A Mass Hysteria In The Modern World

[Two weeks later - Billie's POV]

"Billie!" I heard Alyssa scream. I sat up in bed and saw that it was 2:45AM. I turned the lamp on and saw my wife breathing hard and holding her stomach. She screamed again and Abby came into the room.

"Take me to the fucking hospital!" She screamed. Abby grabbed a pair of shoes and put them on Alyssa and went to go get Keith. I put on some sandals and picked my wife up out of bed and helped her carefully down the the steps.

"Abby! Get you and your brother down here!" I yelled up the steps. Abby came out behind us carrying Keith and ran out the door. I threw the keys at her; she caught them. When we got out, the car was already opened and started.

"Thank you," I said, taking the keys back from her. "Abby, get your brother in the car seat quick."

I saw Alyssa trying to control herself and knew I had to leave now. We were halfway to the hospital and still have five minutes left. She screamed again and I saw Abby cover her ears in the backseat.

"This is why I am never having a kid," she mumbled.

"Billie, this is worse than Abby or Keith," Alyssa breathed. "I don't know what's going on."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"It's more fucking painful!"

"I'm sorry."

[Tre's POV]

"Tre! Tre! Tre!"

Martena was yelling at me and threw the blanket off of me saying that I needed to get up.

"What the hell is going on?!" I asked. Martena was getting a pair of jeans and her high tops on.

"Abby texted me! Alyssa's having the kid!"

"I'll go get Abby and Klaus," I said and ran out the bedroom.

[Mike's POV]

"Are you ready?" Miranda asked, holding Jennifer in her car seat with the front door open. I came down the steps as fast as I could and we headed out the door and to the hospital. Tre had called me and told us to get ourselves down there and said it was bad.

"What do you mean... bad?" I had asked him.

"Alyssa's not doing so good. She said it hurts a lot more than when she had Abby or Keith. Billie's freaking out."

"Did they say that it was fatal?"

I hand had begun to shake and my legs were feeling like they were going to give. Stuff like that happened when I got really nervous.

"I don't know, man. Just get down here... quick," Tre said and hung up.

[Billie's POV]

The nurses had pushed me back and made me stay in the waiting room considering the condition that Alyssa was in. It had been half an hour since we got here; Mike and Miranda had arrived with their sleeping daughter.

"What's going on?" Miranda asked me. I shook my head, not knowing. Abby and Alice were sitting with each other, hugging.

[Alyssa's POV]

"Can my husband please be in here?!" I asked, laying in my hospital bed. I was dizzy, nauseous, and scared. The nurse sighed.

"I suppose... Jenna, go get Mr. Armstrong," the nurse said to another nurse.

"Jenna," I whispered, rubbing my stomach.

"Is that what you're naming her?" The nurse asked. I nodded my head, feeling dizzy again.

"I'm feeling really dizzy."

I held my head and closed my eyes. I heard the door open and heard Billie's voice. He was asking the nurse's what was happening. The sound of beeping was continuous and stayed in a calm pattern.

"Billie," I whispered, reaching for him. "I love you."

He got teary eyed and held my hand, kissing my forehead.

"I love you too. I'm sorry you're going through this."

"I'll be alright, babe," I said and my vision began to go black. My hearing was becoming muffled and the beeping was getting slower.

"Alyssa," Billie said, shaking me. "Stay with me, please."

"We need help in here!" One of the nurses yelled. More people came in and was hooking me up to more machines. Suddenly, everything went black.

[Billie's POV]

"Lyssa..." I said just above a whisper. The line went flat and I felt my heart drop. I wanted to puke and I could feel my legs give way. I began singing 'When It's Time' softly. My voice was choking up from the lump in my throat. "Please tell me she isn't dead!" I began crying and I shook my wife.

"Mr. Armstrong, we're going to do what all we can."

"Bring her back! She's my wife!"

"Emergency!" The nurse yelled into the hallway. I watched everything happen and it all seemed as if it were slow motion. I watched all the doctors get their equipment and hook Alyssa up to other machines. I couldn't hear anything they were saying due to my mind focusing on everything her and I have been through and all the times I had with her.

"Mr. Armstrong! Can you hear me?" The doctor asked me. I snapped back into reality and everything was loud and hectic. I felt tears falling from my face and wiped them away. I nodded my head. "I need you to stand in that corner." He pointed to the corner of the room behind Alyssa's bed. I stood up slowly.

[Martena's POV]

I heard Billie yelling and I knew I needed to get in there.

"Can I please go see my best friend?" I asked one of the nurses. She gave me a look and then nodded, leading me into the room where Alyssa was.

When I walked in, I saw a lifeless Alyssa and Billie was crying in the corner of the room. I backed up against the wall and began crying myself.

"Ma'am, you can't be in here," said one the doctors and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me out of the room.

"No! I'm staying in there!" I yelled, forcing myself back in the room.

[Alyssa's POV]

I woke up and found myself surrounded by white. I stood up and saw that my pregnant belly was gone. I began walking around and found this small pond and decided to jump in to see if this was real or if I was just dreaming. When I went to jump in, I hit this invisible wall and fell back on the ground. Confused, I looked into the pond and saw what looked like a hospital room. I saw Billie crying and holding my hand. Martena was in there and it looked like she was fighting with one of the doctors.

Was I dead? Where's my family? What happened to Jenna?

I could see the nurses trying to bring me back to life and Billie was holding my face in his hands and kept kissing me. I tried not to cry and closed my eyes, thinking hard of my family, my friends, and Billie. I didn't want to die... not yet. I'm only 36.

