Chapter Four: No More

A/N: Warning! This chapter contains a scene with a somewhat graphic description and sensitive subject for some people. Thought I'd warn you.

Manny's cell phone rang seven times before it woke her up. She glanced at the clock. It was 3:26 am.

"Hello?" she said groggily. Chris was asleep next to her.

"Manny! You have to come to the hospital. Please!" Paige cried into the phone.

"What happened? Is everything alright?" Manny asked frantically.

"It's Avery. She was burning up so I took her temperature and she has a fever. She couldn't stop crying, no matter what I did, so I rushed her to the emergency room. She's really sick Manny. She's onlyeight weeks old," Paige said between sobs.

"I'll be right there. Don't worry, everything will be fine," she said before hanging up. "Chris wake up," Manny said, shoving him.

"What?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"I have to go to the hospital to see Paige. Avery's sick," she told him.

"Okay, I'll be here with Lily and Lucas. Call me if you need me for anything," he said.

"I will. I love you," she said and kissed him.

"I love you too." Shortly after he said this, he fell asleep. Manny left a note on the kitchen table for Heather and Jason, put her jacket on, and drove to the hospital.

She rushed through the ER doors, stopping at the desk to find out where Paige was. The receptionist told her, and Manny soon found Paige standing outside the NICU, her face pressed to the glass.

"Manny! I'm so sorry that I woke you up. My mom's on a business trip and Marco's visiting Dylan at college, so I had no one else to call."

"Don't worry about it. You're one of my best friends; of course you can call me in a situation like this," Manny assured her. "How is she?" Manny peered through the glass as well.

"She has pneumonia Manny! I don't know what I'll do if I lose her!" Paige said and burst into tears.

"You're not gonna lose her Paige. She'll get better, she's a fighter," Manny comforted her.

"Ms. Michalchuk?" a nurse asked.

"That's me," Paige said sadly.

"Avery is stabilized for now. It would help her a great deal if she had her mother in there with her," the nurse told her. "You have to put onscrubs, booties over your shoes, gloves, a cap, and a mask. Avery can't be exposed to any more bacteria."

"Where do I get all of that?" Paige asked. "And can Manny come with me?"

"I'm sorry, but only blood relatives are allowed in the NICU. You can get ready over there," she said, pointing to a room on the right.

"I'll wait out here for you Paige," Manny told her.

She walked away and got ready as fast as she could. When she was all suited up, the nurse led her over to Avery's incubator. All Paige could do was cry when she saw her daughter. There were a bunch of machines hooked up to her that monitored her breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. Paige also noticed that one machine was helping her breathe. Tears streamed down her face and she couldn't stop them. She put an arm into the incubator and stroked her cheek.

"Mommy's here Avery. You're strong and I know that you'll get better. You have to get better for me. I can't live without you."

Paige stood next to her daughter for hours. A nurse came by and showed Manny to a room where she could wait for Paige. She soon fell asleep in a chair. Since Manny was used to waking up around six o'clock to feed the babies and get ready for school, she instinctively woke up from in the chair at that time. She called her house and asked Jason to call the school and tell them why she and Paige would be absent.

Around 1:30, a nurse came into the waiting room. She told Manny that Paige should probably go home and get some rest. She wasn't listening to the nurses, so she asked Manny to talk to her. Manny made her way back to the NICU to find Paige standing outside, arguing with Dr. Mason.

"Paige, come on, I'll take you home. You really need to rest," Manny said.

"No! I'm not leaving until she gets better," Paige refused to move.

"You've been in there for ten hours, be reasonable," Manny said, trying to convince her.

"I said no Manny! Why won't any of you listen to me?" she begged.

"We are listening Paige. I can tell that you need to rest. We will call you if anything happens with Avery," Dr. Mason assured her. "The second things get better or worse, you will know."

"I want to be right here in case something does happen," she said.

"I'm going to tell you now that by talking to Avery for so long, you have most likely helped her out a lot. But if you stay while you are getting tired and irritable, the baby will notice the amount of stress in you and could get more sick," a nurse told her.

"Fine! But if you don't call me…" she started to say.

"We will call Paige. Don't worry," Dr. Mason said.

"Come on, I'll bring you home. You can come back and get your car later," Manny told her. They left the hospital, and Paige cried the whole way home. "Everything will work out, I promise," Manny told her as she got out of the truck. Once Paige was inside, Manny rushed over to DCS to pick Jimmy up. She still had to go to work.

