Hello, everyone! Thank you all for the reviews on chapter seven...they made my day. :) No, seriously. This chapter is actually a lot longer with a lot more talking, so probably more people will enjoy it...I hope. Anyways, please leave me a review! And also, I hope everything in here makes sense. I'm not a doctor, but I looked some stuff up...Apparently, this can happen, so...we'll see. I'm a bit nervous about this chapter, but oh well. What's done is done. ;)
Ross first noticed the flashing lights as he exited the apartment building.
They swirled around the streets, blaring beams warning of danger and death. He crossed the street, carefully, heading towards the lights.
'Whatever this is, looks bad,' Ross thought.
As he approached the scene, he saw a sight that ripped his heart out and made him fall to his knees.
A truck driver approached him. "Are you alright?"
Ross felt his stomach clench, and he vomited on the spot. Sweat poured down his face, an effect that was muted by the sheets of translucent rain.
"What's wrong? Do you know her?"
Ross managed a weary nod as the paramedics placed Rachel on a cold, gray stretcher, so fitting for the mood.
"Well, who is she?"
Ross choked, "Rachel Green. She's from California...and she's about four months pregnant."
"Jesus God...is she your wife or something?"
Ross said neither no nor yes, but simply a phrase that confused him more than anything, and yet was the only thing that made sense. "I love her."
"Well, then get in there."
The driver shook his head in dismay as he watched the confused man stumble into the ambulance. He wondered what the deal was with those two, and he hoped he hadn't hurt the woman or the baby badly.
A part of him worried that he had just split up a family, but the part he had grown to trust told him that he may have been the saving grace to reunite them.
----
Cool rain trickled down the windshield as a paramedic tried to explain to Ross what had happened.
Ross nodded up and down, hearing the words, but not listening.
Truck going fast.
Rain falling hard.
Walking in middle of street.
Head injury...left side bruised and cut badly.
And worst of all...possible injury to the baby.
The last part was what hit Ross the hardest. He was a father, if only for a short time. And he didn't want the time to end...
The paramedic was putting an IV in Rachel's arm as he explained her situation to Ross. "She should be okay. Miraculously, her cuts are minor, and the only injury she may suffer are some severely bruised, if not broken, ribs on her left side. She's certain to wake up with quite a headache, also."
"Why isn't she awake?" Ross scrunched his eyebrows down.
"Well, we gave her a small shot to put her to sleep. The truck didn't actually hit her, but just barely missed her." He pointed to the cut across Rachel's forehead. "She narrowly missed the truck, but instead, threw herself across the pavement. It's not good by any means, but better than being hit by a truck!"
Ross shook his head in anger. "You act like this is no big deal...like this kind of stuff happens everyday!"
"But it does. Families are made, and some are lost. Husbands and wives and parents and children- they die. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Compared to the others, she's better. It's not her that there's any risk of losing. It's the baby."
Ross felt his heart sink. "When will we know?"
"When we get to the hospital, they'll do an emergency sonogram...only time will tell."
He noticed Ross staring intently down at Rachel's face. "You can hold her hand if you want to."
"Okay," Ross gulped, and gently lifted her soft arm off the lifeless stretcher.
Her nails were perfectly curved, and her hands felt like silk. He gently stroked every ounce of skin to be found upon its perfect canvas. He didn't have much at the moment, but that hand was his for the taking.
Now all he needed was her heart.
----
From the moment Monica answered the phone, she knew something was wrong.
"Ross, what is it?"
Ross looked around the desolate, lonely hallway. Doctors and nurses raced about, knowing their duty was to care for their patients, but feeling indifferent towards the outcome of the care. They were merely doing their job, and nothing more.
"It's Rachel," he snapped back to reality.
"Oh my God. What happened?"
"She was...hit-sort of."
Her heart dropped into her chest, while her voice was reduced to a tinny squeak. "Where are you?"
"The hospital."
"Oh my God! What hit her?"
"A truck..." It was all so surreal.
"A truck!?!" By this time, everyone was gathering around a shaking Monica.
"Well, she dodged the truck...but there's this big gash across her forehead and she broke some ribs, they think."
Monica gulped, "And the baby..."
"They don't know yet...I left the room for them to take the sonogram...We'll know in a few minutes, I guess." He felt his face flush and his head spin. He needed to sit down. "Listen, Mon, I gotta go. I want to be in there when she wakes up. The medicine will wear off soon."
"Well, we're all coming up!"
Ross leaned against the wall in despair and utter exhaustion. "No, really. Just stay there. I'll call when we know. It may be awhile, and when she wakes up, we need to talk. Just us."
Monica was unsure, but ultimately gave in. "Well, alright, but call right when you know, Ross."
"I will."
"She loves that baby, you know..."
"So do I."
"I know...She loves you, too, Ross. I can't even tell you how much."
"Try."
"What?"
"Just try..." He glanced around and felt tears spring to his eyes. "Please?"
Monica sat down and shooed the others away. She took a deep breath, "Ross, in the past few months I've known this girl, she has done nothing, nothing, but talk about how strongly she felt about this guy that got her pregnant." Monica felt herself smile. "I can't even tell you how many nights she's kept me awake over the phone...telling me how afraid she was of her feelings...And I don't know how much you know about...what happened to her, and stuff from her past, but things haven't been easy for her. I'll let her tell you when she's ready...I just want you to know that even if she does keep running away, Ross, it's not because she doesn't love you enough...It's because she loves so much so soon that it scares her."
