It had all happened so fast.
After Michael and Sara stayed up late the previous night, reassuring Mike, and then, discussing the trauma all this covid crisis had on him, discussing maybe Mike needed counselling ?
His mom, and sister both were infected, and if the fear of losing them made Michael's mind lose it, he couldn't imagine the effects it had on a small boy like Mike.
Sara had left for her shift early in the morning, and Micheal delayed his visit at the hospital, chosing to spend more time with his son, be it homework or just sit together and talk.
Mike was a little like him, so quiet. He rarely expressed his feelings.
Unlike Sara, who's emotions were written on her face.
It was a little tougher to get to him, it would never be direct, but subtle reassuring through their conversations.
Michael had arrived at the hospital a little past 1 pm. And nothing was normal. Scratch that. Nothing was usual.
A group of people filled Faith's room, by their attire, Michael's LLI identified three doctors and two nurses.
But it wasn't chaos. It was far from the chaos Michael did remember when they intubed her.
That's when Michael realised that the tube was gone.
"Keep the monitor on multi-vials mode, yeah...zoom at 1,5 milisecond..." , Faith's pediatre, was leading the team.
"See, they are still irregular.."
"I don't think it's significative enough to reintube her."
"Are you sure ? See, her lungs have been affected, over a 2/6 diameter." The second doctor, pointed to a screen, where Michael guessed, where the 3D scans of Faith's lungs.
"Her pulmonary artery is doing good, and her BP's perfectly stable now, I think she should regulate and recover pretty well."
"Should we leave it to that then ?"
"No, we'll still go with minimum assistance, and I want an emergency kit ready." decided before turning on her wheels and seeing Michael, in the doorway.
" . Hi." She greeted.
Michael sucked in a breath.
"Hi, um..what's happening ?" He asked, fear still lacing his voice.
"We have good news. If all is well, Faith should be out of danger by this afternoon." The doctor announced with a small smile and Michael's heart lept in his chest, he gulped, trying to keep his emotions at bay.
"We have gotten her out of intubation, and so far, she has been reacting well. She is sedated right now. And as soon as she wakes up, we can monitor how she breathes, to see if she needs any breathing assistance, or if she can, on her own." Michael listened carefully.
"Okay...but does that mean she's going to make it ?" Michael asked, clinging to the hope and faith his heart always chose to follow.
"We can not be certain with this virus , but from my experience, I can say that your daughter's fighting this, and she has stabilised quite a number of her constants. Her life is not on the line anymore." Michael gasped in relief closing his eyes briefly.
"Thank you so much." He uttered, losing all sense of formality.
"Please don't thank me, we're just doing our jobs. I'll leave two nurses to monitor her, and they will be calling me as soon as she wakes up, to see how she reacts, if her BP plumets again of if she can breath, and then, we can go forwards from there, hopefully on the path of recovery." Michael nodded, hope.
Michael sat right next to Faith for the next few minutes. His heart breaking in his chest and steady tears falling.
The tube left an ugly bruise on her cheek, and she was now wearing a baby sized breathing mask.
His gloved hands clapsed her tiny fingers, for the first time, she squeezed back, and he kissed them, his heart tearing with the realisation of what he could have lost.
20 minutes had gone by, when Faith's limbs started moving, it was a twitch there, a slight move here, and at a point she curled on her side in slumber, adorably looking like she was just sleeping.
Michael couldn't stop the tears. The sound of her soft breathing, her position, her movements...for the first time in a while, Faith looked alive.
She didn't look like the death pile of flesh she had been while she was intubated.
God. He loved her so much, so so much. What would he have done without his precious baby daughter ?
It's one more movement that took him out of his thoughs.
Faith stirred, sighing in her sleep and her eyes moved behind her closed eyelids. She was waking up.
Without him noticing, was already back in the room.
She monitored Faith, said some things about measuring her BP second by second..
