she's going to need to stay in Neonatal Intensive Care until her lungs are strong enough to breath on their own."

"But she's alive?"

The Doctor laughed happily, reaching out to touch his arm reassuringly. "That baby wasn't going anywhere without a fight. And I'm happy to say, neither was her mother." She grinned and Eric nodded proudly, feeling his mother's arms wrap around his waist before he dropped his face to her shoulder, weeping happily against her before he lifted his head back up to meet the doctor's eye.

"Can I see them?"

"Of course, but I'm afraid, only you."

He looked around at his friends and family, seeing all of their faces and smiling as they ushered him off, insisting that he feel no guilt over the fact that he was allowed through and they weren't. They all had a place in the order of things and right now, it was Eric's turn to come first.


The Doctor showed him through to the operating room. He'd been there hours before, when Calleigh was still conscious and the fear had all but taken over his entire being. He'd held her hand and he'd kissed her and that small part of his mind that always considered the worst as a real possibility, had really thought he was never going to kiss her again. But there she was, lying on the table with her blond head tilted to the side. She had tubes through her nose and a monitor on her finger. The large straps that had been around her protruding belly, were gone and in looking for them he'd felt the loss of seeing that the belly was gone too. She was almost back to her normal size, give or take the healthy weight she'd gained along with the baby and as he moved closer, seeing her silent and unmoving, he wanted to reach out and touch her pale face. Reaching his hand up, he could feel her warm breath against his palm but just as he was about to set his fingers on her brow, poised to caress her face, he noticed the tiny crib in the corner of the room, surrounded by it's own set of machines.

"Hey," He whispered, stepping up to it and looking down through the perspex cover that was protecting her from the rest of the world. "i'm your Papi."

The tiny baby flinched, but she was sleeping too and as he studied her, he realised how tiny she was. Her hand would barely encompass the tip of his finger. She was just larger than the spanse of his hand, both of Calleigh's and she was filled with more tubes than her mother. Calleigh could breathe on her own, the baby couldn't and as he noticed the small tube taped to her cheek, reaching into her nose, he felt his heart clench. Her little body was so small, he swore that the daiper they had her in was someone's hankerchief and he smiled down at her as he noticed the dark fuzz on the top of her head.

"You're beautiful." He breathed, not knowing there was a pair of dark green eyes, watching him silently from a few feet away. He had his hands pressed to the perspex panel and as she slept he found it easy just to watch her tiny chest rise and fall. She was breathing, and even though she had help to do it, he could cross that off his list of hopes and dreams and with a proud smile, start adding new and exciting things to the list that had been so very simple. Ten fingers, ten toes, hearing, sight and breath. It was all he'd really wanted and anything else was gravy. Now he felt like he had the whole dinner, just looking at her and the freedom to actually touch her, in the coming days, was going to be as delicious as a French dessert.

"It wasn't too long ago you'd have been saying that to me." A raspy voice from behind him made him startle and Eric turned, grinning as he caught her looking at him.

"I was waiting for you to wake up, so I could tell you myself." He chuckled and Calleigh pressed her eyes closed tight, smiling brightly because she found it difficult to gaze at him and smile at the same time. "You're beautiful." He smirked, resting his elbows on the side of the bed and leaning in close as her eyes fluttered open again.

"Is she okay?" Calleigh whispered and Eric grinned.

"Yeah," He ran his fingertip against the edge of her bottom lip. "she's gorgeous. She's not breathing on her own just yet, she's a little small. But she's a fighter."

"She kept me going." Calleigh admitted and Eric nodded, biting his lip.

"I was scared I was going to lose you for a minute there."

"Me too."

There was no humour in her voice and Eric knew that in the last few hours, Calleigh's mortality had really given her a beating. But they were there and they were all fine. Calleigh was tired and even though she couldn't feel any pain, she knew it was coming. The baby was breathing and content and Eric hadn't completely lost his mind. He put that down to a win and hoped that everything was only going to go up from there. There was no way he could be sure, but he was an optimistic man.

"Mrs Delko, we're going to move you to your room now. The baby is going to have to be taken down to the NIC unit for the night." Eric looked up at the Doctor, stunned for a moment before registering what she'd said and he panicked. He didn't want to be seperated from either of them, not mere moments after learning they were okay.

"Can't the baby go with her?" He questioned and the Doctor shook her head apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Mr Delko, but we don't have the facilities in the anti-natal ward to accomodate the crib in her room. And at any rate, we'd really like your wife to be resting, at least for tonight, she's been through a lot." Eric didn't understand why Calleigh wasn't arguing with the nurse, but when he looked down at her, he couldn't help but smile at the fact that she'd already drifted back off to sleep. He shrugged, because there was only so much he could do about that. And Calleigh really did need to rest.

"Can I go with the baby?"

"For some time, yes," She nodded. "but you won't be able to stay. You can return to your wife's room when the NIC unit closes, though." It was a compromise and he knew that she was making it because there was little chance he was going to give up without a fight. So he took it with a nod, feeling his tiredness catching up with him too as a group of nurses followed the doctor into the room. Three women in pink scrubs started clipping the baby's monitors to her crib and he noticed how the rest took a corner each of Calleigh's bed and started wheeling her out.

He was torn, because he didn't want to be apart from his wife but he knew that if he didn't follow the baby, he was going to regret not having something new to tell Calleigh about her by morning. So, with feet slow to catch up to his mind, he dashed out after the baby, following the nurses though the glassed in hallway that passed the waiting room and he could see all of the faces of his family, light up as they rolled the crib by.

"What is it?" Alexx's head ducked through the door quickly as they passed and Eric spun around with a huge grin.

"A girl." He stated before they were around the corner, out of sight and Alexx was bounding back into the waiting room to relay the news.

TBC.