Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Passions or NBC. I am not making money off of this story
What The Future Holds Part 3
A few hours later Theresa's surgery was over. Eve walked into the waiting room and saw Sam and Ethan were asleep, Ethan on his father's lap. She stood amazed at the sight and then walked over to them.
"Ethan?" she said gently shaking him to wake him up. "Ethan, Theresa's out of surgery." Ethan woke and sat up, which woke Sam up. "Theresa's out of surgery," she repeated.
"Is she going to be okay?" Ethan asked, concern and exhaustion in his voice.
"She'll probably be fine," Eve responded. "You can see her in the recovery room."
"Thank you. I'll be there in a minute." Eve nodded and walked out. Sam and Ethan didn't say anything for a few seconds. "What do I say to her?" Ethan finally asked. "What do say to her when she wakes up?"
Sam sighed. "Well, I think you should just stick to saying that you love her and forgive her. Don't talk about the baby unless she brings it up. It'll just create more stress on her, and that's the last thing she needs."
Ethan nodded and got up, rubbing his neck because of the awkward position he slept in. When he was almost at the door he stopped and looked up at the ceiling, tears in his eyes. Sam got up and walked over to him. Ethan turned around and hugged him, obviously stressed out and scared from everything that happened. Sam thought he heard him crying. He didn't know what to say, all he could do was hold him. "I'll be in here waiting," he finally said something.
Ethan pulled away from his father and nodded. "Okay, thanks." He wiped his eyes and left. Sam stared after him and felt
helpless because he knew he couldn't take away his son's pain.
About half an hour later, Theresa woke up. She groaned, having never felt in such pain. She opened her eyes and saw Ethan was holding her hand. He looked like he had been crying. She tried to speak, but all she could do was mouth his name.
"Ssh." He leaned over and brushed the hair across her forehead. "I love you, Theresa. I will always love you. You're the only woman for me." He paused, not knowing what to say. Theresa, meanwhile, started crying and Ethan wiped the tears off her face. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this now, but it was Gwen and Rebecca who sent the tabloid." Theresa winced, and Ethan could tell it was because she couldn't understand how she didn't see it herself. "None of us saw it either," he added, trying to make Theresa feel better.
"I love you," Theresa whispered.
"I love you, too."
After a few seconds Theresa whispered "the baby?"
Ethan winced. He so wished she hadn't remembered. He didn't know how to tell her they lost the baby. It would break her heart and that would just make her condition worse. He sighed. "We lost it. Theresa, I'm sorry."
"No!" She was completely in tears by then. "No!" And then her monitors started making noises that they shouldn't have. She was in the danger zone.
"Theresa!" Ethan yelled in horror. Then the nurses and doctors, including Eve, came over quickly and started administering a sedative and other drugs.
"Ethan, I'm going to have to ask you to step outside," Eve said after Theresa was sedated. Ethan walked back to the waiting room in a daze, stunned by everything that had happened and worried still about Theresa.
"How's she doing?" Sam asked when Ethan came back. But he could already tell from the look on his face that it wasn't good.
"Everything was going okay until she mentioned the baby and then I had to tell her what happened and when I did she started crying and became hysterical and then her monitors started going crazy and they had to sedate her and...and I don't know what to do..."
"Ssh, ssh," Sam whispered, leaning his son's head on his shoulder just as Ethan burst into tears. He hugged him. "I'm here, let it out."
After a few seconds Ethan hugged him back. "I love you, Dad," he said for the first time.
"I love you too, son." He hugged him tighter. "Believe it." He held him for a little while as he cried.
"Hey it's been a hard night for all of us," Sam said after awhile, "and Theresa's going to be under sedation for a while, so do you wanna get some coffees cause I think we both could use it."
Ethan nodded and wiped his eyes. "Yeah, okay." Sam wrapped his arm around his shoulder and they both walked down to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was closed when they got there. The vending machines were working so they got coffee from there. They sat down and didn't say anything for a few seconds.
Ethan finally broke the silence. "Can you answer one question?"
"Sure son, what is it?"
He sighed. "How could I have ever hated you? I'm ready to strangle myself for having ever."
Sam sighed trying to think of a response. "I don't know. Maybe it was because you were raised as a Crane and had some of the Crane teaching or whatever."
Ethan thought for a second and then shook his head. "If that's the case how come Sheridan isn't like that? After all she is a Crane."
He shrugged. "Okay then I don't know." Ethan gave a humorless laugh. "But I forgive you for hating me."
"I don't know if I forgive myself."
He pulled him closer. "Hey, it's okay. It doesn't matter. That's all in the past. You've got other things to worry about." He meant for it to be comforting but realized immediately that the last sentence completely negated it.
"Yeah, you got that right." He shook his head. "How could this have happened? How did I get from coming this close to marrying Theresa and then having everything fall apart? I lost my baby. The woman I love almost died. Gwen betrayed me. Ivy betrayed me."
Sam raised an eyebrow having caught the fact that Ethan didn't refer to Ivy as his mother. But he decided not to talk about that just then. "At least Gwen and Ivy are out of your life," he said. "And Theresa is alive. She's gonna make it. You both are going to spend the rest of your lives together; and nobody's going to come between you ever again."
Ethan nodded. "Yeah. But it doesn't take away the pain away from losing my child."
He paused before responding. "That pain's always going to with you, Ethan," he replied solemnly. "But look at the bright side, at least it wasn't your fault that she lost the baby."
Ethan knew what he was talking about. "But I could have prevented it. If I hadn't gotten so angry after I found out she slept or didn't sleep with Julian," he didn't know how it otherwise, "I could have protected her from Ivy and she'd still be pregnant with our child."
Sam shook his head. "Wouldn't help. Knowing Ivy she would have found a way to get to Theresa some how."
Ethan sighed. "I just feel so helpless, so useless; I don't know."
Sam sighed. "I understand. I felt that way last night." Ethan stared at him and felt a little comfort in that, knowing he was not alone. "Last night, after we found out Theresa lost the baby and you cried- well, sobbed is more like it- to sleep, I felt completely useless because I couldn't take away your pain. I wanted too, believe me Ethan I did, just to keep you from feeling that way."
Ethan responded after a second. "Thanks. That means a lot."
Sam continued. "And at that second, I never hated Ivy more. I hated her when I found out she shot Theresa. I hated her when she revealed she was still trying to break me and Grace up. But at that second, I never hated her more." Ethan took another sip of his coffee, feeling exactly what his father was feeling. "Not only did she keep us from having a relationship all these years, but she made it so that one of our first bonding experiences had to be over something so tragic. Something she caused no less." He looked over at Ethan and saw Ethan had tears in his eyes again. "Aw." He leaned him on his shoulder. "It's okay."
"It's not that," Ethan said. "I really burned the back of my throat."
After a second of comprehending what Ethan just said, Sam burst into laughter and Ethan did shortly after. They laughed until they almost cried. "Thanks," Sam said. "I think we needed that more than the coffee."
"Yeah," Ethan wiped his eyes and stood up. "We better get back upstairs. I don't know how long it's going to be till Theresa wakes up." Sam nodded and got up. They both walked a few feet until Ethan stopped and turned to face his father. "By the way," he began, "I forgot to say this. I forgive you for hating me too."
Sam smiled and father and son embraced again.