"Where were you all day?" Jimmy asked as he got into Manny's truck.

"Avery is really sick. I was at the hospital with Paige. After ten hours of standing with her, we all finally convinced her to go home and rest," she explained.

"That must be horrible for her," he said. "Tell her that I'm sorry and I'll pray for her." At this time, they had arrived at Emma's to pick the twins up. Chris had dropped them off in the morning. When they all got back to Manny's, she helped Jimmy bring the babies inside and quickly changed into her work clothes.

"Good luck on your first day," Manny told Jimmy as she was leaving. "Oh, and Spike's number is on the fridge if you really have a problem."

"Don't worry, we won't," he said, referring to himself and the twins. "Bye Manny."

Two weeks went by and Paige went to the hospital every day for a few hours to stay with Avery. The doctors never let her stay too long. Manny noticed that Paige was getting more and more depressed by the day. One day, she even refused to go to the hospital and said that she wasn't helping Avery by being there because she was still sick. That day, Manny was really worried about her, so she left work early. First she went to her house to find Jimmy still there.

"I thought I'd wait for you to come home. Chris called and said that he was working late," he told Manny.

"I have to check on Paige and make sure she's okay. That's why I came home early. She refused to go to the hospital today," Manny informed him. She dialed Paige's home number and the phone rang twelve times before Manny hung up. Paige's mom still wasn't back from her business trip in Europe. "She's not answering and that's not good."

"Maybe she's on the phone," Jimmy suggested. Manny called again a few minutes later, and still no answer.

"I have to go over to her house. She wouldn't be on the phone because she's waiting for the doctor to call."

"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked her.

"Sure," Manny replied. They buckled the twins into their car seats and put them in the car. Manny drove as fast as she could to Paige's, without going over the speed limit.

Paige was in the bathroom that was between her bedroom and Avery's. She was standing about four feet away from the sink, and was staring into the mirror above it. There was music playing, and she had been brushing her hair, but for some reason, stopped.

I've been looking in the mirror for so long
That I've come to believe my soul's on the other side

All of a sudden, Paige threw the hairbrush at the mirror, which broke into a million pieces, some tiny shards, some large chunks.

All the little pieces falling shatter
Shards of me too sharp to put back together
Too small to matter
But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces
If I try to touch her

Paige walked over to the sink and picked a large chunk of glass from it. She turned it around in her hand, looking at all the sides of it. After staring for a minute, she decided what to do, and put the sharp end to the inside of her arm, pressing down. She started at the base of her hand and pulled the glass downwards, halfway to the inside of her elbow. All she could do was watch the line of blood drip onto the floor.

And I bleed
I bleed
And I breathe
I breathe no more

Manny threw open the door to the house after Paige didn't answer her frantic knocking. She looked for her downstairs, and when she couldn't find her, she ran up the stairs to the second floor. After checking in Paige and Avery's bedrooms, she tried the bathroom door in Avery's room, but it was locked. She ran back into Paige's room, and luckily the door on that side was unlocked. Manny burst in to find Paige on the floor, a pool of blood next to her. Paige looked up at her with pleading eyes and then looked back at her arm. Manny quickly pulled out her cell phone and called 911. She screamed for Jimmy who had turned the truck off and brought the twins into Paige's living room. She grabbed a towel out of the closet and wrapped it tightly around her friend's arm to try and stop the bleeding. Jimmy was at Paige's other side, holding her hand and telling her it was all going to be okay.

Take a breath and I try to draw from my spirit's well
Yet again you refuse to drink like a stubborn child
Lie to me; convince me that I've been sick forever
And all of this will make sense when I get better

They could all hear the sirens as the ambulance approached. Jimmy went downstairs and ushered the paramedics up to the bathroom. Manny was desperately trying to keep her awake. Paige was put on a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. Manny was allowed to ride with her. Jimmy put the twins back into the truck and followed them to the hospital.

But I know the difference
Between myself and my reflection
I just can't help but to wonder
Which of us do you love?

Manny was holding Paige's hand and praying for her. They were rushing to the hospital, sirens blasting, when she lost consciousness.

So I bleed
I bleed
And I breathe
I breathe no
Bleed
I bleed
And I breathe
I breathe
I breathe
I breathe
No more

Paige stopped breathing and Manny was terrified that she was going to lose her. The paramedic struggled to insert a breathing tube. But what if he was too late?

A/N: Sorry but I'm leaving it there. The italics are a song by Evanescence called "Breathe No More." I don't own it; they do.