Everything Will Be OK.
A/N: This is another look into the future of my other story, Lightning. If you haven't read that, I suggest you do. You don't have to, but it will make this story better. Hey, you might like it. Read on.
Chapter One
Rory, Tade, and Blue were sitting on the king-sized bed in their large New York City apartment watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Four year-old Blue was shoving M&M's into his mouth without blinking as he watched the scene in the fancy restaurant.
"I love this movie." He breathed in his little boy voice as though he had scene all the other movies in the world and that this one was the one he loved most. In reality he had seen considerably more movies than other four year-olds because he had Rory Gilmore and Tade Ntekim for parents.
"Me too." Rory said with the same wide, blue eyes as her son as she took a bite of the sandwich that had been balancing on her seven-month pregnant stomach. Tade looked at his family lovingly. This was perfect. Rory had her dark hair up in what Blue called a "messy-mom's ponytail" and she was wearing an oversized t-shirt and some old Yale sweatpants. She felt his eyes on her and sent him a smile. Her blue eyes met his black ones as they had for the past twelve years. Lightning. Always.
Suddenly, the smile vanished from her face and was replaced with worried surprise. He ran a quick scan over her body to see if he could see anything that was troubling her. He did. As his eyes roamed over her large stomach and to her lap he saw the most horrifying image any expectant father could see. A dark, red stain was rapidly surrounding his beloved wife.
"I think my water just broke." Rory said with worry. She couldn't see the blood over the mound of her stomach. Tade could only shake his head with pained eyes. "It's too early. I'd been feeling some cramps all day, but I thought it was just indigestion." She babbled, still not understanding the look on her husbands face. She had never seen anything like it. He looked as though every ounce of happiness had been ripped from his body. Without words he leapt up grabbed Blue and shut him out of the room, so that he wouldn't see the blood, and called 911.
"I need an ambulance. My wife is 7 months pregnant and I think she's in labor. There's blood everywhere. I don't know what to do. My name is Tade Ntekim. We're on 79th and East End Avenue. The Red building. Apartment 3B. Please hurry." He was frantic as he reeled out all of the information he could think of.
"We'll be right there." The operator said.
Tade turned to Rory and saw that she had heard his half of the phone call. He had never seen her look as frightened as she did right then. She looked back to her lap area and caught sight of the stain that had expanded into her range of vision.
"Tade." She whimpered. "I need everything to be ok. Tell me everything will be ok." The tears were beginning to roll down her cheeks.
"Everything will be ok." He said in a flat voice. He didn't have the heart to lie convincingly. She looked at him and realized that she was going to have to be strong. He had been strong up until this moment, but this had broken him.
"Ok. I have to pack an overnight bag and put on fresh clothing so that Blue doesn't see me like this." She had wiped away her tears and stood from the bed. She turned away from Tade's frightened face so that he wouldn't see her cringe in pain. "Grab that blue bag, get my nightgown with the buttons on the front, a toothbrush, some clean underwear, soap, and some," She took a brave breath." Some baby clothes." She promised him with her eyes that it would all be ok. He nodded and collected the items as she put on his pajama pants and threw her bloody pants onto the bloody bed. "Let's go." She said as she took Tade by the hand and led him out of the room to tell Blue what was going on.
When Tade saw his son sitting on the edge of the couch with his little legs dangling and his head bent as though he knew something horrible had happened, he took a deep breath, and gripped the strap of the overnight bag more tightly.
"Blue, we have to go to the hospital now." He said with honest pain evident in his eyes.
"Ok. You keep Mommy happy and I'll call everyone." The little boy said with a determined look as he got up, grabbed the cell phone from the table, and opened the door for his parents just as the paramedics came racing out of the elevator.
"Are you Mr. Ntekim?" A woman paramedic in a jumpsuit asked.
"Yes. This is my mother. I need you to help her." Blue answered for his parents with a brave face.
"How far apart are the contractions, Ma'am?" Another paramedic asked.
"Oh, they're pretty far-" Rory had to stop and grab her stomach as she felt a huge shock of pain riddle her lower abdomen. "Apart." She finished lamely from her bent over position.
"Alright, take a seat here." Rory was provided with a wheel chair as they got back into the elevator and rode down to the awaiting ambulance.
"How far along are you?" The female paramedic asked once they were packed into the ambulance and were speeding towards the hospital.
"27 weeks." Rory answered with worry on her face. "It's much too early. I can't be in labor." Her gaze wandered from the paramedic to her husband.
"It is early." The woman whose nametag said "Elizabeth" agreed. "But it has been done. My son was born after 26 weeks." She said encouragingly.
