It Was The Smartest Thing I Ever Did, Because Now You're Here (10/?)
Title: It Was The Smartest Thing I Ever Did, Because Now You're Here
Author: x_avecia_x
Rating: PG-13
Warning: A few sweary words, nothing too shocking.
Word Count: 2,948
Disclaimer: I do not own Community - although I would totally marry Dan Harmon then claim half in our (inevitable) divorce settlement - that is unless he concedes to my end game Jeff/Annie demands. If you recognize any of it, it isn't mine.
Summary: Annie and Jeff deal with the consequences of their attraction.
Author's Note: I don't think I can say much else about this chapter except SADDLE UP! I said in a reply to a comment on the last chapter that drama befalls Jeff and Annie in this chapter, although not necessarily of their own doing. Still, it sets things in motion and I just hope you like it because this is a big subject for me to write about.
A MASSIVE thank you to JHeaton for his beta-ing services on short notice. This was a pile of poop until he got his hands on it :) (The story itself might be a pile of poop, but grammatically and logically this chapter makes better sense)
And other than saying thank you so much to my readers who continue to give me too much praise, I'll leave it there. Ave x x x
______
10th May 2012
Jeff caught up with Annie in the cafeteria after yet another boring Political Science class. He was picking her up in order to head to their first Lamaze Class - not that he was particularly anxious to subject himself to an hour of women talking about their nether regions in such a graphic way, but he’d promised Annie he’d go with her. That, and take her to lunch beforehand for their first date.
‘Hey so are you ready to...’ he stopped when he noticed the colour of her complexion and the strained look on her face. He gripped her shoulder and gave her a concerned look of his own, ‘...Annie what’s wrong? ’
‘Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine, just a bit uncomfortable. I would have stayed home today but with finals in a few weeks I didn’t want to miss anything.’
‘Annie, if you don’t feel well let me take you to the doctor. Finals can wait.’
‘Typical Jeff - anything to put off doing any work.’
She attempted a smirk to accompany her sarcasm but grimaced instead as she leaned over to grip the cafeteria table, ‘God that hurts.’
‘I take offence to you thinking I’d use taking you to see a doctor as a reason to get out of classes for the rest of the day, and why am I even still standing here discussing it with you? You’re going to the doctor and there’s nothing else to it.’
‘I don’t need you to escort me to the hospital Jeff - I’m not entirely incapable.’
‘Annie, would you please just let me help? I’m worried about you and the baby.’
Jeff thought he was receiving a nod in acceptance from her but as her head lolled to the side and her legs gave out from under her, he had just seconds to break her fall.
‘Help!’ Jeff shouted as loudly as he could, ‘somebody help her!’
Shirley pushed her way through the crowd that had somehow materialized around Jeff and Annie. She stopped short and gasped at the sight of Annie on the floor being cradled by Jeff, a pool of blood surrounding them.
‘Oh my Lord in Heaven! Someone call an ambulance!’
She crossed herself as she forced herself to move closer.
‘On second thoughts...’
She immediately fished the keys to her mini-van out of her bag and threw them to Troy who was standing behind them with Abed and Britta, and was trying not to burst into tears.
‘...Troy there’s no time for an ambulance, go get my mini-van and meet us out front.’
He stood there, eyes transfixed on all the blood for a fraction of a second too long, and Shirley resorted to tactics that she knew would most likely make Troy cry but more importantly moving.
‘Get your skinny black ass out that door and into my car or so help me, you’ll think you pissed off God himself. Move it! Now!’
And with that Troy, Abed and Britta were gone, running as fast as their feet could carry them.
Shirley turned her attention back to Jeff, who hadn’t moved at all.
‘We need to get Annie to the hospital. You need to let us in and we can all move her out.’
She was met with silence. When she tried to get his attention again, pulling on his shoulder gently, he growled ‘no’. Sliding his left arm under Annie’s knees and keeping his other tightly around her shoulders, he picked her up and moved towards the door.
Troy screeched Shirley's mini-van to a halt outside the cafeteria doors. As Shirley held the door open, Jeff got into the rear of the car without a word, not once letting Annie go. Shirley got in the other side of the car as Troy floored the gas pedal. Britta was perched beside Abed in the front seat and Jeff supposed they were committing numerous traffic violations what with the overcrowding and lack of seatbelts, but right now all he cared about was the woman, carrying his child, who hadn’t opened her eyes since he shouted at her to let him help.
