A/N: Thanks for reading. Special thanks to ghost303 for reviewing the last chapter. Only 1 more chapter and an epilogue left. Please review.
[months later]
The wedding was inching closer and closer; in less than 24 hours, Liz and Randy would be married. Tonight, the family and wedding party went out to dinner to celebrate the pending ceremony; Bob, Elaine, Nate, Teddy, Angela, John, Nicole, Bo, Michael, Reby, Taylor, and Lucas were all there. Nicole was almost 7 months pregnant, but she still agreed to be in her friend's wedding.
Randy made a toast at the dinner. "I just want to say that I'm so lucky to have such an amazing family. Liz is the best mother I've ever seen and I can't wait to make her my wife. To Liz," he said as he raised his glass.
"To Liz," the table of people repeated.
As dinner wined down, Liz stood to make a few announcements. "Remember: all of you need to be at the house tomorrow morning no later than 9 o'clock. Ma, Angie, Nicole, Taylor, Reby and I will be getting mani-pedis then hair and makeup; so I'll need you ladies there by 7," she said. Everyone nodded.
"Keep an eye on your messages in case Randy or I need to contact you before tomorrow," she said. Again, they nodded.
Liz smiled. "Alright. Thank y'all so much for being a part of this amazing moment in our lives. To thank you, this meal is on us; have a great night and drive safely." she said to close out the dinner.
All the guests hugged Liz and Randy to congratulate them; they said goodbye to the couple and their children before leaving. When Randy paid the bill, he and Liz rounded up the kids and led them outside to load them in all in the car. It was raining out so they family was rushed. Taylor had been extremely helpful; the now 11-year-old had become quite the little helper.
When Taylor put Lucas into his car seat, there was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightening. The 5-month-old boy wailed; the sound scared him. Taylor knew the drill and put a pacifier in Lucas' mouth to sooth him; Randy and Liz smiled at her. Since the car seat was in the middle of the backseat, Michael had to wait on Taylor to finish securing Lucas to the car seat before he could get in.
Taylor knew Michael was getting wet, so she got in the car to finish locking Lucas in. Michael crawled in behind her. The now 6-year-old usually sat behind the driver's seat, but Reby had beat him to the spot, so he was behind the passenger seat.
When the whole family was in the car, Randy started the drive home. He couldn't help but smile. "I can't believe we're getting married tomorrow," he said to Liz.
The bride-to-be grinned. "Yep. We'll be a whole family of Ortons. I feel like I should have held off on the kids' name changes until after we were married, though," she said.
Randy shrugged. "It's not that big a deal, you'll be an Orton tomorrow. Better late than never," he said.
She nodded. "Be careful babe. There's a car on the side of the road up ahead," she said. Randy nodded. The already heavy rain was picking up and it was getting hard to see even with the headlights on.
Before they approached the car, there was an intersection traffic light that had turned red. Randy eased on the brakes until the car came to a complete stop. He looked into the rearview mirror at the four children; Taylor was playing with her hair, Michael was dancing in his seat to the music on the radio, Reby had fallen asleep, and Lucas was looking out the window at the rain.
It had finally hit Randy that he was a family man; a father of four and a soon to be husband. He would have never thought he would be where he was at that moment. When he was younger, Randy had always vowed that he would never get married; he didn't want the drama in his life. Now, he couldn't imagine his life without Liz and their kids.
His thoughts were interrupted by the traffic light when it turned green. For safety, Randy waited a moment before pulling off. He eased his foot from the brake and slowly pressed the gas. Suddenly, there was a loud horn as Randy crossed the intersection.
An 18-wheeler was coming full speed towards the car from the right. Randy didn't have time to stop or speed up; the big rig slammed into the passenger side of the car. The car was filled with screams from the family of six. The car flipped several times before it came to a sharp halt.
oOo
Randy groaned in pain and took off his seatbelt. "Is everybody okay?" he asked weakly as he tried to clear his vision. When he couldn't hear Lucas crying, Randy got worried he tried to maneuver around the car to see if the children were okay, but they weren't there, neither was Liz. Just as he was about to panic, an EMT rushed to help him out of the badly damaged vehicle.
"Your family is safe, sir," the EMT said. "Are you hurt?" she asked.
Randy felt his body to check for any pain. "Uh, no. Just my head," he said.
The EMT nodded and gathered other EMTs who helped Randy out of car's window since the door was so damaged.