"How is he now?" Rory asked with hope.
"He just made the varsity basketball team at his high school." Elizabeth answered with a proud smile. Rory sent an appreciative smile to the woman for sharing her success story, but she couldn't help but look at her and compare herself. She wasn't as physically strong as Elizabeth. She probably wasn't as emotionally strong either. And she wasn't as young as this woman must have been. Another contraction disturbed her thoughts. She tried not to cry out in pain and frighten Blue, but she couldn't help it.
Blue's large eyes flew to his mother's face when he heard her pain. He was frightened. He saw tears in her eyes where he had never seen tears before. He reached out his small hand and wrapped it around his mother's shoulder in a comforting gesture. No one had ever let him comfort them before. They were always comforting him. Today he was going to repay the favor.
The ambulance stopped and, in a frenzy of movement, the growing family was brought into the Emergency Room at Roosevelt Hospital. The paramedics shouted something in emergency code to the ER staff and Rory's chair was handed over to a young nurse. Tade was given forms to fill out at his leisure, and they were brought upstairs to a room with a bed where Rory changed into a hospital gown, and they waited for the doctor.
They didn't have to wait long. A short, blonde woman in her mid-forties, with laugh lines adding a tenderness to her eyes, walked into the room and introduced herself as Dr. Phillips.
"Alright Rory, I'm going to take a look and hook you up to some monitors so we can see how your baby's doing, and then we'll proceed from there." She said in a kind, yet firm voice.
"Ok." Rory said to the doctor with a polite smile before turning to Tade. "Why don't you go sit with Blue in the waiting room. I'll be fine here by myself." She told him.
"Are you sure?" He didn't want to leave her.
"No!" Blue shouted forcefully from where he was standing by the door. "I told you when we left the house that your only job is to keep Mom happy. So that's what you're going to do. You stay here. I will go sit in the hall and make the calls." He ordered with clenched fists before turning on the heels of his high-tops and walking out the door.
"You've got a good kid." Dr. Phillips told his parents with an impressed smile. "He'll be fine in the hall by himself. There are lots of people to keep and eye on him." She reassured.
"Thank you." Tade said with the first glimmer of a smile that had graced his face in what felt like years, but had merely been about a half an hour.
Out in the hall, Blue had climbed into a chair and taken out Tade's cell phone. Blue's fourÐyear-old hands pressed the buttons slowly. He had been forced to learn five numbers when he started going to preschool. This was the first time any of them had come in handy.
"Hello?" Lorelai's voice came from the phone.
"Grandma?" Blue asked. He knew it was her, but he needed to make sure.
"Blue, honey, how are you?" Lorelai asked carefully. He grandson had never called her by himself before.
"Daddy and I had to take Mommy to the hospital. She had contractors and they looked scared. She's only had 27 weeks and the doctor is looking at her and the baby now." He spat out quickly. He just tried to remember everything he had heard. He didn't know what most of it meant, but he hoped that his grandma would.
"Where are you?" Lorelai asked. She tried to keep the fear out of her voice, but was failing.
"I don't know." He said into the phone. He looked down the hall and saw a nurse carrying towels to a room. "Excuse me, where am I?" He asked her with his hand over the phone like he had seen his mother do.
"You're in the maternity ward of Roosevelt Hospital." The nurse answered sweetly.
"I'm in the maternity word of Rose-felt Hospital." Blue said into the phone.
"Ok. I'll call your grandpa and we'll be there as soon as possible." Lorelai knew what the boy meant to say. She didn't have time to correct him. She had to get to her daughter.
"Bye." Blue hung up the phone and carefully dialed another number.
"Hello?" Essien answered with laughter in his voice.
"Essy?" Blue asked. This was the first bunch of phone calls he had ever had to make and asking things that didn't need to be asked was the easiest thing he could think to say when someone answered.
"Blue?" Essien asked. He knew it was his nephew, but he was surprised nonetheless. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" He inquired.
"Mommy and Dad and I are in the modernity world of Rose-felt Hospital. Dad is scared. I need you to come and make him feel better so that he can make Mommy feel better." Blue explained as best he could.
"Wait, where are you?" Essien had become serious.
"The modernity world of Rose-felt Hospital!" Blue was frustrated. He didn't know what the words he was saying meant. He just need his family to come and for everyone to be happy again.
"Your uncle Mark and I will be there in 15 minutes." Essien promised.
"Ok. Bye." Blue hung up, took a deep breath, and looked around the hallway. He was alone, but his family would be there soon to make it all better so he leaned back in the chair and let his legs swing over the edge of the seat. Everything was going to be ok. It had to be.
To be continued.