Before he knew it he had two nurses and a doctor trying to take Annie away on the gurney they had urged him put her down on. They only succeeded when Shirley took his face in her hands and pleaded with him to let the doctors help her.
Jeff, however followed them and stood screaming at the emergency room doors that he should be in there with her, with Shirley, Troy, Britta and Abed just barely managing to keep him from entering. Pierce, who arrived at the hospital just moments later, joined the group’s collective efforts and finally they managed to pry Jeff away from the doors and back into the waiting area.
So they waited. A full ten minutes went by with nobody coming to tell them what was going on. Shirley and Britta did their best to give Annie’s information for the paperwork to the clerk at the admittance desk, while Abed, Troy and Pierce all sat fidgeting in the uncomfortably, cold plastic seating next to the ER resuscitation room. Troy was still struggling not to openly start wailing. Jeff, however couldn’t sit still and was pacing the hall, striding back and forth in front of the doors keeping him from Annie, unable to make eye contact with any of his friends.
The moment the door opened he was the first to rush forward to the doctor.
‘What’s happening? Is she going to be ok?’
‘And you are?’ the doctor asked with a hint of concern, seemingly having been warned about the crazy man in the waiting room.
‘What do you mean who am I? I’m the father of the baby whose mother you and your goons aren’t letting me in to see! Now tell me what the fuck is going on!’
‘Ok Mr...’
‘Winger,’ he ground out.
‘Well Mr Winger, Ms. Edison has suffered severe blood loss - a result of an acute placental abruption. We have no other option but to perform an emergency C-section.’
‘Oh God,’ Jeff was suddenly unable to speak; he felt like he was about to have a full on coronary.
Shirley spoke up instead.
‘But she’s barely thirty weeks, this is too early. Will she be ok? And what about the baby?’
The doctor took a moment to observe the group of friends who clearly, and quite rightly, were concerned for the woman in the room next door. He took a breath before delivering the most worrying part of his news.
‘There really is no other option - with such a severe abruption, early delivery is the only option. The situation is quite grave, for both of them.’
Jeff was fighting with everything he had to keep from letting any tears fall. He was not going to lose control in a hospital waiting room. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
‘Can I see her?’ he asked.
‘We’re taking her straight up to surgery Mr Winger. Usually with C-sections we would allow you into the operating theatre, but considering the seriousness of Ms. Edison’s condition, we can’t wait for your to change clothes and scrub in. I’m afraid the best I can do right now is to allow you to watch from the viewing area.’
Jeff sighed in frustration and turned away to kick a nearby trash can. The doctor flinched but turned to Shirley and spoke in a quieter tone.
‘I’ll have a nurse come to take Mr Winger up to the theatre - perhaps one of you could go with him.’
Shirley nodded and the doctor returned to the room behind them.
Barely ten minutes after that Jeff found himself in a small room illuminated only by the harsh surgical lights in the operating theatre below. Annie lay on the surgeon’s table, eyes closed with tape and a tube down her throat. Shirley stood beside him, holding his hand. The others were waiting along the hall outside in another waiting area.
‘I know it might not be what you want to hear Jeff, but I’m praying for a little help on this one - for all of you.’
‘Thank you,’ he whispered in reply as Shirley squeezed his hand, ‘I don’t understand how this could happen. She was fine yesterday. We were discussing names and which birthing class to go to. Tell me, if there is a God, why would he do this to me or Annie? To a baby?! And so help me, if you say anything along the lines of ‘God works in mysterious ways’ you can wait outside with the rest of the group.’
Shirley flinched a little, but then smiled fondly at him, the same way she used to before the news of Annie falling pregnant to Jeff shattered her illusion of him generally being a good guy.
‘You know, I have my faith but I’m not so blinded by it that I don’t wonder why bad things happen. They happen to good people and it’s not fair. I believe what God does is bring people into our lives, who we can lean on when things get hard, and vice versa. You just need to try to let us in, instead of shutting us out.’
Jeff sighed, wishing he could have even a fraction of the faith the seemed to hold Shirley together whenever things got hard. But the truth was, even with such a great group of friends like he had to rely on, he had never been a lucky guy, not since his world was turned on its head following his disbarment. And he feared that no matter how much he opened up to Shirley and the others, the fact remained that neither he nor any of his friends could do anything to improve the grim situation.
