PART 6

July 14, 2015

3 months later

"Come on Boys! Shoot" 5 months pregnant Sydney was shouting at her boys skating around on the rink. Her husband right next to her supporting their children.

"Mommy? When can we go?" Tim was pulling at his mother's arm, slightly bored by his brother's activity. "I wanna go horse riding now!"

Vaughn crouched down next to the little boy "Just a couple more minutes and then it's finished buddy, ok? And then we'll go to the hangar"

"But I wanna go now!" he stomped "I wanna go now mommy" he ignored his father's comment.

Sydney had her eyes still glued on the rink not really paying attention at the hand still pulling at her arm. The game had been good so far and their team was winning.

"Timmy, please stop annoying mommy! I told you, we will go there soon ok. Just watch your brothers for a little while more and then we can go?"

"No! Why is it always that you care more about them?"

The team put in another goal, right before the sound could be heard, letting them know about the end of the game. Sydney turned around to focus all her attention to the pouting child.

"What's going on here?"

"He's acting fussy once again."

She sat next to her son and lifted him up onto her lap "Timmy, you know far well what happens if you are acting fussy, right? I can see you are having troubles breathing, so please calm down sweetie"

"I know, but I wanted to go see Tabby"

"I know, I promise as soon as your brothers are back we'll go ok. Just another couple of minutes, they have to get their stuff together"

Vaughn shoved the boy's legs over his lap so that he was now in a laying position over his parents both laps in attempt to get his heart beat to slow down. Every slight agitation wasn't good for his heart at all.

"How come he only listens to you and not me? I just told him the same a couple of minutes ago!" Sydney just reached over to his hand to stroke it lightly. They stayed this way until the boys came heading out of the restrooms.

"What's wrong with Timmy?" Alex inquired when he saw his younger brother spread out over his parent's laps, immediately concerned about his health as usual.

"Nothing Alex, he'll be fine!" Vaughn explained and lifted Tim up into his arms. "Nice job boys! That was really great"

"Thanks dad!" Oliver said "Did you see the point I made! It was easy, Chris didn't know where I was going, I first went left and then off to the right and shoot! That was pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah! Now come on let's go! Do you have all your stuff?" the boys nodded and carried their bags over to the car where they all dumped everything into the trunk. Each of them had to tell their parents hastily about their achievement as if they hadn't been present to the game.

Once everybody was in the car with seatbelt fasten, they drove off to the barn, where Tabby was already waiting for Tim. As soon as they had made it to the farmhouse not so far away from where they lived, Tim had jumped out and scurried to Jeffrey, the owner of the horse while the others followed track.

"Hey Jeffrey"

"Hey Timmy, how are you today? Ready?"

"Uh-huh! I just have to put on my gear 'cause my brothers had a game before! I'll be right back! Is Martha in the house?"

"Yup, just go ahead!" Tim gave Tabby a tap on his neck, whistled something inaudible into his ear and ran off again to the big farmhouse, which was facing the barn.

"Hello Mr. Dawson" Vaughn held out his hand.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn" they all shook hands "Hey boys!" they silently wove their hands. "Long time no see" Jeffrey grinned from ear to ear his constant and plastered smile.

"Yeah I know" Sydney sighed "We're sorry, but we have had troubles with Timmy"

"What's wrong?" Mr. Dawson was immediately concerned about his little favorite guy. He didn't want to admit it but everybody was well aware that he had a certain tendency to like him more than the others. A special concern that came up on everybody.

Sydney didn't feel well about it but she knew that Jeffrey had to know, since he would take care of him for 2 hours each week.

"Well we had to go into hospital again with him 2 weeks ago. He's been running apparently like crazy during the break at school and then fainted in the middle of the playground. They had to call the ambulance and get him in right away. He was then put on oxygen and IV for a couple of hours until his heart beat had slowed down again. Of course he was put on an ECG for 24 hours to make sure of the whole thing before they could release him so now he is on antibiotics for the whole month."

Jeffrey almost fainted himself when he heard again the awful treatments this little guy had to go through. But he also knew that Tim was a strong person and it hardly ever effected him. He would just get up and keep on walking as like nothing had ever happened. He was full of joy and he lived his life to the fullest.

"So we have to ask you to take it easy on him again. And before we came here he was acting very stubborn again and you know what happens when his blood pressure goes up...." Jeffrey simply nodded.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Vaughn, I'll take good care of your little guy" he slowly let his gaze drift down towards Sydney's swollen belly.

"And how is the baby going?" Instinctively Sydney put her hand over it.

"Oh! He or she is doing well so far! I just think that I'm starting to get too old for these kind of games" she joked "Alex and Oliver will soon be 10 and 9 and the twins just turned 8 and I'm having my fifth baby. I have to say that was not something I had ever suspected to happen in my life"

Jeffrey simply nodded at her words "Yeah, I know what you mean. Our 7th child had also surprised Martha and me. Our youngest back then was already 12, and it wasn't very easy at all but we managed." He still smiled at her "And I know you will too" He grabbed Sydney's hand "You are good people and you love your children very much. That's all that matters!"

"Thank you Mr. Dawson"

"I'm ready!" Tim announced upon his return, bouncing up and down in front of them.

Jeffrey and Sydney still stared at each other a few seconds until Jeffrey exclaimed. "Ok buddy, let's go then!" and he helped Tim on top of the horse into the saddle.

Tim flashed his parents a large smile "Look mommy!"

