A/N – I am not a medical expert – making it up as I go along. Pardon any discrepancies.
If you're not a fan of Sarah Webber, of course you're not going to enjoy this story!
Chapter Six
"Sarah."
Sarah was hurrying down the hallway to get started on Avery's surgery when she heard Elizabeth's voice. Inwardly cringing, Sarah stopped walking and turned to look over. "What is it?" Actually, she could maybe task Elizabeth to help her with this if she wasn't already assigned to a doctor.
"I talked to Lucky today." Elizabeth stepped towards Sarah, lowering her voice. Her eyes here wide and clear, no hate or anger anywhere across her face.
Of all the words Sarah had been expecting, that sentence was not one of them. She swallowed her, unable to mask the shock across her face. "Oh?" She wasn't sure what response Elizabeth was looking for.
"Lots of mean things have been said by the both of us, but I've thought about it lot lately, and I know that you're right. I can't still be mad at you for what happened with Lucky. For so many reasons, but the biggest is that I did the same thing with Nikolas." Tears filled Elizabeth's eyes. "I want to work on getting my big sister back."
Sarah was overcome with emotion. On one hand, she wanted to be childish and lash out, telling Elizabeth where she could take her sudden forgiveness. On the other hand, a lot had gone on between them. Above and beyond the stuff with Lucky. And Elizabeth was her blood, her sister. "I appreciate that," Sarah replied, her voice thick with emotion as tears filled her own eyes. "You're not the only one who did things wrong. I made a lot of mistakes over the years, and was very unfair to you."
"Thank you for that." Elizabeth wiped her eyes.
"I'd love to spend more time discussing it now, but I can't." Sarah looked at her apologetically. "Sonny has signed off on Avery having surgery and I need to get everything prepped and paperwork ready. Do you have any spare time to help?"
"I'd love to. Anything to get Avery feeling better and back to being a healthy little girl." Elizabeth cleared her throat to rid the emotion.
"MOMMY!"
Sarah barely had time to register the voice before she felt small arms wrapping around her waist. Turning slightly, she saw her sheepish nanny standing by the elevators and narrowed her eyes for a moment before pasting a smile on her face. "Hi baby!" Sarah pulled the arms from her waist and dropped to envelope her daughter in a tight hug. "What are you doing here?"
"I missed you so much, Mommy." The voice was muffled in her shoulder as her daughter smashed her face into Sarah as much as she could, her arms tight around Sarah's neck.
Sarah felt the familiar tug of guilt rush through her. "I missed you too, baby, but remember when Mommy told you that she was coming here to take care of a little girl with a hurt heart?"
"You didn't tell me her heart was hurt so bad that you wouldn't be home forever! Can't you put a band aid on it and make her better? I can kiss it better if you want." The little girl pulled away and looked at Sarah with a pout on her lips.
Sarah melted at her daughter's innocence. Before she could reply, Elizabeth stepped forward. She was still processing this newest shock. "Mommy? As in, this is your daughter?"
"My name is Lucy. What's yours?" Lucy looked up with interest at Elizabeth as Sarah stood up and rested her hands lightly on her daughter's shoulders.
Elizabeth took in the child, from head to toe. She had light brown hair, curling at the ends from the warmth in the hospital. Her hair fell to halfway down her back and she had bangs framing her forehead. Her blue eyes were confident and friendly. Elizabeth knelt down in front of her, suspicious. "I'm Elizabeth. It's nice to meet you, Lucy. Is this your Mommy?"
Lucy looked up at Sarah and grinned. "Yep. She's been gone awhile. I missed her."
"Where is your Daddy?" Elizabeth asked.
"Lucy, we need to go talk to Stella for a minute," Sarah interjected. "Elizabeth needs to get started getting some doctor stuff ready for me. I'm going to operate on that little girl with the hurt heart today." Sarah narrowed her eyes at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth stood back up, her curiosity piqued but unable to do anything about it now. "It was nice to meet you, Lucy. Maybe we can chat more later."
"Sure! Bye!" Lucy happily skipped away, holding Sarah's hand.
When they reached Stella, Sarah glared. "What are you doing here?" she hissed. "Especially after I explicitly told you to stay away?"
Stella ducked her head. "I know, Sarah, I know. But Miss Lucy wouldn't stop crying and then she stopped eating. She told me she wasn't going to eat again until you came home. At first, I thought she was bluffing but she didn't eat for three days. A child that determined needs her mother. I used my own money to pay for tickets."
"Was she drinking liquids?"
Stella looked thrown off by the sudden question. "Yes but she still needs food."
Sarah exhaled slowly, and then knelt down in front of her daughter. "Listen, bug, I know I was gone for a long time."
"You've never been gone more than one night!" Lucy protested, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I didn't mean to be that long, I promise, baby girl. But Lucy, you can't just demand to see me, especially after I told you no on the phone. Sometimes Mommy's get to make decisions that little girl's don't like but you can't stop eating until you get your way."
A few tears slid from Lucy's eyes. "I didn't want to eat and be happy without you, Mommy. Stella doesn't eat ice cream and watch TV in your bed with me. She doesn't French braid my hair in the special ways you do. And she only knows how to make macaroni and cheese from a box." Lucy said the last part like it was a crime.
Sarah shot an apologetic look Stella's way. "The only thing I know how to make that's not in a box is macaroni and cheese," she replied to Lucy. Wiping her eyes, Sarah nodded. "Fine, you can stay in town but you can't stay at the hospital, okay? You and Stella can go to my hotel. There's a pool there."
Lucy's eyes lit up. "A pool? Ok, Mommy. Stella and I will wait there. Until you come there after your operation."
