I know...I know, it's been like two months since part 20. Sorry.
Lots of stuff going on that kept me away from it for a while, not to mention the fact of having to rewrite a large section where I goofed.
Thanks for sticking with me on this.
Here we go - - -
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(Part 21)
When Alex first heard his wife calling, he didn’t respond. When she called to him a second time, with a frantic scream, he sighed in frustration and decided to see what was wrong. When he got to the bedroom, he saw Dee Dee curled up on the bed in somewhat of a fetal position, grimacing in pain, with one hand over her stomach and the other clinching the sheet.
“Help me, Alex. It hurts.” Dee Dee’s dark brown eyes; filled with pain, were focused on her husband. “I’m scared. You’ve got to do something, please.”
Alex stood silently as his wife begged for his help. He knew exactly was happening, but he made no attempt to help her.
Please, Alex.” Dee Dee was unable to move due to the intensifying pain. She barely had time to catch a breath before the next one came. Quickly, with the next gasp of air, she managed to put more force behind her pleading. “Alex, will you please take me to the hospital?! It’s too soon!”
Alex remained silent.
“Maybe they can….” Dee Dee gasped as her words were overruled by the searing pain in her lower stomach. She clinched her fist tighter around the sheet. After a few moments she regained enough control to speak. “Maybe they can stop the contractions. I need a doctor.” When Alex didn’t respond she screamed through her pain. “Aren’t you going to take me to the hospital?!” Tears of fright and desperation filled her pleading eyes. “Alex, Please!”
Alex saw a new look of fear on Dee Dee’s face as she touched her inner thigh and found blood.
“Oh, no! It can’t be!” She looked up at him with both terror and anger. Terror of what was happening to her child…anger at Alex’s behavior. Before she could udder another word, a large amount of blood and water began to flow from her body. “There’s too much blood!” She shouted with fear. “Help me!”
As his wife’s yellow nightgown and the bedding she lay on became richly stained with blood, Alex stood silently; full of absolute anger toward her, showing no sign of compassion at all.
As another pain came, Dee Dee moved more deeply into a curved position, while her fists clinched the sheet even tighter. “Call an ambulance! Do something, please!” Alex remained as he was, while Dee Dee tried to reach the phone to call for help but couldn’t stretch far enough. With a breathless and unsteady voice, she whimpered another plea. “I’m….begging….you, please. I don’t…want to…lose my baby.”
Alex grabbed the telephone and made a quick call; never revealing who he spoke to. For a moment he saw the look of hope and relief in his wife’s eyes.
“Did you call an ambulance?” She asked.
“No.” With that simple and solemn reply, Alex walked out of the room.
"Please don’t leave me alone!"
As Alex paced the floor downstairs; not as an anxious father, but as an impatient man with a plan, he could hear his wife crying from fear, pain, desperation or all of the above.
For whatever reason; he was unsure himself, he was drawn back upstairs and into the bedroom with his wife. He stood near the door and watched.
Dee Dee reached down between her legs and felt the baby’s head crowning. “Alex!” She looked for help.
With his arms folded and a strong look of indifference, he remained at his post.
As the pressure and urge to push grew beyond her control, Dee Dee bit down on her lower lip and struggled to pull herself up with her back against the headboard. There was nothing more she could do but to allow the baby to be born.
Without any attempt at assisting the birth, Alex saw the sheer look of terror that was on Dee Dee’s face, become more that of determination as she became focused on the emergency. Within minutes, one of the tiniest babies he’d ever seen; probably no more than three pounds lay on the bed between his wife’s legs.
“Alex! Is it breathing? Help it breathe, Alex…help it!” Alex looked at the frail, helpless little human whose skin was nearly transparent, with very little dark hair on its head; he wondered if such a small being could have any breath within its body. He made no attempt to find out. He watched as Dee Dee, with trembling hands, reached down to her baby. “I don’t want to hurt him.” She began to gently rub and pat its delicate back with only her fingertips in an effort to stimulate his breathing. "Come on baby. Breathe for me. Breathe for mommy. Please…breathe...breathe."
