"What do you think we should do Reverend? Jamie insists that she wants to keep the baby. We couldn't go to our own Revered because we are embarrassed."
Eric smiled, "I know how you feel, believe me. My daughter announced that she was pregnant 5 months ago. We were stunned and unbelievably upset. But we realized thanks to our son-in-law, our oldest daughter's husband also had a child very young, but he pointed out that unless we supported her in all of her choices we would drive her away. And I think Wilson's advice is the best I can give you. But if you…"
"Are you going to answer that?" The man sitting across from Eric asked.
Eric hadn't even realized the phone was ringing, "No the machine will get it. As I was saying…"
"Eric it's Annie, I'm at the hospital…"
Eric jumped up and grabbed the phone.
"Eric thank God. We are at the hospital. Something's wrong with Lucy. She's with the doctor now, I have Sam and David with me. Can you call the kids, and pick Ruthy and Simon up from school. And call Julie and Hank, Lucy's terrified and she is begging for Hank. And he's not on duty."
"Yeah I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Mom what's wrong with Lucy?" Ruthy asked as she and Eric rushed in, Simon trailing behind.
"They're not sure yet. Hank is in with her now but they won't tell me anything.
When Hank came out Ruthy was entertaining Sam and David, saying things like, "Last time we were here you were born."
Mary sat on Wilson's lap with her arms wrapped around his neck, and her face buried in his shoulder. Matt and Sara sat in separate chairs but Matt had Sara's hand clasped in his. Eric had his head bowed in prayer and Annie went back and forth between prayer and rubbing Eric's back. Simon sat in a corner scowling. Julie stood leaning against the wall watching her family and waiting for her husband.
"Hank what's going on?" Annie asked.
"We are going to have to deliver the baby." Hank stated.
"What?" Annie jumped up, "She is barely 5 months pregnant. That can't be safe."
"It's not. But it's not safe if we don't deliver the baby. Either way Lucy and the baby have about a 50% chance of surviving this, before she goes into surgery she wants to see someone. And I had to pull major strings to allow that."
"I'll go." Annie and Matt chimed in at exactly the same time.
"Actually she wants Wilson." Hank replied
"Wilson?" Annie asked.
"Go." Mary said pushing Wilson towards Hank.
"Lucy how are you?" Wilson asked walking into the spotless white room.
"Not so great."
"I don't have a problem with being here, but why did you want me here and not your family?"
"Because you've been here before."
"So has your mother…Oh, OK I get it. Well I'm here what do you need me to do?"
"First I need you to promise me something."
"Anything."
"If it comes down to a question of who to save make sure they choose the baby."
"Lucy don't talk like that everything's going to be fine."
"Robby I know it might not be. Please, I don't think I could go on if…"
"OK Luce I'll make sure it gets done." Wilson replied.
"And if it comes down to it, will you and Mary raise the baby? Mom and Dad have so much to take care of."
"Of course." Wilson nodded.
"Lucy I'm sorry but Wilson has to go now." Hank interrupted.
"Hank you heard that right?" Lucy asked.
"I heard every word of it Lucy." Hank nodded.
Wilson kissed Lucy on the forehead and watched Lucy be rolled away just as she called, "Tell everyone I love them."
"Well what's going on?" Mary was pacing back and forth when Wilson walked back in.
"Tell us the truth Wilson." Annie begged.
Wilson sat in a chair as everyone surrounded him, "Lucy doesn't seem to confidant that she will be walking out of here. She made me promise that if it came down to a decision as to who to save, her or the baby she wanted the baby to be saved. And if it comes down to that she doesn't want you to be burdened with the baby, she wants Mary and I to raise it.
"Matt do you think you could take the twins home?" Eric asked.
"No way Mom, I'm not leaving the hospital until we hear something about Lucy and the baby." Matt replied.
"We have been here 3 hours they can't just sleep here." Eric argued.
"That's why we are here dear." Mrs. McGreggor appeared with a couple of other ladies from the church.
"How did you know we were here?" Eric asked rubbing his eyes and standing up.
