“Seven centimeters yet, Mrs. Seward, you’re still not ready to push.” the doctor checked Lacey for the second time and nothing had changed. She didn’t want it to change, in fact. Cause she couldn’t do this without him. Without John.

“Good, and that’s how it will stay until my husband is here with me.” she rested her heavy head back on the pillow, her heart still beating fast with impatience.

She knew something was wrong from the first time she called and he didn’t pick up the phone. Johnny would always answer her practically at the same time as the first beep. But not this time.

Jess, Rye, Mei and Kim went back to her bedroom as soon as the doc headed off. They all wore frowns since they got there.

“So?” Jess asked, going straight to her side to hold her hand. The other girls stood at her other side of the bed.

“It’s gonna take hours yet, J. I still have three centimeters ahead of me so, he better get…here…before…that! Son of a bitch!” she felt the acute pain of another contraction coming and held her big belly tight with one hand. The other was squeezing Jess’ hand now.

“They will find him! He’s probably having a few beers with Brian and has no batteries on his phone. Matt will find Jimmy and they will bring him back for you as short and happy as he always is, okay? His eyes will be shining bright to see you on labor.” Jess tried to comfort her but it only brought tears to her eyes.

“No Jess, I… I sensed here, inside my heart, I felt a sting. I’m still feeling it, actually. It’s not right, he should’ve answered me, he never runs out of batteries since I got pregnant. There’s something wrong, damn it, I can feel it!” she yelled and cried even more.

“All this stress you’re having, this can’t be good for the baby, Lacey. He’s feeling everything you are feeling so try to calm down, okay?” Rye decided to help Jess in that difficult task and held her hand either. Kim and Mei were still trying all the cellphones unstoppably.

“I need him girls… I won’t do this without him, I mean it, if it’s the time, I just won’t push it! I won’t! He needs to be here to see his first kid being born. He can’t fucking miss this!!” Lacey was still sounding desperate, nothing they could say would change that. Only Johnny’s presence could make her calm down.

When they didn’t have any arguments left, Jess landed her set of worried eyes on the glass window that gives view to the hospital reception. Lacey wasn’t yet send upstairs to the maternity wing as they were still waiting for a room to be prepared for her.
Jess saw two gurneys with injured people passing by and a lot of doctors and nurses rushing in to take them to the trauma rooms right beside the room they were. That sight sent shivers to her body.

What if something bad really happened to them? What if Lacey’s instincts were right?

Jess had to glance back to Lacey to wash away those thoughts and that was when she saw Rye’s narrowed eyes. She was looking at the same window she previously was. And there he was.

“Hey, look, isn’t that Brian in there?” Rye asked, stepping closer to the window.

“Yes, it’s Brian, thank god, it’s Brian!” Jess said those words while noticing how lost he appeared to be. Left alone in that crowd of people running around him. “He must be looking for us!”

“I can’t see Johnny with him! Why? He…he left with him, why is he not with him!!!??” Lacey was trying to move down from her bed and get out but the girls had to hold her back in the mattress using a bit more of their strength.

“Lacey, calm down, please, we are gonna go outside to bring Johnny for you! But you have to promise me you won’t go anywhere!” she nodded reluctantly and the four girls went out in a sprint after Brian.

He was sitting on the waiting area, knuckles buried on his forehead, looking oddly devastated. The girls couldn’t pinpoint why he was acting like that but they approached him quickly.
“God, Brian, is so good to see you, you have no idea how many calls we…” Jess’ fast words were interrupted just as quickly.

“What are you all doing here?” he raised from his chair, shooting his tired and clueless gaze right inside their eyes. “How did you know what happened? I… I don’t even have my cellphone here, I must…must’ve let it in my car somewhere and…”

“Wait, we are here cause Lacey is going into labor! What are you talking about? Why you are here? Where’s Johnny and Emily?”

Brian closed his eyes really slowly and let his head fall back in despair together with his hand covering his eyes.

They didn’t know.

“Lord, she’s into labor…” he muttered those words as if it was the worst thing in the world.

“Damn it, Gates, can’t you just answer your phone for once in a while? We’ve been looking for you at every single bar and every single house we know, we even searched at the beach and at the sea!” Matt rushed in through the hospital entrance along with Rev, being as loud as anyone could ever be in a hospital. Everybody was staring at them now.

Brian felt his stomach churn when he saw Jimmy. How the hell was he supposed to tell his best friend about Johnny and his girlfriend’s state? And what about his car that was totally crushed and ruined on that crossroad? How could he tell Jimmy he was the one that let his girlfriend drive stoned like that and that he was actually the one to blame for all the pain they were about to feel now?