When the doorbell rang, Alex walked to the window and looked out.
“Is that someone to help us?” Dee Dee asked. With the umbilical cord still attached, she pulled her son as closely to her chest as possible, and took a pillowcase and wrapped him in it to keep him warm. “Please don’t leave mommy.” She begged of her child. “Please, baby…please hang on.” Once again she looked to her husband for help. “Alex, help him. Please.” When he didn’t respond, she reached for the phone to call for help. This time she was able to reach it, but as soon as she began dialing, Alex quickly moved toward her; snatching the phone from her and tossing it to the floor.
The look of extreme shock took over Dee Dee’s face as she gasped in surprise. “Alex, how…how can you do this?! Why?!”
He gave his wife a cold soulless stare and walked out of the room. He could hear her uncontrollable sobs and a louder cry of anguish, and assumed it was from the realization of her knowing the baby did not survive.
Minutes later Alex returned with a short, older, salt and peppered haired woman, who carried a doctor’s bag, and a large clear plastic bag of medical supplies. She went to Dee Dee’s side; who was holding her little boy and sobbing.
“Are you a doctor?! Please help my baby!” Dee Dee’s teary eyes pleaded as she grabbed the woman’s hand. “Please…help him! He’s…he’s not breathing!”
The woman immediately put clear plastic gloves on her hands, pulled out the proper medical instruments from a sealed bag and quickly cut the umbilical cord and clamped the end.
Alex stood in the doorway and watched silently. He saw that Dee Dee was becoming weaker from the trauma and blood loss, but she was most concerned for her baby. “How is he?” She asked. “He’s got to be taken to the hospital.”
The nameless woman immediately began to clear the baby’s nose and mouth with a bulb syringe, and placed a tiny oxygen mask over its face; gently squeezing the bag to put air into his lungs. Within seconds his tiny chest rose with a breath, and a very weak but audible cry came from the newborn.
Dee Dee was elated. “Oh, he’s alive!” She broke down in tears of great joy and relief. “Thank you, God!” She was extremely grateful to the mystery woman as well. “Thank you so much!”
Alex felt a sense of relief, but not for the same reasons as his wife. His was from knowing that his current plan would play out as he wished.
The woman wrapped the infant in a warm blanket and handed him to his mother.
Dee Dee was still trembling from the pain and excitement of the birth, but she was in awe of the life she’d brought into the world. “Oh, my baby boy. My beautiful baby…you’re okay.” She gently kissed the top of his head and lightly stroked his thin brown hair. “I love you so much.”
Alex walked over to the bed, and whispered something into the woman’s ear. She looked at Dee Dee, then back to Alex and nodded slightly. “Dee Dee…” She began. “You need to put the baby down so I can examine you.” She moved closer to her patient. “Let me have him so I can lay him on the bed.”
Dee Dee looked at her with uncertainty and held onto to her son. “They can check us both out at the hospital.”
The woman looked at Alex who gave her a nod that she should continue. “I can take care of you here, for now. Just put the baby down.”
Dee Dee slowly began to comply, but when she saw Alex coming toward her, she held the infant much tighter. “Just please call an ambulance.” She asked the woman. “I’ll be fine. I want my baby at the hospital as soon as possible; to be sure he’s okay.”
Before the woman could ask again, a new piece of drama began to unfold as Alex suddenly spoke with a low and demanding voice. “Give me the baby, Dee Dee.”
She looked at him in great surprise. “No.” Fear began to build within and it showed in her eyes. “You didn’t even want him to be born, let alone survive tonight! Why would I let you hold him?!”
Alex demanded once again. “Give…me…the baby, Dee Dee!” When his wife didn’t obey, he began to pull the child from her arms.
“No, Alex!” Dee Dee screamed. “I won’t let you have him!”
“Give him here, damn it!” Alex grasped and tugged roughly at the baby. At that moment Dee Dee had no choice as she didn’t want the struggle to bring injury to the baby. When she loosened her grip, Alex snatched the child from her warm embrace as she burst into tears.
