Chapter 15: She's too Little
Abby woke up; half forgetting that she was in the pool house where she would live with Carter. She turns over and looks at the clock. It's early and he was still sleeping, so she decides to go get up and make breakfast.
She walks into the pool house kitchen and opens the refrigerator, now completely stocked with food. She looks around deciding what to eat, then goes to the cabinet to grab a pop tart. As she's opening up the wrapper containing the breakfast pastry, Carter comes strolling in.
"Morning," he grumbles.
"Sleep well?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah."
"Gonna go get ready for school?"
"Yeah," he tells her, rubbing his eyes. He drags himself back to the bedroom to go shower and get ready. Fifteen minutes later he emerges, smelling clean and dressed for school. Abby gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and wishes him farewell as he closes the door behind him.
---
"John Carter, will you please report to the main office."
John got out of his chair and took his books off his desk to go to the main office. He wondered what it could possibly be for because he hadn't done anything wrong. He walks down the long hallways of Evergrove High, hoping it wasn't something too important they needed him for.
---
"Mrs. Carter, I don't feel so well," Abby told Eleanor when she couldn't withstand the pain any longer.
"What's the matter dear?" she asked Abby, getting a little concerned.
"I think the baby might be coming, ow!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Abby said, clenching her stomach.
They rolled through the hospital. Eleanor insisted on going to the ER first because it would be faster and they wouldn't be waiting for a room like they would be upstairs. They were now rolling Abby up to OB; they wouldn't accept her down in the ER unless she was critical.
"Call Carter," Abby told Eleanor, still clenching her stomach.
---
At the main office at Evergrove High, they put Carter on the phone with his mother. "Hey mom, what's going on?" he asked casually.
"Abby's having the baby!"
"What?"
"The baby is coming John, get over here now!"
"Okay," he said, hanging up the phone. He turned around and told the secretary he had to leave. When she asked why, he told her it was a family emergency, and left it at that.
Carter ran through the school parking lot and opened his car door. He raced to the hospital. He couldn't believe the baby was coming now, it wasn't supposed to come for another two and a half months. After what seemed forever, he finally arrived at the hospital. He parked his car and ran to the entrance.
"Can you please tell me where Abigail Lockhart is?" he asked the desk clerk up in OB. She looked sort of old, and was pretty large with dark red brown hair. She had long fingernails, which were painted a bright red.
"Who are you?" she asked snottily.
"Um, her boyfriend, she's having our baby now," he told her as she clicked away at the computer, trying to find where Abby was.
"She's room 304, but I believe they just transferred her to the delivery room," the lady told him.
"Okay, thanks," Carter says, taking off down the hall and ignoring the lady's question of "aren't you a little young to be havin' a baby?"
Carter got into the room in enough time to see his baby being born and Abby screaming in pain. He walks over to Abby to take a look at the little one he helped to create, but is unable to because they are whisking their little baby girl off to the NICU. By this time, Abby was in tears, but she managed to tell Carter that "They don't think she is gonna make it."
"What?" Carter asks in disbelief.
"She's too little."
"But … but," Carter doesn't know what to say, stumbling at words at the realization that his little girl won't make it. "They can't fix her?"
Abby shakes her head, "They're gonna try." Carter wraps his arms around Abby, and she does the same; both crying, both wondering if their little baby would be able to survive.