Status: Updated regularly
Dark Rider
.26
“This,” the nurse caught Rider’s hint to see the sixth baby and smiled as she backpedaled to the last incubator against the wall. “Is the sixth baby, the fourth girl.”
“Four girls and two boys,” Rider took a deep breath to calm him as he turned to A.J. and clamped him on the shoulder, A.J. smiled at Rider and turned to look in the incubator glass, the fourth little girl laid with her eyes open, squinted though staring at the ceiling. “Christina Danielle.”
“Let me guess, after C?” A.J. laughed lightly as he waved his hand over the top of the glass, where little Christina was looking; she automatically looked from the hand to the sides, where she spotted A.J. looking at her. “She sees me.”
“Her eyes aren’t developed all the way,” the nurse softly whispered before she was called away to another incubator.
“She probably sees a blur,” Rider quickly suggested as he placed his hands on the top of the incubator. He watched in fascination as Christina looked around feebly. “Let’s go back and check on Kassie.”
“Okay,” A.J. agreed just seconds before he walked after Rider, heading for Kassie’s room so they could tell her all about her newborns.
“How are they?” Kassie asked once Rider and A.J. walked in, Rider took a seat beside her bed where A.J. sat down beside Tiffany’s sleeping form, by the window. “I didn’t have the heart to wake her up…”
“The babies are—amazing,” Rider spoke so, gently as he envisioned his children again, in his head. Each and every one of them was just plain amazing and so much more that couldn’t be put into words.
“Oh I can’t wait to see them,” she gazed at the wall across from her in a dreamlike state, the whole time Kassie had been expecting, she had spoke lovingly of how she thought her kids would look. Now, Rider knew what she was thinking, she was dreaming of them just as she used to. “Describe then to me, Francis.”
“Lucille Marie,” he started off as a low whispered that only she could hear, as he held her hand in his, playing with her fingertips as he spoke. “Black hair, very raven like, she has little of it but what she had is beautiful. Her eyes, oh Kassie they were gorgeous, they were the color of sapphires, they looked like yours.”
“Lucille Marie,” she repeated lovingly as she slid over on the bed and patted her hand down on the white linen covering the empty space.
“And then there is Shaylah Grace,” he began a moment after he took the empty space beside Kassie. “Light blonde hair that barely shows—she’s the tiniest and she has a lighter color than sapphire eyes. Chrystal blue, that’s what it is. She’s absolutely beautiful, just like her mother.”
“She sounds beautiful,” Kassie softly murmured as she weakly scooted herself up against Rider’s chest. “Thank you.”
“Your welcome,” he said sweetly as he kissed her forehead, sighing he turned to the ceiling and began. “The first boy, Joshua Scott, he’s identical to Lucille but a little bit longer, his eyes shine a bit stronger and his hair is a little thinner but he’s a very handsome young man.”
“He sounds just like his father,” Kassie grinned as she began breathing deeper, closer to sleep by the second but denying it for the sake of details, learning about the children she couldn’t see yet. “But with my eyes.”
“And your nose,” Rider added with a playful glint in his eyes, he yearned to go collect his children and bring them back just so he could show her how beautiful they were, how beautiful they had made them. “Then there is Theodora Denise, she has no hair at all with eyes the color of emeralds, she has jaundice just a little but they say she is fine.”
“She’ll be okay?” Kassie made sure even though she heard him, she needed to hear his diagnosis.
“She will be just fine,” he assured her quickly so she wouldn’t worry for nothing. Through it wouldn’t be for nothing, everything in this world, he had learned has something and is something. “Our second son, Beau Garrett, is a very handsome boy but like Theo, he has jaundice. So he’s very yellow—but his eyes are the brightest hazel I have ever seen, Kassie. He’s bald to—“
Kassie found herself giggling as she imagined his bald little head upon his yellow tented body, that fact made her stop laughing and frown in misery. “My poor baby has jaundice.”
“He does my dear but he will be healthy soon enough,” he explained optimistically as he once again pulled her closer to him. “Then there is Christina Danielle, she had blonde hair, baby blue eyes with sapphire swirls and she is very smart. The nurse doesn’t believe it but she seen A.J. when he put his hand on the glass.”
“Of course she’s smart, she’s my daughter,” Kassie meant it as a joke but when Rider kissed her cheek softly and nodded, she knew he agreed with her.
“Of course, she’s just like her mother,” he agreed and it made Kassie grin and peck his lips, muttering words of love from her heart. “We’ll make it through this, we have been through some very tough times and we can definitely make it through this.”
“We’ve been through a lot,” Kassie agreed as she leaned back and looked up into his chocolate swirling eyes. “But this time, its our children were fighting for—it was hard fighting for A.J. but one against six—Rider I’m scared.”
“I am to,” he admitted kissing her forehead again, he pulled her close to his chest and rubbed her back until she fell into a silent sleep.
