Disclaimer: The show, victorious, it's characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
You promised me forever
Chapter 24 – When the levee breaks
Authors Note: Once again we skip ahead a bit. 6 years have passed since the last chapter.
It was a loud thunk, that jarred Jade from a deep sleep.
"JADE!" She heard Tori's voice cry out in pain. "Help"
Any last vestiges of sleep were quickly blasted out of Jade's head, upon hearing Tori cry out for her.
"Fuck" Jade blurted out as she hopped out of bed and turned on the light. As her eyes adjusted to the light she saw Tori on the floor near the bedroom door. She looked as if she was in pain.
"What happened?" Jade said, as she moved down to her pregnant wife's side.
Tori quickly grimaced as if in extreme pain. "I was going to the bathroom and I tripped in the dark."
Suddenly she grimaced again. "Jade it' hurts, I think my water broke.
Looking down, Jade's heart sank as she saw both water and blood on the floor near Tori's crotch.
"You should have woke me up, You know I'm here to help you." Jade barked at Tori, regretting it almost instantly.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't want to wak.…" Tori's statement was cut off by a groan of pain.
In the years since college, Jade had gone on to both act and direct. Her recent film that she both directed and acted in, was a gritty urban piece about a prostitute trying to turn her life around. It was already getting rave reviews. Some even said it was an Oscar contender.
Tori on the other hand, never had her singing career take off. She joined a band for a time as vocalist, but they broke up after a year. But in the meantime,e she got her teaching certificate. Four years ago she became a music teacher at Hollywood Arts, of all places.
Not sure how she would like it at first, Tori found that she very much enjoyed teaching. Plus, she seemed to be very good at it. She got a measurable sense of satisfaction, from inspiring young people to love music.
"Maybe I'm not going to be the next big pop star, but maybe I'll inspire the next big pop star." She would say from time to time, with a measure of pride.
Once in a while, Jade would Visit Tori at the school and they would have a tryst in the broom closet for old times sake.
Jade was doing well with her career, so she was able to buy them very nice house in the Hollywood hills. They were both very happy together.
But most recently they, had decided to finally have children. They decided to use a brand new procedure, which would combine DNA from both their eggs to make a viable embryo. It would of course be a girl, since neither of them had Y chromosomes.
After the procedure, they found they had 2 useable embryos. The procedure was still very new, so not all eggs succeeded in becoming embryos. The doctors informed them that one of the two embryos had divided, so that one would be a set of twins.
After much debate, they decided that Tori would carry their twin babies to term. Pregnancy had gone normal for about the first 6 months or so. Tori continued to teach.
Around the 7th month complications started to develop. Tori was put on full bed rest. Jade her protective instincts kicking, in doted on her mate completely. When she was busy, Beck and his wife Mandy helped out. Cat, Robbie and Andre even sat with Tori from time to time. Jade simply didn't want Tori unattended.
But tonight, a full 3 weeks before her due date, Tori fell causing her water to break. On top of that she was starting to bleed.
Jade knew the worst thing she could do, was panic. Tori needed her to be strong.
"It hurts so much." whimpered Tori. "I don't want to lose our babies."
Jade quickly took Tori's hand. "You're not going to lose anything. I won't allow it."
Jade quickly threw on some sweat pants and sneaker, before she reached for the phone.
Jade glanced at the clock, as she grabbed her phone, It was 3:34 in the Morning.
For an instant, Jade's hands started to shake, as her fear started to overwhelm her. She forced it down, with all her will power. With all her might she managed to get a handle on it and cage it up tight, as if her fear was some great beast. But she could still hear the beast, rattling on its cage unleashing all its fury on the bars that held it.
Jade quickly grabbed the bag they had prepped to the trip to the hospital and tossed it in their SUV.
Jade rushed back to Tori's side and helped her sit up. "I'm sorry I barked at you baby. I never should have let you carry them. I should have carried our babies."
Tori just groaned in pain.
