When she arrives home she finds Benny sitting outside drinking a cup of coffee. She slides into a seat next to him.
"Where did you slink off to in the middle of the night?"
"I broke into Lahela's place, and I waited for her to wake up like a total creep."
"I assume by your presence that she did."
"Unfortunately my covert operation only resulted in me finding out totally heart-wrenching, devastating news."
"Ahh… I am glad to know I am not the only one who is in the know."
She furrows her brow, "I'm not sure you're in the know about this."
"I have been in the know for month, Clara. Of course nobody knows that I am in fact in the know, so I have been forced to keep my knowledge to myself."
"About Lahela?"
"And a slight homicidal rage I have towards that kid, Walter? Yes. I am well aware of her condition."
"I don't think so."
"You are not the only sneaky parent around here. I noticed how withdrawn she had been. I knew that she had taken a day off, and she said she was going to a conference, and so I followed her. She didn't attend a conference. She went to an OB/GYN office. She came out with her eyes glued to sonogram pictures."
"How could she be seen without our consent?"
"It is an outpatient office that is a subsidiary of the hospital. They have a blanket consent…"
Clara shakes her head, "So they don't need further consent. Of course she has her own insurance, so we never saw an EOB. This is unbelievable."
"That she's pregnant, or that she didn't tell us?"
"All of it."
"Or that we as decent human beings have to try to support her even if it is killing us inside?"
"I bawled when I left her. She's just a kid, Benny. She is our kid. She isn't ready to be anyone's parent. Why didn't you confront her? Why didn't you tell me?"
He shrugs, "I didn't know what to do. I guess I didn't want to believe it was possible. I had hoped I misinterpreted what I saw."
"What are we going to do?"
He shakes his head, "We're not going to do anything Clara. It's her mess she'll have to clean it up herself."
"What if she can't? I can't imagine how things are going to work out for her when the board finds out."
"She has made adult decision, and she is going to have to respond to like an adult."
"So we are just going to let her fail?"
After a particularly grueling shift Lahela is sitting at home lying on her couch staring at the ceiling in her pajamas. Every fiber of her being wants to reach out to someone, but these days she feels more alone than ever. Total irony considering she literally has someone inside of her tethered to her at all times. As her legs dangle over the arm of the loveseat her hand falls upon her rounded abdomen.
"It is…" she glances at her phone, "Eight nineteen. Should we just hit the hay, and call it a day?"
A knock at her door jars her. She rises to her feet, more slowly than she is accustomed. With a single eyeball she glances out the peephole. She furrows her brow in confusion as she unlatches the door and pulls it open.
"What are you doing here?"
Clara exhales, "I saw Noelani on my way out to my car. She mentioned that you had a particularly difficult day. I thought that you might want to talk. If you don't that is okay, too. I brought shave ice."
Lahela readily accepts the cup chalked full of sugar, and motions for Clara to follow her to the living room.
"It started out like a completely normal day," she admits between bites.
"What happened?"
"Pardon my French, but the day went to hell in a handbasket."
"Care to elaborate?"
Lahela leans back in her seat on the couch, "My patient was scheduled to be induced tomorrow. Her mucous membranes spontaneously ruptured today, and she came in. By the end of the day both of them were…" she trails off.
"Were what?"
Lahela breaks eye contact, "The baby was stillborn. It was a completely normal pregnancy, and everything looked on track a week ago when the patient was seen last."
"I'm so sorry."
She shakes her head on the verge of tears, "That isn't the half of it. The mom hemorrhaged, and her uterus ruptured. By the time OB got her to surgery she had lost too much blood. She died on the table."
"Oh, sweetie," Clara hugs her close, and gently plants a kiss on her forehead.
"I just don't understand. There was no reason to believe something like this would happen. There were no increased risk factors."
"Sometimes these things just happen. They are tragic. The ugly truth is that pregnancy, and birth are risky no matter how healthy both parties are."
Lahela falls utterly silent. Clara exhales.
"And even though you know the harsh truths of life this time it hits too close to home."
"What if I do everything right, and it all goes wrong?"
"Let's not borrow trouble."
"I am really scared," her stoic façade takes a tumble.
Clara haphazardly scoops her into a reassuring hug.
"And I'm really sorry that I am putting you through this," Lahela sobs.
Clara's heart shatters in to millions of pieces.