A/N: Hey everyone I'm back. My mother's recovery is going well and I have a bit of free time now so I am going to crank out a chapter (or two)…
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"We're gonna need two more bags of fluid lined up to go before we can move her." One of the traveling doctors snapped at his partner.
She watched as he listened to her mother's heart beat again before he snapped his fingers twice getting the younger of the two's attention.
Looking away from her mother, and the chaos going around them she looked up at her dad who was holding her shoulders in a vice grip, his eyes never wavering from her mother, pale and still being transferred onto a board that reminded her a little like a sled.
"Daddy?" She called to him and after receiving no answer she tugged on his shirt, finally getting his attention.
"What?" He asked, unsure, eyes blinking rapidly as if he woke up from a day dream.
"Is mommy going to be okay?" Is my little brother?" she asked softly looking between her mother and his face as the questions fell from her lips.
"I ho-" He started to say before the blaring of the fire alarm went off and she could smell a whiff of smoke.
"FUCK! The grilled cheese" Her dad cursed before he ran into the kitchen to turn off the stove top, and open the back door. At least she thought that's what he would do; after all mommy did it that way whenever she would burn something.
"Where are you taking her?" She asked in a panic as the traveling doctors picked up the board with her mom strapped to it and made their way out of the bedroom.
"The hospital kid." The calm one told her before giving her a soft smile before they hurried toward through the living room and exchanging words with her dad before they power walked down the steps and into the ambulance.
Pushing the screened door open with all the force of bull charging at a red cape she heard the distinct sound of it hitting the side of the house with a bang and a slight tremble.
"Opie saw the lights and I was in the shower. What the hell is wrong with her?" Her Uncle Piney yelled as he ran across the street to stand next to her dad who was getting in after her mother.
She couldn't hear exactly what her daddy said over the traveling doctors shouting instructions and the sounds of the ambulance but she could guess given the fact that Uncle Piney looked over before patting her dad on the shoulder and walking up the steps to stand in front of her.
The red and blue lights flashed as the sirens wailed down the street before they turned and headed towards the hospital.
"Let's go little Tara." Her uncle said holding out his hand for her to take.
She stared at her uncles' hand, cracked and rough even after a shower. She decided then and now that for Uncle Piney's birthday, her and mommy would buy him a nice pair of gloves.
"Tara?" Uncle Piney called again, running said hand across her cheek.
Blinking her eyes and lifting them up to meet his own she realized Uncle Piney was still wet from his shower.
"I need to get my shoes, and close the back door." She told her Uncle while wiggling her bare toes on the concrete.
"Opie can shut the doors and lock them, you just get your shoes and a jacket, come on get going." He told her gently, pushing her softly toward the door.
At the mention of Opie she realized he was standing on the first step behind his dad, with Cheetos' stains on his shirt.
Hurrying into the house she shoved her shoes on, forgoing socks and yanking her jacket off the hall tree as Opie hurried to lock the back door in the kitchen, before they ran out of the house and met up with her Uncle in the truck.
"Do you know anything yet?" Her Uncle John asked daddy calmly as he walked slowly into the private waiting room followed closely behind by Aunt Gemma, carrying Tommy and Jax by her side.
Her daddy simply shook his head, eyes locked on the linoleum floor beneath him.
"Well what the hell happened?" Her Aunt asked with all the subtlety of a bulldog, while bouncing Tommy softly on her hip. She couldn't help but smile at the difference between her Aunt and her mother. Where her Aunt was right to the point, her mother was soft and gentle, unless provoked. Aunt Gemma had no need to be provoked before she tore into someone. Yet they both held family above all else, and she couldn't understand for the life of her why Aunt Mary didn't feel the same way.
"I uh, I was in the kitchen when it happened. I ran into the room and found her lying there." Her dad choked out, holding back sobs. She ran her hand on her daddy's' back like she had seen mommy do before when he was sad or upset.
She spoke up, her voice wavering, mouth dry as she started as all eyes except for her dad's settled on her. "I was with her, we were waiting for our Grilled Cheese with Pickles-"
"Grilled Cheese with Pickles?" She heard Opie ask rhetorically before she saw his face scrunch up at the thought.
