Chapter 2 – Seeing the living

Sara and Alex left for their honeymoon two days later. They went to Mexico for 8 days and came back tanned and a little hung over. They had just moved into an apartment together and they still had barely unpacked anything. Sara worked at the coroner's office and Alex was just starting a career as a lawyer at a big firm downtown.

When they were in Mexico, Alex told Sara something he had wanted to tell her, but only when they got married. His Grandmother had died about 5 years ago. Her husband and her had owned a large company and sold it, leaving them with a lot of money. In her will, she left all the money to Alex and Janice, but they would only get it when they got married.

At first Sara had thought it was just a little. Something to keep their heads up, but then Alex told her the figure. $10 million.

Sara had almost fallen off her chair. Alex was really modest about it, saying they didn't have to use it or even touch it. Sara didn't know what to think about it. She told him that it was his money, not hers and he could use it however he wanted.

After their honeymoon, Sara found out she was pregnant. She thought she it would have taken longer, but she was hit with the news almost exactly one moth after they got back. Alex had always said he wanted children so, of course, he was ecstatic.

They went through the pregnancy with no complications. Sara felt great the entire time and, even though she was very nervous, she was very happy to have a child. At 5 months, they went in for a sonogram. After some arguing, they decided they did want to know the sex of the baby. You could have cut the anticipation with a knife as the nurse rolled the camera around Sara's protruding belly. Alex held Sara's hand hard as the three of them watched the screen.

"It's a girl," the nurse said, spinning in her chair to face them. Alex and Sara looked at each other, identical looks of surprise and happiness on their faces.

"A girl," Alex breathed. He couldn't believe it. Right at this very moment, he realized that he was going to be a father. The father of a beautiful little girl. He looked down at Sara again and could see that her eyes were getting teary. He kissed her and they looked back at their little girl on the screen. Absolutely perfect. The little girl moved around on the screen and Sara squeezed Alex's hand. She never thought she would be this excited to see a little living being roll around in her belly.

SnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickers

When Sara was about 8 months pregnant, she and Alex were sitting at home, going through the baby names book for what seemed like the hundredth time. They still hadn't narrowed them down very much and it seemed like they never would. But, no matter how long it took, they were having fun doing it. Almost every night they would sit down with the book and pour over all the girl names, trying to agree on one. So far they had eliminated about 10 of them.

"How about Charlotte?" Alex asked.

"No, Alex, I already told you. Charlotte has bad memories attached to it. Do you not remember that girl who used to beat me up in the playground?"

"I thought that was Emily," Alex asked confused.

"Nope, Charlotte." She looked back at the book and flipped a few pages.

"Well I like the name. That was my grandmother's name."

"No Charlotte," Sara tried to finalize it. "How about Fran?"

"Are you kidding?" Alex said dramatically. "Fran? Fran is a name for old ladies who sit at home with 10 cats waiting for their grandchildren to call."

Sara smiled at him. It wasn't like him to be stereotypical. "Old ladies with cats?" she asked trying to suppress a laugh.

"Yeah," he said, already regretting saying it.

"Ok, no Fran," Sara agreed.

This lasted for a long time, just like every other night before it. But tonight it was cut short by a phone call. Alex's partner, Dylan had called him into work.

"I have to get down there," he said as he grabbed his coat and kissed his wife and her belly. "Love you!" he shouted before slamming the door shut.

Sara smiled at the door a moment before looking back down at the baby book. It only took about 5minutes before Sara felt fatigue settle in. she yawned and stretched and hoisted herself off the couch and into the bedroom. She got ready for bed and knelt down beside the bed like she had ever since she was a little girl. She made a quick prayer. She thanked God for the baby and Alex and then slipped into bed.

5 hours later she woke up startled and not knowing why. She waited, hoisted up on her elbows, trying to listen for whatever had woken her so suddenly. On the table beside her the phone rang a second time. She looked beside her. Alex wasn't there. She reached across his place and took the phone off the table.

"Hello," she mumbled.

"Sara?" Sara recognized Dylan's voice.

"What's up Dylan?" she noticed worry in his voice and wondered why he was calling at midnight.

"I…you have to get down here. There….Alex…He…Oh, Sara, Alex was in an accident. His car crashed. I…I don't know what to do," it sounded like he was close to tears.

"What? Dylan, what do you mean he was in an accident," Sara shouted at him.

"He…he's at the hospital. He crashed the car about 2 hours ago. He's in surgery…you need to get down here, quick!" he said back to her. Sara could tell he was crying now and she felt the tears come too as she said a quick "I'll be there" and quickly got dressed. She got into her car and drove as fast as the speed limit could possible let her. She quickly parked and rushed into the hospital, letting the tears fall freely down her face. When she got into the ER waiting room she did a quick scan and spotted Dylan sitting on a chair, his head in his hand. She dashed over to him. He had his arm casted and he had a few small, bandaged cuts on his face.

