Page 252 of Savior
“This can’t be the end… Vanna… don’t leave me! Please don’t fucking leave me! I love you! I can’t be here without you!”
There’s a commotion behind me now. After a moment, I’m being hauled up off the floor and back to my feet again. Someone is dragging me away from the locked double doors.
“If she’s dead… Kill me...” I beg. “Please, just fucking kill me…”
“She isn’t dead.” Viking says, shoving me into a small room with a table and chairs. It looks like a mini conference room. “Someone will be in here in a minute to talk to you. If anybody asks, Axel and I are her brothers. You can’t be by yourself right now, and only legal family can be up here.”
My eyes shift to settle on Axel for a moment. For him to be here, Cherry must be okay, even though he looks scared shitless. Eyes wide and mouth clamped shut. I wonder if they know something I don’t, before I realize that I’m covered in blood. Vanna’s blood. I slipped in a pool of it when I tried to follow her.
“Why don’t you sit down a minute, Dean.” Viking tries to coax me into a chair, but the conference room door opens, and a nurse steps into the room with us. I reach to grab her but Viking holds me back.
“Is she alive?” I desperately ask.
“Yes.”
“Oh thank fuck!”
“However… there are a few very serious complications that are presently life threatening to both your wife and the baby.”
I’ve lost my ability to speak.
“What’s happening?” Viking asks.
“It’s a compound problem.”
“Just tell us what’s wrong with Vanna!” Axel raises his voice to her.
She takes a breath and starts to speak again. “She’s suffered a full placental abruption, which caused severe hemorrhaging.” The nurse says. “To make matters worse… and though this is rare… she may be experiencing something called AFE.”
“The fuck does all that mean?” Viking demands.
“AFE stands for Amniotic Fluid Embolism.” The nurse cautiously replies.
“She gonna make it?” Viking presses.
When the nurse hesitates to answer, I can almost feel my soul trying to tear itself from my body to go and be with her.
“The doctors are doing the best they can.” She says softly, a pitying look in her eyes as they meet mine.
“The baby?” I barely recognize my own voice.
“They’re doing all they can to save them both… I’m so sorry you’re all going through this.”
“What are their chances?” I manage to ask.
Her lips press together as her hand reaches out to touch my arm. “These complications, on their own, are serious.” She says. “The mortality rate in AFE is around eighty percent.”
My heart stops, then begins to beat faster, slamming against my rib cage as I force my mind to wrap around what she just said. The mortality rate… is eighty percent…
“The doctors believe the amniotic fluid entered her bloodstream. It could have occurred due to the placental abruption, which has been confirmed, through tears in the uterus. Her immune system had a severe and overwhelming reaction. There’s no way to know when or if this will happen during child birth, until it’s actually happening. It’s such a rare occurrence. But your wife is having a severe allergic reaction, which resulted in intrapartum sudden cardiopulmonary collapse.” The nurse stops talking for a moment. Staring at me now, her eyes looking into mine with an empathy that only seems to want to suck the hope from my heart. “CPR was initiated during the c-section… She went into cardiac arrest, shortly after the initial incision...”
I must have said something… Made some kind of sound, because Viking’s arms around me tighten. Hell, he might even be the reason I’m still standing.
“She’s alive, Dean.” he reminds me. “You survived the same, remember?”
I watch in silence as the nurse leaves the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
“Viking…” I manage to speak somehow.
“No.” He says, dragging me back and shoving me down into a chair. I haven’t got much will left to fight him. If he won’t do it for me… I will do it myself. “Fuck no. And don’t ask me again. Vanna’s gonna pull through. So is the kid. Hell, Ace is your son. He’s a fighter. And Vanna is tough as nails. They’re both alive, Dean. Hold onto that.”
My eyes shift to gaze through the windows into the hallway, in time to see two hospital employees rushing towards the O.R. They’re both carrying coolers packed with the donor blood Vanna needs, if she’s going to live.
Leaning forward to rest my arms on my knees, my head hanging low, I realize I’m still clutching the small platinum ring. Holding it between my thumb and forefinger, I stare at the now bloody diamond, that I gave her… When I promised her Happily Ever After…
Why must I always fail the most important women in my life…