“Where’s Johnny, isn’t he with you? What about Emily, did you find her somewhere?” Jimmy asked and everybody was waiting anxiously for his answers. He thought he was gonna throw up but he managed to pull himself together. He needed to be strong and act like a man now.

“We found Emily and she was with your car, Jimmy, so… I sent Johnny with her cause I thought he could convince her to give him the wheel and take her home and…”

“Wait, why Johnny had to take the wheel?” Jimmy asked.

“Emily had drunk a lot before we got to her. She didn’t want to give me the keys…” Brian sighed deep. They all seemed to know now where this was going. And it wasn’t leading to good news. Their features cracked at once. Jess’ eyes began to water along with her friends’ eyes.

“I went after them but…there was this crazy truck driver that slept on the wheel and he was on the wrong way coming towards them. She diverted but… hit a big tree. The car flipped twice and…”

"God. Brian… please don’t say that…” Jess begged.

"They are working on them right now. Johnny’s airbag failed and Emily just… got worse in the ambulance.” Brian had to look away not to cry. He could still hear and see the crash inside his head vividly.

Jimmy had his fists closed the entire time and at that last sentence, he couldn’t contain his rage.

“HOW COULD YOU FUCKING LET HER DRIVE, STUPID ASS!?” Jimmy grabbed Brian by the collar of his jacket and pushed him hard against the closest wall. Brian was feeling so guilty he would simply let his friend beat the crap out of him if he wanted to. He felt like he deserved.

“I’m sorry, man…” Brian murmured almost soundlessly.

“Whoa, Jimmy, back out, come on, we’re in a hospital, Lacey is right there in that room, you don’t want to scare her making a scene here now, do you?” Matt pulled Jimmy away from his friend and he let Brian go in a second.

After trying to digest that terrible news and that little scene, the girls were terrified and trying to control their emotions. Brian didn’t move from that wall, the weight of his wrecked body leaned there and his eyes remained closed.

“If they die, don’t you EVER FORGET YOU DIGGED THEIR GRAVES!!” Jimmy shouted one last time before storming out, fury eating his bones for the second time and for the same person again that day.

---

“What should we say to her now, Z? She’s waiting for him and… he’s inside that room with all those doctors…” Jess hugged Zack by his side after telling him everything he had missed while getting a coffee and looked up at him with teary eyes. “She sensed something had happened, you know.” he held her stronger. He was still trying to understand a few things inside his own mind too.

“We need to wait for the doctor to give us some news first. Let’s wait a little more, J.” Zack replied.

They all kept staring impatiently at the two rooms they had been working on Johnny and Emily from the reception area. Jimmy had his temper cooled down and was sitting at one chair secluded from the others. Brian was walking from side to side in front of Matt, Zack and the girls with arms crossed on his chest.

Jess couldn’t take this waiting anymore. She knew they were torturing Lacey in there without showing back. They needed to tell her the truth. At the moment she was about to rise from her chair to go talk to Lacey, one doctor came out of one of the doors.

“Family of mr. John Seward?” not just Jess, but everybody rose from their seats with eyes wide opened. Jimmy approached them too. “Hello, I’m doctor Carter, I’m taking care of John. He had a severe concussion and brain swelling due to the trauma on his head. We are doing our best to revert the swelling but he also presented with elevated intracranial pressure and we need to make small holes on his scalp to release this pressure now. I need the next of kin to sign the consent.”

It was definitely too much information for anyone to absorb. They didn’t know what to answer cause the next of kin was right there in that room clueless of what was going on and still waiting for her husband to show up.

“Oh my god, so… you are saying that you’re gonna just crack open his head, just like that?” Matt raised his voice at the doc.

“Yes, in his case, is really necessary, you can trust me, they are real small holes, don't worry. He can even be awake in a few hours after that procedure. It all depends of how he’s gonna react to it.” he replied looking inside Matt’s eyes and he nodded, his shoulders not so tensed anymore. “I need someone to sign for him now.”

Jess glanced at all of them before saying. “His wife is right there going through labor of his first child now. We still didn’t tell her what happened.”

“Oh, but you need to tell her now cause her consent is really important. You bring it to me when you’re done, ok? I gotta go back in there.” the doctor handed the papers at Matt and turned away. They were all trading perplexed looks with each other now.

“Let’s…all just do this. Together. She’ll need all of us in there with her now.” Jess stated since no one dared, took a deep breath and walked towards Lacey’s room.