"Well I was calling the house for quite awhile earlier to see if next Friday would have be a good time to have Lucy's baby shower. But when nobody answered I called over at the church. Because you know it's so rare to not get a hold of somebody in your house. But nobody was at the church either. Well almost as soon as I hung up Hannah called me and said that she was supposed to have a meeting with you but a couple who doesn't go to our church said that you had rushed off in the middle of their meeting to go to the hospital. So our thought immediately turned to Lucy and here we are."
Eric gave a weak smile while Annie ignored them. "Thank you very much."
"So what do you need us to do?" Hannah Bradford asked stepping forward.
Eric glanced at Annie who had her head bowed in her hands, and said, "Well if you could take Ruthy and the twins home with you we would really appreciate it."
"Dad I'm not a baby please let me stay." Lucy begged, "Please, she's my sister too."
"All right then. If you could take the twins home and watch them."
"Would you like us a call anyone for you?" Mrs. McGreggor asked.
Eric shook his head, "No thank you. Just taking the twins would be great."
"All right then." Mrs. Bradford replied. "We will take them home and put them to bed. But we brought you all some sandwiches and there are drinks in there also. We figured it would be better than cafeteria food."
"Thank you again." Eric replied.
"It's been almost 12 hours what's going on in…" Matt's words trailed as a nurse appeared.
"The doctor had to make a decision. And Lucy specified that if it came down to it she wanted everything done to save the baby. Dr. Hastings went with that decision, he just wanted you to know." The nurse spoke and then hurried away.
Hank was the last person they saw 2 hours later, he looked slightly worried as he came out. "There have been a lot of complications. But both Lucy and her daughter are alive, by some miracle of God and no less. Now for them to get through the next couple of days will take another miracle of God so the 8 of you need to continue praying But a baby girl was born at exactly 6 o'clock."
"Can we see her?" Mary asked.
"No way. Not today. What I want all of you to do is go home, get sleep and come back tonight, say like 6:30, 12 hours from now. Then I will see you and we will talk about seeing Lucy and the baby."
12 hours later the whole family was back at the hospital looking for Hank. "Maybe we should try the neonatal nursery." Matt suggested, "So we can see the baby before we go and see Lucy.
"You think they put her in neonatal?" Annie asked.
Matt nodded, "I can guarantee it."
"Well your guarantee is wrong." Ruthy pointed out, "There is no baby here with any Camden tag."
Eric, Annie and Matt exchanged glances, "Maybe she isn't as bad off as we thought she was." Matt suggested, but everyone knew that something was wrong.
But when they arrived at the normal nursery again there was no baby with the name of Camden.
"Mom what's going on?" Ruthy asked worry written across her face.
"We're not sure Ruthy. But we are going to find out." Annie replied soothingly.
"There you guys are." Hank said skidding to a stop in front of the group of 8.
"Hank what's going on? Where's the baby?" Eric asked.
"There were some complications." Hank replied calmly.
"Is Lucy OK?" Ruthy asked quickly.
"What about the baby?" Annie added.
"Lucy's OK." Hank replied, "Exhausted, and shook up so she will be very glad to see you all."
"Why? Why is she shaken up? What's wrong with her baby?" Annie asked quickly.
"About an hour after you guys left the baby began having some breathing problems. But they seemed to get better, we just made sure her air passage wasn't blocked. (AN I don't know anything about what I am talking about here, except that really good friends of ours their baby had this and he is like 7 now.) I wanted to run some test though, and the baby has RSV."
"Meaning what exactly?" Eric asked.
"Meaning this baby has a hard road in front of her." Matt stated.
"Matt's right. We have her on oxygen and a heart monitor round the clock."
"Has Lucy gotten to hold her?" Annie questioned and at the look on Hank's face she exclaimed, "My daughter hasn't gotten to see her baby yet? Why in the world not?"
"She was to out of it right after the baby was gone, we almost lost her, she did get to see the baby though. And then when we finally got Lucy stable the baby started having problems. But you guys can go see Lucy."
"Have you guys seen her yet?" Lucy asked as soon as her family walked into her hospital room. Lucy looked pale and her hair was strewn everywhere.
