19:00 27th February 2013 Dingle District Hospital, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland
An hour later, Cain was sat holding his niece who was fast asleep, when a doctor came over to talk to him.
"Ms Thomas had a nasty bang to the head" he started, and it took a minute for Cain to realise he was talking about Chas. "We've put thirteen stitches in her head and given her a scan. There's no bleeding or swelling on the brain, so we're happy to let her come up here under close observation. The placenta is now delivered and although her heart rate's still very high, often with pre-eclampsia this doesn't settle down for a while. We've given her some blood as her white count was very low and put her on an IV to rehydrate her. She's a bit groggy, but fully conscious now, and waiting to see her daughter" the doctor smiled at him as he led the way towards the room. Cain was nervous as he walked, not knowing how much Chas was going to remember, how she would react to seeing him carrying her baby.
Chas was sat up in bed, linked up to a couple of monitors and a drip. Her wide brown eyes were locked desperately onto the door as she waited for proof that her daughter was safe and well. The doctors had told her several times that everything was fine, but she couldn't believe them, not until she had her daughter in her arms once more. She remembered every second of the birth and the nurses had told her that her brother had come in the ambulance with her, had sat with the baby as he waited for news. She knew they were offering this as a comfort, but in reality it sent shivers through her body.
Her head was still banging, she was exhausted and her whole body ached, but none of that mattered. She was still alive, she was a mother again, and if she could just hold her…
Cain entered the room and nodded to his sister, hiding his relief at seeing her alive and well behind his usual cold exterior. She nodded back to him, not giving anything away either. But when he placed the little creature in her arms, her face lit up, she pushed back the blanket to have a good look at her daughter. She counted her ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes, stroked her black hair, kissed her frowny brow and breathed in her delightful smell. Tears of relief fell down her cheeks. She'd done it, against all odds, she'd done it on her own and she couldn't have been more proud.
Cain watched in silence, hardly daring to breathe. He took a good look at his sister, trying to see how she'd changed since he'd last seen her. She hadn't put much weight on to say she'd been pregnant, but then she hadn't last time either. He saw that Chas's head had been bandaged quite heavily and felt guilty that he'd caused her such an injury. He was getting a strange sense of déjà vu standing there, feeling useless and guilty, not knowing what to say.
Chas finally tore her eyes away from her daughter and looked up at Cain. She was too tired to glare, so she settled for a scowl.
"It's like going back in time" he said to her quietly, "you lying all beaten and bruised on a hospital bed after giving birth to a secret baby".
"Yeah" Chas agreed, "but last time you hadn't been the one that had beaten me. I hadn't been hiding it from you. Funny how things change, eh" she said sarcastically.
Cain looked around to check nobody had heard her say he'd beaten her. "Ssh" he warned her, "someone'll hear".
"Might be a good idea, getting you locked up for assault" she said half-heartedly. They both knew she'd never do that.
"How is it? Your head I mean?"
"Banging"
"For what it's worth, I never meant to do that. You were in the way, I told you to get out of the way"
"Yeah, I was a bit busy passing out at the time Cain, don't know if you remember?"
He nodded and sank into a chair, pushing his hands through his hair, trying to figure out what to say. "What you calling her?" was the best he could come up with.
Chas's eyes sparked with rebellion as she told him, daring him to argue, "Evie. Evie Rose Thomas".
Cain's mouth twitched as he heard the name, "she's not a Thomas though is she?" he ground out, "she's a Dingle. She's a Murray. Not a Thomas, unless you were shagging around with the vicar as well?"
"Well, it is my speciality" Chas challenged, knowing full well that was what he was implying. And Cain was right back in the past again, seeing his brainbox sister living up to a reputation gained from one stupid mistake, branded a tart at school because she'd had a baby and giving up fighting it. People had always written her off as a slapper and underestimated her because of it, and she'd very often used this to her advantage. But this time, he couldn't understand her motives. She'd destroyed her family, broken Debbie's heart, for some idiot with a clapped out old truck.
Evie started fussing, breaking the tension and causing Chas to lose interest in her brother. She jigged the baby up and down a bit and spoke softly to her.
"She'll need feeding" Chas said.