Michael couldn't hear, his whole focus was on his adorable little baby.
And right then, her eyes opened, she blinked against the harsh light, her eyes first focusless, groggy, she instinctively brought a fist to her face but it was met with the breathing mask.
Her face contorted in disconfort and as she became more aware, her eyes filled with panic at her whereabouts.
had instructed to remove the mask, Faith made sounds of disconfort, closing her eyes back and then openeing them with a frown.
"Hello baby, welcome back to us." smiled at the infant,
Faith didn't seem to like the new intruder and her eyes squinted, pained.
Her lips, her dry little lips bubbled and she began wailing. Only to hiccup as her voice came in a hoarse labored sound.
It's then that baby Faith realised two things, one that her throat hurt so badly, and the second that she wasn't home.
Michael was instantly reminded of the horrible painful cries he had heard before she was intubed and his heart shattered.
"Faith...sweetheart, don't cry.." He softly cooed and it's only then that Faith's cries halted, her breath itching with palping fear as her eyes darted to her side and noticed, then recognised him, and she cried a new, more desperately, her fists tightly clasped in fear.
Michael looked at the doctor. "Go ahead, hold her . Try to calm her down." said, monitoring Faith's BP.
Michael hesitated, took a breath and carried Faith up, holding her against him, and he didn't knew if it was supposed to be him that calmed Faith, for, he began weeping too.
God. When he held her waist, a third of her onesie was empty, air. Her body had shrunk to unhealthy thin, and her once chubby hands looked like the fragile, tiny fingers of hers when she was born, premature.
And the feeling of having her, warm against his heart, Michael could only cry. His baby...
She was just 6 months afterall, and without the energy and weitght she had put on before, she looked even lote smaller and vulnerable.
She rested against him and held onto his shirt tightly, fear emaning from her every pore.
Composing himself, Michael held her and softly stroked her back, her head, her adorable caramel colored hair.
"I've got you, I've got you baby girl...shhh.., you're okay, you're okay, god you're okay."
Michael closed his eyes as he kissed the top of her head, showering her with all his affection and resting his temple against her head.
"I love you, Dada loves you so much." He whispered in her ear.
"Well, there's no need of breathing supply and her BP is remaining stable, we'll give her a couple of hours, and then try to feed her some real food, okay ?" conforted.
Michael could only nod.
"She will calm down, don't worry, she's just a little scared, and the intubation, that must hurts, we'll see if we can put her on antibiotics, it would be best if she doesn't cry too much, forcing on her voice will only make it worse.
So, here. It will distract her and train her muscles a little, for the feeder." cleaned a pacifier with a disinfectant wipe and handed it to Michael.
"We'll go for the recovery process tomorrow, give your baby some time, it's not going to be easy, but we can say the hardest is behind, okay ?"
"Okay." Michael anwsered, immensely thankful.
The doctor left and the nurse explained him a few things about Faith's care, she had stopped the loud crying but was still weeping softly.
"Maybe call her mother meanwhile ?" the nurse adviced before leaving.
Michael looked up, over Faith's weeping form, Sara. Oh. Sara.
...
Michael kept Faith right against him, for, she wouldn't leave his arms. He had tried twice, when a nurse came for some checkings.
But Faith clung to him like her life depended on it, so he sat on the visitor chair, holding her against him, she wasn't crying anymore,
and he rubbed her back to sooth her back to slumber, rest would do her good.
Faith wouldn't sleep thought, her eyes were open, and she sucked steadily on the pacifier while her head rested on Michael's chest, her cheek pressed against his heart, one of her hand clasping his arm while the other held his shirt in her fist. She wouldn't let go.
The steady sucks she made on the pacifier soothed Michael's heart.
He had maybe held her like that, against him, a few dozen of minutes, but it felt like a lifetime.
Like he got her back from the dead.
He had tried to call Sara, but she didn't anwser, probably in the middle of a medical intervention.
