Chapter 29
Elizabeth sat by her son's bedside; he was sleeping. Jake was responding better to the chemotherapy and she prayed all night that Jake would be able to come home for Christmas; she waited for the doctor to come into the room. Jason came into the hospital early today to discuss the decision to have another child for a donor for Jake with Dr. Winkler and Dr. Lee; he had business to take care of, and he said he would be back later.
Dr. Winkler knocked on the door to Jake's room, "Ms. Webber?..."
"Yes, hi… Dr. Winkler. Come in."
The doctor came through the doorway and stood at the foot of Jake's bed, "I hear you have some questions about your son's condition."
"Yes, I was just wondering," Elizabeth cleared her throat from its raspy tone, "I was wondering if I could take Jake home for Christmas; his body is responding much better to the treatments now and… and I just want my little boy home for Christmas."
Dr. Winkler just smiled at Elizabeth, "I'll get the papers to get Jake discharged today." He turned and left Jake's room.
Elizabeth whispered in Jake's ear, "Did you hear that baby, we are going home."
Just then Jason appeared back in the doorway.
Elizabeth turned and she was smiling, "Jason. Dr. Winkler said that we, I mean I could take Jake home today."
"That's… that's great. He'll get to spend Christmas with you and Cam."
"I was thinking that, that maybe we could take Jake home and pick up Cam at Audrey's house. And if you wanted maybe you could have Christmas Eve dinner with us. I think the boys would really like that."
Jason looked down and used his hand to rub his head, "I, I don't think that would be a good idea for me to be over at the house and with the boys. Someone might see, and I can't do that to you or the boys. Now that you are going to be carrying another baby, I need to keep you safe…"
Elizabeth cut Jason off, she heard this excuse too many times, "I understand. I'll just take Jake home and have Audrey drop off Cameron at the house."
Jason's cell phone rang; he looked at the caller ID, "I have to go, just call if you need anything." Jason walked out of the room.
Tears began to well up in Elizabeth's eyes. She quickly wiped them away when she heard a knock at the door. She turned to look at the open doorway, "Johnny."
He smiled at her, "Hey," he lifted a gift-wrapped box, "I wanted to drop off this present. It's for Jake and Cam."
Elizabeth took the present from Johnny and gave him a curious look as she shook the box.
Johnny leaned down close to her ear and whispered, "It's a Wii."
Elizabeth looked down at her sleeping son. She turned back to face Johnny with her pointer finger over her lips, "Shhh… you don't want to ruin the surprise."
Johnny got a better look at Elizabeth's eyes, "You were crying, what's wrong?"
Johnny knew Elizabeth pretty well, and she felt so comfortable with him. He was such a good person. After her lies ended their relationship, he still was here not to judge her, but to comfort her.
"I was just thinking."
"Jake's going to get through this."
Elizabeth wiped a fresh tear from her cheek, "No, I believe that now more than ever, it's just… I am going to have another baby, a donor baby if you want to call it that, but please… don't."
Johnny was struck with shock, but Elizabeth was a good mother, "I… I know you will do whatever to help Jake. Does this mean that Jason…"
"Jason is going to be the father, well in a biological sense. I am going to go through in vitro fertilization, and the doctors say they can manipulate the baby's genetics to be a perfect match for Jake."
"Elizabeth, that's great. I knew Jake would be okay."
Elizabeth started to cry, "I am so happy that this can help Jake. I would do anything for him. But I don't know if I am strong enough to do this."
"To do what?"
"…To be a single mother to three small children. All I ever want is to do what's best for my boys, and all I wanted was to provide the perfect family for them. I thought I would have had that, but then the whole mess with Lucky happened and he left, and then… and then I met you… but now, it's me, just me, and I… I don't know how I am going to do this."
Johnny pulled up a chair next to Elizabeth. He put his hand on her shoulder, "What about Jason? He agreed to have this second baby with you…"
Elizabeth interrupted Johnny. She stood up quickly and his hand flew from her shoulder, "What about Jason? John… do you really think Jason would give up his dangerous life to pretend to be a family with me and my children?"
"Give up his life?? Elizabeth, things are becoming a lot calmer in the business. Jason has been working towards that for some time now…"
Elizabeth shouted back at Johnny, "OKAY, MAYBE HE DOESN'T LOVE ME ENOUGH, OR MY BOYS!" Elizabeth turned her back towards Johnny and put her head in her hands.
Johnny just stared at her, and then he spoke, "I do."
Elizabeth turned around in shock to look Johnny in the eyes. She could tell he meant it, "Johnny…."
"No, listen to me Elizabeth. You know how much I care about your children," he walked toward Elizabeth and put a hand on each shoulder, "You know how much I care about you."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that we could have a family. It wouldn't be perfect, but no family is."
Elizabeth was shocked. She thought Johnny would never forgive her for lying about Jason being Jake's father. He was telling her something she always wanted to hear, "I couldn't ask you to do that…"
"You aren't asking me anything Elizabeth. I wouldn't be doing anything I don't want to do. We had somethin' good Elizabeth. And damn, it hurt like hell when it ended, but that's how I know what I felt was real. I will be there for you and your boys every step of the way, and I will raise this new baby as if it was my own and I will help you in raising Jake and Cam, even though you have already proven you can handle that."
Elizabeth and Johnny just stared into each other's eyes. The room was silent.
Elizabeth handed Johnny back the gift he bought for her boys. He looked down at the gift.
Elizabeth took a step toward Johnny, "Why don't you give this to them yourself. Come have Christmas Eve dinner with us. I am taking Jake home today, so we should be home by two. Come over anytime after that."
Johnny smiled at Elizabeth, "I would love to have Christmas Eve dinner with you."
Johnny turned and walked out of the hospital room. Elizabeth sat down in the chair next to her son's bed. She was finally going to give her boys and this new baby a family they all wanted and deserved. It would work this time, for sure. It wasn't like when she pretended with Lucky. She needed this now more than ever. She was going to give all of her children the best life possible, and if Jason was once again going to back out of their lives because of the danger, then this was the life she was going to make.