Jade quickly helped Tori up putting the Latina's arm around her shoulder. Jade didn't want to wait for any ambulance. She needed to get Tori to a hospital.
A few seconds later they were speeding down the street towards the nearest hospital. Tori lay moaning and holding her belly. Jade could see she was still bleeding. As she drove she picked up her phone and hit speed dial for Mandy.
After 3 rings, she heard her step sister sleepily answer.
"Hello, Jade? Is something wrong." She said with concern.
"It's Tori, She fell and her water broke, I think something's going wrong. She's bleeding and I'm taking her to Westlake Hosptial." Jade said calmly, not letting a single ounce of emotion leak out.
Mandy suddenly felt like someone punched her in the stomach.
Mandy knew Jade well enough, to know she was terrified. Just, because she was showing no trace of any emotion at all. Jade would only do that under this circumstance, if she was trying to hold herself together.
"You attend to Tori. Beck and I will let everyone else know. We'll meet you at the hospital."
"Thanks Mandy. Bye" Jade said, as she hung up the phone.
For the rest of the drive, Jade had one hand on the steering wheel and the other was holding Tori's hand.
"I don't want to loose my babies." Tori cried.
As hard as she was trying to keep herself together, Jade found it increasingly harder and harder. Her mate was in pain and her two babies in danger. That fear she had caged up in her soul, was starting to bend the bars.
"You're going to be fine Tori, Our babies will be fine." Jade said to reassure Tori, though she badly needed reassuring herself.
Tori whimpered and moaned, the next few minutes to the hospital. Jade flew into the parking lot driving her SVU right up to the emergency room doors.
As she put the SUV in park, she looked over to see a good amount of blood on Tori's legs, the seat and the floor.
"Shit" Jade said to herself quietly. Realizing, she would not be able to cage her fear and other emotions much longer.
"I'll get someone." Jade said as she got out of the truck and ran into the emergency room.
Inside to the left, there was a desk with a tired looking middle aged nurse.
"Can I help you?" Said the woman somewhat wearily.
"My wife, she's pregnant and bleeding badly. She's in the car." Jade said franticly. "She fell, Please help her."
Sensing the urgency of the situation, the nurse got up and yelled to an orderly who was behind her. "Ben, get a stretcher out to this woman's car and her wife in here fast."
The orderly took off like a shot, while the nurse grabbed a phone to call for help. A few seconds later the orderly had gotten the stretcher out to the car. A doctor and two nurses came out quickly after.
Jade helped the orderly get Tori onto the stretcher.
"What happened? " Said an African American doctor in his 30's, who came to examine Tori.
By now Jade's defenses were crumbling "My wife tripped and fell, she started to bleed and her water broke. She's in pain." Jade said as tears came from her eyes.
The doctor examined her, as they brought her inside. As they passed the nurses station, the doctor said to the nurse on duty.
"I think we have placental abruption, get O.R. Two fired up and ready to go. Call Dr. Doty and tell him we need him, now. This woman needs an emergency c section, right away.."
Jade how had been holding Tori's hand, looked down at Tori.
"I'm scared Jade. It hurts so much." She said in obvious pain; tears streaming down her face.
"It's going to be fine Tori, everything is going to be fine." Jade said, having not the slightest clue if that was even true. It sickened her to lie to Tori, but Jade felt like she had no choice.
"I'm Dr. Highland, What is you're wife's name?" The doctor said to Jade as they continued to move her deeper into the hospital.
"Her name is Tori, she's pregnant with twins. She's not due for at least 3 more weeks." Jade answered.
"Ok Tori. I think your placenta has detached from your uterus due to your fall. I have our surgeon, Dr. Doty on his way down. We're going to need to perform an emergency c-section. Get your babies out of there and stop your bleeding." Dr. Highland said.
"Am I going to loose my babies?" A now sobbing Tori said, as they continued to roll her down the hallway.