There were flashbacks going through my head. I could make out the image of when I first saw Billie that sunny afternoon outside of Starbucks. He had on his black sunglasses and his face looked just a tad bit younger. He helped pick up my stuff and he gave me that smile. Then it flashed to the image of him and I kissing at our wedding. We parted and began walking down the isle. I saw Kate in the front row. The next thing I saw was me, Abby, and Billie sitting in the living room; Abby was still a baby. Another image came into my head; me, Billie, Mike, Miranda, Tre, and Martena were all in the pool playing 'Chicken'. Martena pushed me off of Billie's shoulders and the kids started laughing. The last thing I saw was Billie putting the camera up to his eye and snap a picture of me just a few days ago when he drew on my stomach with Keith's finger pain. When the flash went off, I snapped back into reality.

I felt my face and I saw that I was crying. I turned and saw a floating mirror. I had aged back to the age I was when I first met Billie: twenty-three. I began crying and punched the mirror; glass went everywhere and flew in different directions in slow motion. I screamed and begged to go back to my life, my family, and my friends. I looked at my hand seeing that I was bleeding but the blood had evaporated and the cuts on my knuckles seemed to disappear. My hair began flowing all around me and my hand began to dissolve into the air. I looked at my other hand and it was doing the same thing. Looking into the shattered mirror, I could see my whole body dissolving in pieces of broken glass that were left. I began breathing heavily and closed my eyes. I opened them back up and saw that I was back in my hospital bed. Looking at my hands, they were normal.

"Oh my God," Billie said and hugged me tightly. He kissed me over and over. "You're alive."

Martena came up and I saw that she had been crying, too. She hugged the both of us and cried in my shoulder.

"We thought you were a goner," she said. Billie sniffed a few times before leaning back up. His eyes were red.

"I saw it all," I whispered. I looked at Billie and Martena. They looked normal. I could feel a lump in my throat and I held back forming tears. "I saw you." I put my hand on the side of Billie's face.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I died, didn't I?" I asked. His eyes began to water up and he went to say something before the doctor interrupted him.

"We need to get this child out of you, Mrs. Armstrong, you're very lucky to be alive."

I nodded my head. The back of the bed was then raised up and I was now in a sitting position.

"I need you to push as hard as you can when I count to three..."

Billie grabbed my hand and put his head on my shoulder. Martena ran out to tell the others.

[Martena's POV]

I was telling everyone the story about what had happened when I went back there; they were all crying and then sighed when I told them that Alyssa was alive.

"Their getting Jenna out now," I said and ordered Miranda to come over. "Okay, only two people are allowed in there."

"How about we both just go over there?"

"Fine."

Miranda and I got to the room and we heard screams. We both covered our ears and saw Alyssa in pain. Billie had his face in the bed, not looking.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Alyssa needs to choose which one of us gets to come in here," I said. Alyssa took a deep breath and gave us a death glare.

"Just do something!" She yelled at us. Miranda and I decided to do a game of, "Pick A Number Between 1 and 100."

"Alyssa, pick a number," I said. She yelled at us to make it quick. I guessed 8; Miranda guess 69.

"Fuck! The number was 69! Both of you just get your asses in here!" She yelled and screamed after that.

[Alyssa's POV]

Martena, Miranda, and Billie were all in here now and I just wanted to get this whole thing over with. I kept pushing and pushing for what seemed like forever. Finally, Jenna was out and I laid back on the bed about to cry.

"You did great, babe," Billie said, kissing my forehead. I began crying and he held me.

"I was so scared," I said into his shirt.

"Me too," he said and held me tighter. He kissed me and the nurse then handed me my new daughter. She had dark brown hair, just like her parents. She was 6lbs and 7oz.

"Look at her," Billie said, rubbing his hand on her head. He played with her small fingers.

Martena and Miranda then came up and hugged me, then Billie, then Jenna.

"We're going back out," Miranda told us and then the two of them went out into the waiting room.

[Miranda's POV]

"Everything's fine! Jenna's here!" I announced. The whole 'family' clapped and hugged each other.

About an hour later, Alyssa came out in a wheelchair holding Jenna. Billie was pushing her and he looked exhausted. It was now 6:00AM. We all went up to them and hugged all three of them. Abby went and held her new sister.

"Keith, this is our new sister," she said, showing Jenna to Keith.

"Please, just take me home," Alyssa yawned, looking at Billie. He nodded his head and pushed her out the doors, taking her to their car.

[Billie's POV]

"Home, finally," Alyssa sighed, handing me Jenna. I looked at my new daughter and kissed her forehead.

"I think you should go sleep upstairs," I said, bouncing Jenna up and down. She was already asleep. Sighing, I went into Jenna's new room. Alyssa told me how she wanted it then me and the guys all got together and made it. The room was a light purple with a white stripe around the room and had a picture of me, Alyssa, Keith, and Abby hanging on the wall. I laid her gently in her crib and she began to fall asleep. I went back downstairs and picked up my sleeping wife and brought her to our bedroom and laid her in the bed then tucked her in.

"You need to sleep," I whispered, kissing her forehead. I looked at the clock and it read 6:30AM. "And so do I."

I yawned and got back in bed still in my pajamas. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.

[Martena's POV]

Tre and I just got home from the hospital and we were both wide awake from how hectic it was there. Alice and Klaus went straight to bed and fell asleep quick. Tre and I got back in bed and sat there thinking about how scared we all were.

"I don't know what I would have done if she died in there," I whispered. Tre pulled me close to him and hugged m

"Me either, Love. Just be thankful that she didn't."

"Trust me, I am."

"I'm really tired, I'm going back to sleep," Tre yawned and got comfortable. I sighed and tried to sleep myself.