For One Beat More

Oli banged on the door to the tiny bathroom on the bus, “Come on Edwards, some other people need t’ shower too!” he could still hear the water running as he turned to Matt, “Fuck sake Nicholls sort yer girlfriend out.”

“Would ye stop bein’ such a dick t’ ‘er Sykes,” he complained from where he was playing on the Xbox with Jona.

“She has been in there a while,” Jona supplied, not unkindly.

“Fuck sake,” he tossed his controller onto the seat next to him and stalked over to the bathroom door, “Lex, ye alrigh’?”, there wasn’t any answer so he knocked loudly, “Lexi!”, he turned to look at Oli who didn’t look so mad anymore, “Ye think she’s alright?”

Oliver shrugged and banged his fist harder on the flimsy door, “Edwards!”

“Fuck this,” Matt shook his head and rammed his shoulder against the weak door a few times until it buckled and he could pull it open, “Fuck Lex.”

She was lying on the floor, her legs curled near her chest with her eyes closed. Matt dropped to his knees and pushed her wet hair off of her face and called her name, “Lexi, wake up. Come on Lexi-Mae. Don’t do this, wake up.”

Oli couldn’t bear to hear his best friend plead with her so he leaned over him to switch off the still running shower and shouted to Jona for a towel and to call an ambulance.

It was all a blur to Matt, all he was concerned with was getting Lexi to look at him or to move, just anything to know that she was okay, that she was alive. It felt like a lifetime between wrapping a towel around her wet body and being pulled aside by Oli so the paramedics could get to his girl.

***

Matt and Tom had been sitting in the hospital waiting room for just over an hour, the rest of the boys were back at the venue getting ready for the show.

“She’s gonna be a’right, mate,” Tom tried to reassure his best friend, as well as himself, for the countless time.

“Why won’t they tell us anything?” he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Tom shrugged and opened his mouth to speak again when a doctor in green scrubs and a white coat appeared in front of them, “Which one’s the boyfriend?”

Matt shot up from his seat, “Me.”

“Could we speak privately?” the doctor asked.

He shook his head, “Anythin’ ye’ve got t’ tell me, ye can tell Tommy.”

The older man nodded, “Your girlfriend has suffered an ectopic pregnancy. That means the baby was growing in one of her fallopian tubes causing it to rupture and that’s what caused her to collapse.”

“Baby?” Matt asked, he hadn’t really heard much after that word.

“Yes, Lexi was around 6 weeks pregnant which is the most common time for a condition like hers to present itself, luckily we got her into the O.R. quickly enough to remove the damaged part of the tube which lowers the chance of any problems with conception in the future compared to removing the tube completely had she come to us later,” the doctor nodded.

“When can he see her?” Tom asked, his friend was in no state to speak.

“She lost a lot of blood so she’s still pretty weak but when she’s out of recovery in around a half hour you can sit with her. I’m really very sorry,” he said, glancing at Matt before turning and heading down the corridor.

Tom turned to him and saw his friend in a way he’d never seen him before, he looked so lost and confused and he didn’t know what to do to help, “I’m so sorry, man,” he placed his hand on his shoulder.

Matt nodded in acknowledgement but still couldn’t get his head around the fact that he was almost a dad, or was he already but the father of a deceased, hardly formed child? Did that even count as being a person yet? He swallowed hard and sat back down in the chair he had previously occupied, what was he going to tell Lexi? He presumed she would’ve told him if she had known she was pregnant but had she even had an inkling? Had she been feeling ill before she’d collapsed in the shower and not told him? There were just too many questions going round in his head to concentrate for more than a second on one of them.

“D’ye need anything’?” Tom asked, sitting next to him, “Want me t’ phone anyone? I don’t really know what to do to help mate.”

Matt shook his head, “I don’t know either.”

The two friends sat in silence, staring at the linoleum floor and not hearing the bustle going on around them until a nurse appeared to let them know Lexi was allowed visitors.

“Can ye come with us?” Matt asked Tom quietly.

He looked into his shiny eyes, “Course I can mate.”

They squeaked across the floor to the recovery room and Tom stopped at the door to give the couple some privacy. He couldn’t hear what Matt was saying but he saw Lexi’s reaction. Her pretty face crumpled in confusion then the tears started, Matt lowered his head into his arms and his shoulders shook. Tom felt his own eyes well up as he watched Lexi run her hand through Matt’s hair and drop her head to his.

Wiping his eyes Tom turned away from the door and slipped his vibrating phone out of his pocket, “’Lo?”

“How’s she?” Oli asked quietly.

Tom glanced towards the doorway, “She’s a’right now,” it wasn’t his place to tell anyone what had happened especially when he didn’t know who Matt and Lexi wanted to know what.

There was silence on his brother’s end of the line, “Thank fuck for tha’. You lot get yer arses back here soon as alrigh’?” he asked softly.

“Yeah,” Tom nodded and hung up.