"Okay, sir, can you tell me your name?" she asked.
"Randy Orton. Is my fiancé okay?" he asked.
The EMT smiled sympathetically. "She's going to be fine, sir," she answered.
Randy was immediately even more worried. "What do you mean she's going to be okay? Is she hurt or something?" he asked.
"Don't worry, we will take good care of her. She and your son were air lifted to a hospital. They've both lost a lot of blood. Everything will be okay," she said.
Scared, Randy begged to see them. "I need to see them. Where are the rest of the kids?" he asked.
The EMT gave a genuine smile. "The others are fine; they're being examined at the hospital right now. We're going to take you, too so you can get checked out. From what I can tell, you're fine. You might have a mild concussion, but other than that, I don't see anything else. We're going to take you to hospital just to be sure, okay?" she asked.
Randy nodded and followed them to the ambulance where he was looked over.
[at the hospital]
Randy was led to the pediatric unit where Lucas, Reby, and Taylor were. "Where's Michael?" he asked Taylor.
The oldest child shrugged. "The doctor said he was hurt really bad," she said.
Randy nodded and went to find the doctor Taylor had pointed out. "Excuse me," Randy said tapping the woman on her shoulder. "My name is Randy Orton; I'm looking for my son Michael Orton," he said.
The doctor gasped. "Oh my goodness, we've been looking for you! Your son has lost a lot of blood; part of the metal from the car was lodged into his femoral artery. He'll be fine if he can get a transfusion," she said.
Randy took a deep breath. "Are there any matches her in the hospital?" he asked worriedly.
The pediatric doctor frowned. "You're his father; your blood from the crash was almost a perfect match," she said.
He shook his head. "No; I'm not Michael's biological father. I only adopted him as my son a few months ago. His mom and I are engaged; we're getting married tomorrow. At least we're supposed to be getting married tomorrow," Randy explained.
Even more confused, the doctor showed Randy Michael's chart. "We ran your blood sample from the window of the vehicle against Michael's blood; you're definitely his father," she said.
Randy was stunned. "How is that even possible?" he thought out loud. He tried to go back almost seven years ago.
He gasped when he remembered a drunken night with Liz when she had just started dating Wade.
"Mr. Orton?" the doctor waved one of her hands in front of Randy's face to get his attention. "Are you going to give your son some of your blood?" she asked.
Randy nodded. "Of course. Lead the way," he said.
The doctor rounded up a phlebotomist and another nurse and led Randy to the room where Michael was being kept. "He's unconscious right now to help keep him stable; he's lost too much blood for him to be conscious. Once he gets the transfusion, we'll wake him up," she explained as the nurses got Randy prepped for the donation.
When one of the nurses got the needle in Randy's arm, they walked him through the process of clenching his fist to help the blood flow better.
"When can I see my fiancé?" Randy asked the doctor who was preparing Michael to receive the transfusion.
"Remind me of her name and one of the nurses can go find out her condition for you," she said.
"Her name is Elizabeth Caro," he said.
The doctor nodded. "Elizabeth Caro," she repeated to the nurse.
"I'll go check on her and I'll be right back," the nurse said.
Randy took a deep breath and waited to hear back.
When one of the nurses returned, Randy perked up. When the nursed checked on the bag of blood he was filling up, Randy sighed. The nurse grabbed another blood bag. "You're a pretty big man, Mr. Orton, so you can handle donating 2 pints of blood. Would you mind giving one more pint?" he asked.
Randy shook his head. "I don't mind. Did anyone go check on my fiancé?" he asked. Just before the phlebotomist could answer, the original nurse came into the room with another doctor; when the doctor dismissed her, the nurse left.
"Can you give us a moment?" the new doctor said to the phlebotomist. He phlebotomist put the new blood bag in place before he left.
Randy frowned. "What's going on?" he asked the doctor.
The doctor sighed and sat down. "My name is Dr. Kevin Renner; I'm you fiancé's doctor. I want you to know that with every event in a hospital comes a risk. Right now, she has a lot of internal bleeding; she has no broken bones, which is a miracle in itself. The heavy internal bleeding is causing her to lose oxygen; very similar to your son's condition. However, Elizabeth's situation is very delicate because of the fetus, so…"
Randy cut him off. "Fetus? She's pregnant?" he asked.
The doctor frowned and nodded. "Did you two not know?" he asked.
