Trouble in Paradise
ARRRGH apologise to all - my computer had a huge meltdown!
A/N; well here is chapter two – this one gets a little more complex and as I am not a doctor I apologise for any inaccuracies. Apologises also for the long wait; my computer had a major meltdown recently and I lost touch with the fan fiction world.
Thanks to all those who reviewed the first chapter – your words were worth a lot, taking the time to comment on my writing means a lot.
Anyway I hope you enjoy chapter two and all review once again – we kick the drama up a notch in this chapter. Enjoy!
The pain she was experiencing now was unlike any other she had felt through out her pregnancy. The short stabbing pains had been getting progressively worse all day, she was beginning to worry. Sandy was still on campus, he had a study group after one of his lectures – Kirsten had been pottering around at home trying to keep herself occupied.
Dropping down onto the ragged sofa she inhaled deeply running a hand across her ever expanding stomach.
"What's going on today huh babies? You're awful restless."
She reached forward to the small coffee table, twisting around to allow the chair to take the strain of her weight. Searching through the index she flipped open the baby book to the chapter on Braxton Hicks. She had taken the time to have many lengthy discussions with her mother and midwife about the birth and contractions as they were what scared her the most.
Kirsten would be the first person to admit that she did not have a high pain threshold. In fact Sandy often teased her about her ability to "scream as if she was being brutally murdered" when she had merely caught her finger in the bathroom cabinet door.
As she skimmed through the paragraphs looking for any form of relied a particularly vicious pain made her groan and grip the cushion beneath her.
Panic had well and truly set in.
She blindly searched for the phone which had lodged itself under a pile of papers cluttering up the table. Still clutching the cushion she hit the second button listening as the speed dial kicked in, praying her mothers' voice would meet her at the other end.
"Hello Anne Nichol speaking."
"…Mom..." It was all she could muster between whimpers; her stomach was in knots and the pain in her back immense.
"Kirsten? Sweetie what's wrong?" Her mothers' voice had taken on a worried edge as she pushed the phone closer to her ear listening to ever wounded sound her daughter made.
"Mom…something's wrong…it hurts Mom…" Kirsten could merely murmur through the tears.
"Sweetie where's Sandy?" Kirsten thought that was a very good question to be asking. Where was her husband while she lay here in pain? He should be here with her to look after her and their children.
"Out…" Kirsten drew in a shaky breath and continued on, "Mom it hurts so bad…what if something happens to them?"
Anne cut her off before she could add another word, "Kirsten honey listen to me…I need you to calm down okay nothing is going to happen tot eh babies okay?"
Kirsten stayed quiet at the other end.
"I need you to stay calm and phone for an ambulance okay?"
"Ambulance? No…no it's okay…I'm okay…"
"Listen to me Kirsten you need to be checked out okay...if you're hurting…just to be sure. When we hang up you call for an ambulance and I'll get straight in the car and meet you had the hospital okay? I'll be right there for you darling I promise you won't be alone."
Kirsten sniffed and tried to settle her nerves.
"'Kay" was all she managed before the dial tone met her at the other end.
Knowing her mother would never break a promise to her she dialled 911.
Sandy ran through floods of people, not caring who he pushed by to get to the front desk.
He had been walking home through the campus when he had met a neighbour of theirs, a very rushed conversation between the two had led to Sandy jumping in the nearest available taxi.
Every possible scenario ran through his head as they made the agonisingly slow journey to the hospital – was it the babies or Kirsten? Sandy had hoped that Kirsten had merely phoned the ambulance for Mrs. Cassidy from next door and elderly lady who had heart problems.
Shoving a slightly miffed woman with a grazed forehead out of his way he flew into a tirade of questions to the nearest nurse.
"I'm looking for my wife. Kirsten Cohen? She's pregnant, is she okay? Are the babies alright? Is she here, where is she? Have you seen her?"
The nurse stood opened mouth as this rather strange looking man (he had long black hair with a mad fringe which reached down to his bushy eyebrows and wore torn holey jeans with a battered sweatshirt) quizzed her on a patient of whom she had never heard.
