Chapter Thirty
I disclaim and I only own Leila.
I apologize for the long delay. I debated how I wanted this chapter written and due to unforeseen circumstances, it was delayed.
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It was July 4 and Dave had flown in around dinner time. He was too sore to drive anywhere to watch fireworks or even go outside and sit on the patio to watch them over the water. His flight had been delayed in Los Angeles and Dallas and he basically spent the past 14 hours in airports and planes. His body was not up for that much discomfort after the beating he took last night. He apologized to his wife and kissed her. It was so painful to bend over to meet her lips he groaned and winced. She watched her husband walk up the stairs to their bedroom, he was limping and obviously in a lot of pain. Dave was going to have a rough time when he got older, arthritis almost a guarantee. She followed him up and began a Jacuzzi bath for him. She helped him get undressed without making him feel helpless. His ribs were bruised and he had a nice knot on his thigh. Dave shook it off saying those are the breaks when you wrestle Mark, its all or none. Nothing was broken, he was just battered. He looked like a train wreck to her but she kept her mouth shut and just helped him.
After his hour long soak she helped him to bed and did her best to make him comfortable. Leila didn't tell Dave she felt a little off today, she didn't want to bother him. She lay down next to him and cuddled as best she could considering her enormous tummy and his tender frame. They fell asleep, a relief to her body's aches and cramps. She woke two hours later when her water broke and she soaked her side of the bed. Leila looked at Dave and he was so peaceful she didn't want to wake him, besides it would be several hours before anything would happen so he could get some sleep and meet her at the hospital later. His mom was in the house so she knew she didn't need to worry about Xander. She quietly packed a bag, took a shower and left for the hospital. She left a note on her pillow and on the refrigerator.
Leila used the 15 minute drive as time to think. Reflect on her life. She couldn't help but cry at how great everything was. One thing clouded her thoughts – her unborn child. She had to remember to tell the nurses about the abdominal cyst so they could inform the pediatric surgeon. She prayed for the baby's health as she pulled into the parking garage for the emergency room. She didn't even notice her contractions were about a minute apart, all she could focus on was getting to the maternity ward and concentrating on the baby. She and Dave weren't even ready. She was six weeks early and had yet to buy anything. Dave could do it while she and the baby were here; honestly her assistant could do it in a matter of hours. Everything had already been chosen it just needed to be delivered and set up. She should have listened to her girlfriends and let them throw her the baby shower last week, but no, she told them to wait until its a little closer to the due date. Idiot. Not a big deal, but now she wouldn't get to play all those fun games where people guess the sex of the baby, guess how many squares of toilet paper it would take to wrap around her body. The food. All that delicious food. And cake. Everybody loves cake!
Leila made her way to the 14th floor and had never realized before how far up that was. Why? Why would you put the maternity ward so high up? Women in labor have no patience for the excruciatingly long ride and the many stops to get there. You had to show great restraint to the idiots who ask if you're in labor, as if your facial expressions weren't a clue. Of course had she done what she was supposed to do and go to the emergency room first and take their elevator upstairs it wouldn't be as long, but the ER had to fill out paperwork, report she was there, get a wheelchair, blah blah blah. She'd entered through the emergency room, taken step one like she was supposed too, but when she saw all those people and the lack of attention provided by the staff, she decided to just mosey on up herself.
When she finally on the 14h floor, she was greeted by the nursing staff. Three nurses descended on her and led her to a room with a view of the bay. She would go through her labor, delivery and recovery in this room, commonly called LDR. There were a lot of celebrities in Tampa and this hospital was well known for its discretion. Not that Star magazine or the National Enquirer would be waiting, but the local news would definitely report this and fans would be staged outside. Maybe that's why she was 14 floors up, more security. Once settled in her room she felt like she was in a Three Stooges episode. The three nurses, wrestling fans, asked her about Dave and if he would be there, could they get an autograph and so on and so on. They also couldn't decide if her water had broken. There was a test they did with a q-tip and the q-tip was supposed to turn from orange to blue. It wasn't changing. Leila rolled her eyes knowing full well how much water she'd released and had no doubt she did not wet the bed.
The three stooges did the q-tip test seven times and must have checked her just as many times if not more. In the hour she'd been there, Leila had gone from three to eight centimeters and suddenly stooge number one decided to get the doctor. Stooge number three had supported Leila's statement and knew the water had broken. Finally her doctor came in and Leila was already feeling the need to push. The baby's heart rate was dropping and needed to be birthed immediately, there was no time to wait or to push. This baby was being surgically removed. She hadn't even been given a chance to call Dave as she was whisked into the operating room faster than she'd ever been moved anywhere. Within 10 minutes they had her baby out and rushing to the neonatal intensive care unit, NICU. It took another two hours for Leila to come out of the anesthesia and for her brain to function.