So he had left her a voicemail, something he never did since he was back from Yemen, not in over a couple of years.
"Sara, it's Faith. She has woken up." He had left, barely holding back the emotion in his voice.
It had been a little less than an hour, when from the open door of the hospital room, Michael saw Sara, walking, no, running down the corridor, their way.
It's only once she reached the door, that she halted, taking in what she saw before her eyes, Michael holding a very much alive Faith in his arms.
A huge breath of relief left Sara's lungs, and her eyes watered too, unlike him however, she didn't cry.
Her until now, mirror reaction to his, took a completely different turn, Sara smiled, her face breaking into a grin, and Michael felt a pang in his heart.
Oh..he hadn't seen her genuinely smile like that since too long, way too long.
Elated, Sara took tiny steps towards him.
"Is she sleeping ?" she whispered in a low voice, as Faith faced the other way.
Michael was about to awnser, but Faith was quicker, turning her head towards her mother's familiar voice.
Their eyes met and Sara muffled a gasp by taking her fingers to her lips.
She smiled again, in pure hapiness.
"Hey you." she greeted softly bending her waist to her knees.
Michael rose from his seat so Faith could be level with her, sparing her the kneeling, and Faith, immediately lept towards Sara.
Sara caught her in her arms, laughing from hapiness and relief as she pressed her face to Faith's head and inhaled her baby scent.
She kissed her forehead. "Oh, I missed you too baby." Sara cooed.
Faith dropped the pacifier as her lips bubbled again, the sheer familiarity of her mother's loving embrace reassuring her even more, and she began weeping again, hiding her face in Sara's chest.
Sara's arms encircled her form and she swayed her slightly.
"Aw, don't cry, don't cry sweetheart..." Sara began to reassure, patting Faith's head.
But when Faith kept weeping, her hands tightly forming fists and grabbing at her mother's neck.
Sara gently, against her protests, untangled the babe from herself to face her.
"Look at me, look at me, you're a brave girl, and you're so beautiful, don't you dare cry, I love you."
And when Sara spoke to the girl, Faith seemed to understand everything, so she stopped crying, but hid herself in her mother's arms again.
"mamama.." she moaned complainingly and Sara's heart tore, she let her cling to her, and held her against herself, hugging her back.
"Mama's right here, and I am not going anywhere, I am so sorry sweet Faith."
Sara briefly closed her eyes but instanly smiled again, laughing at the sensation of holding her babe, she thought she would never get that opportunity again.
She glanced sideways at Michael, and her smile fell seeing him weeping in his hands, he couldn't just believe he was seeing Sara and their precious girl together again, he had been so scared, for both of them, first scared that the babe would lose her mother, and then afraid their girl would be snatched away from her mother.
"Michael, Michael, it's alright, she's okay." Sara assured, keeping the girl against her by one arm while she grasped Michael's hand with her other one and squeezed it.
He looked up at her, his eyes full of pain and she shook her head smiling reassuringly to him and shifting closer to the chair, bringing him against her waist, he embraced her, his face pressed in her side while he cried.
Sara held the babe in one arm while stroking his cropped hair with her other hand.
Faith, who had calmed down in her mother's embrace, looked at him, in utter uncomprehension, her lips formed a little 'o' at seeing her dad cry, and she mimicked her mother, bending and patting Michael's head with small clumsy taps of her tiny palms.
Michael looked up at that feeling and sobbed again, taking hold of her tiny hand, he pressed it against his lips as he rose and took the both of them in his arms. "I love you, both of you."
He inhaled, trying to stem the flow of pent up pain and anguish that had filled inside him, being the one that had to be stronger, for both his children and then, for the heartbroken Sara.
"We love you too, so much..." Sara let out emotionally then nudged the babe "right Faith ? say I love you dada." Sara requested and Faith blabbed something, Michael laughed a little, kissing the top of her head and finally letting go of weeks of stress and pain.