Annie shook her head, "No we haven't. Some of us will go see her in a little bit."
"How are you feeling honey?" Eric asked kissing Lucy on the forehead.
Lucy just smiled, "Sorry if I scared you guys."
"That's OK. Everything's going to be OK." Annie whispered.
"Where's Wilson?" Lucy asked looking around.
"At home with Billy." Mary replied, "He wants to see his baby cousin, and aunt Lucy, but Wilson is going to stop over when I go home."
"So Luce have you picked a name yet?" Ruthy asked.
Lucy nodded, "Yup, Megan Alexandria Camden."
"We can call her Meg." Mary pointed out.
"Or Alex if you use her middle name." Annie added.
"Or," Ruthy bit her lip thinking, "Her initials are Mac!"
"That's cute Ruthy." Lucy laughed.
"Can we go see Mac now?" Ruthy asked.
Everyone laughed and Annie nodded, "Yeah, we will be right back Lucy."
"I'll wait here and go see her later." Mary said waving everyone ahead of her. "Are you still sure about not telling Robby?" Mary asked when everyone had left the room.
"Mary we have been over this a million times. But not since you've been married so let me try it this time. How would you feel if you found out that Wilson not only slept with someone else while you were engaged but also got that same person pregnant?"
"I guess I understand that. But it's not fair to Robby or to Meg. Robby won't get to know his daughter and Meg won't get to know her father." Mary pointed out.
Lucy shook her head "I don't want to talk about this right now."
"We're gonna make our dreams come true." Sam and David finished the song their older brothers and sisters had taught them, they were a little off key and slightly slower than everyone else but they did finish the familiar song.
Lucy and Annie both had tears in their eyes and Lucy gently bent to kiss Meg's foreheaed.
25 months later
Lucy could hear the phone ringing downstairs but she didn't bother attempting to get it, the whole family was downstairs so she was sure that someone would get it. Instead Lucy picked up the baby brush from the dresser and she gently brushed Meg's dark hair. After brushing it Lucy pulled a scarlet velvet headband over her hair, it had come along with the red velvet and lace dress that she was wearing for Christmas.
Ruthy clomped upstairs to the attic bedroom that had once been hers, now it was Lucy and Meg's. "Luce are you almost ready to go?" Ruthy asked.
"Yup, Meg and I are both ready." Lucy replied.
"Good. Robby's on the phone. He has something he wants to tell everyone. So Dad has him on speakerphone. I'll take Mac down." Ruthy offered.
Lucy smiled weakly at her little sister, she couldn't believe how mature Ruthy looked. Ruthy took after Mary more, she was taller than Lucy was and she was only 15. "Are you sure you want to hold her Ruthy? You don't want to ruin your dress."
Ruthy nodded smoothing her ankle length black dress with a fuchsia mesh over it, "It's no problem. Mac won't spit up on her aunt Ruthy."
Lucy laughed lightly at Ruthy's nickname for her daughter, everyone except Ruthy called her Meg, but Ruthy seemed attached to the nickname.
Lucy entered the living room after Ruthy, Matt and Mary and their spouses were present, everyone was joking with Robby. Wilson's hands were wrapped around Mary's waist and rested on Mary's stomach, at times it depressed Lucy to see Mary and Wilson together now that Mary was 5 months pregnant, Mary had everything that Lucy had missed out on.
The first couple months after Meg was born had been really hard on everyone who was living in the Camden household. For the first 3 months right up until about Valentine's day Meg had been on a heart monitor all the time, even when she was home, and it was until 2 months later that they took off the round the clock oxygen.
And when things had finally startled to settle down around the house everything exploded again when Lucy had been doing laundry in May. Because Meg had been so sick it had stopped Lucy from attempting to find a job and while she was searching she did everything for her mother. While she had been cleaning out jean pockets she found something in Simon's that stunned her, a joint lay inside. Simon had denied that it was his until he was blue in the face; but a lot of things now made sense, like the fact that Simon was never around. A quick look at Simon's eyes proved that not only was he using drugs but that he was stoned at the moment.