Terror mounted within her. “What are you going to do with him?! Are you taking him to the hospital?!” Alex didn’t answer, and his wife continued to plead with tears streaming from her eyes. “Let an ambulance take him there! They can tend to him on the way! If you’re not taking him to the hospital, then let me have him back, Alex! Please!” Her pleading was left unnoticed.
The unidentified woman took the baby from Alex, moved to the chair, wrapped the baby tightly in a thicker blanket and then carried him out of the room.
“Wait!” Dee Dee yelled. “Where are you taking him?! Alex, where is she going?!” She struggled to get up, but Alex wouldn’t allow it.
“Calm down, Dee Dee.”
She ignored him, and once again made a move to get out of bed. “Where is my baby?! Is she taking him to the hospital?!” She grew more and more agitated and continued to struggle to get up, but couldn’t win against Alex’s grip.
Moments later the woman returned, and to Dee Dee’s horror, she was empty handed.
Dee Dee was shocked when she didn’t see her child. “Where is he?! Where is my little boy?!”
Alex moved closer to hold his wife down.
“No!” Dee Dee screamed. “Let me go! I want my baby!”
Alex and the woman held her at bay, and once Alex had most of the control over her, the woman took a small vial of clear liquid and a hypodermic from her bag. After she filled the hypodermic, she held it between her teeth by the base until she finished swabbing Dee Dee’s arm with alcohol.
“What are you doing?!” Dee Dee asked fearfully as the needle came closer to her arm. “What is that?!” She didn’t receive an answer as the needle entered her arm. “Alex, let me go!” When she tried to fight to free herself, Alex put more force against her and held her down. “What is she giving me?!”
“This is just something to help you relax.” The woman said.
“I don’t need this!” She screamed in anger. “I want my baby!”
After the woman put away the syringe, she looked at Alex. “It’ll only take about ten minutes to take affect. She’ll sleep a long while.”
“Sleep?!” Dee Dee questioned. “I don’t want to sleep! I want to get out of here and find my little boy!”
Alex and the woman helped a weary Dee Dee up from bed, to get her cleaned up in the bathroom. Afterwards, they sat her in the corner chair, under Alex’s watchful eye, until the woman cleaned up the bed, then helped Alex put Dee Dee back in to lie down.
Dee Dee quickly began to feel the affects of the drug. “Wha…why, Alex?” She began groggily. “Why are you…doing this…the baby…?” Slowly her teary eyes fluttered until they were shut and she was falling into a deep sleep.
“Where…where…is…my baby? My…baby.” As her words trailed off, Dee Dee lost the battle against the drug.
“She’ll be fine.” The woman said. “If you need me for anything else, just call. I’ll stop by tomorrow to check on her.”
Alex thanked the woman and walked her to her car. Afterwards he returned to the bedroom and for a few moments watched his wife sleeping. As he sat on edge of the bed his thoughts became a swirling blend of emotions he thought he’d never feel for his wife and the child she gave birth to. He thought of Dee Dee’s reaction during the ordeal; fear, confusion, and anger were only a few of many emotions he thought of to describe what she must have felt.
As he continued to watch her sleep, images of what he’d seen during his stint in Africa; women praying during labor that they deliver a healthy baby, then find that it never had a chance at living, never catching a first breath. And families losing their children to disease, starvation or being stolen and sold in the adoption market, and how horrified and helpless the parents were. The same was true for those who lost a child to the deadly ongoing violence of war in some areas. He’d seen the casualties and felt a tremendous sadness when he couldn’t save them. He knew something or someone with greater power than they, had taken away these lives; the most innocent and precious gifts to these people. Whether or not they could provide for that life, it was their right to try, but they had no say in the matter.
The more he thought about those situations; Alex realized that he’d played the opposition with his wife, just like that which took away the babies in Africa. He didn’t like what he felt within himself and questioned his motives.
“What have I done?”
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