Randy shook his head. "No. If she knew she would have told me," he said. He couldn't believe Liz was pregnant yet again. Baby number 5; it was so surreal. Randy would have never imagined himself as a father of 5. Right then he just decided to put an unlimited number on the amount of children he and Liz would have.
"The thing is, sir," the doctor said. "We can only save Liz; we will have to terminate the pregnancy to save her life," he said.
Randy frowned. "Why can't you save the baby, too?" he asked.
"Well, your fiancé's body is rejecting the fetus as if it were a tumor. Regardless, the fetus isn't going to survive. Either Liz's body destroys it or we do it manually," he said coldly.
The groom-to-be stammered; he couldn't believe the fates of Liz and their unborn child were in his hands. "Can't you try to save them both?" he asked.
Dr. Renner sighed. "Only one of two things can happen if we attempt to save them both: Liz's body destroys the fetus, or Liz and the fetus both die from us forcing her body to accept the fetus.
Randy took a deep breath to think; he knew Liz would want to do everything possible to save herself and the baby. "How far along is she?" Randy asked sadly; knowing the prognosis regardless of his decision.
"She's about 10 weeks pregnant," Dr. Renner said.
Randy thought quietly. "I want to talk to Dr. Madison White before I make a decision; she's Liz's OBGYN," he said.
Dr. Renner nodded. "She just left here not too long ago; I'll give her a call," he said. "I guess I can leave you here to gather your thoughts," he said before he left.
A few minutes later, the phlebotomist came back and collected the second bag of blood Randy filled up. "Okay; let's get you wrapped up and the doctor will be back to do the transfusion," he said.
Randy nodded; half listening. When Michael's doctor returned, she looked sympathetically at Randy.
"I don't need your pity. Liz and the baby are going to be fine," he said harshly.
The pediatrician offered a comforting smile. "I'm sure of it, sir. How about you go sit with the rest of your children for a while," she suggested. "The oldest is a very good big sister," she said.
Randy smiled thinking of Taylor; he nodded. "Yeah. She's the only reason I'm not out there with Reby and Lucas. She's a great big sister," he said as he stood.
"Please be careful. Go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Drink plenty of fluids and don't life anything heavy. The heaviest thing you should lift is your son's carrier," she said.
Randy nodded and shuffled to Michael's bedside where he stroked the 6-year-old's hair. "I love you, buddy," he said with a kiss to the still boy's forehead.
oOo
[in the cafeteria]
Randy, Taylor, Reby, and Lucas got warm meals while they waited for an update on Michael and Liz.
"Randy?" they heard; it was Dr. White. Randy stood to hug her. "I got here as soon as I could. How is she?" she asked.
Randy gently took her by the arm and walked her away from the fragile children. "Dr. Renner said that they can only save Liz and not the baby. He said that either Liz's body will kill they baby or the doctors will do it themselves to save Liz. Is there any way they can save Liz and the baby?" he asked her.
She sighed. "Look, Randy, these doctors know what they're talking about. If they said that those are the options, then that's it," she said.
Randy sighed. "Madison, please. Is there anything you can do? Liz is strong, you know that. She can handle it if they save the baby," he said.
Madison nodded. "I know she's strong, Randy. She's strong enough to handle the loss. Just let the doctor do their job," she said.
He took a shaky breath. "I am not going to let them kill out baby, Madison. It's not what Liz would want," he said storming out of the cafeteria to the nurses' station.
When Dr. Renner got word of Randy's decision, he quickly confronted the distraught man with consent forms in hand. "Are you sure you want this? I already told you that we won't be able to save them both," he said.
Randy nodded. "I want you to at least try," he said.
The doctor sighed. "Fine. Just sign the consent forms and we'll get started," he said as he handed Randy the clipboard of legal papers.
Randy read through the information; it basically said that the hospital wouldn't be held responsible for injuries or death during the procedure if he signed the form. He took a deep breath before writing his signature on the line. He shoved the clipboard into the doctor's chest. "Do whatever it takes," he said.
[later]
Randy had arranged for Teddy to pick up the kids from the hospital; Michael was still recovering from his injuries so he had to stay. Taylor, Reby, and Lucas were gone when Randy fell asleep in the waiting room.
He was woken by Dr. Renner. Randy quickly sat up and rubbed his eyes. "How is she?" Randy asked.
Dr. Renner took a deep breath.
A/N: Please review. Only 1 more chapter and an epilogue left.