Sydney had tears welling up in her eyes and soon a couple of them made their way down her cheeks "Don't worry mommy, I'll be back soon"

As he did this very often he was the one cheering up his mother while it was supposed to be the other way around. Vaughn put his arms around his wife's shoulders "Come on let's go. You'll see him again in less than 2 hours"

"1 hour and 48 minutes!" she exclaimed and Vaughn looked down at his watch.

"Yes you are right" he pulled her head towards him and dropped a kiss on top of it. "Don't worry, he'll be fine here and you know that if something ever happens Mrs. Dawson knows what to do"

She lightly sobbed "I know, it's just..."

"Hormones..." it wasn't funny he knew that.

She nodded and started crying "Sydney!" he tried getting her to look at him and when she did, he went on "He'll be fine, I promise, let him have some fun just be himself. It will be good for him and for us"

"I know, I'm sorry"

"No! Don't be sorry, 'cause there's nothing to be sorry about. It's normal to be worried about one's child. Okay? Otherwise you're a heartless person. We'll go home now, have some pancakes, right guys?" the other three suddenly were all ecstatic "We'll save some for Timmy and then we head back here and pick him up"

He squeezed her hand softly "You ok with that?"

Sydney nodded and focused her gaze out of the window to the beautiful landscape that was passing in front of her. Her thoughts drifted away to another place, a place far away from where she was now.

Flashback (June 5th, 2007)

"Dr. Brown! Baby two is not breathing!"

"He's not!"

"Ok, can you take care of Mrs. Vaughn. I'll go check on him immediately. And please call Dr. Spellman right away, I think we have a serious case here. He's all blue and isn't breathing, we have to go through a complete check for both especially this little guy here"

As soon as Baby number one was all cleaned up and checked, it was brought to his parents for a couple of minutes before being carried away into the neonatal section of the hospital. The parents could at least share a moment with him.

"God Vaughn, he's so small"

"But he's beautiful"

"Look at his tiny feet" Sydney brushed her hands protectively over her newborn son.

"Yep, ten toes, ten fingers, perfect! So which one is this?"

Sydney looked up at her husband "I thought you would choose their names this time?"

"No, you've been doing all the work, you deserve it"

"Vaughn!" she was happy, she was in heaven but not completely because something was missing. She looked at the little creature in her arms

"I don't know, I can't!"

Vaughn looked at her wondering what was wrong "I mean I can't make up my mind without the other one. I need them both with me, I want them both with me Michael"

"I know but they have to take care of him right now, the Doctors said they would come back to us as soon as they would know what is wrong. Don't worry"

At least he had to say something to his wife. Inside he was scared like death, just like his wife was but somebody needed to be strong and he knew that now was not the moment for Sydney to be strong. She needed to believe that everything was going to be fine and that's what he was here for.

"I'm sorry but we have to take him back into the incubator! You will be able to see him later!"

Sydney reluctantly let her son go away with the nurse.

Sydney was back into her room already by the time the doctors showed up with their results.

"Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn?"

"Yes" Vaughn replied.

"I'm sorry but I do have bad news" Vaughn took a firm grip on Sydney's shoulder, holding his breath as to what the bad news was...

"Your son has a serious heart defect and we needed to take him into surgery right away!" Sydney and Vaughn couldn't believe it. Sydney gasped "Oh god, my baby!"

"I know this sounds awful, but right now he has made it. He's into intensive care at least for the next 48 hours so we can have him very close and see how his heart is working on the surgery as well as the medication. He is indeed very small, smaller than his brother is but he looks quite the fighter. I have to inform you that we almost lost him, but apparently he choose against it"

Sydney was too much in trance to even recognize any of the syllabi the doctor had just said.

"Oh and what you have to know is that the disease he has is called Tetralogy of Fallot. The surgery this little guy just went through was because of a hole that was between the lower right and left parts of his heart. All we have to do now is wait and see how it goes and that's all we can do so far"

"Can I see him?" Sydney almost jumped of the bed.

"If you are up to it, yes you can, but only for a couple of minutes"

One hour later Sydney and Vaughn had finally made it to the intensive care to check up on the smallest one. Vaughn had to catch on Sydney when she saw her little baby with tubes and masks just everywhere on his body. One could see that he had gone through surgery. A big bandage was enveloping his chest, hiding the big scar over his sternum.

"Michael I'm scared"

But this time Vaughn wasn't able to hide his feelings "Me too Syd, me too" They looked at the ECG monitor taking on his every heartbeat. The paper scrolling out of the machine and then drifted onto the ground.

"So what do you think?"

"About what?"

"A name Syd... I think we should name him...you know...well... you know... just in case..." Vaughn wasn't able to finish the sentence. It was too heart ripping for both of them to even think about it. But yet it was the truth and they had to face it.

Sydney wiped her tears out of her eyes and face with the hem of her robe "Tim!"

"Tim?"

"Uh-huh, Timothy Michael Vaughn!"

"Timothy Michael Vaughn, that sounds nice" he kissed his wife's neck tenderly and then laid his hand over the incubator "Hey Timmy, mommy and daddy love you very much, just like your brother, I mean brothers! You have a whole lot to fight for buddy, so you gotta make it for all of us!"

"That's one of the nicest things you've ever said Michael"

"Really?"

"Yes, and I love you." She thought for a moment "Collin Bryan Vaughn?" she looked at her husband.

"I like that one too! The nurse waved at us, I think time's up!" They both stared a couple more seconds at the tiny infant, laid kisses on it and then walked out of the intensive care.

"Let's go see Collin" he moved Sydney's hand up to his lips and kissed it, then leaned over her head before kissing his wife with heart and soul.

"I love you Sydney, he's going to make it, both of them!"

End Flashback