"Sir if you just calm down I'm sure I'll be able to help. You're looking for your wife?"
"Yes her name's Kirsten Elizabeth Cohen she's twenty-three and pregnant – with twins." He looked hopefully at her as she searched through the files hoping that by some miracle her name wasn't there - she was standing somewhere behind him smiling beautifully as she laughed at his overreaction to a cut finger.
The nurses face contorted a little and she glanced up at him, and then she searched around the busy emergency department for someone unknown to Sandy.
Obviously at a loss to find who she was looking for she cleared her throat, "Umm Mr. Cohen your wife was brought in an hour ago she was having contractions…"
Before she could get any further Sandy cut her off sharply, "She can't have been she's only twenty-eight weeks. It's too soon she can't be. Check again."
Sadly the nurse looked down at the chart in her hands double checking the name clearly printed at the top, "I'm sorry sir your wife is in premature labour she was taken up to OBGYN as soon as she arrived."
Seconds passed as Sandy just stood there trying to absorb the information he had been given, after what seemed like an eternity he returned his gaze to the young nurse he opened his mouth slightly but she immediately anticipated what was to come.
"Fourth floor – elevators are down this corridor too the left."
Without a second thought Sandy sprinted off down the pointed out corridor being lucky enough to slide sideways and not so gracefully into a departing elevator.
Ignoring all others in the lift he repeatedly stabbed at the button which would take him to his wife, he sighed clearly frustrated when the lift dinged and halted at the third floor.
When they had made the short journey up to the fourth he again slid out before the door had barely opened, heading straight toward another poor nurse he again rhymed off his list of questions.
"I'm looking for my wife she was brought in about an hour ago. Her name's Kirsten Cohen she's twenty-three and pregnant – with twins."
"You must be Sandy she's been asking for you." As the nurse made off down the corridor Sandy stayed with her practically perched on her shoulder. "She was brought in and assessed she's in premature labour."
Making an abrupt about turn the petite nurse faced a rather haggard Sandy, "The babies are very distressed at the moment Mr. Cohen the doctors have decided that an emergency casern is needed."
She paused and watched the look of panic pass across his face, "She's very upset right now she needs you."
A simple statement that immediately snapped Sandy out of whatever day dream he had been in he nodded slowly once again following the nurse along corridors.
When he entered the white bland hospital room he was shocked by what he saw, his beautiful wife lay chalk white on the bed her large stomach had a band round it and the sound of many erratic beeps attacked Sandy's' ears.
Kirsten's eyes were screwed firmly shut and her fingers were digging into the mattress beneath her as she panted through the pain.
Quickly Sandy covered the distance between himself and his wife taking her small hand in his he planted a solid kiss upon her sweaty forehead.
Cracking her eyes open slightly Kirsten looked up at her husband "Sorry."
One word choked out to the man she had loved from the day they met.
The one word she hoped would appeal to him and beg his forgiveness.
The tears finally escaping his eyes Sandy broke down engulfing Kirsten in a gentle hug carefully of her aching body. The warmth Sandy's hug gave her made the last of Kirsten's defences melt away too.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." Sandy made sure he had full eye contact with her before adding with a smile. "They just wanted to make a grand entrance."
Kirsten couldn't help but smile but this soon disappeared as another contraction tore through her.
Sandy felt her squeeze his hand and groan into his shoulder as he tried his best to sooth her, the door swung open to his right and several doctors bustled into the room. They began to disconnect the various machines surrounding her and flipped through her charts but no one had addressed him yet.
As one of the doctors made a move around him he suddenly seemed to register his presence, "Ahh Mr. Cohen? I'm Dr. Cairns I'll be performing the casern on your wife, we tried to halt the labour using medication but it's been unsuccessful. The babies are very distressed at the moment and we need, for their safety and your wife's, to deliver them as soon as possible."
Sandy nodded dumbly and held onto Kirsten's hand, he had too many questions running through his head at the moment to even begin asking what would happen after the birth.
