Page 45 of Prognosis Do Over

‘Thank you,’ he said.

They gazed at each other for a few moments, and then Lou became aware of the noises the resus team was making. ‘What are his Apgar’s?’ she demanded, dropping Will’s hand and sitting forward.

‘Nine and ten,’ said the doctor, tending to Jan’s baby in a prepared warmed resus cot. ‘He seems fine. Fighting fit.’

Lou smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Her nephew’s cries were evidence of his good condition.

‘Six pounds, ten ounces,’ a midwife said, picking the baby up off the scales and wrapping him quickly in warmed blankets.

‘Jeez, Lou,’ said Bree. ‘Just as well he was prem. Imagine how much he would have weighed in another six weeks.’

The room erupted into laughter, and Lou joined them. What a whopping boy! No wonder her ribs had been so sore!

A few minutes later her nephew was pronounced fit and put in her arms. He quietened instantly, as if he knew she was the one he’d just come from, and stared at his aunty with his mother’s eyes.

‘Oh, look, Will,’ she said, her voice full of wonder. ‘He’s just like Jan.’ And he was. He had Jan’s eyes, and cute little upturned nose, and her chin, and her high cheekbones.

‘Hello, baby,’ she crooned. ‘I’m your aunty. Welcome to the world.’ Lou pulled back the blanket from his head a little, and gasped as tufts of red hair became evident.

‘He has Martin’s hair,’ she exclaimed. How perfect for this little treasure to have a legacy from both his parents. ‘Oh, Will, I wish they were here,’ she murmured, feeling the tears prick her eyes.

He sat on the bed beside her. ‘I know,’ he said gently. ‘I know.’

Will had never seen her looking lovelier. With her hair half shorn, her face still flushed from the exertion, tears glistening in her eyes and a look of complete and utter adoration on her face, he couldn’t remember ever loving her more.

He knew in that instant that he never wanted to be apart from her ever again.

What kind of a fool had he been? Everything he wanted, needed, was right in front of him. Who had he been kidding?

He had made another mistake.

The first one had been thinking he was over her. That he could ever be over her. But the second one was worse. He was allowing the past, with all its emotional trauma and baggage and the present complications in their lives, ruin the best thing that had ever happened to him.

The baby stirred in her arms and Lou hushed it. Sitting before him was the woman he loved. Through this amazing act of complete selflessness she had proved to him again her endless devotion.

And not just to Jan.

He had seen it in her determination to lose her hair for leukaemia research, and the way she was with Terry and Candy, and her dedication to Ward Two. And he had certainly seen it in their relationship.

How long had she stayed the first time around, when others would have left the minute Delvine had started putting her oar in? He was in love with a woman whose capacity for dedication and commitment knew no bounds.

Surely they weren’t going to let stuff from their past and their perceived complications now stand in the way of something truly beautiful?

Yes, it was complicated. Yes, they both had kids to think about now. But how much better could they provide for and nurture their children if they were together?

As they wanted to be. Yearned to be.

Deserved to be.

Could he be the best father he could be to Candy when he was denying himself a chance at adult love? At true happiness? Could she mother Jan’s baby while denying she needed to be fulfilled and loved as woman as well?

Through being here to witness Lou’s special journey, he was part of her life again. How could he have fooled himself otherwise? They were joined, always had been, and trying to deny it was insane. And witnessing the last weeks of her pregnancy, being here for the birth and cutting the cord, had just drawn him in deeper, closer.

Despite fighting it, he was already in over his head.

Why had it taken this tiny - or not so tiny - baby to make him see that some commitments, some bonds were never broken?

Were there whether you wanted them to be or not.

---