Among the doctors that flooded in was Jena. "What's going on?" Josie asked nervously.
Jack wrapped his arms around Josie and held her closely as if to protect her from what was going on. Jena rushed over to the incubator and ran some tests. "We're going to need to do surgery on the baby. It's not going to be for a few weeks, we want her to get stronger first, but she will need surgery."
Finally, the beeping stopped. Jena took a sigh and looked over at Josie, who had tears running down her cheeks. She knelt down next to her and held her cheeks in her hands. "Everything's okay, Josie. I promise you."
Josie slowly nodded, and looked like she was feeling better. Jack, on the other hand, was still panicking. How could this happen? And how do they escape the vicious cycle of Rose and the baby nearly dying?
•••
It was one week later. Rose's brain was fully functional, but she needed to retrain her body to do some functions that she was able to do before. This day, she needed to straighten her fingers. Finally she was able to do it. "Yay, fingers," Rose whispered.
All of a sudden, Jack entered. "Hi, sweetheart. How's it going?"
Rose smiled. "I almost got my fingers straight."
"That's amazing," said Jack. He kissed her and handed her his sketchbook. "I just checked on the baby. She's moving her arm, almost like she's waving. And her brain bleed is only grade-one."
Rose searched through Jack's sketchbook until she found his drawing of the baby and smiled. "Good girl," she whispered. She looked at Jena, who was scribbling away in the chart. "So can I see her today?"
Jena came over and checked Rose's incision. "I'm sorry but until you can be mobilized and your infections are completely gone, you cannot see her."
Rose put her head in her hands and cried. "I need to see my baby."
Jack kissed her cheek. "You will, Rosie. You will."
Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "What's wrong?" Rose asked.
"I'm exhausted. I hardly slept last night," said Jack.
Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "Why not?"
He sighed. "I've been taking care of the kids in the mornings and nights and I've been here with you during the day, so at night I've been trying to work from home. So from two to seven a.m. I work from home. So I've been sleeping three or four hours a night."
"Jack, that's not nearly enough sleep!"
"I don't know what the alternative is here, sweetheart. You and the baby are in the hospital, which is expensive. You're not working, and we still need to be able to pay for the children's school and stuff." Jack sighed and took Rose's hand. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad or worried, but I'm just saying, I'm okay with paying the price of our family's stability."
"Okay, this is ridiculous. Hand me the phone." Jack handed her the phone, and she dialed a number. "Hi, this is Rose. I just wanted to say that even though I'm in the hospital and I can't come into the office, I can still work from the hospital."
"Rose-" Jack began, but Rose covered his mouth with her hand.
"Perfect, thank you. You can reach me at this number," said Rose. She uncovered his mouth. "Okay, so I'm going to work while I'm here, and we have health insurance, and may I just add, we have a lot of money. We have more than we could ever hope to spend. So there's no need for you to be doing this. You can take a sabbatical, or you can just work here, while you're with me."
A doctor on Rose's case ran into Rose's room. "She opened her eyes. The baby, she opened her eyes."
The doctor looked over at Rose and saw her crying. "I need to see her. She could die. She could die and I could miss her whole life."
Jack put his arm around her. "I'm so sorry, Rosie. But I need you to calm down, okay? I can't have you working yourself up and making yourself worse."
Rose finally fell asleep against Jack's chest. "Wake up!" Jena whispered in Rose's ear. She put a finger to her lips. Five nurses walked in and wheeled Rose over to the nursery.
They wheeled her right up to the window and brought the incubator right to the other side of the window. "We'll give you a minute," said Jack. He kissed Rose and walked away.
Rose smiled as she looked down at her new baby. She was tiny, smaller than any of the other children. But she was so beautiful. Her eyes were closed and her chest was moving up and down with each breath.
Rose put her hand up to the glass. "Hi baby," she whispered. "See, I'm a little messed up too, but we're going to be fine, okay? We're going to be just fine."
•••
It was one week later. Rose was in the rehab room, practicing lifting some balls. She was struggling to regain her strength after the accident. And until she could hold things steadily, she couldn't hold the baby.
Jack appeared and smiled, and Rose dropped the ball. "Shit!" she yelled, and she kicked over the basket. "Sorry, I'm sorry," she said quietly.
"Rose, don't rush it. Take your time, it'll come back. You just have to wait," Jack tried comforting her. "It's okay."
"The baby won't wait, Jack. You can hold the baby, Jena can hold the baby. I can't hold my own baby! Don't tell me it's okay!"
Jack sighed. "I'm sorry."
"No I'm sorry. You're just trying to help." Rose looked at him and could tell he needed to tell her something. "What is it?"
Jack took her hand. "The baby needs the surgery today."
Rose was shocked. "What?" Rose moaned in pain and put her hand against her abdomen. She looked at her hand and saw blood.
"Rose!" Jack gasped. Suddenly, Rose's face went blank, and she collapsed. Jack caught her in his arms. "I need help in here!" he yelled.
Rose was brought back into her room, and Jena was looking at her incision. "Foolish woman," she scoffed. "You tore your incision right open!"
"I wasn't even doing anything," said Rose.
"Well, it's fine. We're going to operate on the baby today. Don't worry. It's a simple procedure, I've performed it thousands of times, and I should be in and out in an hour."
"Okay," Rose said, and Jena finished up and left. Rose turned to Jack. "We should name the baby. In case… she doesn't…" Rose couldn't finish the sentence.
"Sure," said Jack, stroking her cheek. "What do you want to name her?"
Rose smiled, remembering her baby's small face and each little feature. "She looks like an Olivia, doesn't she?"
"Yes, she does," said Jack. "She really does."
Jack held Rose in his arms until Jena came in. She smiled. "Everything is fine. Olivia's fine. She's stable."
Jack and Rose went to the nursery to see Olivia. Jack held her in his arms, and Rose was right next to him, holding her little hand. "I love you, Olivia," Rose whispered, and Jack kissed Rose's head.