‘I appreciate you all being here, I really do but I just can’t think about anything else right now except those surgeons keeping them both alive.’
Shirley nodded and it was a while before she spoke again.
‘I know I haven’t been as supportive as I could have been...’
Jeff held back the snort of ‘you don’t say’, remembering how terrified Annie had been of telling the group how they were spending their nights together - it was neither the time nor the place.
‘...but seeing how much you care - and don’t say that that you don’t Jeffrey - I want nothing more for you than to experience how wonderful having a proper family of your own really is. I want that for both you and Annie.’
Jeff turned and took Shirley into a hug, realizing suddenly that he’d been waiting for her acceptance ever since Leonard announced to the world at large that Annie was having his child.
‘Thank you...’ he said softly, ‘...again.’
‘You’re welcome sweetie. Now, I know it’s going to be hard but you should really pay attention because your son or daughter is about to come into this world and no matter how it happens, no man should miss that.’
Jeff turned back to the window just in time to watch as the tiniest baby he’d ever seen was pulled from Annie’s abdomen. He held his breath and waited - not sure what for, just anything to tell him what was happening and that they were both ok.
He watched, hands and face pressed up to the glass, as the surgeons piled back in around Annie as another group of people crowded around the baby. He tried to ignore all the blood on the floor of the operating theatre. It made him sick to his stomach.
Just as he was about to bang his fist on the glass and yell for someone to tell him what was going on there was a knock on the door and an older looking woman in scrubs came in and introduced herself.
‘I’m Lisa, one of the nurses assisting the surgeons - you must be Mr Winger.’
Jeff reached for Shirley’s hand and held it tight before nodding in confirmation.
‘You have a son Mr Winger. He’s very much on the small side, barely two and a half pounds and we’ve had to help him with his breathing as his lungs are extremely underdeveloped...’
‘But he’s alive? That’s the main thing isn’t it? He’s alive?’
‘Yes Mr Winger, he’s alive. His heartbeat is still distressed as a result of the abruption and sudden delivery but he’s here and we’re going to look after him the best we can. He’s being taken up to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit right now where we can monitor and medicate him to help his lungs develop more fully.’
Jeff couldn’t help the grin that came over his face. He hugged Shirley so tightly he was sure he’d cut off her circulation. But his elation vanished as he caught a glimpse of the surgeons still working away in the theatre.
‘What about Annie? What are they doing down there?’
‘Mr Winger, Ms. Edison suffered a great loss of blood and there’s a high risk of shock. The surgeons are trying to stop the bleeding but the surgery may take quite some time. Trust me, they will do everything humanly possible for her.’
Jeff swallowed thickly as he stared at the ceiling, blinking away the tears again threatening to make an appearance. The nurse gave him a moment before speaking again.
‘Perhaps you might want to come with me to meet your son while you wait for news?’
Jeff felt like he was caught between a rock and hard place. He was desperate to meet his son, but leaving Annie alone like that didn’t feel right - especially without at least her parents being there.
Shirley caught onto his dilemma and turned to Lisa.
‘Thank you for talking to us. Maybe if you could come back in a few minutes? We have to tell our friends what’s going on and maybe have one of them stay in the observation room for Annie while Jeff’s away?’
‘Well, strictly only family are meant to be allowed in here, I’m very sorry.’
After Lisa left the room Jeff took one last look at Annie, lying there almost lifeless on the operating table, cut open to the world with suction tubes and cotton swabs sticking in and out of her, before following the nurse out of the viewing gallery and made his way to where the study group were waiting, with Shirley in tow behind him.
They all stood up immediately but didn’t rush to crowd Jeff.
‘I take it there’s some news?’ Britta asked tenderly, holding Abed’s hand, and Troy had his arm around her shoulders in comfort.
‘I have a son,’ he murmured, looking up and trying to find a smile to comfort them all despite his own inner pain. But he couldn’t quite force one onto his face.
Shirley picked up from where he left off.
‘He’s a tiny little thing and they’ve taken him to the Neonatal ICU. Jeff’s about to go on up to see him.’