Two days went by without any problems, Kassie grew strong enough to visit the babies in the NICU, but it only happened once before the unthinkable happened. The loud sirens pierced through the air like a knife cutting through a warm stick of butter. Code blue, sign of life threatening emergencies, Kassie and Rider didn’t know where it was coming from but deep in their hearts they knew it was the NICU. “Rider,” Kassie scooted off the bed in a hurry and began jogging to the door before Rider caught her and made her slow down. “Let me go, we have to hurry!”
“Settle down, you don’t even know where it’s coming from, your going to end up hurting yourself,” he tried to compromise but Kassie’s strong will wouldn’t have it, any of it.
By the time Kassie had drug Rider all the way up to the NICU the siren had silence and no one was around. Panicked by the sudden silence and aloneness, Kassie ran through the doors to the NICU and stared in through the glass window at the crowd of nurses and doctors running around the six incubators towards the back left corner. “No,” she whispered as two small babies were taken from the incubators they had laid in to the back doors, away from the others. Kassie and Rider’s hearts beat rapidly against their chest cavity; they looked on helplessly until they ran past the glass windows to the door, where some nurses were coming out. “Belinda! Belinda, please tell me they are okay, tell me my babies are okay!”
The nurse Belinda was the nurse that introduced the children to Rider for the very first time. Kassie and Rider had become friends with her and seeing them like that, hurt her. With near black eyes that shaded her olive tented skin, she gazed down at Kassie with regretful eyes, she didn’t want to be the one who told them what was happening to their daughters, but it was her job. “Shaylah and Theo are being taken to the O. R. for emergency care—they have to operate on them. “
“What? Why?” Kassie shouted grasping hold of Belinda’s shoulders to keep from falling to the ground, Rider and Belinda both pulled her to her feet and helped her stand.
“Shaylah’s heart rate dropped and she stopped breathing, Theo’s doing the same thing but she hasn’t stopped breathing yet. They believe it’s from the umbilical cord being wrapped around their necks. Dr. Thomas believes they have Cardiac Arrhythmia instead of it being caused by the umbilical cord,” Belinda didn’t go too far into it; she just took Kassie to the waiting room and sat her down. “They could have serious complications during surgery, please, sweetie be prepared for the worse.”
While Rider stood frozen, Kassie sobbed uncontrollably until she couldn’t sob anymore. She didn’t want to believe what she had heard was real; it had to be a dream. A very terrifying, unbelievable, wrong dream—no, nightmare. “This can’t be happening, they have been doing so good, Belinda you told me they were!” Kassie looked up from her hands to Belinda, who was showing her emotions clearly on her face. She didn’t want to have to explain this horrifying event to her, they didn’t deserve it—no one did, but life was hard and things happened that never should. “Talk to me Belinda because I don’t understand. I need to understand but I just can’t.”
“I don’t know how to say this simply. Kassie, they are—dying, their chances are very, very slim to survive. I’m so sorry, if I could help them I would, but I can’t,” Belinda hadn’t wanted to say it so bluntly but she couldn’t say it any other way, she couldn’t prolong their suffering. Belinda glanced once more at the grief stricken mother and left before she to, broke down and cried beside her.
Bidding them both goodbyes, Belinda went to the OR to check on the children that were so suddenly taken from the light into the darkness. “Kassie,” weakly and almost unheard, Rider called out as he sat down beside her, putting his arms around her in a strong comforting hug. “Baby, come here.”
“Four girls and two boys,” Rider took a deep breath to calm him as he turned to A.J. and clamped him on the shoulder, A.J. smiled at Rider and turned to look in the incubator glass, the fourth little girl laid with her eyes open, squinted though staring at the ceiling. “Christina Danielle.”
“Let me guess, after C?” A.J. laughed lightly as he waved his hand over the top of the glass, where little Christina was looking; she automatically looked from the hand to the sides, where she spotted A.J. looking at her. “She sees me.”
“Her eyes aren’t developed all the way,” the nurse softly whispered before she was called away to another incubator.
“She probably sees a blur,” Rider quickly suggested as he placed his hands on the top of the incubator. He watched in fascination as Christina looked around feebly. “Let’s go back and check on Kassie.”
“Okay,” A.J. agreed just seconds before he walked after Rider, heading for Kassie’s room so they could tell her all about her newborns.
“How are they?” Kassie asked once Rider and A.J. walked in, Rider took a seat beside her bed where A.J. sat down beside Tiffany’s sleeping form, by the window. “I didn’t have the heart to wake her up…”
“The babies are—amazing,” Rider spoke so, gently as he envisioned his children again, in his head. Each and every one of them was just plain amazing and so much more that couldn’t be put into words.
“Oh I can’t wait to see them,” she gazed at the wall across from her in a dreamlike state, the whole time Kassie had been expecting, she had spoke lovingly of how she thought her kids would look. Now, Rider knew what she was thinking, she was dreaming of them just as she used to. “Describe then to me, Francis.”