Speechless, Ross turned his head towards the sleeping beauty in the dreary room. He whispered, barely able to speak, "Monica, I have to go. I'll call you later..."
"Okay," she understood. And then she was gone.
Ross dutifully placed the rocking phone back on the receiver, his sister's words ringing in his head. "She loves so much so soon that it scares her...scares her...scares her..."
As he sat down on the tan chair next to her bedside, he realized that he was scared, too.
Her chest heaved up and down frailly...doctor may have said she'll be alright, but she looked so...little. Ross slowly lifted the blanket off her stomach and gazed at the bump that his baby called home.
He was terrified.
Holding Rachel's hand, he reached and lifted the crinkly gown up, revealing the soft skin of her belly. Cringing, he saw the newly formed bruises running along her left side.
The black and blue bruises ran along her side and stopped shortly above her stomach. Her intruding wounds looked out of place against the creamy peach of skin.
Or was it the skin that was out of place among the bruises?
He slid his hand up and down her stomach and softly kissed the spot where he knew his baby must lay. As serene a moment as it was, he couldn't help but wonder if the baby was still okay.
Ross softly whispered to it, "Hang in there, little baby. You have a lot of people who love you. Especially your Mommy and me...please be okay. However hurt you are, you gotta pull through...We'll love you no matter what." 'And each other, I hope.'
He brushed his lips against her stomach and brought them together. He swore he felt a flutter in her stomach...and he knew the butterflies were soaring in his own.
Softly, he felt someone squeezing his hand. Ross looked up and saw Rachel, awake.
Tears glistened in her eyes. "What happened?"
"You were kind of...hit by a truck." He cringed. That was not the way he had meant it to come out. 'Great job Ross,' he thought.
"I was what?"
He softly brushed the top of her head with his lips, not wanting the silent moment they had just shared to end. "Well, what is the last thing you remember?"
She pursed her lips in thought. "There was rain...lots of rain. And lights...and screams." Suddenly it dawned on her and she reached down to touch her stomach, where Ross's hand still lingered. "My baby..."
Silence stirred the air, whisking away all noise with a brush of its fleeting wind. Rachel's eyes pleaded with him, pleaded with him not to shatter another dream in her life.
Ross simply shook his head, and Rachel immediately assumed the worst. He scooted in closer and she fell into his arms, her warm stream of tears flooding his shirt with pain. Gently, he stroked her golden hair, whishing there was something- anything- that he could do.
Tearfully, she pulled away. She was biting her bottom lip so intensely that it was almost bleeding. "So...did it...did it..."
No matter how hard she tried, Rachel couldn't bear to think of her child as dead. She tearfully rambled on as Ross simply watched, in awe of her constant beauty.
"I mean, I just bought the first little outfit the other day. It was this- this little white terrycloth jumpsuit, and it said, 'I love my Mommy' on the front of it." Ross smiled and pushed back a falling golden lock back into place with the others. Rachel swallowed hard, and her next words made Ross's heart wrench and fly both at the same time. It was a peculiar sensation, but it was fitting because these were peculiar words. "And...while I was at Babies-R-Us, I picked up another terrycloth suit...just like the first one. Only this one- this one said, 'I love my Daddy.' I thought...that if you came back of I didn't leave again...that the baby could wear it. Please tell me, Ross. What happened to the baby?"
Her eyes bore a hole through his own. No one else had this effect on him. In an act of desperation, she threw her arms around his neck and awaited his answer.
Ross didn't quite know how to break it to her. He sighed, "We don't know yet...no one does. Well, maybe the doctors do and they'll be in any minute...All we can do is hope."
Her body wrecked and heaved with heavy sobs, already mourning the possible loss of her child.
Ross could do nothing but stroke the back of her hair and whisper to her. "I know...I know..."
They rocked back and forth in each other's arms for awhile. Both of them cried, and tried their best to console their weary souls.
Slowly, the door slid open, and in walked Dr. Clemens...clipboard and all.
Ross climbed on the bed with Rachel, noticing the bandage on her forehead for the first time. She buried her head in his shoulder, bracing herself for the uttermost worst. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it with every ounce of strength her feeble body had left.
Dr. Clemens stepped next to the bed and began to speak. Rachel clamped her eyes shut and bit down. Ross felt his heartbeat skyrocket.
They held on, never wanting to let go.
"Hello Ms. Green...Sir." She gave Ross a small nod. "I've got some news..."
So, obviously, I can't drag out this process of them not knowing for much longer...I promise you'll all know in the next chapter. ;) I hope everything in here made sense...and if not, I'm waiting for flames and criticism...with some not-so-open arms. Ha ha...my attempt to be funny.
Oh, and whoever said I was drunk at that party...nuh uh! :) Just a little crazy...like some crazy happy people would say, " I was high on life!" Or the last day of school...you pick. ;)
And whoever thought that was bad, try having Disney World security called on you! OMG! Talk about the WORST Disney vacation EVER! NEVER go with band...anywhere if you can. Twenty hours on a bus to get incredibly sunburned,and get in trouble EVERY day (If I wasn't missing, I was wandering around Epcot parking lot with my lost friends or giving out my burn cream to people that apparently weren't supposed to have it cause OH...it's not their prescription! OMG...I was just trying to be nice! ;))
Lol...please review! :)
Mel