It had taken a quick phone call to the colonel and Grandma Ruth before Simon was on his way to Buffalo to finish his senior year in high school. But everyone was still worried about him The Colonel and Grandma Ruth said that there was no improvement in his attitude although they said that they didn't have any proof that he was doing drugs.
But now it was Christmas day and all Lucy had to worry about was talking to Robby for the first time since he left. She had always been inconveniently gone while Robby called, and he called to talk often.
"Is Lucy there yet?" Robby's voice rang out from the speakerphone.
"Yeah I'm here." Lucy's voice was filled with emotion.
"Good so everyone is in the room now?" Robby asked, his voice sounded overly enthusiastic.
"Yeah we are all here." Mary said as she and Wilson shot Lucy sympathetic looks.
"OK well I know that you are all probably in a hurry to get to church services. And Merry Christmas to you all by the way. But I had to call and tell you all Joy had our baby last night."
"Robby that's great." Everyone exclaimed, everyone except Lucy who went numb.
"What is it?" Ruthy asked.
"What is its name?" 5-year-old David piped up.
"His name is Timothy Evan, and he weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces. Can you guys believe it I'm a daddy!" Robby exclaimed.
"First born children are always exciting." Annie laughed.
Lucy sank into a chair and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself before anyone could find out that something was wrong.
"There's something I want to ask all of you." Robby ventured.
"Shoot." Eric replied.
"I want Timothy to call you all Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt and Uncle."
"We would be offended if you didn't." Annie said a tear coming to her eyes.
"Robby as much as I hate to cut this conversation short if we don't get to church everyone is going to be at church without a minister." Eric interrupted.
"Yeah I understand. I was just calling to tell everyone."
"We'll talk to you later Robby. Give our grandson a hug." Eric said before hanging up the phone.
"Dad, Mary can I go with Grandpa and Grandma Camden?" Billy asked.
"I'll go with Mary and Wilson and Billy can go with you." Lucy said glad for the chance her nephew was offering.
"OK." Annie said, "Everyone needs to leave now or we are going to be late."
Eric smiled, "I know how you feel, believe me. My daughter announced that she was pregnant 5 months ago. We were stunned and unbelievably upset. But we realized thanks to our son-in-law, our oldest daughter's husband also had a child very young, but he pointed out that unless we supported her in all of her choices we would drive her away. And I think Wilson's advice is the best I can give you. But if you…"
"Are you going to answer that?" The man sitting across from Eric asked.
Eric hadn't even realized the phone was ringing, "No the machine will get it. As I was saying…"
"Eric it's Annie, I'm at the hospital…"
Eric jumped up and grabbed the phone.
"Eric thank God. We are at the hospital. Something's wrong with Lucy. She's with the doctor now, I have Sam and David with me. Can you call the kids, and pick Ruthy and Simon up from school. And call Julie and Hank, Lucy's terrified and she is begging for Hank. And he's not on duty."
"Yeah I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Mom what's wrong with Lucy?" Ruthy asked as she and Eric rushed in, Simon trailing behind.
"They're not sure yet. Hank is in with her now but they won't tell me anything.
When Hank came out Ruthy was entertaining Sam and David, saying things like, "Last time we were here you were born."
Mary sat on Wilson's lap with her arms wrapped around his neck, and her face buried in his shoulder. Matt and Sara sat in separate chairs but Matt had Sara's hand clasped in his. Eric had his head bowed in prayer and Annie went back and forth between prayer and rubbing Eric's back. Simon sat in a corner scowling. Julie stood leaning against the wall watching her family and waiting for her husband.
"Hank what's going on?" Annie asked.
"We are going to have to deliver the baby." Hank stated.
"What?" Annie jumped up, "She is barely 5 months pregnant. That can't be safe."
"It's not. But it's not safe if we don't deliver the baby. Either way Lucy and the baby have about a 50% chance of surviving this, before she goes into surgery she wants to see someone. And I had to pull major strings to allow that."
"I'll go." Annie and Matt chimed in at exactly the same time.
