Chapter 17
9 Hours Earlier“Wait!” Abby giggled as Luka attempted to stuff the crib into the doorway. Luka had insisted that they bring as much of the baby’s stuff home that they could fit into their car. So they had put down all of the seats and stuffed it to the rim. Baby things were literally springing out of the windows of the car. It had taken them almost three hours to get almost everything to fit inside the car.
Then when they got home, they had the children help them unload and bring the items into the house and into the guest room, which would now be the baby’s room.
“Luka, you’re about to break it. Just hold on! You should have waited to put it together later. Now you’re going to have to undo it and reassemble it later,” Abby told Luka, a satisfied grin formed on her face when Luka frowned at her comment. He realized that she was right. There was no way this crib was going to make it through the front door.
“Okay, Lily, tell Luke to come here,” Luka lightly commanded of his young daughter.
Lily cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled at the top of her voice, “LUKE DADDY WANTS YOU!!”
Luka winced at Lily’s yelling and shook his head, “Lily, sweetie, go upstairs and get him. He was taking up some of Leah’s things,” Luka said with a wink.
A smile had crept up his lips at saying Leah’s name. Today was the first day that they had told the kids the name of the baby. And he used the name whenever he had the chance.
As Lily skipped up the stairs, she hummed a little tune that caused Abby to giggle. She slipped over to Luka and rested her head onto his shoulder. Luka’s arm wrapped around her and Abby closed her eyes and sighed.
“Sorry, I’ve been so bitchy,” Abby amended quietly. “I was just…shocked. Everything was happening so fast.”
“I knew you’d come around,” Luka told her before kissing her forehead.
“We are the luckiest aren’t we?”
“That we are.”
NowIt had all happened so fast, that Luka hadn’t even had time to think. One minute Luka had been sleeping happily with his wife in his arms, and the next minute, there was blood. There had been so much blood. Luka hadn’t known how to stop it, how to save her. So he had rushed Abby to the hospital, leaving Luke and Lexy in charge of the other three at home.
And now Luka was standing in the quiet hospital at 1:32 am talking to Dr. Janet Coburn, whom he had awoken just a mere hour ago to come to the hospital, quietly in the hallway.
“She’s fine,” Janet whispered softly as she leaned closely to Luka, not wanting curious nurses butting in and gossiping about what had happened.
“Physically, anyway,” Janet continued, “she should sleep through the night. We have her on sedatives.” Janet paused as Luka took in a deep breath and nodded, “You can stay with her, or go home. I know you have the kids there. Abby won’t wake up for at least early morning, if you do want to go home and check on the kids. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
Luka placed his head in his hands, trying to keep the tears from coming again. His baby was gone. Leah was gone. No matter how many times he said this to himself, he couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. How had this happened? What had he done wrong? He was a doctor, how come he couldn’t have saved her?
“If I had just woken up sooner,” Luka said as he pounded the wall with his fist and took in a shaky breath.
“Luka,” Janet said softly as she placed her hand on his shoulder, “It was a miscarriage, there was nothing you could have done. You know that.” Luka nodded.
“I know,” he murmured, “but that doesn’t make it any easier.”
“I know it doesn’t,” Janet responded sympathetically. Luka ran his hands through his hair in frustration and turned so that he could rest his forehead on the wall behind him.
“I think, I’ll stay with her. Luke will be fine with the kids. I’ll just…maybe Susan can get them in the morning, or something, I don’t know…” Luka sighed.
“Do you want me to call her in the morning around 6 and see if she can, so that you don’t have to worry about it?”
“Yeah,” Luka whispered, “thanks.”
Morning- 10 AM“How are you feeling?” Janet questioned Abby whose eyes were focused on her fingernails. When had they gotten so long? “Abby?” Janet tried again. Abby’s eyes slowly moved up to Janet’s concerned expression.
“Yes?” She questioned Janet. “What did you ask?”
“I asked, how are you feeling?” Janet restated as she made her way over to Abby’s bed.
“I feel….empty,” Abby stated simply. A nervous laugh gurgled in her throat, because she could feel Luka’s saddened stare burning into her skin.
She was doing everything in her power to keep from looking him in the eye. She swallowed the bubble in her throat and sighed, closing her eyes to keep the dual stares from Luka and Janet from driving her insane.
“Abby, if you need to talk…”
Janet’s words were quickly cut off, when Abby’s eyes popped back open and she shook her head wildly, “no, I’m…I just want to go home,” Abby said as she weakly smiled, the smile feeling odd amongst her lips. “I can go home, now, can’t I?’
“Um, you can, but you don’t have to be in any hurry, Abby. You can just rest for a little while, before heading back home,” Janet reassured her.
“No, I really just want to go home. I’d rather rest there. Lee has this project due next week, and I promised him that I would help him with it, and I have to go home and get some laundry done, or the kids will have nothing to wear to school this week.”
“Abby,” Luka said quietly as he moved onto the bed next to her, his eyes smouldering her with sympathy and worry. “Just take a moment, the kids will be fine. We can take care of that later, right now we just need…”
“No,” Abby stated strongly. “I just want to go home.”