‘Is Annie going to be alright?’ asked Pierce, who stood behind the rest of the group fidgeting with his hands.
‘They’re still working on her...’
Shirley began to relay what the Nurse had just told them in the most positive way possible, but Jeff who was struggling to deal with his feelings about Annie, his Annie, lying in the theatre, fighting for life and not one of his friends knowing just how much that was devastating him, cut Shirley off mid-flow.
‘They don’t know if Annie’s going to make it. She’s lost a lot of blood and they haven’t been able to stop it yet. I wanted to stay, but...’
‘I’ll stay with her,’ Pierce interrupted firmly.
‘But only family members...’
‘She’s the closest thing to a daughter I have. And,’ he added, pulling out his chequebook, ‘I think they'll make an exception for a major donor. 'Hawthorne Memorial Hospital' has a nice ring to it, don't you think?’
The look between Pierce and Jeff was of mutual respect, the first time either had really known what it was like to understand the other.
‘Thank you Pierce, I appreciate that.’
Abed, Britta and Troy looked between each other and then to Jeff, not quite knowing what to do.
‘We’ll come with you to the ICU if that’s alright,’ murmured Britta, earning a dejected smile from Jeff in response.
‘I appreciate that but, if you guys don’t mind, I think that I should just go on my own. It’s a lot for me to get my head around and I doubt you’d all be able to come in with me anyway.’
‘Oh, sure, of course,’ Britta replied, trying hard not to insist that Jeff be surrounded by his friends rather than be on his own.
‘We’ll all go in with Pierce, go see your son Jeff,’ Abed announced with subdued conviction.
Jeff looked amongst them all and let out the breath he’d been holding.
‘If anything happens when I’m gone you tell someone to find me,’ he tried to sound calm but the strain in his voice was clear for them all to hear, ‘Shirley, I know the hospital has already probably contacted them but can you maybe call Annie’s parents? I know I should do it but I...I need to see him.’
‘Of course I will. I’ll call them.’
‘Thank you,’ he all but whispered, passing his phone to Shirley, ignoring the blood on his shirt as he fished it out his pocket. He saw the nurse coming back along the corridor and acknowledged her with a nod of his head, ‘I’ll see you all later, and thank you again for being here.’
‘We wouldn’t be anywhere else.’
Author: x_avecia_x
Rating: PG-13
Warning: A few sweary words, nothing too shocking.
Word Count: 2,948
Disclaimer: I do not own Community - although I would totally marry Dan Harmon then claim half in our (inevitable) divorce settlement - that is unless he concedes to my end game Jeff/Annie demands. If you recognize any of it, it isn't mine.
Summary: Annie and Jeff deal with the consequences of their attraction.
Author's Note: I don't think I can say much else about this chapter except SADDLE UP! I said in a reply to a comment on the last chapter that drama befalls Jeff and Annie in this chapter, although not necessarily of their own doing. Still, it sets things in motion and I just hope you like it because this is a big subject for me to write about.
A MASSIVE thank you to JHeaton for his beta-ing services on short notice. This was a pile of poop until he got his hands on it :) (The story itself might be a pile of poop, but grammatically and logically this chapter makes better sense)
And other than saying thank you so much to my readers who continue to give me too much praise, I'll leave it there. Ave x x x
______
10th May 2012
Jeff caught up with Annie in the cafeteria after yet another boring Political Science class. He was picking her up in order to head to their first Lamaze Class - not that he was particularly anxious to subject himself to an hour of women talking about their nether regions in such a graphic way, but he’d promised Annie he’d go with her. That, and take her to lunch beforehand for their first date.
‘Hey so are you ready to...’ he stopped when he noticed the colour of her complexion and the strained look on her face. He gripped her shoulder and gave her a concerned look of his own, ‘...Annie what’s wrong? ’
‘Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine, just a bit uncomfortable. I would have stayed home today but with finals in a few weeks I didn’t want to miss anything.’
‘Annie, if you don’t feel well let me take you to the doctor. Finals can wait.’
‘Typical Jeff - anything to put off doing any work.’
She attempted a smirk to accompany her sarcasm but grimaced instead as she leaned over to grip the cafeteria table, ‘God that hurts.’
‘I take offence to you thinking I’d use taking you to see a doctor as a reason to get out of classes for the rest of the day, and why am I even still standing here discussing it with you? You’re going to the doctor and there’s nothing else to it.’