"Actually she wants Wilson." Hank replied
"Wilson?" Annie asked.
"Go." Mary said pushing Wilson towards Hank.
"Lucy how are you?" Wilson asked walking into the spotless white room.
"Not so great."
"I don't have a problem with being here, but why did you want me here and not your family?"
"Because you've been here before."
"So has your mother…Oh, OK I get it. Well I'm here what do you need me to do?"
"First I need you to promise me something."
"Anything."
"If it comes down to a question of who to save make sure they choose the baby."
"Lucy don't talk like that everything's going to be fine."
"Robby I know it might not be. Please, I don't think I could go on if…"
"OK Luce I'll make sure it gets done." Wilson replied.
"And if it comes down to it, will you and Mary raise the baby? Mom and Dad have so much to take care of."
"Of course." Wilson nodded.
"Lucy I'm sorry but Wilson has to go now." Hank interrupted.
"Hank you heard that right?" Lucy asked.
"I heard every word of it Lucy." Hank nodded.
Wilson kissed Lucy on the forehead and watched Lucy be rolled away just as she called, "Tell everyone I love them."
"Well what's going on?" Mary was pacing back and forth when Wilson walked back in.
"Tell us the truth Wilson." Annie begged.
Wilson sat in a chair as everyone surrounded him, "Lucy doesn't seem to confidant that she will be walking out of here. She made me promise that if it came down to a decision as to who to save, her or the baby she wanted the baby to be saved. And if it comes down to that she doesn't want you to be burdened with the baby, she wants Mary and I to raise it.
"Matt do you think you could take the twins home?" Eric asked.
"No way Mom, I'm not leaving the hospital until we hear something about Lucy and the baby." Matt replied.
"We have been here 3 hours they can't just sleep here." Eric argued.
"That's why we are here dear." Mrs. McGreggor appeared with a couple of other ladies from the church.
"How did you know we were here?" Eric asked rubbing his eyes and standing up.
"Well I was calling the house for quite awhile earlier to see if next Friday would have be a good time to have Lucy's baby shower. But when nobody answered I called over at the church. Because you know it's so rare to not get a hold of somebody in your house. But nobody was at the church either. Well almost as soon as I hung up Hannah called me and said that she was supposed to have a meeting with you but a couple who doesn't go to our church said that you had rushed off in the middle of their meeting to go to the hospital. So our thought immediately turned to Lucy and here we are."
Eric gave a weak smile while Annie ignored them. "Thank you very much."
"So what do you need us to do?" Hannah Bradford asked stepping forward.
Eric glanced at Annie who had her head bowed in her hands, and said, "Well if you could take Ruthy and the twins home with you we would really appreciate it."
"Dad I'm not a baby please let me stay." Lucy begged, "Please, she's my sister too."
"All right then. If you could take the twins home and watch them."
"Would you like us a call anyone for you?" Mrs. McGreggor asked.
Eric shook his head, "No thank you. Just taking the twins would be great."
"All right then." Mrs. Bradford replied. "We will take them home and put them to bed. But we brought you all some sandwiches and there are drinks in there also. We figured it would be better than cafeteria food."
"Thank you again." Eric replied.
"It's been almost 12 hours what's going on in…" Matt's words trailed as a nurse appeared.
"The doctor had to make a decision. And Lucy specified that if it came down to it she wanted everything done to save the baby. Dr. Hastings went with that decision, he just wanted you to know." The nurse spoke and then hurried away.
Hank was the last person they saw 2 hours later, he looked slightly worried as he came out. "There have been a lot of complications. But both Lucy and her daughter are alive, by some miracle of God and no less. Now for them to get through the next couple of days will take another miracle of God so the 8 of you need to continue praying But a baby girl was born at exactly 6 o'clock."
"Can we see her?" Mary asked.
"No way. Not today. What I want all of you to do is go home, get sleep and come back tonight, say like 6:30, 12 hours from now. Then I will see you and we will talk about seeing Lucy and the baby."
12 hours later the whole family was back at the hospital looking for Hank. "Maybe we should try the neonatal nursery." Matt suggested, "So we can see the baby before we go and see Lucy.
