Chapter 4.

Once again Sully slept on the wing-backed chair and dreamt of his marriage to his childhood sweet-heart. Abigail Bray was beautiful, her brunette hair and brown eyes had captured him the moment they met in primary school.

"Hello," she had said, smiling at him. He was nervous and ashamed that people would hear about his past. He had been discovered as a runaway in Colorado Springs. He had run away all the way from New York. This girl was different she just came up and began talking to him. He had been truant from school for months until now, but she helped him overcome the gap it had made in his education.

They had been inseparable, but her father was never pleased for he saw no future with a long-haired git as he kept telling her. Abigail was in love and told Sully when they used to sit on the school lawn under their tree that they were going to be married. He was enchanted by her and would have flown to the moon if she had asked.

He lived with the feeling of a love that made you feel invincible.

He could just about feel her with him as his dream sped by the years until they finally married. His heart filled till he felt like it would burst out of his chest. She was so beautiful and he knew her by heart, they would be one from now on.

Within months she asked him to attend a doctor's appointment. She had done a pregnancy test and not disclosed the result. She wanted him with her for confirmation when she was told officially.

The doctor was very silent after he had done an examination. His facial features were never wavering as he wrote notes on the computer, making the couple extremely nervous. Finally he looked at them and extended his hand to Sully saying, "Congratulations, Mister and Missus Sully, your baby will be due in spring."

Nobody could wipe the smile off their faces as they walked into the sunshine. Sully finally picked his wife up, hugging her and kissing her soundly.

"Well, Abbey, let us celebrate," he said, taking her hand and entering the park over the road where he bought her the biggest sundae that the ice-cream van made.

Laughing Abbey protested, saying he had already made her fat and she would not need the extra pounds before devouring the whole lot.

The months flew by; he had never felt so happy, a dream was coming true as he would finally have his own family.

His new home was almost ready. The cabin had been a great beginning but Abbey deserved more, their family deserved more. The cabin was on a corner of the large farm. He had situated the new house nearer the mountains, his place of peace nature on the door step.

Then there was that fateful day. His heart was now pumping in his chest; it could not bring him out of the nightmare. His subconscious knew the outcome, but it was as if he had to wait till the end of the film even though he already knew what would happen. The screen was pitted, but not enough to feature the scenes one after the other in slow motion.

Scene one: his mobile was ringing; looking at the screen he saw it was Abbey. Answering it he could not understand what she was screaming into the phone. "Hang on, I'm coming." He jumped into the pickup and sped over the farm.

Scene two: sliding to a stop he leapt out of the truck and sprinted to the little cabin door. There was his beloved, sweat pouring from her brow and a large red patch was spreading from between her legs. Wrapping her he swept her up and sprinted to the pickup and as gently as he could he placed her on the seat. There were questions he needed to know, but time was precious. Was an ambulance coming? He would see it and stop if necessary. Was she having contractions? It was too early by a couple of weeks.

Scene three: he had been desperate by the time the hospital came into sight. He drove into the emergency bay and ran to his wife as the security man was yelling at him to move the truck, until he saw the condition of the woman the man carried. Then he assisted as best he could; a gurney was shoved to Sully but there was no way he was going to put her down till he saw a doctor ready to help.

Scene four: he was not allowed through to the operating room but told to sit and wait that everything was going to be done to save his wife and child. It took hours or that was how Sully felt. Finally a doctor arrived. One look at him told Sully he would not get good news. Abbey was gone; they had been unable to save her, the baby was critical in an incubator in the special neonatal nursery. Sully was taken to a darkened room to say goodbye to his lovely wife. Crying he asked what happened but there was no answer. The grief rose in his throat, choking him. Finally a nice nurse came and took him to his daughter. She was so small with tubes everywhere. She had on a nappy and a tiny pink beanie. Asking what that was for he was told babies lost heat from their heads. He held her hand while she struggled to live. Crying he pleaded with Hannah to live for her mother and father. She held onto his finger with a tiny transparent hand. Sully was puzzled when a nurse with an ink pad and paper took prints of his daughter's hands and feet. She said nothing and just sadly smiled.

Scene five: Within six hours Hannah went to her mother. Sully was so distraught he didn't have a clue what he was doing. He finally said goodbye to his tiny daughter, hugging her to his chest without all the tubes. The nurse handed him the card with Hannah's prints on it. Folding it carefully he put it in his wallet. It became his most precious possession.

Scene six: They were lowered into the earth, Hannah cradled in her mother's arms. Sully just stood by a tree watching. When everyone left he went and said his final good bye. He was alone again. Tragedy followed him, he was not meant to be happy!

Sully relived the nightmare in a fashion like watching an old cracked film rerun, something you wanted to watch knowing it would scare you half to death, only to wake and find he had been crying again.

...

After reading the final paragraph about the loss of his wife and child Michaela wondered why he had not gone completely insane. She was not aware that she was crying for this man, she just wiped tears off her cheek, her heart going out to him. She was more determined now than ever to help him as best as she could.

This only seemed like the beginning.

Thank you all for the generous posts and comments. It makes it all worthy while. XXXXX

O am posting a tad early today as I am off to Perth this morning till the weekend on Men's Health Recall.