Somebody Needs You

His brother had arrived just an hour or so after the doctor had been in to talk to him about Katie and by then it was in the middle of the night. But still neither of them had left the small room where the small baby boy was currently being monitored.

“What are you going to name him?” Brayden wondered softly, holding his sleeping nephew close to his chest. He was more of a natural at it than Luke was…

“I don’t know,” Luke admitted. “We…Katie didn’t…we just didn’t want to find out if it was a boy or a girl before,” he shrugged; his brother already knew all that. “We just threw some names around, we never decided on one,” he said softly. “We were supposed to do that together.”

“She’s going to wake up,” Brayden stated frankly as he looked up at him.

“You don’t know that,” Luke threw back at him defensively.

“No, but you still have to believe it,” Brayden told him, glaring slightly. “Drew will be arriving around noon,” he added, changing the subject as he looked back down at the small boy in his arms, remembering what the defender had told him before he had darted out to LAX the previous afternoon.

“Right,” Luke nodded slightly, leaning forwards and sighing heavily.

“How long have you been here?” Brayden questioned as he really took in his older brother’s appearance as he was sitting a few feet away from him. His clothes were wrinkled and stained – Katie’s blood he’d realized earlier – and his hair was standing on end…

“I don’t know,” Luke admitted softly.

“You need to go home and change,” Brayden decided as he looked back down at the sleeping baby, there was no way his brother had helped create something so cute.

“I'm not leaving,” Luke stated frankly, clearly ready to stand his ground.

“The doctor said that it was going to take hours, maybe even days till she would wake up,” Brayden reminded him. “You’re covered in her blood Luke, you really look like shit,” despite the situation, he knew that playing soft ball with his brother was not an option.

“Bray, I can’t…”

“I'm not going anywhere,” Brayden promised him softly.

They had always been very close and yet he’d been as surprised as everyone else when Luke announced that he had found the woman he wanted to marry. At first he’d been worried that she’d cause them to grow apart.

And they had grown apart, but it wasn't her fault. Luke was just experiencing things he hadn't and probably wouldn’t be experiencing for another few years, but looking at the baby in his arms, he could live with that any day of the week.

As long as Katelyn lived…

Pulling up in front of the garage to the house he and Katie had picked out practically on a whim, he smiled softly as he looked up at the building. Just a year ago, if someone had told him that he was going to be living in a house, in the middle of planning a wedding, be a dad…he would have laughed at them.

It was steps that he hadn't imagined himself taking, especially not so quickly and so soon, but here he was and there wasn't a bone in his body that regretted any of it.

Parking on the driveway outside the garage, he quickly walked inside the house and kicked off his shoes, Katie hated when people walked in with their shoes on, before heading up the stairs. Jogging down the hall, he slowed down as he reached the nursery.

The door was slightly ajar and he reached out, pushing the door open wide. The room was painted in soft blues and greens, neither of them had wanted it to be too girly or too boyish, especially considering that they didn’t know what they were having.

Everything was set up perfectly.

The white crib was standing in the middle of the room, a rocking chair was standing in the corner and a large, puffy chair with a footstool was standing in the opposite one, below the large windows and it was filled with stuffed toys. The dresser up against the wall was filled with tiny baby clothes, some new and some that their mothers’ had saved from when they themselves had been infants. Everything was just like they had both imagined…

Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to move away from the doorway and he turned, slowly walking into their bedroom that was practically across the hall. Not looking at anything in the room, he walked into the walk-in-closet so he could get some clothes before going into the adjoined bathroom and taking a shower before heading back to the hospital. Stopping to get some clothes, his eyes landed on a hastily discarded dress lying on the floor by one of the closets. It was just a regular, rather simple, summer dress, but it was Katelyn’s…

Reality hitting him like a ton of bricks, he walked backwards till he hit the wall and he slowly slid down to the floor, tears pouring down his cheeks.

Katelyn might never wake up.

He was a dad.

Both of them had almost died.

Pulling up his knees and curling up into a ball he sobbed harder than he’d ever done before. And he prayed. Prayed like he really hadn't done before. He prayed for his son, for himself…

He prayed for Katie to wake up. For her to come back to him. For her to help him through this like she’d helped him with everything in his life.

Like she helped him being a better person, a better player, by just a simple word of encouragement, or by just a smile at him…

He prayed for his family…