Chapter 32
Fear – an emotion Jett thought he’d experienced before. He was wrong.
Jett
V irginia runs toward us and slams into the table. Dylan takes her hand. “Be careful, my love. You don’t want to hurt the baby.”
She wrests out of his hold. “Not me. Aurora. Baby,” she gasps out.
My heart stops beating. “What’s wrong with Aurora and the baby?”
“She’s losing her.”
I jump to my feet and shove everyone out of the way before running down the stairs to the restrooms. Cash yells at his brothers behind me but I ignore whatever commotion is happening. I have to get to Aurora.
I crash through the ladies’ room door. “Aurora!” I bellow.
“In here.” Her voice is small and wobbly. My fear ratches up another notch.
I open the stall door to find her sitting on the toilet crying. I drop to my knees and grasp her hands. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Little Bean. I think I’m losing her,” she wails.
“Not if I can help it.” I pick her up and carry her into the hallway.
Cash is waiting for me. “This way.”
I follow him out the back door where Fender is waiting for us with his car. Cash opens the rear door, and I climb in with Aurora in my arms.
“Drive,” I order Fender. “Drive.”
“Who’s your doctor?” Leia asks from the front seat.
“Dr. Edwards.”
“I’ll call her and have her meet us at the hospital.”
Once she finishes the call, she crawls between the seats to the back. Fender growls at her.
“Shut it, grumpy pants. We’ve got bigger issues than my not wearing a seatbelt.”
“Put your seatbelt on now,” he grumbles.
She buckles herself in before grasping Aurora’s hand. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”
“Little Bean,” Aurora whispers.
Leia smiles at her. “Little Bean will be okay, too. Both of you will be fine.”
I want to believe her, but… “You can’t know that.”
“Be nice,” Fender orders.
Leia continues to utter assurances to Aurora for the entire drive while my words are caught in my throat. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to reassure her. I don’t know how to make this better.
My fear intensifies until I struggle to breathe. I’ve never been this afraid before. Not even when I graduated high school at seventeen and was kicked out of the foster home I was staying in with no job or place to go.
“We’re here.” Fender screeches to a halt in front of the emergency room.
I open the door but I can’t climb out with Aurora in my arms. But I can’t let her go either.
Fender stands at the door. “I’ve got her.”
“Precious cargo,” I remind him.
“The most precious,” he says as he takes Aurora from my arms. I jump out of the car and he immediately places her back in my arms.
The doors open and Leia leads two nurses with a gurney outside. “She’s pregnant and bleeding. Her doctor is on the way,” she instructs as I lay Aurora down.
Aurora clutches my hand as they roll her into the hospital. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never, baby. Never.”
I keep hold of her hand as we enter a room. The medical staff buzzes around us. Dr. Edwards arrives a moment later.
“I need the father out of here,” she orders one of the nurses without addressing me. The nurse pulls me away from Aurora.
“No. Don’t leave me,” Aurora begs as she reaches for me.
“Can’t I stay?”
Dr. Edwards glances my way. “I need to concentrate on my patients. I can’t have you distracting me.”
“I’ll be quiet.”
She nods to the nurse to take me away.
“It’s better this way,” the nurse says as she pushes me out of the room.
Fender and Leia are waiting for me in the hallway.
“You shouldn’t be back here,” another nurse complains as she rushes past us.
“Come on.” Leia grasps my elbow and leads me to the waiting room where the rest of my bandmates and their partners are waiting for us.
“Any news?” Indigo asks.
Leia shakes her head. “The doctor just arrived.”
I pace the floor. “How long will it take?”
Gibson steps in front of me. “What do you need?”
“Need?”
“We can go for a run or have a sparring match, or you can hit your drums and pretend to make music.”
“I don’t need any of that shit. I need Aurora and my baby girl to be okay. I need them. I can’t live without them.”
Mercy wraps her arms around me and sways me from side to side. “Hold on, Jett. Hold on. They’re doing everything they can. You just hold on.”
Indigo, Virginia, and Leia join in and I find myself being hugged by four women. But not by the one woman I need.
“Jett Peterson,” a man announces and I untangle myself to rush to him.
