A Ballad For Beulah

As Mike watched Beulah's eyes close quite peacefully, he thought nothing of it until the sound of the electrocardiogram machine sounded. And, in his mind, it was the worst sound ever. That flat, nasally sound that never ends unless the machine is turned off.

The sound of death.

Mike felt a panic attack coming on as he frantically berated the doctors as to what happened.

"What the fuck's going on?" Mike demanded, tears stinging his eyes as he shook Beulah's shoulder. "Beulah, honey, wake up...please, wake up..."

"Mr. Pritchard, we're gonna have to ask you to step out of the way so the doctor can take care of your girlfriend."

"But she was fine a minute ago. She was talking and smiling...and...alive..." he cried. "Tell me she not dead."

"Her heart stopped, sir," the doctor said. "We only have a few minutes to bring her back and if we can't there's a risk of losing the baby as well. But since you're the father, there's the choice in what you want us to do."

Mike's features shown that of shock and confusion on his face. "I...just...just help her. Bring her back..."

"We're gonna do all we can."

* * *

"It's a girl!" exclaimed the doctor in the delivery room across the hall.

Adrienne slumped back with an exhausted smile plastered across her face as Billie Joe gave her hand a squeeze and kissed her.

"You did it, babe," he remarked. "You had our daughter."

He couldn't believe it. His first daughter. A little girl. Finally!

"Mr. Armstrong, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?" the doctor asked, to which Billie Joe obliged.

He'd done with twice before and the third time would be a charm. Once all was said and done, the doctor head the little baby girl up for Adrienne to see before moving her toward a table to be cleaned up.

And just as the third time parents were basking in the glow, a nurse burst into the room and asked if there for some help in the delivery room across the hall.

"What's going on?" Adrienne inquired as the nurse brought her newborn daughter over, wrapped in a pink blanket with matching pink cap.

Billie Joe looked down at the doctor. "Doc, what's wrong in the other delivery room?"

The doctor frowned as he looked over at the green eyed musician, after finding out what was going on.

"The nurses will take care of you. Today we just happen to be understaffed and I'm needed across the hall."

"Doc...I asked you a question," Billie Joe growled. "What's going on over there?"

"A woman in premature labor. Her heart stopped and the life of both her and her unborn child are at serious risk."

Billie Joe's mouth dropped open as he watched the dock go. Turning his head to Adrienne, he watched as his wife began to cry while holding their so far nameless daughter.

"They're talking about Beulah, aren't they?" Adrienne blubbered. "How can she just die?"

Billie Joe covered his agape mouth with his hand, his own tears stinging at his eyes as he moved over to the delivery room doors and looked out the window across the way to the other doors, seeing doctors and nurses buzzing about like busy worker bees.

And then he saw Mike, standing off to the side, rocking back and forth, looking as if he'd just all hope in the world.

* * *

The doctor had pulled down Beulah's gown so that he could place the paddles on the right side of her chest and to the side of her left breast.

"Clear!" he called out as a jolt of electricity was sent from one paddle, through her heart, and received at the other end.

"Dr. Ling we have to think of the baby, as well."

"I know that, Lois," Dr. Ling replied as he barked out the order to up the voltage on the EKG. "Clear!"

Beulah's body jerked, but still nothing, which caused Mike to let a horrified sob escape his lips. He couldn't peel his eyes away and yet he didn't want to see this.

Then another doctor came through the doors, putting on new gloves and a new gown and mask. "Hey, Ling. What're we doing with this baby?"

"Trying to save the mother first, Dohrman."

"If she doesn't respond after this next volt, I'm calling it for you," Dr. Dohrman commented, his eyes briefly meeting Mike's. "You the father?"

Mike nodded.

"You willing to let your wife go in order to increase the chance of your child coming out of this alright?"

Too in shock to respond, Mike's eyes looked up toward the ceiling and others would say they rolled back into his head as he felt lightheaded and fell backwards; collapsing onto the ground.

"Shit," Dohrman cursed. "He passed out. Nurse, can you attend to him."

Nodding, the nurse that was spoken too scurried over to Mike and slapped his face gently, and he came to in seconds, just as he heard the final, "Clear!"

