Give up Forever to Touch You

Making sure that the monitors were switched on, Lacey gently closed the door behind her and made her way to the small staff area of the day care centre where Andie was making each of them a mug of tea.

“I thought Jasmine was never going to go off to sleep then.” She muttered as she walked over to the fridge and took out two chicken salad rolls before joining Andie at the table, swapping one of the rolls for one of the mugs.

“She was the same for me yesterday, and even then she only slept for half an hour, so let’s have our lunch quickly before she wakes up.” Andie replied.

“She’s not as bad as Harry, he wakes the whole lot of them up when he wakes up.” Lacey said before taking a sip of her tea.

“Thankfully we only see him on a Thursday.” Andie replied doing the same as Lacey nodded.
There was a short silence while they both took another bite of their lunch. As she ate Lacey glanced briefly over at Andie, unsure of whether she should mention what had been on her mind all day. finally, after taking another sip of tea she cleared her throat and spoke up.

“I saw Michelle yesterday.” her words were quiet as her eyes flitted quickly between Andie and her lunch once more. “I see what you were talking about the other day.”

“Yeah?” Andie replied quietly.

Lacey nodded, “yeah, she looked awful. Thin, tired, hair was a mess, just terrible.”

“So you think Brian and I are right to be worried?” Andie asked putting down her sandwich.

Again Lacey nodded, “When you put together her appearance over the past couple of weeks or so with what Connor has said about being starving when they come over and the dirty clothes. I would be worried. Something’s not quite right there.”

“What do I do?” Andie asked with a small sigh.

“You need to talk things over with Brian first and the you need to talk to Michelle.” Lacey said as Andie nodded her head in agreement.

“What if we’re wrong though?”

“And what if you’re right? What if, for whatever reason she’s neglecting those kids, and you don’t say anything, and then a few weeks or months down the line something really bad happens? You’ll blame yourself, it’s the way…”

Andie’s cell phone ringing cut her off.

“Hey Jim, everything…” she paused as he spoke, her facial expression changing as she listened to what he had to say. “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Speak to you soon.” she hung up, staring at the phone in disbelief.

“Everything okay?” Lacey asked.

“Rhi is in hospital.” She replied quietly.

“Hospital?”

“Yeah, Jimmy said something about a cyst bursting.” She explained standing from the table.
“I need to go, but shit, what about this place? The kids?”

“You go, I’ll call Mel and Zara, see if they can come and help out for the rest of the day then
I’ll come to the hospital with Abi.” Lacey told her.

“You sure?”

“Just go, I’ll be fine.” Lacey demanded with a smile.

“Thanks Lace, you’re a star.” She replied returning the smile as she grabbed her purse, cell and keys before heading for the door.

~*~

“So you’ve been living with this near enough your entire life and only just found out about it?” Andie asked Rhian after she’d finished explaining all that had happened that day. Despite the objections from a few of the nurses, Rhian’s room was full. Everyone had turned up after they’d had the phone call from Jimmy.

“Yeah pretty much, as I said it was being on the pill that was keeping it under control.”

“But you can still have kids?” Val asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not going to be easy. We’ve got a long, hard road ahead of us.” Jimmy said with a small smile.

“So what time are they doing the procedure in the morning?” Andie asked.

“First thing I believe and then I should be able to go home late afternoon.” Rhian said.

“Then I’ll be here in the morning and I’ll take you home when you get discharged.” Andie said sternly.

“Good, cos I think Jimmy’ll need someone here with him while I’m in the OR.” Rhian said with a smile as Jimmy nodded.

“Yeah, and feel free to bring a bottle of JD with you.” he replied.

As the group laughed the room door opened, a stern looking older nurse stood in the door way. “Okay, now I get that you all want to make sure Mrs Sullivan is okay but it’s getting late and I’ve already let you get away with you all being here, so I need you to say your goodbyes and get out of here.”

There was a collective groan from the group which earned them a solid glare from the nurse before she stepped out of the room.

“She can glare all she wants, I’m staying right here!” Jimmy said adjusting himself on the bed next to Rhian.

“Babe, you should go home, get some proper rest.” Rhian told him as the others began to stand from their various seats ready to leave.

“But I don’t want to leave you.” he said with a small pout.

“I’ll be fine, I’m in safe hands, and all I’ll be doing now is sleeping anyway.” She replied.

“Are you sure?” he asked, Rhian nodded.

“Yeah, go have a good nights sleep and I’ll see you back here in the morning before the procedure okay?”

“Okay, but ring me if you need anything right?”

“I will, I promise.” She told him reaching over to kiss his lips. “I love you.”

“Love you too, I’ll see you in the morning. First thing.” Jimmy replied kissing her again.

