Chapter 30
"Stefan, do you think you can go and get Archer?" Elena had stopped crying and Ric had moved to the little sofa that was in the corner and he sat there motionless. Stefan looked at her, her eyes were all puffy and her face was all red. He gave her a forced smile, and then kissed her forehead,
"Sure, do you want me to get Caroline in here?" she gave a small nod and then kissed his check, he got up from the bed and gave Ric a look, and Ric got up and went to sit next to the bed. Stefan walked past the nurses station to the waiting room where he was sure Caroline would be, and he was right.
"Stefan, is she ok?" Caroline stood up and then he noticed Archer playing In the corner, Caroline saw him looking, "I'm sorry, I knew she would want to see him sooner or later so I went to pick him up to save you from going back home." He gave a little nod and then walked over to Archer and sat on the floor next to him, the other people in the waiting room were listening to what he had to say, mainly because they had probably heard him shout at Jeremy earlier,
"Arch, come her buddy." Archer looked at Stefan and then walked over and sat in his lap,
"is mummy ok?" Stefan looked into his eyes and saw fear, sadness and then Archer cuddled into Stefan's chest, Stefan started to rub Archers back, and he looked at Caroline who was focusing all her attention on them.
"No she's not buddy, mummy is not very well, but she wants to see you. But you have to be nice and calm, she is really sad." Archer sat up from Stefan's shoulder and gave little nod. Stefan stood up and held Archer in his arms, and they walked to Elena's room.
"Mummy, daddy says you are sad." Archer crawled up onto the bed and cuddled into Elena, "do you want a hug like you and daddy give me when I am sad?" Elena gave him a nod and Stefan climbed onto the bed and got under the covers, they sandwiched Archer in the middle and Stefan was only just on the bed but he didn't feel the need to complain.
"Archer, I love you so much." Elena kissed his head and pulled him in closer, "Never forget that." Archer snuggled into Elena's chest and fell asleep.
"Elena are you sure you want to surgery?" Stefan looked at Elena and she could see the worry in his face. Alaric and Caroline had left the room, to go home, so it was just the three of them.
"Stefan, I want another child, and we were both so happy. If this surgery could give us another chance, why wouldn't I do it?" Stefan gave her a kiss and then they all fell asleep, it had been a long day. A very long day.
"Elena we need to take you for surgery now." Elena gave Stefan a look and then kissed him and Archer, and then she was wheeled out of the room by Meredith and a group of nurses.
"Were are they taking mummy?" Archer looked Stefan in the eyes,
"They are taking her to have a little operation, to make her feel better, she will be fine. But to fill the time you are coming with me on my rounds." Stefan went over and picked Archer up, "but first of all I got you something." He lent down and picked up a little bag, which inside it was a lap coat the had a name sown onto the front 'Dr Archer Bradley Salvatore M.D' Archers mouth opened and made a big O,
"For me?" Stefan gave him a little nod and then slipped the lab coat onto him.
"We got to get going Dr Salvatore." Stefan kissed his little nose and then they left the room.
"Miss Jenkins, how are you?" Stefan was standing at the end of the bed and she hadn't noticed Archer yet because he was so small,
"I'm feeling ok, I have a bit of a headache." Stefan made a quick note on the chart and then he felt a tugging on his jeans,
"Daddy, pick me up." He looked down and saw Archer with massive eyes, he put the chart down on the table and then picked him up. "That is better."
"Who is this?" Miss Jenkins had a smile spread across her face and she sat up a bit more,
"This is my son Archer." Stefan shifted his weight, and Archer pointed to the label on his jacket,
"The famous Archer" Stefan gave a nod and then he could see Archer liked the idea of being famous, "it is nice to meet you, your daddy talks about you all the time. He says you are very special." Archer gave a quick nod,
"I am special because my mummy and daddy couldn't have children and then they had me." Archer pointed to himself and then they both laughed.
"I didn't know that Stefan." He gave a little smile and then looked at Archer, "Dr Salvatore, do you want to check my temperature?" Archer gave a nod and then wiggled out of Stefan's arms and went over to the side of the bed. He pulled out the little thermometer that Stefan had put in his jacket, he pressed it to her forehead,
"Daddy what does it say?" Stefan walked over and looked at the thermometer,
"96, that means it is normal. Archer can you go and give this to Lauren at the nurse's station and then tell her I said to take you to my office, there is some ice cream in the freezer." Stefan handed him the file and then Archer ran out of the room. Miss Jenkins gave him an odd look, but then he went and shut the door,
"I wanted to talk to you about something." He sat back down in the chair and ran his fingers through his hair,
"Go ahead, ask me anything."
"Recently I read into your past some more, only the medical stuff. It said 5 years ago you had a miscarriage, is that true?" his eyebrows narrowed together,
"Yes, it is true, where are you going with this?" Stefan looked directly into her eyes,
"I am sorry to bring this up again but, how did you, and your husband deal with it?" she looked at him and was silent for a second,
"We never really did, we never tried again and it tore us apart, we got a divorce and we haven't talked since. Why are you asking?" Stefan ran his hand through his hair again and then sat forward on the chair.