Cain stood and nodded, leaving the room to give her some privacy, "be back in twenty" he said, and she couldn't figure out whether it was a promise or a threat. She fed and burped Evie with no problems and then placed her gently in the cot next to her bed. She knew what Cain meant about going back in time, it was very surreal being in such similar circumstances to twenty years ago. And yet again she was having to pretend she wasn't scared witless. She wondered what had happened to Aaron, the last she'd heard was an answerphone message left hours ago saying he was on his way. Part of her hoped he'd not managed to find a flight, that he was stuck in France, so Cain didn't run into him and find out he'd been lying to him. But a bigger part of her desperately wanted to see her son, the only person who'd been there with her from the beginning. They'd become so close over the last few months, calling and skypeing each other, him practising his French and checking on her wellbeing, her asking for news from home and gossip about him and boyfriend Carl. When she came round in the resuscitation room, she'd asked the nurse to call him, to tell him everything was fine, not to come. But she wasn't sure if the message had been left too late.
Cain returned with a coffee for him and a hot chocolate for her. She refused it, he rolled his eyes at her stubbornness and put it on her bedside table before sitting down. They sat in silence for a minute or so, then Cain asked, "why here?"
"S'where Dad used to go. I didn't think anyone knew. How d'you find me?" she asked.
"Nicked your post from Diane's. Found a credit card bill."
Chas laughed at the simple way she'd been caught, after months of carefully covering her tracks "I asked her to burn everything".
"Probably was gonna, I swiped them when she was distracted with Liam" he said.
Chas's eyebrows shot up as she heard mention of her great nephew. "How's he doing?" she asked tentatively.
Cain shook his head angrily, "you don't get to ask about them. Even though I know you know everything. Who's been telling you, eh? Who's been keeping you updated with all the news? Is it Diane?"
Chas shook her head.
"Gennie?"
Another shake, "no. But I wouldn't tell you if it was. They don't need grief from you. What are you gonna do now, eh? Still gonna take me back to Yorkshire to face my punishment? What was it you said, you'll drag me back by the hair if you have to?"
Cain's temper flashed at her mocking tone, "it wouldn't be any less than you deserve. You don't know what you've done, do you? You selfish bitch…"
Chas started to feel strange, her face twitching uncontrollably "Cain…" she interrupted but he wouldn't let her speak.
"No, don't Cain me, you've completely wrecked Debbie's life…"
But Cain stopped speaking as Chas's body suddenly went completely rigid, like someone had flash frozen her. Her monitors started to go crazy, all beeping and chiming at once. He watched in horror as Chas now started to convulse, shaking so violently the bed was rocking. Her arm went flying out to the side and knocked the cup of hot chocolate against the window. Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth where she had bitten her tongue, and her whole face started to turn blue.
Cain pressed the buzzer by her bed and ran to the door to shout for help. Two nurses and a doctor were already running in his direction. "How long's she been seizing?" the doctor asked him when he got in the room and checked all of the monitors. Another nurse came and rolled Evie's crib out of the room, to give them space to work.
"About half a minute I think. What's going on?" Cain asked, not understanding what had happened.
The doctor ignored Cain and got on with telling the nurses what to do "looks like eclamptogenic toxaemia. Push ten of hydralazine and six of magnesium sulphate" the nurse nodded and injected something into the cannula in Chas's arm. Chas stopped moving but didn't wake up. The doctor carried on talking, all of the medical staff buzzed around Cain as if he wasn't there, "she's cyanotic, put her on full oxygen and get an ECG, haematocrit, liver function and platelet count please" he left the nurses to it and guided Cain out into the corridor by his elbow.
Cain stood back and leaned against a wall, anxiety taking over "What's wrong with her? She was blue. Why was she blue? Why isn't she waking up?"
"She wasn't breathing whilst she was fitting, but we've put her on oxygen, so she'll pink up again soon" the doctor replied, "it looks like she's developed eclampsia. I'm not going to lie to you, it's a very serious condition that needs monitoring closely. She's fallen into a coma, which is often the case. Now we need to test her system functions and put her on five minute observations"
"When will she wake up?" Cain asked.
"It varies patient to patient. But once we've performed all the necessary tests, you're welcome to go and sit with her. She may well be able to hear you talking, so be encouraging and reassure her as much as you can."
"What about Evie?" Cain asked, making the doctor frown, "the baby? Where's she been taken?"
"We've taken her to the maternity den. It's a little room where there's a couple of dedicated midwives to attend babies when their mothers can't. She'll be well looked after there, but if you want to visit or take her out and bring her in to sit with her mum for a bit, that won't be a problem. I'll ask for her name to be noted, Evie was it?"
Cain nodded, "Evie Rose Thomas".
"Beautiful. Now if you'll excuse me…take a seat and someone will come and get you when we're finished."
Cain sat down on the plastic bench and let his head fall into his hands. He wished he'd never stepped foot in this blasted country. How had it come to this? Was this his fault? He'd been telling anyone and everyone for the last few months that he was going to kill Chas when he found her. Now he was terrified he'd done just that.