"You think they put her in neonatal?" Annie asked.
Matt nodded, "I can guarantee it."
"Well your guarantee is wrong." Ruthy pointed out, "There is no baby here with any Camden tag."
Eric, Annie and Matt exchanged glances, "Maybe she isn't as bad off as we thought she was." Matt suggested, but everyone knew that something was wrong.
But when they arrived at the normal nursery again there was no baby with the name of Camden.
"Mom what's going on?" Ruthy asked worry written across her face.
"We're not sure Ruthy. But we are going to find out." Annie replied soothingly.
"There you guys are." Hank said skidding to a stop in front of the group of 8.
"Hank what's going on? Where's the baby?" Eric asked.
"There were some complications." Hank replied calmly.
"Is Lucy OK?" Ruthy asked quickly.
"What about the baby?" Annie added.
"Lucy's OK." Hank replied, "Exhausted, and shook up so she will be very glad to see you all."
"Why? Why is she shaken up? What's wrong with her baby?" Annie asked quickly.
"About an hour after you guys left the baby began having some breathing problems. But they seemed to get better, we just made sure her air passage wasn't blocked. (AN I don't know anything about what I am talking about here, except that really good friends of ours their baby had this and he is like 7 now.) I wanted to run some test though, and the baby has RSV."
"Meaning what exactly?" Eric asked.
"Meaning this baby has a hard road in front of her." Matt stated.
"Matt's right. We have her on oxygen and a heart monitor round the clock."
"Has Lucy gotten to hold her?" Annie questioned and at the look on Hank's face she exclaimed, "My daughter hasn't gotten to see her baby yet? Why in the world not?"
"She was to out of it right after the baby was gone, we almost lost her, she did get to see the baby though. And then when we finally got Lucy stable the baby started having problems. But you guys can go see Lucy."
"Have you guys seen her yet?" Lucy asked as soon as her family walked into her hospital room. Lucy looked pale and her hair was strewn everywhere.
Annie shook her head, "No we haven't. Some of us will go see her in a little bit."
"How are you feeling honey?" Eric asked kissing Lucy on the forehead.
Lucy just smiled, "Sorry if I scared you guys."
"That's OK. Everything's going to be OK." Annie whispered.
"Where's Wilson?" Lucy asked looking around.
"At home with Billy." Mary replied, "He wants to see his baby cousin, and aunt Lucy, but Wilson is going to stop over when I go home."
"So Luce have you picked a name yet?" Ruthy asked.
Lucy nodded, "Yup, Megan Alexandria Camden."
"We can call her Meg." Mary pointed out.
"Or Alex if you use her middle name." Annie added.
"Or," Ruthy bit her lip thinking, "Her initials are Mac!"
"That's cute Ruthy." Lucy laughed.
"Can we go see Mac now?" Ruthy asked.
Everyone laughed and Annie nodded, "Yeah, we will be right back Lucy."
"I'll wait here and go see her later." Mary said waving everyone ahead of her. "Are you still sure about not telling Robby?" Mary asked when everyone had left the room.
"Mary we have been over this a million times. But not since you've been married so let me try it this time. How would you feel if you found out that Wilson not only slept with someone else while you were engaged but also got that same person pregnant?"
"I guess I understand that. But it's not fair to Robby or to Meg. Robby won't get to know his daughter and Meg won't get to know her father." Mary pointed out.
Lucy shook her head "I don't want to talk about this right now."
"We're gonna make our dreams come true." Sam and David finished the song their older brothers and sisters had taught them, they were a little off key and slightly slower than everyone else but they did finish the familiar song.
Lucy and Annie both had tears in their eyes and Lucy gently bent to kiss Meg's foreheaed.
25 months later
Lucy could hear the phone ringing downstairs but she didn't bother attempting to get it, the whole family was downstairs so she was sure that someone would get it. Instead Lucy picked up the baby brush from the dresser and she gently brushed Meg's dark hair. After brushing it Lucy pulled a scarlet velvet headband over her hair, it had come along with the red velvet and lace dress that she was wearing for Christmas.