"Well, 3 weeks ago my wife found out she was pregnant, and we were both so happy. We were so happy, first we couldn't have children and then we had Archer and then we were blessed with another child. But yesterday she has a miscarriage, and I don't know how to deal with it." She placed her hand on his,
"Stefan I am so sorry, why are you here now? You should be with her." She hit his hand and he sat back in his chair,
"She is in surgery, the reason she had the miscarriage was a tear in the uterine wall from when she had Archer. I just don't know what to say to her or how to act around her."
"Stefan, one thing my husband did wrong was bring it up all the time, just act as if everything is normal, spend lots of time with Archer and give her lots of attention, buy her gifts and then tell her you can try again. Keep telling her you can try again." Stefan looked at her, and nodded,
"Thank you, I should go and find the little monster," he got up from the chair,
"Stefan, how old is he?"
"He is 18months old, I know he is advanced. But he is special, and he means a lot to me. Thank you and I will take your advice, I am going to see how things are going with the surgery." Stefan patted her on the shoulder and then left the room to go and find out how things were going.
"Archer, come on" Stefan had walked to his office and while doing so he had received a lot of odd looks from many of his colleagues.
"But Daddy!" Archer started to bang his feet against the sofa, Stefan went over and crouched down in front of him,
"No buts. I am going to see how mummy is doing and you are going to spend some time with uncle Klaus." Stefan grabbed a napkin from the table and wiped Archers face, somehow he had managed to get ice cream everywhere.
"Can I go and see mummy?" Archer lifted his arms up and Stefan picked put up,
"no little man, when mummy feels better I will come and find you but till then uncle Klaus is going to take you and Alex to the park." Archer lent his head into the nook of Stefan neck,
"Fine, tell mummy I love her." They had reached the waiting room and then Klaus spotted them,
"How is she?" Klaus took Archer out of Stefan's arms,
"I don't know, I am going to check on her now. Thank you for taking him for the rest of the day." Stefan stroked Archer head and kissed him,
"Be good for uncle Klaus. I love you." He looked at Klaus, "thanks again, I will keep you posted." Stefan turned his back and walked in the opposite direction.
He walked up to the nurses station on the surgery floor, and the young lady on the desk gave him a quizzical look, "how can I help you Dr Salvatore?" she looked up at him and then she started to fiddle with her long honey blonde hair,
"Yes Malorie, you can. I was wondering if I could get an update on my wife. Elena Salvatore." She looked down and the compute and started to type, she kept biting her lip and giving Stefan a glance now and then,
"She has just got out of surgery, and the doctors are just doing the routine checks. I saw your son earlier." She bit her lip again and then flipped her hair out of her face, Stefan let out a little laugh, and "he looks like you, a very lucky boy." Stefan gave her a nod and left with a giant smile on his face.
"Dr Oliver!" Stefan shouted down the corridor, Dr Oliver came to a halt and turned round, "how is she?" Stefan stopped about a meter in front of him and then crossed his arms, but stuffed his hands under his arm pits.
"She is fine, the surgery went as planned and there were no complications. They just took her to her room now so she should be there, however she is still under aesthetic and will be for a while. Everything is fine, so there should be no reason you cannot have any more children." Dr Oliver gave him a pat on the back, and then carried on to where he was going beforehand. Stefan let go of the breath he didn't even know he was holding in and he felt more relaxed that he had been in the past few days. He found himself smiling and then he headed to Elena's room.
Stefan took a seat next to Elena's' bed and then held her hand,
"Elena, I love you and I want you to never forget that. I also want you to never give up on the idea of more children, we can keep trying, and we will be happy and we will have a big happy family. We will move to a big house will a big garden so our kids can play outside, and no matter what is thrown our way we will go through it together, I promise you that." He kissed her hand and then got up from the chair and kissed her lips, he gently brushed her hair with his hand and then sat back down on the chair, "I promise I will do anything in my power to make you happy." He got comfortable on the chair and closed his eyes to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Stefan woke up to a moan, and a tap on the shoulder, "Stefan, wake up" he looked over to the bed to see Elena looking at him with a smile on her face,
"Oh my god, I love you." He was now smiling from ear to ear and he kissed Elena and hard as he could, Elena broke the kiss with a smile
"I love you to, do you know how the surgery went?" she rubbed her eyes and then sat up in the bed, Stefan gave her a nod and then sat on the end of the bed,
"Everything went as planned, they sewed up the tare, and there we no problems." Stefan kissed her again,
"We can keep trying right?" Stefan wiped away a single tear from her cheek,
"Of course we can, we will keep trying and we will have loads of kids," Elena nodded and then pulled him in for a hug,
"You promise?" Stefan kissed her head and then whispered in her ear,
"I promise."