“I’m Jett. What’s going on? Is Aurora okay? What about the baby?”
He motions toward the hallway. “The doctor’s ready to speak to you.”
I hurry to the room and burst through the door. Aurora is laying on the bed with a machine attached to her belly. I come to a halt when I hear the whoosh-whoosh of the monitor.
“Is that our baby?”
Aurora holds out her hand and I grasp hold of it.
“It is.” She smiles at me. “Little Bean is fine.”
“You’re certain?”
She nods toward Dr. Edwards. “The doctor is.”
I feel as if I can breathe for the first time in days. “What happened? How can we prevent this from happening again? What can we do?”
Dr. Edwards smiles. “Slow down, Daddy. Vaginal bleeding is perfectly normal during pregnancy. Ms. Sharpe’s bleeding was a bit heavier, but nothing to worry about. You can hear the baby’s heartbeat. She’s doing fine. As is Mom.”
“But why did this happen? How do we prevent it?”
I don’t think I can handle another mad dash to the emergency room. Maybe we should move to a town with a hospital. And I need to buy a car no matter what. I can’t always rely on my bandmates.
“Make sure Mom gets as much rest as possible. Stress may be a factor.”
“Stress? As in working too much?”
“It’s possible.”
The doctor’s beeper goes off before I can ask her any further questions. “You’re free to go home. The nurse will be in with your discharge papers soon.”
“You should quit working,” I tell Aurora once the doctor’s gone.
Her brow wrinkles. “Quit working?”
“Yes.” I nod. “The doctor said working isn’t good for you.”
“No, she didn’t. She said stress might be a factor and working too much is a possible indicator.”
“I knew you were working too hard. I’ve been telling you the entire pregnancy to slow down. And see what happened? You nearly lost the baby.”
Aurora wrenches her hand from mine. “I didn’t nearly lose Little Bean. I overreacted at a bit of bleeding. Dr. Edwards was being nice while you were here but before you arrived, she gave me a lecture about pregnancy and overreacting.”
“I can’t chance this happening again. You’re quitting.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s fine. I have enough money for the both of us. Once the baby is a bit older, you can go back to work.”
“I can?”
I rub my hands together as I warm to the subject. “This is an excellent plan. I travel a lot when the band’s touring. If you don’t work, we can make sure there’s always someone at home with the baby.”
“Someone, being me?”
“Yes. It’s easier this way.”
“Easier this way?”
“Exactly. I’m glad you understand.”
She points to the door. “Get out.”
“You want to see your girls? They’re all waiting for you.”
“Yes, I want to see Indigo, Virginia, Leia, and Mercy. But more importantly, I want you to get the hell away from me.”
I rear back. “Get the hell away from you? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes widen. “What’s wrong? You seriously have to ask me?”
“Yes.”
“First, you accused me of working too hard which caused me to nearly lose the baby. Then, you basically ordered me to quit my job and become a stay-at-home mother because my job isn’t as important as yours is.”
“I thought we agreed you’d quit your job.”
She points to the door. “Get out. I can’t look at you right now.”
“You begged me not to leave you before.”
“I’m not discussing this. Get. Out.” She reaches for the button to call the nurse.
I hold up my hands. “Fine. I’m leaving. But this discussion is not over.”
“Wrong. This discussion is not only over, it’s never happening again.”
“Don’t you want what’s best for the baby?”
She reaches behind her and grabs her pillow. “Get out,” she screeches as she throws the pillow. “Get out before the next thing I throw at you can hurt your big idiotic skull.”
I rush out of the room before she follows through with her threat.
“What’s wrong?” Gibson asks from where he’s standing in the hallway waiting for me.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I thought we were discussing the baby and raising our child but Aurora lost it.”
He throws an arm around my shoulders and leads me away. “Let’s discuss this back home.”
I plant my feet and refuse to move. “But Aurora? How is she getting home?”
“We got her,” Leia says as she walks past with Indigo, Virginia, and Mercy on her heels.
“I really don’t know what I did wrong,” I say as I allow Gibson to herd me away.
“I know.” He slaps my back. “We’ll figure this out.”