Sarah gestured to Stella to follow as she took Lucy's hand and headed to her office. She got the key and handed it to Stella. "Metro Court Hotel, room 1255," she told Stella before bending and pulling Lucy into a tight hug. "I love you, bug. I'll see you later, ok? Be good for Stella this time."
"Love you too, Mommy." Lucy made no promises as she took Stella's hand and followed the nanny down the hall to the elevator.
Sarah rubbed her eyes after her office door closed. She was tired and all she wanted was to go snuggle with her little girl and watch a movie. But Avery needed her surgery, so Sarah pulled herself together and headed off to get everything ready.
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The tension in the room was thick, with Carly and Sonny glaring at Ava, who was glaring furiously back. Nikolas didn't know what to do. "Maybe you guys should take this into the hallway," he said uneasily. "I can stay with Avery. Or I can get Elizabeth to," he added hastily. Avery didn't know him that well, and she was clearly not feeling well that day.
"I'm not leaving my daughter's side until she's prepped for surgery," Sonny snapped.
"So just because you have legal custody, you get to make all her medical decisions?" Ava challenged.
"Actually yes," Carly replied with a small snort.
"I've told you many times, Ava," Sonny said, speaking slowly as if explaining to a young child. "I only tolerate your time with Avery because that's what she needs. Otherwise, you'd be at the bottom of the river rotting. When it comes to decisions about Avery, any and all decisions will be made by Carly and me."
Ava winced at his words. She considered her reply before speaking, her pulse racing as her heart pounded. "You haven't thought this over! What about the risks?"
"Avery is not responding well to the medication, Ava. If she doesn't get this operation, she'll need to get a heart transplant. And if one not found in time…" Carly trailed off.
"She'll die," Ava whispered as Nikolas slid a comforting arm lightly around her waist. Ava's eyes moved to her daughter, still whimpering and crying in her father's arms. "She's in pain," Ava whispered. Finally, she nodded. "The surgery will help her."
"It doesn't matter if you're on board or not, Ava," Sonny said firmly. Before he could say anything more, Carly rested her hand lightly on his arm.
"She's on board, Sonny. Just leave it," Carly whispered softly.
"Can I at least spend some time with Avery before the surgery?" Ava asked.
"We're all staying with her until surgery," Carly replied quickly.
"I'll just leave you three with her and go say hi to Elizabeth. She's working today," Nikolas said. He leaned over and kissed Ava's cheek. "I have my phone if you need something."
"Thanks," Ava muttered absently.
Nikolas left the room and was walking down the hall when he ran into Elizabeth. Her face was white and she looked upset. She was walking so fast she nearly ran right into him. "Whoa! Hang on there! What's wrong?" Taking her arm, Nikolas steered Elizabeth to a nearby bench.
"Sarah has a daughter." The words were out of Elizabeth's mouth before she even thought about them.
"Come again?" Nikolas asked, not sure he heard her right.
"I was talking to Sarah by the Nurses Station and this little girl came out of nowhere and hugged her and called her Mommy. Her name is Lucy and I don't know how old she is but Nikolas," Elizabeth looked right into his eyes. "She looks just like Lucky. Her eyes are his shade of blue. Her hair is the same as his colour, her face – she's all Lucky."
Nikolas didn't reply right away, trying to take it all in. "Sarah has a daughter. And you think she's Lucky?" At Elizabeth's nod, Nikolas asked, "Did you ask her?"
"I tried to ask her, but Sarah stopped her from answering and got her out of there," Elizabeth replied.
"You asked the little girl if Lucky was her father?" Nikolas' mouth dropped open.
"I just asked her where her Daddy was," Elizabeth explained. "I wasn't exactly thinking clearly, Nikolas."
"Why didn't you just ask Sarah?"
"She got Lucy out of there and shooed me away to get prepped for Avery's surgery." Elizabeth's eyes were wide. "Nikolas, if she is Lucky's daughter, he doesn't know about her."
"How do you know?" Nikolas asked.
"He has never mentioned another child to either of us. Don't you think we'd know about her if she existed?" Elizabeth asked.
Nikolas shrugged. "I would hope so, but maybe not?"
"There's an easy way to find out!" Elizabeth grabbed her phone from her scrubs. "We'll call him!"
"Whoa, Tonto." Nikolas wrapped his hand around hers to stop her. "Let's call Lucky to tell him about a child we're not sure is his? We need to be sure first before we do anything."
"You go talk to Sarah then," Elizabeth said. "You guys are still friendly. She'll tell you."
"Because she so readily told me she had a child to begin with?" Nikolas wasn't so sure. "I'll give it a shot, but she's been here two weeks and never mentioned having a child. I doubt she's going to want to spill the information now." A new thought occurred to him. "Why now? I mean, she's been here two weeks. Why is this little girl here now? And who brought her here?"
"I heard her say she missed Sarah. She wanted Sarah to put a bandaid on Avery's heart so Sarah could come home." Elizabeth smiled. That moment had been charming. "A woman brought her – maybe the nanny?"
Or Sarah's girlfriend, Nikolas thought to himself. He was not giving Elizabeth any more ammunition, though. "I'll go talk to Sarah. Keep working on Avery's surgery. And pay attention – a little girl's life is at stake here," Nikolas said firmly. "The situation with Sarah's daughter can be figured out later."
Elizabeth nodded, exhaling another breath. "You're right. I will." Elizabeth leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for your sage advice, as usual."
"Anytime." Nikolas flashed her a smile and stood up, watching as she headed into Avery's room. After the door closed, the smile fell from his face. Was Elizabeth right? Has Sarah borne Lucky's child? Did he have a niece?