Chapter
72
One week
later
“You ready to go see Mommy?” AJ cooed, as he carefully
lifted baby Alexis out of her car seat.
A week had gone by, and Alexis had been home for the hospital for a few
days. Those few days had been some of
the hardest of AJ’s life. While Elyssa
remained in a coma at the hospital, he was virtually a single father, trying to
care for an infant all by himself.
This would have been nearly impossible if it hadn’t been
for his friends. Howie and Serena had
taken on the task of taking turns being at AJ’s house, helping to take care of
Alexis, since they had the most experience out of the entire group. Sometimes they stayed the night there just to
feed Alexis when she woke up in the middle of the night so AJ could get some
sleep. During the day, they were often
there by themselves, babysitting Alexis while AJ was at the hospital with
Elyssa.
That day, however, AJ had decided to bring Alexis with him
to the hospital. Although he refused to
admit it, he had begun to realize the possibility that Elyssa might die. And if that was true, he wanted his daughter
to spend as much time with her mother as possible, even if she would never
remember that time later on.
As AJ carried Alexis in her infant seat down the hall of
the ICU, where Elyssa had been moved, towards her room, his thoughts drifted to
Jenna and Nick. They had not been
speaking all week, and Jenna had been staying with Howie and Serena so she
wouldn’t have to be in the same house with Nick. Both of them came up to the hospital nearly
every day to see Elyssa, but they barely even looked at each other, let alone
talk. Nick refused to talk to AJ or
Howie either. He felt betrayed by AJ,
and he was pissed at Howie for interfering.
Brian was the only one he talked to, since Brian had declared himself
neutral. AJ was not sure which side
Serena and Ashalyn were on. They acted
neutral, but he suspected they were really siding with Jenna, for neither of
them had much to say to Nick either.
When AJ entered Elyssa’s room, he saw with dismay that she
looked the same as she had all week, still in a coma. But as he set down Alexis’s infant seat and
took Elyssa’s hand in his, he knew something was different. At his tough, Elyssa gave his hand a week
squeeze, and he could have sworn he saw her eyes flutter.
He stared at her intently.
“Elyssa?” he whispered. “Baby,
it’s me, AJ. Come on, honey, I know you
can hear me. Wake up now. Alexis is here with me. Don’t you want to see her? Come on, now, Lyss, and open your eyes.”
He squeezed her hand again, and to his delight, her eyes
fluttered once more and finally opened.
AJ nearly passed out from relief.
“Lyss,” he breathed happily. “I
knew you could do it, baby. I love you
so much.”
“I… love you too,” Elyssa replied breathily, smiling
faintly up at AJ.
AJ was relieved beyond words to hear her voice again, to
see her blue eyes open. Bending over,
he scooped Alexis out of her seat. “Ali,
this is your Mommy,” he said, holding her close to Elyssa’s bed.
“Oh, my baby,” Elyssa whispered, her face growing radiant
as she looked upon her baby daughter, whom she had only seen once. “Hi, Alexis,” she cooed, reaching up weakly
to touch the baby’s soft cheek. “Mommy
loves you so much.”
AJ thought he saw tears come into her eyes, but she
blinked, and the tears disappeared. A
lump rose in his throat. “You want to
try and sit up and hold her?” he asked Elyssa.
Elyssa nodded eagerly, and AJ put Alexis back in her
carrier long enough to raise the head of the bed so that Elyssa was propped
up. Then he carefully placed Alexis in
her arms.
Elyssa smiled down at her daughter for a few minutes. Then she looked up at AJ. “You’re going to be a great father,” she
commented.
“And you’re going to be a great mother,” he replied back.
She smiled sadly.
“Just remember, when things get tough, you aren’t alone. I’ll always be with you, watching over you,
got that?”
“Honey, don’t talk like that,” AJ pleaded. “You’re not going to die anytime soon. You’re going to get through this and get your
transplant, and then we can go home and watch Ali grow up.”
“I will watch Ali grow up,” Elyssa said. “But I can’t promise you it will be from on
this Earth.”
AJ shook his head.
“Why are you being so negative about this?” he asked. “You have to have hope.”
“I do have hope, AJ.
But I also have common sense, and I know that it’s unlikely I’ll live
much longer. I don’t want to die, AJ,
but if that’s my destiny, then I have to accept that and make the best of it. AJ, these past couple of years have been the
best of my life. Becoming a singer,
falling in love with a wonderful man, having a child, all my dreams have come
true. If I die now, I’ll die happy.”
Tears had risen in AJ’s eyes, and another lump clogged his
throat. “But you’re not going to
die. You’re going to fight, right?” he
asked, his voice wavery.
“Of course I’ll fight,” she said. “But you can’t fight fate, and if this is my
fate, there’s nothing I can do to change it.”
She shrugged, smiling sadly.
“I love you, Elyssa,” he whispered passionately.
“I love you too, AJ,” she replied, her eyes growing bright
and shiny. “Always and forever.”
AJ nodded. “Always
and forever,” he echoed.
***
Later that afternoon, Jenna arrived at the hospital and
eagerly hurried to ICU to see Elyssa. AJ
had called Howie’s house earlier to tell him, Serena, and Jenna that Elyssa had
come out of her coma. Jenna had been
out, so Howie and Serena had gone themselves, leaving her a note telling her to
come to the hospital when she got home.
When Jenna reached Elyssa’s room, she slowly opened the
door and walked in. No one was in the
room except for Elyssa herself, and she was sleeping. Jenna sighed and sat down in the chair
beside Elyssa’s bed. She yawned,
exhausted. She had not slept very well
all week, not since her fight with Nick, and she was worn out.
Before Jenna knew it, her eyes were growing heavy, and she
was drifting off to sleep.
***
“Jenna! Jenna, wake
up!”
Jenna groggily opened her eyes and looked around,
confused. She was in Elyssa’s hospital
room. She suddenly realized that she
must have fallen asleep there. Glancing
at Elyssa, she saw that her friend was still sleeping.
“Jenna?”
Jenna jumped, and turned to see Ashalyn standing behind
her. She had been shaking her shoulder
to get her to wake up.
“What?” Jenna asked, still out of it. Focusing on her friend’s face, she noticed
that Ashalyn had been crying. “What’s
wrong?” Jenna asked, becoming more alert.
“It’s Nick,” Ashalyn said, her blue eyes wide and
teary. “He’s just been brought into the
ER.”
***