A jolt was sent once again through Beulah, causing her body to jerk upward. But this time, a beep followed. And slowly, came another beep. As a series of rhythmic beeps came across the EKG, Dr. Ling removed the paddles and looked down at Beulah as a cough escaped her lips and her eyes fluttered open.

"Welcome back, Beulah."

"Nnnh..." she groaned.

"We lost you for about three minutes, but now we need to move quickly to get to your baby. There's no time to waste and we're gonna have to do a C-section, alright?"

Groggily, she nodded, even though she wasn't completely aware of what was all going on.

"We're gonna give you an epidural so that you feel any pain when we do the procedure, but so that you can also be awake, alright?" Dr. Dohrman added.

Again, Beulah nodded, as she lightly turned her head to the right and saw a nurse helping Mike to his feet.

"Mike..." she whispered hoarsely.

He was crying and walked up to her as the nurse pulled a stool over for him to sit on. Sitting down, he pulled it up to her side.

"I thought I lost you," he spoke.

"What happened?" she asked, sounding as if someone had punched her in the throat.

"Your heart stopped. You..."

"I died?"

Mike nodded.

"I feel like shit. Like...like someone beat me up."

"But you look beautiful."

She smirked lazily. "I bet you're lying."

"Am not," he insisted, lifting her hand up in his and kissing her knuckles.

Beulah grimaced as she felt an odd pressure in her gut. Sure, she felt no pain, but she knew the feeling was from her stomach being cut open and the doctor's hands moving around inside her to get her baby out.

Just looking at each other as the C-section carried on, it was another good ten minutes before either heard three words spoken with a gleeful manner from Dr. Ling.

"It's a boy!"

The Asian-American doctor smiled as he lifted the newborn boy above the short privacy curtain which was there so neither Mike or Beulah had to see her stomach ripped open while the doctor did his thing.

And yep, there was the penis.

Mike and Beulah were the parents of a son.

He was small. No more than five and a half pounds at best. But, then again, he was a month premature.

"He's beautiful," Beulah remarked, clearly exhausted from everything her body had been through in the last half hour. Then, she added, "Like his daddy."

Mike couldn't stop staring at his very first son. And as he looked away at Beulah, he kissed her. "Thank you for being the strong woman I knew you were," he said sweetly. "I told you that you can handle anything."

After the doctor cut the umbilical cord, in order to allow the parents the time to absorb everything that had happened, the nurse took the little boy over to a table to clean him up.

But instead of their son being wrapped in a blue blanket with a blue cap on his head, he was carried out of the delivery room in a bed-looking cart.

"Where's my baby?" Beulah questioned.

"He's being taken to NICU. Because he was premature he wasn't as developed as a full term infant. He'll need to stay there for a couple of weeks, and we're also going to need to keep you here for a couple of day after the scare you put us all through," Dr. Ling replied. "I'm going to have Dr. Dohrman here help me sew you back up and there's gonna be staples in your stomach to keep the stitches from coming apart. You'll get more instructions on that later."

"When can we see our son?" Mike demanded anxiously.

"You can go see him in a bit, Mr. Pritchard. And after we run some tests on Beulah, here, I'm sure you can come back to wheel her up to the NICU."

Holding back tears, Beulah looked at Mike who just kissed her hand. "I wanna see my baby," she whimpered.

"You will." Then Mike amended. "We will. We'll go see him together, alright?"

"But I wanted to hold him."

"And you will, but you need to get a little better, alright, honey? Your body's still weak." Brushing some hair off of her face, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her temple. "Before...before I thought I lost you...you said something about being my wife someday..."

"Mmm..."

"Well, I know this isn't the ideal setting and I know I don't have a ring just yet, but I love you so much it hurts, Beulah, and I want you to be my wife someday, as well," Mike spoke to her with such conviction in his voice. "You make me happier than I've ever been and today I saw what three minutes without you in my life would be like and I couldn't handle that. I can't imagine what the rest of my life without you would do to me."

"I will, you know," she muttered.

"What?"

"Well, you're asking me to marry you, right?" Before she waited for his reply, she just smiled. "Yes, Mike, I'll marry you."

Mike grinned and kissed her, and as he sat back he shook his head with a laugh. "This has been the most fucked up day ever."

"You're telling me..."

As they met each other's gaze, Mike smiled even wider. "I love you."

"I love you more..."