A pair of pale blue scrubs were promptly thrust into his free hand, looking down at them and then up once again to the nurse.
"Change into these and you can come into the operating theatre." This nurse smiled at him politely and seemed genuine in her attempt to consider his feeling throughout all of this.
Kirsten lay flat on her back staring sleepily at the ceiling tiles above her, the afternoon had become a complete blur. When she woke up his morning she had the perfect life – a loving husband and two gorgeous children on the way but now as she lay there preparing for the worst she wondered what she had done to deserve such a horrible hand in life.
She had been given some very strong drugs in preparation for her operation and she was numb from the neck down. Sandy sat by her head stroking her hair and whispering reassurances but nothing could quell the feeling of dread within her mind.
She gasped as she felt strange actions being performed below her eye line, a cloth had been place before her so she couldn't see what the doctors where doing.
She could hear garbled talking but focused on Sandy's voice determined to hold on until she knew her children were alright.
Sandy ran his fingers through Kirsten's hair repeatedly hoping to provide some comfort for both of them. His stomach churned incessantly as the clinical environment made him want to be violently ill, this was no way for his children to come into the world.
A voice broke through to him, "Okay Mr. Cohen are you ready? Here comes baby number one."
Standing up on shaky legs Sandy peered over the cloth nervous of what he would see. The surgeon's hands were inside Kirsten body as he roughly pulled the eldest child from her womb, Sandy watched with awe as the tiny body made its way out.
"Congratulations it's a boy." The doctor turned and swiftly handed the newly born baby boy to the specialist nurses, Sandy couldn't get the perfect image from his mind.
"Why isn't he crying?" Kirsten's soft voice broke through to him, reaching down he stroked the hair from her forehead.
"Don't worry he's fine." At that moment a small cry escaped their baby son as his breathing became steady. The nurses all sighed with relief glad that their training had saved another life; began their work of weighing and measuring the baby.
Kirsten smiled from beneath the mask and turned her head toward the noise.
"He's perfect." Sandy whispered as he dropped a kiss on Kirsten's brow. "Little Seth."
"Do we have the other incubator standing by?" The doctor's voice called out to the team of nurses. They rapidly left Seth with only the one nurse and huddled around the surgeon - a clear sign to Sandy that all was not well.
Turning his attention toward his wife's stomach he was shocked and shaken by what he saw. There in his hands the doctor held a blue and purple little body, so small Sandy was unsure that it was in fact his second child.
Quickly the doctor turned and deposited the baby in the incubator, the nurses swarmed around it various undistinguishable calls being made in a language Sandy couldn't interpret.
He could make out Kirsten sobbing beside him; he dropped heavily onto the seat barely keeping contact with her hand – he knew this would break her heart.
"What is it? Is it a girl? Sandy…Sandy please?" Kirsten pleaded with him, with anyone to tell her how her child was.
Sandy was paralysed unable to tell her what was happening; thankfully the doctor appeared before them.
"Kirsten? Kirsten look at me." Once he had her full attention he continued. "It's a boy okay another little boy."
Kirsten and Sandy noted the use of present tense, a huge weight suddenly lifted form Sandy's shoulders.
"Why isn't he crying? He's okay isn't he?" Kristen begged with them both to tell her what she wanted to hear.
"Kirsten he's very small okay, he's having trouble breathing. They've been born too early and haven't fully developed yet – but he's particularly…he's very sick okay? They're going to take both boys to the NICU so they can look after them; I'm going to close you up now."
The doctor returned to his work and the two incubators were wheeled out past the new mother and father. The nurse's took the time to stop by the head of the bed letting Kirsten have a look at her children - she too was shocked by her youngest son's appearance.
As they disappeared out the door she reached for Sandy's hand.
"You have to look after them. Promise me you'll look after them." Sandy had to lean in close to hear her but when he heard what she had to say he began to cry again.
"I promise." He whispered and kissed her longingly on the lips.
Hope that was a good chapter review and let me know! Promise not to keep you waiting that long again already have the next few chapters written!
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