“I’ll stay out here to wait for Emily’s news.” Jimmy said and stayed back in the waiting area.

“Thanks Jim. Let us know anything, okay?” Jess tried to smile but it didn’t show. Everyone was following her to Lacey’s room now.

“Oh my god, you took forever to…” Lacey’s wide eyes were searching for a person she wouldn’t find now. And that cut their hearts like a knife. “Where… where’s he?” her breathing got intense staring at all those sad faces gathering around her. “Something happened, right? I knew it, fuck, I knew it…” tears were forming rivers on her cheeks.

Jess sat beside her with Zack by her side and held her hand tight. Matt sat at her other side along with Mei, Kim and Rye. Brian couldn’t face her, he stood at the back, looking through the window.

“BRIAN! Where’s he, damn it!? You took my husband with you, you gotta bring him back to me now!” she cried desperate, taking her hands out of their grips. Brian was in the verge of crying with her voice pounding on his head so he just burst out from the room without even looking at Lacey once.

“Come back here, you coward!” she shouted loud before he could close the door behind him. They could see him getting approached by two cops at the second he stood out.

“Hey, calm down, dear. We’ll tell you what happened but you need to cool off now, it won’t do any good for the baby.” Matt tried. She was still crying but not struggling with them anymore.

Time to talk.

“Lacey, look at me and listen carefully.” Jess grabbed her hand even if she was reluctant. “We‘re gonna be honest with you now, ok? Johnny suffered a car accident and the doctors are working on him right now at that other room over there.” she pointed to the left wall. Lacey closed her eyes in despair. “They need your consent to perform a procedure on him now, he’s gonna be okay and the doc even told us he could be awake in a few hours if we go on with this treatment. You need to sign this.” Matt held the papers in front of her with soft eyes. She was speechless, apparently. This was just...too much to handle.

“You can trust us, you need to sign it, it’s gonna help him get better, Lacey.” Zack added. She sounded calmed down to try to assimilate the lot of information she was receiving, but not so assured.

“God… why… why is this happening to me? Why me? Why my John? Why today?” she was staring at her belly now, frowning and sobbing. Jess raised from her seat to hug her and she accept it, collapsing in tears.

Rye had to blink a few times to brush away her watery eyes. She had her both hands gripped by Kimmie and Meike.

After the hug, she took a deep breath, picked up the pen and signed the consent without hesitation. Zack took it straight to the other room afterwards.

“That’s right, you did the right thing. You three are all going to be okay, we know this.” Jess kept comforting her when someone appeared at the door. Valary.

“Oh god, Lace, Matt called me! How are you hanging on, sweetie?” she came running towards them and embraced Matt, giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

The girls had to give her space to stand close to Matt and they traded jealousy glances. Apparently she had forgot about their fight pretty quickly, huh? Kim couldn’t help but think a little bit about the fact that her name just turn out to be second on his list again. Damn…

“Aw, god, hi Val, you just got here at the worst moment cause I’m having another contraction… And this one is… pretty bad.” She twitched her body in pain and Jess and Matt were holding her hand tighter.

Brian appeared on the door, suddenly. “Hey, guys, the doctor said it all went well. He just needs to rest now, can wake up at any minute. They are gonna let us know when we can see him.” Everybody seemed to finally breathe after this. Lacey's heart was a bit more relieved. But not entirely. A crazy thought invaded her mind: she hoped he could be with her in time to cut the cord.

“Anything about Em?” Jess asked approaching Brian on the door. He answered waving a worried no with his head and got back to the waiting area, sitting right beside Jimmy this time.

“It wasn’t her fault you know…” Brian broke the disturbing silence.

“Yeah, I know, I heard you talking to the cops and telling a completely different story. You had to prove them you aren't drunk?” Jimmy gave him a corner of the eye look, suspicious.

“The story I told you guys before is the truth. I had to lie to them, Jim, she was hammered, she would be handcuffed to that bed by now if I haven’t.” Jimmy nodded. He understood Brian’s reasons right away, he was protecting her. Just like he was supposed to do.

All the guilty Brian was feeling got transferred to Jimmy then. He should’ve never fought with her like that, he should’ve gone after her and made out instead. Now... he didn't even know if he would ever look inside her eyes again.

Silence echoed again.

“How’s the car?”

“Ruined.”

“Whatever.” Jimmy sighed. “I just hope she’s alive.”

“Yeah… me too, man, me too…”

Notes

Yeah i know I know, I like to torture you and stuff, don't yell at me! hahaha xD

hope you like the suspense though hahaha =p