‘I don’t need you to escort me to the hospital Jeff - I’m not entirely incapable.’
‘Annie, would you please just let me help? I’m worried about you and the baby.’
Jeff thought he was receiving a nod in acceptance from her but as her head lolled to the side and her legs gave out from under her, he had just seconds to break her fall.
‘Help!’ Jeff shouted as loudly as he could, ‘somebody help her!’
Shirley pushed her way through the crowd that had somehow materialized around Jeff and Annie. She stopped short and gasped at the sight of Annie on the floor being cradled by Jeff, a pool of blood surrounding them.
‘Oh my Lord in Heaven! Someone call an ambulance!’
She crossed herself as she forced herself to move closer.
‘On second thoughts...’
She immediately fished the keys to her mini-van out of her bag and threw them to Troy who was standing behind them with Abed and Britta, and was trying not to burst into tears.
‘...Troy there’s no time for an ambulance, go get my mini-van and meet us out front.’
He stood there, eyes transfixed on all the blood for a fraction of a second too long, and Shirley resorted to tactics that she knew would most likely make Troy cry but more importantly moving.
‘Get your skinny black ass out that door and into my car or so help me, you’ll think you pissed off God himself. Move it! Now!’
And with that Troy, Abed and Britta were gone, running as fast as their feet could carry them.
Shirley turned her attention back to Jeff, who hadn’t moved at all.
‘We need to get Annie to the hospital. You need to let us in and we can all move her out.’
She was met with silence. When she tried to get his attention again, pulling on his shoulder gently, he growled ‘no’. Sliding his left arm under Annie’s knees and keeping his other tightly around her shoulders, he picked her up and moved towards the door.
Troy screeched Shirley's mini-van to a halt outside the cafeteria doors. As Shirley held the door open, Jeff got into the rear of the car without a word, not once letting Annie go. Shirley got in the other side of the car as Troy floored the gas pedal. Britta was perched beside Abed in the front seat and Jeff supposed they were committing numerous traffic violations what with the overcrowding and lack of seatbelts, but right now all he cared about was the woman, carrying his child, who hadn’t opened her eyes since he shouted at her to let him help.
Before he knew it he had two nurses and a doctor trying to take Annie away on the gurney they had urged him put her down on. They only succeeded when Shirley took his face in her hands and pleaded with him to let the doctors help her.
Jeff, however followed them and stood screaming at the emergency room doors that he should be in there with her, with Shirley, Troy, Britta and Abed just barely managing to keep him from entering. Pierce, who arrived at the hospital just moments later, joined the group’s collective efforts and finally they managed to pry Jeff away from the doors and back into the waiting area.
So they waited. A full ten minutes went by with nobody coming to tell them what was going on. Shirley and Britta did their best to give Annie’s information for the paperwork to the clerk at the admittance desk, while Abed, Troy and Pierce all sat fidgeting in the uncomfortably, cold plastic seating next to the ER resuscitation room. Troy was still struggling not to openly start wailing. Jeff, however couldn’t sit still and was pacing the hall, striding back and forth in front of the doors keeping him from Annie, unable to make eye contact with any of his friends.
The moment the door opened he was the first to rush forward to the doctor.
‘What’s happening? Is she going to be ok?’
‘And you are?’ the doctor asked with a hint of concern, seemingly having been warned about the crazy man in the waiting room.
‘What do you mean who am I? I’m the father of the baby whose mother you and your goons aren’t letting me in to see! Now tell me what the fuck is going on!’
‘Ok Mr...’
‘Winger,’ he ground out.
‘Well Mr Winger, Ms. Edison has suffered severe blood loss - a result of an acute placental abruption. We have no other option but to perform an emergency C-section.’
‘Oh God,’ Jeff was suddenly unable to speak; he felt like he was about to have a full on coronary.
Shirley spoke up instead.
‘But she’s barely thirty weeks, this is too early. Will she be ok? And what about the baby?’
The doctor took a moment to observe the group of friends who clearly, and quite rightly, were concerned for the woman in the room next door. He took a breath before delivering the most worrying part of his news.
‘There really is no other option - with such a severe abruption, early delivery is the only option. The situation is quite grave, for both of them.’