She gulped down the saliva that was filling her mouth to coat her thought before she continued on stronger and more confident, the way mommy would want her to, "Anyways we were waiting for daddy when she was talking to me about having a sleepover with Donna and cooking cookies and watching movies when she grabbed her tummy, say that my brother was causing trouble and then she got really pale, and fell over and that's when I screamed for dad." She said
"You were very brave sweetie. Your mom is going to be so proud of you." Aunt Gemma told her, smiling softly at her before setting Tommy down on his feet and pulling her up from the hard plastic chair and wrapping her in a crushing hug.
"Thank you Aunt Gemma." She muffled against her Aunt's top that smelt like a mix of nicotine and Uncle John's cologne. Wrapped in her aunt's arms she lowered her walls and let the fear pour in as she watched her mother pale and fall almost lifeless on the bed over and over in her minds' eye.
They sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs for what felt like hours, the boys keeping her occupied and her mind off of her mother as best as possible.
By the time dinner rolled around, Aunt Gemma had taken everyone's order and was calling in for a few dozen burgers, three chocolate shakes, a salad, with no onions and a few cokes and a fries.
"Why has no one come out yet? It's been two fucking hours." Her dad said aggravated, jumping out his seat and pacing, running shaking hands through his hair.
"I'd take it as a good sign, if they can't come out it means they are working on her and your boy." Uncle John supplied being the voice of reason for his emotionally fragile friend, adding in with a tinge of excitement, "Your boy is coming." That seemed to knock some sense into her father as he stopped pacing and pulling at his hair enough for a smile to erupt onto his haggard looking face.
"My brother's coming today?" She asked excitedly, looking in between her two uncles and her dad.
"Yep, you ready to take on the role of big sister?" Her daddy asked her, kneeling down in front of her chair and patting her knee.
She shook her head excitedly before she launched into telling him how she'll be the best big sister ever.
"That's good to hear, because your brother is going to need it. He's gonna need someone to look after him and protect him." Her dad told her, eyes watering.
"Like Jax looks after Tommy?" She asks, looking over at Tommy being given a piggyback ride around the room much to her aunt's chagrin.
"Yeah, honey exactly like that." He told her before kissing her forehead and running a hand over her hair before straightening up and excusing himself for a moment.
"The family of Katherine Knowles?" A exhausted, pallid looking woman with cropped raven hair and purplish stains on her uniform called out as soon as she entered, looking between her two uncles and aunt.
They all stood up, her aunt clutching her hand in a vice grip as the doctor fiddled with her scrub cap.
"Which one of you is Katherine's Husband?" the surgeon asked, her voice devoid of any emotion and She thought that very odd considering doctors were all emotion, at least that's what her Uncle John always said, "You have to be a caring empathic person to be a doctor, to save lives. It's in your bones." She remembered him saying that to her when he was laid up in his hospital bed. She watched as the adults looked between one another before her Uncle John stepped forward.
"Is Kat alright? Is the baby?" He asked, and for anyone that didn't know her Uncle as well as she did they wouldn't know that his voice slightly hitched and the drumming of his left hand on his pant leg was a nervous habit.
The surgeon continued to fiddle with her cap, before she bit her lip. "Are you Katherine Knowles husband?" She asked again, this time her questioned directed right at her uncle.
"Is my mom going to be okay?" She spoke up, mustering up that courage that her mother seemed to always have, her mother was never afraid.
The doctor tore her eyes away from her uncle to look at her but before she had time to hear her response her daddy sprinted into the room, followed by Chibs, Tig and Bobby all carrying bags overflowing with diner food.
"Are you Kat's doctor? How is she, is the baby okay? When can I see her?" Her father bombarded the tired surgeon, throwing out question after question before she had a chance to open her mouth.
After it seemed her daddy couldn't think of any more questions, the waiting area stood silent as every single person, related by blood, marriage vows or not waited on baited breath as the surgeon took a noticeable gulp, once again looking down at her wrinkled seafoam green surgery cap before her aunt stormed past her father and tore the thing out of her hands before threatening her if she didn't give them any damn answers.
"I need to speak to her husband, or the father of the child if either or both are present." The doctor spoke up finally, gathering her bearings and looking at each adult in turn.
"I'm her husband and the child's father. Now tell me is Kat okay?" Her dad practically begged for an answer, as he grabbed onto the doctor's hand.
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