"Hello?" Dave answered groggily not even realizing Leila wasn't next to him.
"David, honey. Are you busy?" She asked and he could hear the smile on her face.
"Uh, no. Just sleeping. Where are you?" He asked sitting up and was jolted straight out of a heavy sleep.
"The hospital. I just had the baby about two hours ago." She said to no one as Dave had dropped the phone and was running around to get dressed. He heard his mom and Xander getting up also and told her about the call. It just dawned on Dave Leila left all by herself and had the baby all by herself. He wasn't sure if he was scared out of his mind or extremely angry. He wanted to be there, wanted to watch his child being brought into this world. The three of them piled into Dave's Mercedes and he had to remember not to drive like a maniac since Xander was in the backseat.
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"Mr and Mrs Batista, I'm Iris, the attending nurse for your baby. I wanted to give you an update on the surgery's progress." Leila barely heard anything past the word 'surgery'. "The doctor inserted a camera to see the cyst and the surrounding areas. It was attached to the lower intestine which was in two parts. The parts were complete, but the cyst needed to be surgically removed and the intestine reattached to itself." Major abdominal surgery on a newborn less than 24 hours old. It couldn't wait as the baby was unable to eat and digest the food properly. After the nurse left, Leila sat there and cried. Sobbed. Blaming herself. What had she done? What didn't she do? His mom stepped out with Xander to go look at the babies. This made Leila cry more. Xander wouldn't be able to meet the new baby for another few weeks because of the recovery time from the surgery.
Leila stood in the doorway of her daughter's room thinking back to those scary first few weeks. How hard it had been to be able to leave the hospital without her new baby, to be able to move from floor to floor. The hospital let her stay in a maternity suite while her daughter was in NICU since she refused to leave until they both could leave together. They had special suites on the maternity floor specifically for mother's whose babies would be there longer than the standard 48 hours. Dave walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "She'll be fine." He whispered into her neck and nuzzled her. Leila knew she would, she'd been given the 'final inspection' from her surgeon three years ago, but she never stopped worrying. "Leave Maddie alone and come to bed. Xander's already asleep so it's just us. Come on."
Madeleine Joy Batista had arrived as fireworks were lighting up the sky. Her birthday would always have fireworks and a party! Within her first five months she went from a six pound skinny newborn to rolls and rolls of chubby baby. Happy giggly baby. She now had her daddy's dark hair with natural soft curls; she was petite like her mom and worked her daddy like a daughter should. She also had her big sisters wrapped around her finger. Xander still wasn't sure how he felt but it was obvious he loved her, he just wasn't sure if she needed to stay! "Lei, she's three years old, quit smothering her." He smiled and looked at his wife. She took a deep breath and buried her face in her husband's bare chest. Leila fought the tears but it became useless. Dave didn't know she was crying until he felt the tears on his skin. She always could her emotions well and unless he saw her face, most times he didn't know she was crying.
Every few months Leila cracked and let the tears fall. It helped release the stresses and fears she had for her children. She would always fear for Maddie's health; the what if's were constant. Xander had asthma like his dad so he was on a machine a lot in the summer months. The life of a mother is a constant tangle of emotion and learning to control some of them is the key to happiness. Leila had suffered post partum depression with Maddie and Dave's mom had recognized the signs. They got her the help she needed quickly so neither their new baby nor their son would feel the effects. It had been scary for all of them and an emotional roller coaster, but not once was Dave ever afraid Leila wouldn't pull through. He had boundless faith in her.
Leila's friend, Charlie Orton, wrote a children's book about Maddie's story and it was loved by her publishers, so Charlie asked her to do the artwork for the book. One book turned into a series about Maddie and before she knew it, they were a team and began writing books for youths and tweeners. Leila found it so much fun to talk about the issues young females have and all the books were positive reading and taught coping mechanisms for the majority of prepubescent drama. Charlie's daughter, Hayden, was a good muse for the books just like Maddie and provided many a fun filled afternoon as the ladies discussed the traumas of being the daughter of famous parents as Hayden liked to say.
Dave led Leila to their bedroom and snuggled with her on the bed. Who would have thought an emotionally cripple girl who had shut herself off from the world would blossom into the woman who loved her family fiercely. He was her best friend, her lover, her confidant. He could always make her laugh when she needed it and let her cry when the moment arose. He supported everything she did and believed in her to no end.
Who would have thought a man who had failed miserably at love and then shied away from commitment would find his perfect match. She was his best friend, she understood him like no other, she loved his daughter's like they were her own, and she welcomed his ex-wife into her life without condition. Leila was Dave's counterpoint. Her true love. Her Prince Charming. She was his everything and he was her world.
AN: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR READING THIS STORY OF DAVE AND LEILA. I WISH ALL OF YOU TRUE HAPPINESS AND BOUNDLESS LOVE IN YOUR LIVES.