Jeff was fighting with everything he had to keep from letting any tears fall. He was not going to lose control in a hospital waiting room. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
‘Can I see her?’ he asked.
‘We’re taking her straight up to surgery Mr Winger. Usually with C-sections we would allow you into the operating theatre, but considering the seriousness of Ms. Edison’s condition, we can’t wait for your to change clothes and scrub in. I’m afraid the best I can do right now is to allow you to watch from the viewing area.’
Jeff sighed in frustration and turned away to kick a nearby trash can. The doctor flinched but turned to Shirley and spoke in a quieter tone.
‘I’ll have a nurse come to take Mr Winger up to the theatre - perhaps one of you could go with him.’
Shirley nodded and the doctor returned to the room behind them.
Barely ten minutes after that Jeff found himself in a small room illuminated only by the harsh surgical lights in the operating theatre below. Annie lay on the surgeon’s table, eyes closed with tape and a tube down her throat. Shirley stood beside him, holding his hand. The others were waiting along the hall outside in another waiting area.
‘I know it might not be what you want to hear Jeff, but I’m praying for a little help on this one - for all of you.’
‘Thank you,’ he whispered in reply as Shirley squeezed his hand, ‘I don’t understand how this could happen. She was fine yesterday. We were discussing names and which birthing class to go to. Tell me, if there is a God, why would he do this to me or Annie? To a baby?! And so help me, if you say anything along the lines of ‘God works in mysterious ways’ you can wait outside with the rest of the group.’
Shirley flinched a little, but then smiled fondly at him, the same way she used to before the news of Annie falling pregnant to Jeff shattered her illusion of him generally being a good guy.
‘You know, I have my faith but I’m not so blinded by it that I don’t wonder why bad things happen. They happen to good people and it’s not fair. I believe what God does is bring people into our lives, who we can lean on when things get hard, and vice versa. You just need to try to let us in, instead of shutting us out.’
Jeff sighed, wishing he could have even a fraction of the faith the seemed to hold Shirley together whenever things got hard. But the truth was, even with such a great group of friends like he had to rely on, he had never been a lucky guy, not since his world was turned on its head following his disbarment. And he feared that no matter how much he opened up to Shirley and the others, the fact remained that neither he nor any of his friends could do anything to improve the grim situation.
‘I appreciate you all being here, I really do but I just can’t think about anything else right now except those surgeons keeping them both alive.’
Shirley nodded and it was a while before she spoke again.
‘I know I haven’t been as supportive as I could have been...’
Jeff held back the snort of ‘you don’t say’, remembering how terrified Annie had been of telling the group how they were spending their nights together - it was neither the time nor the place.
‘...but seeing how much you care - and don’t say that that you don’t Jeffrey - I want nothing more for you than to experience how wonderful having a proper family of your own really is. I want that for both you and Annie.’
Jeff turned and took Shirley into a hug, realizing suddenly that he’d been waiting for her acceptance ever since Leonard announced to the world at large that Annie was having his child.
‘Thank you...’ he said softly, ‘...again.’
‘You’re welcome sweetie. Now, I know it’s going to be hard but you should really pay attention because your son or daughter is about to come into this world and no matter how it happens, no man should miss that.’
Jeff turned back to the window just in time to watch as the tiniest baby he’d ever seen was pulled from Annie’s abdomen. He held his breath and waited - not sure what for, just anything to tell him what was happening and that they were both ok.
He watched, hands and face pressed up to the glass, as the surgeons piled back in around Annie as another group of people crowded around the baby. He tried to ignore all the blood on the floor of the operating theatre. It made him sick to his stomach.
Just as he was about to bang his fist on the glass and yell for someone to tell him what was going on there was a knock on the door and an older looking woman in scrubs came in and introduced herself.
‘I’m Lisa, one of the nurses assisting the surgeons - you must be Mr Winger.’
Jeff reached for Shirley’s hand and held it tight before nodding in confirmation.
‘You have a son Mr Winger. He’s very much on the small side, barely two and a half pounds and we’ve had to help him with his breathing as his lungs are extremely underdeveloped...’
‘But he’s alive? That’s the main thing isn’t it? He’s alive?’
‘Yes Mr Winger, he’s alive. His heartbeat is still distressed as a result of the abruption and sudden delivery but he’s here and we’re going to look after him the best we can. He’s being taken up to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit right now where we can monitor and medicate him to help his lungs develop more fully.’