"Just relax Tori, You'll be holding your babies in no time." He said reassuringly.
Jade looked into his face as he said it. Jade realized that he was just saying that to calm her down. Jade said nothing and just kept holding Tori's hand.
As they got to the operating room, a man in his 50's with graying hair was already scrubbed and ready to go.
"What do we have here?" He said as came up to Tori.
"Dr. Doty, It looks to be a placental abruption with pretty bad hemorrhaging." Dr. Highland said.
"I concur, let's get her under." Dr. Doty said.
At that point they rolled her into the operating room, followed Dr. Doty and 3 nurses.
Jade was about to enter when Dr. Highland stopped her.
"I attended the birthing classes, I have to be with her." Jade said her mind not quite working well at the moment.
"I'm sorry Mrs?"
"Vega-West, Jade Vega-West"
"This is a c-section, she'll be put under and they will have to perform surgery. They will let you know how she's doing as soon as the surgery is done. This nurse here will ask you a few questions. I need to scrub up." Dr. Highland said before he left.
"A nurse came up. "I just have a few questions for now. She's your wife? Is that correct?
"Yes. Her name is Victoria Vega-West. Her blood type is O negative." Jade said numbly as the last of her defenses fell away.
"Ok, Now.."
Jade cut her off.
"What can happen, what's the worst that can happen here?" Jade said, not really wanting to hear the answer.
The nurse hesitated for a moment. "There is no other way to put this. Worse case scenario, the babies die and she bleeds to death."
The nurse continued talking about how good Tori's chances are and how Dr. Doty was a fine surgeon but Jade wasn't listening anymore. Her mind was reeling from those final 7 words.
"Babies die and she bleeds to death."
Jade felt like fate had dealt her cruel blow. She felt a searing pain inside her stomach. Almost as if she was the one in danger. Jade found herself, putting her hand against a wall for support. Her knees seemed to be weakening.
"Are you OK, Miss Vega-West?"
"No. But you can leave." Jade said, barely being able to think.
The nurse tried to comfort Jade, and put a hand on her shoulder. "She'll be fine. There is a waiting room down the hall to the right. We will keep you informed."
With that the nurse left. Leaving Jade all alone.
Jade looked at the operating room doors as a whole trainload of thoughts, came thundering through her head.
"I hate fucking hospitals, I hate this fucking hospital, I hate the fact that my wife is in the fucking hospital, I hate the fact that my babies are in this fucking hospital. My beautiful pregnant wife should be at home sleeping next to me in bed, not in the fucking hospital."
Jade felt like her whole world was coming apart. She prided herself how good care she was taking care of Tori. For weeks, Jade had been waiting on the pregnant Latina, hand and foot. Every single thing Tori wanted, Jade got without any protest.
"I did everything right." Jade said Tears now flowing down her face.
It was just that, Tori didn't wake Jade up to help her go to the bathroom. Tori had still stubbornly tired to do things for herself, while she was pregnant. Jade fought her at every turn.
As she stood there another doctor and nurse, who appeared to be scrubbed up, hurried into the operating room. Jade's fear level's jumped about a 1000%. Was something going wrong? Jade thought as she started to fall apart.
"Please don't leave me Tori…" Jade now sobbing uncontrollably. Her worst fears now set loose on her psyche.
"Jade!" said a familiar voice behind her. She turned around to see Cat coming up the hallway.
"What happened? Mandy Called me. We hurried over as soon as possible. Robbies parking the car."
Jade's mouth opened for a moment but the words seemed to stick in her throat. She managed to get them out.
"Tori fell, now I might lose Tori and our babies." Jade said, as she seemed to fall into Cat's arms.
Cat held on tight, as Jade seemed to simply melt in her arms. Quickly becoming a sobbing mass. Her once strong defenses, now completely shattered.
Good news as you get a bonus chapter today. Bad news is that it's a cliffhanger. The last one of this story.
The chapter title is a reference to the Led Zeppelin song of the same name.