Thank you guys so much for the reviews andyour good wishes. Here is this don't be too mad at me because.--sk
Born Too soon

Mac was having a bad day. She was hot one minute and cold the next. She knew she should stay in bed, but she just couldn't take it anymore. The walls were closing in on her. She got out of bed and walked into the hallway.

However, just three yards from her room, Rod spotted her. He was coming around the corner. "Mac, where are you going? You need to stay in bed."

Mac turned to face him. "I had to get out of there, I'm going crazy in that room. I'm hot, I'm cold..."

"Honey, you need to be careful," he said coming to her and holding on to her arm.

"Let me go.. I'm fine," she said jerking out of his grip. "Just don't patronize me. I'm not an infant or an invalid."

"We need to get back to your room..." He insisted without touching her. He hoped is gentle persistence would be enough. She'd been incredibly irritable since she started to feel contractions the week before.

Mac shook with frustration. Her head began to ache, and her belly tightened. "Don't you understand, I'm tired... I want to go home... and I'm done... I don't want to do this anymore."

"Mac, please... the babies could die..." He immediately wished he had kept that information to himself.

"What do you mean?" Mac asked as Arrita came towards their voices.

"Mac... lets get back in your room, dear." Arrita guided a dazed and aching Mac towards her room.

"My kids can't die because I needed to take a walk, can they?"

Arrita sat her down on her bed and rolled the blood pressure machine closer to her.

"Arrita?"

The nurse tsked and shook her head, "Way too high. Please lay down Ms Allen."

Arrita never called her that, she realized. "What is it, what have I done?"

"Just relax," Rod said softly.

"Your husband is right, I'm calling Dr. Rossman." Arrita said walking out of the room.

"Rod, please tell me what's going on," Mac pleaded as their eyes locked.

He took a deep breath. He didn't want to do this now, but what choice did he have. She had to understand. "Did you know you were a twin?" Rod started.

Mac listened intently as he told the story of her birth and of the death of the twin brother she never knew she had.

As he spoke about what he had learned from her mother, her monitor began to ring, signaling an increase in her blood pressure. He should have known not to give her too many details. She was even more stressed. What have I done, he asked himself.

Arrita and another nurse burst into the room. They were afraid Mac might have a stroke so they immediately attempted to give her a mild sedative to try and decrease her blood pressure. But as they gave her the shot, her water broke. They immediately sent a bewildered Rod outside and got Mac ready for surgery. They couldn't stop delivery now.

XXXXXXXX

Rod sat in the waiting area, moved to tears by his wife's predicament.

Kate walked on to the floor and saw him there. She placed her hands on his back as she walked around to sit next to him. He didn't look up. Kate pulled her son-in-law into her arms and held him. "What Happened?"

"She's pre-eclemptic, and near eclampsia. It's my fault, I shouldn't have answered her," Rod said into his hands.

It was as if a cold hand wrapped around her heart. "Where is she?"

"They just took her in for an emergency C-Section."

"Michael is flying back from Italy tonight."

"She will be happy to see him when this is over."

"Are you kidding, you'll have to be crazy to come between him and his baby girl."

"I just pray that she makes it through this," he was completey despondent. " I'd rather have her than the kids if it comes down to it."

"It will be okay. Do you want to pray with me?" Kate asked extending her hand to him.

He took it and they both bowed their heads to pray.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile in the delivery room, Mac lay on the table unconscious, her blood pressure dangerously high and the twins now in clear distress. Her doctor made the incision on her lower abdomen and quickly reached in for Horace, who was in major distress because he was tangled in his umbilical chord and seemed to have breathed in some amniotic fluid in his struggle. They cut him free... but he remained blue. Immediately he was rushed to an incubator at the other end of the room, where pediatric specialists frantically began to work on him.

As team one worked on Horace, Team two was poised and ready to help Baby number two out of their mother. Three minutes after her brother, Rebecca was uneventfully removed from her mother's womb. She, too, was rushed to an incubator where a second pediatric team worked with her.

Relieved that the twins were safely delivered, Dr. Rossman and Dr. Perkins turned their attention to Mackenzie. But as they made the final few stitches, she began to convulse. "She's seizing," Dr. Rossman practically shouted. "I need 20mg of phenobarb immediately."

Both doctors continued to work on Mac, who was now in grave danger. "Come on, Mackenzie," Dr. Perkins said aloud, "don't do this to your babies. You did so well this time... Don't you dare die on me now!"