Jeff couldn’t help the grin that came over his face. He hugged Shirley so tightly he was sure he’d cut off her circulation. But his elation vanished as he caught a glimpse of the surgeons still working away in the theatre.
‘What about Annie? What are they doing down there?’
‘Mr Winger, Ms. Edison suffered a great loss of blood and there’s a high risk of shock. The surgeons are trying to stop the bleeding but the surgery may take quite some time. Trust me, they will do everything humanly possible for her.’
Jeff swallowed thickly as he stared at the ceiling, blinking away the tears again threatening to make an appearance. The nurse gave him a moment before speaking again.
‘Perhaps you might want to come with me to meet your son while you wait for news?’
Jeff felt like he was caught between a rock and hard place. He was desperate to meet his son, but leaving Annie alone like that didn’t feel right - especially without at least her parents being there.
Shirley caught onto his dilemma and turned to Lisa.
‘Thank you for talking to us. Maybe if you could come back in a few minutes? We have to tell our friends what’s going on and maybe have one of them stay in the observation room for Annie while Jeff’s away?’
‘Well, strictly only family are meant to be allowed in here, I’m very sorry.’
After Lisa left the room Jeff took one last look at Annie, lying there almost lifeless on the operating table, cut open to the world with suction tubes and cotton swabs sticking in and out of her, before following the nurse out of the viewing gallery and made his way to where the study group were waiting, with Shirley in tow behind him.
They all stood up immediately but didn’t rush to crowd Jeff.
‘I take it there’s some news?’ Britta asked tenderly, holding Abed’s hand, and Troy had his arm around her shoulders in comfort.
‘I have a son,’ he murmured, looking up and trying to find a smile to comfort them all despite his own inner pain. But he couldn’t quite force one onto his face.
Shirley picked up from where he left off.
‘He’s a tiny little thing and they’ve taken him to the Neonatal ICU. Jeff’s about to go on up to see him.’
‘Is Annie going to be alright?’ asked Pierce, who stood behind the rest of the group fidgeting with his hands.
‘They’re still working on her...’
Shirley began to relay what the Nurse had just told them in the most positive way possible, but Jeff who was struggling to deal with his feelings about Annie, his Annie, lying in the theatre, fighting for life and not one of his friends knowing just how much that was devastating him, cut Shirley off mid-flow.
‘They don’t know if Annie’s going to make it. She’s lost a lot of blood and they haven’t been able to stop it yet. I wanted to stay, but...’
‘I’ll stay with her,’ Pierce interrupted firmly.
‘But only family members...’
‘She’s the closest thing to a daughter I have. And,’ he added, pulling out his chequebook, ‘I think they'll make an exception for a major donor. 'Hawthorne Memorial Hospital' has a nice ring to it, don't you think?’
The look between Pierce and Jeff was of mutual respect, the first time either had really known what it was like to understand the other.
‘Thank you Pierce, I appreciate that.’
Abed, Britta and Troy looked between each other and then to Jeff, not quite knowing what to do.
‘We’ll come with you to the ICU if that’s alright,’ murmured Britta, earning a dejected smile from Jeff in response.
‘I appreciate that but, if you guys don’t mind, I think that I should just go on my own. It’s a lot for me to get my head around and I doubt you’d all be able to come in with me anyway.’
‘Oh, sure, of course,’ Britta replied, trying hard not to insist that Jeff be surrounded by his friends rather than be on his own.
‘We’ll all go in with Pierce, go see your son Jeff,’ Abed announced with subdued conviction.
Jeff looked amongst them all and let out the breath he’d been holding.
‘If anything happens when I’m gone you tell someone to find me,’ he tried to sound calm but the strain in his voice was clear for them all to hear, ‘Shirley, I know the hospital has already probably contacted them but can you maybe call Annie’s parents? I know I should do it but I...I need to see him.’
‘Of course I will. I’ll call them.’
‘Thank you,’ he all but whispered, passing his phone to Shirley, ignoring the blood on his shirt as he fished it out his pocket. He saw the nurse coming back along the corridor and acknowledged her with a nod of his head, ‘I’ll see you all later, and thank you again for being here.’
‘We wouldn’t be anywhere else.’