“You’re welcome to come stay the night with us Jim.” Andie said as the group made their way out of the hospital and into the parking lot. “I could give you a ride back here first thing in the morning then too.”

“Are you sure, I don’t want to impose.” Jimmy replied, his blue eyes lacking their natural sparkle.

“Dude, don’t be stupid, you know you’re always welcome.” Brian told him with a smile.

“Especially at times like this.” Andie added as she unlocked the car.

Jimmy nodded with a small smile. “Thanks guys, I really didn’t fancy spending the night by myself.”

“Then get in, you can pick your car up tomorrow.” she told him as she secured Abi into her car seat.

“Thanks again dude, for letting me stay here tonight.” Jimmy said to Brian as he made his way down the corridor to the guest room.

“Seriously dude it’s not a problem.” Brian replied with a smile, stopping at Abi’s bedroom door, opening it a crack and peering in to make sure she was okay. Jimmy nodded, his hand pausing on the door handle of his room for the night. “Dude, she’s going to be fine. And there is nothing you could be doing for her at the hospital tonight other than watching her sleep.”

Jimmy sighed and nodded once more. “I know, but it still scares the shit out of me thinking that she’s there alone about to have surgery in the morning.”

“She’s going to be fine Jim, it’s a small procedure. Routine. The doctors know what they are doing.” Brian assured him.

“All these procedures carry a risk though Bri. What if something goes wrong and she doesn’t…I can’t lose her Bri, she’s my life. I can’t lose her for the sake of us being able to have a baby together, there’s got to be other ways.”

Brian walked over to Jimmy shaking his head. “You can’t think like that Jim, you can’t. Everything’s going to be fine and then the two of you can get back to trying to create one crazy ass family together.” Brian told him with a chuckle.

Taking a deep breath Jimmy nodded. “You’re right; I need to be strong for Rhi. She needs me to be strong. She’s going to be fine and this time next year we’ll have our family.”

“Exactly. Good night dude.” Brian said with a smile as he turned towards his own bedroom.

“Night Bri, and thanks again.” Jimmy smiled.

“No problem. Oh and Jim…” Brian began as Jimmy opened the bedroom door, his head lifting to look back at Brian. “There’s some Temazepan in the bathroom cabinet if you need some.”
Jimmy nodded and turned towards the bathroom as Brian walked into the master bedroom. Closing the door behind him he began to strip from his clothes, making his way into their bathroom as Andie emerged in her pyjamas plaiting her hair.

“Well this isn’t the way I thought the day would pan out when we left for work this morning.” She said making her way over to their bed.

“I know, it’s fucking scary.” He replied. After brushing his teeth and washing his face he made his way back into the bedroom, joining his wife where she was led in bed staring at the ceiling her face full of a thousand thoughts and wonderings.

“It’s not fair Bri.” She said quietly as he slipped into the bed next to her, pulling himself closer to her, his arms reaching around her waist.

“I know babe, it fucking sucks.” He replied kissing her temple.

“When you think of how many kids there are out there getting pregnant without even having to think about it, hell look at us with Abi, I was on the fucking pill and still caught, and then there’s Rhi and Jimmy who just want to be a proper family with kids of their own and they’ve got to battle with stuff like this!” she ranted, tears coming to her eyes.

Brian pulled her closer to him, feeling completely useless and at a loss as to what to say. “They’ll get their family.” He said eventually. “It’ll take some time and it’s not going to be easy but they’ll get their family.”

“I hope so.” She replied letting out a deep sigh, moving herself so that she was curled up against him. “Oh um, before I had the call about Rhi I was talking to Lacey.”

“About what?” he asked confused.

“About Michelle, she saw her yesterday, looking rough.” She began hesitantly. “She thinks the same as us.”

“That we should be worried. For the kids?” Brian asked and Andie nodded against his chest. “Did she have any advice about what to do? How to handle the situation?”

“Yeah, she said that we should talk to Michelle about it, let her know that we have concerns. Something isn’t right there Bri and as Lacey said, if heaven forbid, something bad happens and we haven’t raised our concerns then we’re going to blame ourselves for not doing anything.” She explained quietly.

“How did someone that smart end up with short shit I’ll never know.” Brian joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. “But she’s right, we need to talk to her, find out what’s going on. I’ll go over in the morning if you want, while you’re with Jimmy and Rhi?” he suggested.

“If you’re sure you’re okay going without me, yeah, the sooner the better I guess.” She said letting out a yawn.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Now try and get some sleep.” he whispered kissing her head once more.

“Yeah, tomorrow’s going to be even longer than today.” She said through another yawn.
“Good night, love you.”

“Love you too babe, good night.”