"What happened?" Sara asked through the tears.

"He…we skidded. A car hit us on the highway. Hit…hit the driver's side. He w-was crushed." Dylan looked at Sara through puffy eyes. "They won't tell me anything. They say I'm not family," he said desperately.

Sara sat down in a daze. She couldn't believe this was happening. Her mouth was slightly open and she felt light headed. This couldn't be happening. She looked down at the bump that was her stomach. She held onto it and let the tears make their trek down her face again.

SnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickersSnickers

It was the longest hour of Sara's life. Alex was still in surgery so the doctor still hadn't given them any information. She barely moved. She sat there, her hands on her stomach, the tears making their non-stop presence on her face. She stared straight ahead and tried to hope for the best. For the second time that night, she prayed. She prayed he would be ok.

Almost exactly an hour after Sara got there, the doctor came out and called Alex's name. Sara stood up and made her way over on shaky legs. The doctor was a tall man with fiery red hair. He looked to be about 30 and his name was Dr. Pierson. Dylan came up behind her and slipped a hand in hers.

Dr. Pierson hated this part of his job. He loved helping people and he loved his job as a whole, but this was definatly the hardest thing any one doctor had to do. He knew the woman in front of him was his patient's wife and her being pregnant just made his job that much harder.

He took a deep breath and started. "I am very sorry, Mrs. Montez. We tried as best we could, but he didn't make it." Dr. Pierson thought he might cry from the reaction Sara had. At first it looked like she might not do anything. Then the tears came out of her eyes almost as if they weren't supposed to be there at first. Then her face scrunched up and started to wobble on her feet. Sobs started coming from her as she started to shake and Dr. Pierson reached out as she started to fall. He caught her and, with Dylan's help, they brought her to a chair. Sara cried in gasps, almost not able to breathe. She didn't want to believe that doctor, but she knew she had to. She knew he was telling the truth, but her brain kept screaming at her, saying it couldn't be true.

Dr. Pierson was kneeling at Sara's feet. He held a hand on her knee a moment then stood up. He was about to leave when Sara started screaming.

"Sara!" Dylan said. He was crying too but Sara was holding her stomach now. She was crying and screaming and holding her stomach and Dr. Pierson knelt back down at her feet.

"Sara, are you ok?" he asked. It was a little bit of a stupid question, but he didn't know if she was just upset or physically in pain.

Sara shook her head between sobs. It felt like the baby was trying to jump right out of her right now. The doctor was kneeling at her feet trying to get her to calm down. He took out a stethoscope and listened to Sara's stomach.

"I think she is going into labor," he said. Sara barely heard him and Dylan started freaking out.

"That's impossible!" He started blabbering on as Dr. Pierson called a nurse to get her over to the maturity ward.

The next few hours were fuzzy and Sara had a hard time remembering them later on. Alex's parents had come into the hospital and when they were told Sara was going into labor, they rushed over to her room. Sara had barely stopped crying. She still couldn't believe Alex was gone and her baby was coming. It was coming and Alex wasn't here. Mr. and Mrs. Montez had come in and sat with Sara for awhile. She was a mess and he tried to be strong, comforting his wife and daughter-in-law.

The doctors had debated trying to stop the labor. In the end they decided that the baby was doing ok and it would be ok to have the baby now. They watched her and the baby closely and tried to comfort her as much as they could so things didn't get any worse.

As Sara's labor progressed over the next few hours, she was numb. It was almost as if she had cried until there were no tears left. The nurses tried to keep her calm but she kept crying with no tears coming out. She sat in the bed, holding onto the bedrails, only moving when a contraction hit her.

20 hours and 45 minutes after she was told Alex had died, the nurses brought her into the delivery room. Sara was very worried and didn't know how she was going to do this. No-one was here with her and she had never done this before. She started crying as another painful contraction ripped through her body. She was told to push and she tried. She tried as hard as she could to get the baby out, but she didn't want to come. She pushed and pushed and pushed and cried the entire time.

Almost two hours of pushing crawled by before the doctor told her the baby was almost out. She gave one final push. One final push for Alex's baby. This one was for Alex.

Sara laid her sweaty head on the pillow as the doctor shouted "it's a girl!" to Sara. Sara's head lifted slightly so she could see the baby that was put on her stomach. As soon as she saw her she leaned back again and put her hands to her face. The nurse lifted the baby up off Sara and carried her away as she let more tears fall.

Sara took a deep breath and lifted her head to see her baby again. She was being weighed now and Sara listened closely. The baby was 5 pounds, 7 ounces. She watched while the nurses did their thing and checked her out. The tears were still falling as one nurse came over.

"What are you going to name her, honey?" she asked kindly. Sara looked up at the woman. She looked back at the baby and bit her lip.

"Charlotte."