Joey sat in the waiting room as his wife and daughter had been taken away by doctors. Their daughter had suddenly turned blue briefly in the ambulance and Lauren had lost consciousness due to her blood loss.

His head was in his hands and he was taking deep calming breaths. This was all too familiar to him. This was all too familiar of the time he had come here when Lauren had been pregnant with Hope and she was hit by a car, she was rushed away from him then too and all he could do was wait.

No one was talking to him.

No one was telling him anything.

He had no idea what was happening with his wife or with his daughter, only that they were both being seen to by doctors.

He let out a deep breath and he looked at his watch, the watch that Lauren had brought him for Valentine's Day nearly 18 years ago. It was 3:30am. He wondered if he should call his mum, Lauren's parents to let them know what was going on. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and stood up, pacing the floor as he debated about who to call first, when a doctor walked in

'Mr Branning?' he asked him

'Yes' he said 'How are my wife and daughter?'

'Your daughter is doing fine, she's in the nursery; you have a very healthy baby girl'

'God thank you and Lauren?'

'Your wife suffered severe blood loss' he said as he gestured for Joey to sit down, Joey took a deep breath and he feared the worst as the doctor continued to speak 'your wife had a placental abruption, part of it broke off when she was giving birth and didn't deliver and remained inside her, this was why she continued to bleed so heavily, her uterus couldn't contract…. We need to take her into surgery and we need you to sign some consent forms

'Surgery?' Joey asked him with a frown as he looked down at the clipboard he had been given scanning through the words

'We managed to deliver the rest of the placenta, but nothing we've done has stopped the bleeding, your wife needs an emergency hysterectomy' he told him

'And then will she be okay?' he asked him

'Hopeful yes' the doctor nodded 'Barring any complications'

'And what about her tumour?'

'We're going to do some scans when she is out of surgery and when we have the results of those we will see how we are going to proceed' he said as Joey signed the consent forms and handed the clipboard back to the doctor.

Joey nodded 'Okay' he said softly 'Can I see my daughter?'

'Yes' he nodded and he smiled at Joey 'I'll take you to her' he told him

Three hours later Joey was still waiting for Lauren to come back from surgery, he and his new daughter were taken to a room on the maternity wing and were waiting for her to be brought in. He had bottle fed his daughter and changed her nappy and now she was sleeping contentedly in his arms in the chair. He looked up at Lauren was wheeled in

'Hello again Mr Branning' the doctor said 'the surgery went well and Lauren is doing just fine, she's a little groggy from the surgery but we expect her to make a full recovery'

'And what about the brain scans?' he asked him

'The tumour isn't as large as we thought and we think that we should be able to shrink it with medication and perhaps radiotherapy' he told him 'We've started Lauren on some medication and hopefully when we have another look at the tumour in a week we should see some improvement.'

'Thank you, that's really great news' Joey said and he glanced at his wife 'Does she know about the hysterectomy?'

'No she wasn;t lucid enough for us to tell her'

'Can I tell her?' Joey asked him 'I think it would be better if it came from me?'

'Of course. We'll be in to check on Lauren in a while' he said and he walked out of the room. Joey waited while the nurses settled Lauren. When they left he put his daughter in her crib and he sat down on the bed next to Lauren, taking her hand in his.

She groaned and couple of times and licked her lips, before opening her eyes to stare into Joey's

'Hi baby' he whispered softly.

'Hey' she croaked back 'Where am I?'

'In the hospital' he told her 'Do you remember what happened?'

'I had the baby….' She frowned 'Is she okay?'

'Yes she's fine, she's sleeping' he told her 'Do you want to see her?' he asked her and she nodded and tried to sit up

'Ouch!' she frowned and grimaced with the pain

'Baby you have to be careful, you just came out of surgery' he told her

She frowned as her hand moved to her stomach where the cause of the pain was 'Why?'

Joey licked his lips 'How about you see our daughter first?' he asked her and Lauren nodded

Joey walked over to the crib and he picked her up and carried her over to Lauren, he carefully and gently put her in her arms. Lauren looked down at her and she smiled

'She's beautiful' Lauren said

'Yeah she is' Joey nodded 'We haven't got a name for her yet though' he said softly

'I know' Lauren said as she studied her 'Is she okay?'

'Perfectly healthy' Joey nodded 'She stopped breathing in the ambulance, turned blue but the paramedics got her breathing again, she's been checked over and given the all clear' Joey said as his fingers brushed the baby's cheek 'I've bottle fed her and changed her nappy' he said proudly 'And she fell asleep in my arms.

Lauren ticked her gaze to her husband's face and then back to the baby. 'Did you call people to let them know?'

'No not yet' he said 'I was waiting for you to come out of surgery before I made any calls' he looked at her

'When can we go home?' she asked him

'Not for a few days at least' Joey told her

'Why I thought you said the baby was okay?' her worried gaze met his

'She is, you on the other hand just had a major operation' he told her as he took the sleeping baby from her and he lay her back in the crib. He sat down on the bed and he took Lauren's hand in his 'You were bleeding a lot' he told her 'Part of the placenta was still inside you and your uterus couldn't contract to stop the bleeding, the doctors managed to deliver the rest of the placenta but they couldn't stop the bleeding' he told her softly, Lauren swallowed 'They told me that they had no other choice but to give you a hysterectomy' he told her 'I signed the consent forms' he said and he waited for her reaction

'Oh' Lauren said quietly and she looked down at their hands and she played with Joey's wedding ring. 'Is that okay?' Lauren asked him worriedly 'That I can't have any more children?'

'I'm 42 years old and my beautiful wife has given me five beautiful children' he told her softly 'What more can a man ask?' he said 'Of course it's okay'

Lauren looked up at him 'Really?'

'Yes really' he nodded 'I think five is enough don't you?'

She nodded 'yeah' she said 'It is' she glanced at the crib and then back at Joey

'Are you okay with it?' he asked her

She thought about it for a few moments and then she nodded

'Yes' she told him, Joey moved forward and he kissed her softly

'I love you so much you know that right?' he asked her

'I know and I love you too Joey' she whispered against his lips

'There's more, you had a scan on your head while you were out. The tumour is small and the doctors think that they can shrink it with medication perhaps radiotherapy' he told her

'Yeah?' she asked him and he smiled with a nod 'See? I told you that I would be okay' she said to him with a grin.

Joey laughed 'Yeah, yeah you did' he said and he kissed her again.

AN: Thank you for all your reviews for this story.

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