Ruthy clomped upstairs to the attic bedroom that had once been hers, now it was Lucy and Meg's. "Luce are you almost ready to go?" Ruthy asked.
"Yup, Meg and I are both ready." Lucy replied.
"Good. Robby's on the phone. He has something he wants to tell everyone. So Dad has him on speakerphone. I'll take Mac down." Ruthy offered.
Lucy smiled weakly at her little sister, she couldn't believe how mature Ruthy looked. Ruthy took after Mary more, she was taller than Lucy was and she was only 15. "Are you sure you want to hold her Ruthy? You don't want to ruin your dress."
Ruthy nodded smoothing her ankle length black dress with a fuchsia mesh over it, "It's no problem. Mac won't spit up on her aunt Ruthy."
Lucy laughed lightly at Ruthy's nickname for her daughter, everyone except Ruthy called her Meg, but Ruthy seemed attached to the nickname.
Lucy entered the living room after Ruthy, Matt and Mary and their spouses were present, everyone was joking with Robby. Wilson's hands were wrapped around Mary's waist and rested on Mary's stomach, at times it depressed Lucy to see Mary and Wilson together now that Mary was 5 months pregnant, Mary had everything that Lucy had missed out on.
The first couple months after Meg was born had been really hard on everyone who was living in the Camden household. For the first 3 months right up until about Valentine's day Meg had been on a heart monitor all the time, even when she was home, and it was until 2 months later that they took off the round the clock oxygen.
And when things had finally startled to settle down around the house everything exploded again when Lucy had been doing laundry in May. Because Meg had been so sick it had stopped Lucy from attempting to find a job and while she was searching she did everything for her mother. While she had been cleaning out jean pockets she found something in Simon's that stunned her, a joint lay inside. Simon had denied that it was his until he was blue in the face; but a lot of things now made sense, like the fact that Simon was never around. A quick look at Simon's eyes proved that not only was he using drugs but that he was stoned at the moment.
It had taken a quick phone call to the colonel and Grandma Ruth before Simon was on his way to Buffalo to finish his senior year in high school. But everyone was still worried about him The Colonel and Grandma Ruth said that there was no improvement in his attitude although they said that they didn't have any proof that he was doing drugs.
But now it was Christmas day and all Lucy had to worry about was talking to Robby for the first time since he left. She had always been inconveniently gone while Robby called, and he called to talk often.
"Is Lucy there yet?" Robby's voice rang out from the speakerphone.
"Yeah I'm here." Lucy's voice was filled with emotion.
"Good so everyone is in the room now?" Robby asked, his voice sounded overly enthusiastic.
"Yeah we are all here." Mary said as she and Wilson shot Lucy sympathetic looks.
"OK well I know that you are all probably in a hurry to get to church services. And Merry Christmas to you all by the way. But I had to call and tell you all Joy had our baby last night."
"Robby that's great." Everyone exclaimed, everyone except Lucy who went numb.
"What is it?" Ruthy asked.
"What is its name?" 5-year-old David piped up.
"His name is Timothy Evan, and he weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces. Can you guys believe it I'm a daddy!" Robby exclaimed.
"First born children are always exciting." Annie laughed.
Lucy sank into a chair and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself before anyone could find out that something was wrong.
"There's something I want to ask all of you." Robby ventured.
"Shoot." Eric replied.
"I want Timothy to call you all Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt and Uncle."
"We would be offended if you didn't." Annie said a tear coming to her eyes.
"Robby as much as I hate to cut this conversation short if we don't get to church everyone is going to be at church without a minister." Eric interrupted.
"Yeah I understand. I was just calling to tell everyone."
"We'll talk to you later Robby. Give our grandson a hug." Eric said before hanging up the phone.
"Dad, Mary can I go with Grandpa and Grandma Camden?" Billy asked.
"I'll go with Mary and Wilson and Billy can go with you." Lucy said glad for the chance her nephew was offering.
"OK." Annie said, "Everyone needs to leave now or we are going to be late."