John's Revenge

*Adrienne's POV*

We stared at Tre's tear-stained face, shocked and disbelieving.

"W...What?" Annie gasped.

"They, they say it was a difficult labour... nothing to do with her...and...God, there was so much blood." Tre was crying uncontrollably, head in his hands, rocking back and forth.

Annie put her arm round him and hugged him.

"Tre, it'll be OK," Annie said soothingly.

"You don't know that!" yelled Tre. "Just because I may behave like I'm a four year old doesn't mean you can treat me like one! It's an act! It's for the camera! I may act mentally retarded, but it's not because I am! You really expect me to believe you when you say that? No one knows whether she's going to live or die. Not you, not me, not Mike, Billie or Adie, fuck it, not even the fucking doctors know!"

There was silence. I could tell Billie and Annie were as shocked as I was at Tre's outburst.

Mike was still oblivious, lying on the floor.

"Well, I think I'm going to take Mike home," Annie said quietly, helping Mike up.

As they were walking out, she turned to look at Tre, head still in his hands, motionless on the chair.

Several minutes later, Tre was sitting up, looking out of the window. I cautiously walked towards him.

"So, the baby... " I began.

"A girl," Tre smiled weakly. "Before she passed out, Liv saw her. She said the baby was the spitting image of me."

The door opened and Tre jumped up immediately. A nurse brought in a crib, with wires and drips leading out of it.

"I was told that your daughter was well enough to be in here with you, but a nurse will come every half an hour or so to check on her," she said smiling.

"My wife," Tre said. "How is she?"

"The doctor's are still with her," the nurse replied. "Dr Coleman and Dr Lawrence will be with you in a short while. You're of course welcome to hold your daughter, just be careful. We have equipment that is monitoring her pulse," the nurse pointed at various tubes. "Another that is boosting her energy levels and such-like and another that is helping her breathe. Not that she has any problems breathing, it's just a precaution, we do it with all premature babies."

"Oh. OK. Thank you," Tre smiled. The nurse walked out, her shoes squeaking on the floor.

We walked over to the crib.

"Oh," I sighed. "She looks just like you! She's so beautiful!"

She didn't look premature; she wasn't yellow, blue, or any other colours premature babies on television are, she didn't look skinny and malnourished, in fact, she was rather plump, like all babies. She didn't look ill at all. She looked like any baby, any normal baby, just on a smaller scale.

"Yeah," Billie smiled. "She's gorgeous."

Tre smiled at us and carefully lifted her out of the crib.

I couldn't get over how small she was. She was so much smaller than Joey and Adeline had been.

"What did they tell you about her?" Billie asked, peering at her over Tre's shoulder.

"She weighs 8 pounds, 1 ounce and she is about thirty-five centimetres tall, or short, or I don't know," Tre smiled down at her.

We all smiled.

"Had you guys thought of names yet?" Billie asked.

"Um, no. I want to wait before we name her."

"Wow," I gasped. "She's just... wow."

"I... I didn't mean to yell at Annie," Tre said bashfully. "It's just, everyone treats me like a kid, y'know?"

"Yeah, we're sorry, sweetie." I patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure Annie just realises how stressed out you were and that you weren't angry at her."

The doors burst open and two doctors came in.

"Mr Cool, I'm Dr Coleman and this is Dr Lawrence," said the female doctor, pointing to her male colleague. "We have been with your wife and are happy to tell you that she is stabilised. Her blood loss was because of the baby's prematurity; when you're about to have a premature birth, there are sometimes signs, for example, you may have a period, or an imitation of one."

"Of course, sometimes women experience light menstrual type flow during early pregnancy, which is normal, but can be scary, so we brief them on it," continued Dr Lawrence. "Your wife may have expected it, therefore she wasn't alarmed. Also," at this he took a clipboard from Dr Coleman. "It says in her notes she had a miscarriage almost a year ago. Previous miscarriages increase the likelihood of premature births, as do stress, multiple births and it can run in the family."

"We have a pamphlet for you on premature births, and a specialist midwife will be visiting you once a week, to make sure everything's going smoothly," Dr Coleman added, passing Tre a pamphlet. "Any questions?"

Tre was frowning and looking very confused. "Um, could you repeat the part where you said... um, all of it?"

"It's all in the pamphlet," smiled Dr Lawrence. "You can also get books about premature babies, if you're worried."

"O... K," frowned Tre. "Thank you? Oh! When can I see Liv?"

"Your wife is currently under anaesthesia after having her blood transfusion, she'll be waking up imminently," Dr Coleman said, retrieving her clipboard. "We will notify you the moment she regains consciousness." They walked out.

"Um, what did they mean?" Tre asked, staring blankly at the door.

"I think they meant Liv is out cold after they replaced her blood and she'll wake up soon. Um, then they said they'll come and get you when she's awake." Billie said, scratching his head and yawning.

"They scare me," whispered Tre. "Anyway, shouldn't the baby and I be there when she wakes up? I mean, last time, you know, after the miscarriage, it was me, you, Mike and Adie there and she had a smaller stomach. This time, she'll be alone with a smaller stomach. She'll freak. She'll think, I don't know, that the baby didn't survive and I left her. I can't do that to her!"

"Sweetie, calm down. I'll get the doctor and ask them what they think," I walked towards the door.

"Wait! A different doctor!" Tre said, standing up.

I nodded and walked out.