Sorry for the late update folks. School got hectic. Plus I've uploaded another Nick and Zoe fic. Its called 'The Familiar Stranger'. Have a look and let me know what you think.
As always, please continue to read and review.
Jody opened her eyes to discover herself lying on the sofa in Nick's office, blankets draped over her and a hospital pillow underneath her head. She sat up, pulled the blanket off of her and got up. She put on her shoes and headed out of the office, towards the ED. She stopped outside Tess' office and knocked.
"Come in." She heard, so she went on in. "Oh hello Jody, nice to see you, what's up?" Tess said, smiling.
"Well... I just woke up in Dad's office. I'm assuming he and mum are still with Eilidh, but I don't know how to get to them..." She said.
"Oh, that's no problem. I'll take you up. I've been dying to see her again anyway. I'm assuming she's called Eilidh?" Jody nodded.
"Yes, we named her yesterday. I picked it." She said, smiling even though she was tired.
"Well its a beautiful name, for a beautiful girl." Tess said, as they got out of the lift on the third floor. Tess then led Jody to Nicu. Right enough, when they found Eilidh, Nick and Zoe were both fast asleep on the chair next to her. Zoe still had her hand in the incubator, and Eilidh was still gripping her finger. She was awake, her eyes were wide open and looking around the room.
"I forgot how gorgeous she was!" Jody said, rushing over to the incubator. She sanitised her hands and then threaded one hand through one of the hatches on the incubator. She took hold of Eilidh's hand and awed as her little fingers grasped, tightly, onto her's.
"She is beautiful." Tess agreed.
"Hello gorgeous! You gave us all a scare yesterday! Yes you did." Jody cooed through the incubator. Zoe, hearing the commotion, opened her eyes and sat up.
"Morning Jodes, morning Tess." They smiled. Zoe stood and looked into the incubator. "Morning princess! I'm sorry, I didn't know you were awake. You're probably starving, let me go find out if I can feed you." She whispered to Eilidh and then left the room, leaving Jody, Eilidh and a (still) sleeping Nick alone with Tess.
"I wonder if we can take her home today." Jody thought out loud.
"Probably. They'll check her over soon and then let you all know." Tess told her. Suddenly, Nick woke up to his phone buzzing in his pocket.
"Ah crap he said. Morning folks, sorry, I have to take this." He said, getting up and heading out, onto the balcony.
"Typical my father." Jody said, Tess chuckled at her.
"Well, it definitely looks important." Tess said. Jody glanced over at Nick quickly, sure enough, he looked stressed. He was pacing, and sighing, and rubbing his temples. Tess was right, and something was wrong. She didn't have much time to deliberate, however, because Zoe returned with the ward nurse.
"Okay little missy, lets get you looked at." The nurse said. She opened the incubator, have a look at Eilidh and smiled. "You're good to go, aren't you." She said, lifting Eilidh out of the incubator and handing her to Zoe. "Now, are we breast feeding or bottle feeding?" She asked. Breast feeding. But only for the first three days, that's enough for her to get the colostrum. But then I'm done." She said. Tess and the Nurse laughed. The nurse sat Zoe down and began to get her to breast feed.
"Tess, what's colostrum?" Jody asked, Tess smiled.
"It's the substance that a woman's breasts produce in the first couple of days after birth. It has a similar composition to milk but is has little to no fat and has a high concentration of the mothers antibodies. Basically, its really good for the baby." Tess told her.
"Oh. Well thats cool." She said. Zoe smiled at her.
"You're a nut sometimes Jodes." She said.
"And proud of it!" She retaliated, causing everyone to laugh. Out on the balcony, Nick was still on the phone, he was still pacing, and his body language was becoming worse by the second. Zoe sighed.
"I wonder what he's up to, he's missing her first feed!" She said, as little Eilidh finally began to feed. "Sheesh! That's so uncomfortable." Zoe exclaimed, everyone laughed again.
"You're a nut sometimes mum." Jody said, cheekily, grinning at Zoe.
"Oi you! I will get you for that, mark my words." She replied, smiling. At that moment, Nick came back in from the balcony. He sighed and came over to them. Zoe studied his face worriedly. His brow was creased and he was perspiring slightly.
"Who was that?" She asked.
"It was Yvonne." He sighed.
"Are you seriously telling me, you missed Eilidh's first feed to chat to Yvonne?" Zoe asked, quite hurt.
"No, no, not like that. It was about those men. The ones that attacked you and Jody. Well... They're going to court. They want you two in as witnesses. You're heading to court. I told them about Eilidh, our situation, I tried to get you excused. But, legally, its not possible." He said. Zoe relaxed a little.
"Nick, that's not that bad. Jodes and I can handle a court case. Can't we munchkin?" She said, smiling at Jody. Jody nodded nervously. "Besides, it'll be good to see them behind bars at our hand. I want to kill them for what they did." Nick nodded.
"I do too. But I don't really want to get our children involved. Jody's heart warmed at Nick's use of the phrase 'our children'.
"Dad, I know it's not what you want to hear, but, I'm kinda already involved." She said. "But mum, I'm scared. What if seeing them, what if it brings back the nightmares?" She asked worriedly. Zoe shook her head. It won't. And if, by some minuscule chance, it does, we will be right here for you Jodes. You know that. We can get through this. Right?" She said. Jody nodded.
"Right." Zoe turned to Nick.
"I suppose so." He said, tiredly.