“Lucille Marie,” he started off as a low whispered that only she could hear, as he held her hand in his, playing with her fingertips as he spoke. “Black hair, very raven like, she has little of it but what she had is beautiful. Her eyes, oh Kassie they were gorgeous, they were the color of sapphires, they looked like yours.”
“Lucille Marie,” she repeated lovingly as she slid over on the bed and patted her hand down on the white linen covering the empty space.
“And then there is Shaylah Grace,” he began a moment after he took the empty space beside Kassie. “Light blonde hair that barely shows—she’s the tiniest and she has a lighter color than sapphire eyes. Chrystal blue, that’s what it is. She’s absolutely beautiful, just like her mother.”
“She sounds beautiful,” Kassie softly murmured as she weakly scooted herself up against Rider’s chest. “Thank you.”
“Your welcome,” he said sweetly as he kissed her forehead, sighing he turned to the ceiling and began. “The first boy, Joshua Scott, he’s identical to Lucille but a little bit longer, his eyes shine a bit stronger and his hair is a little thinner but he’s a very handsome young man.”
“He sounds just like his father,” Kassie grinned as she began breathing deeper, closer to sleep by the second but denying it for the sake of details, learning about the children she couldn’t see yet. “But with my eyes.”
“And your nose,” Rider added with a playful glint in his eyes, he yearned to go collect his children and bring them back just so he could show her how beautiful they were, how beautiful they had made them. “Then there is Theodora Denise, she has no hair at all with eyes the color of emeralds, she has jaundice just a little but they say she is fine.”
“She’ll be okay?” Kassie made sure even though she heard him, she needed to hear his diagnosis.
“She will be just fine,” he assured her quickly so she wouldn’t worry for nothing. Through it wouldn’t be for nothing, everything in this world, he had learned has something and is something. “Our second son, Beau Garrett, is a very handsome boy but like Theo, he has jaundice. So he’s very yellow—but his eyes are the brightest hazel I have ever seen, Kassie. He’s bald to—“
Kassie found herself giggling as she imagined his bald little head upon his yellow tented body, that fact made her stop laughing and frown in misery. “My poor baby has jaundice.”
“He does my dear but he will be healthy soon enough,” he explained optimistically as he once again pulled her closer to him. “Then there is Christina Danielle, she had blonde hair, baby blue eyes with sapphire swirls and she is very smart. The nurse doesn’t believe it but she seen A.J. when he put his hand on the glass.”
“Of course she’s smart, she’s my daughter,” Kassie meant it as a joke but when Rider kissed her cheek softly and nodded, she knew he agreed with her.
“Of course, she’s just like her mother,” he agreed and it made Kassie grin and peck his lips, muttering words of love from her heart. “We’ll make it through this, we have been through some very tough times and we can definitely make it through this.”
“We’ve been through a lot,” Kassie agreed as she leaned back and looked up into his chocolate swirling eyes. “But this time, its our children were fighting for—it was hard fighting for A.J. but one against six—Rider I’m scared.”
“I am to,” he admitted kissing her forehead again, he pulled her close to his chest and rubbed her back until she fell into a silent sleep.
Two days went by without any problems, Kassie grew strong enough to visit the babies in the NICU, but it only happened once before the unthinkable happened. The loud sirens pierced through the air like a knife cutting through a warm stick of butter. Code blue, sign of life threatening emergencies, Kassie and Rider didn’t know where it was coming from but deep in their hearts they knew it was the NICU. “Rider,” Kassie scooted off the bed in a hurry and began jogging to the door before Rider caught her and made her slow down. “Let me go, we have to hurry!”
“Settle down, you don’t even know where it’s coming from, your going to end up hurting yourself,” he tried to compromise but Kassie’s strong will wouldn’t have it, any of it.
By the time Kassie had drug Rider all the way up to the NICU the siren had silence and no one was around. Panicked by the sudden silence and aloneness, Kassie ran through the doors to the NICU and stared in through the glass window at the crowd of nurses and doctors running around the six incubators towards the back left corner. “No,” she whispered as two small babies were taken from the incubators they had laid in to the back doors, away from the others. Kassie and Rider’s hearts beat rapidly against their chest cavity; they looked on helplessly until they ran past the glass windows to the door, where some nurses were coming out. “Belinda! Belinda, please tell me they are okay, tell me my babies are okay!”
The nurse Belinda was the nurse that introduced the children to Rider for the very first time. Kassie and Rider had become friends with her and seeing them like that, hurt her. With near black eyes that shaded her olive tented skin, she gazed down at Kassie with regretful eyes, she didn’t want to be the one who told them what was happening to their daughters, but it was her job. “Shaylah and Theo are being taken to the O. R. for emergency care—they have to operate on them. “
“What? Why?” Kassie shouted grasping hold of Belinda’s shoulders to keep from falling to the ground, Rider and Belinda both pulled her to her feet and helped her stand.
“Shaylah’s heart rate dropped and she stopped breathing, Theo’s doing the same thing but she hasn’t stopped breathing yet. They believe it’s from the umbilical cord being wrapped around their necks. Dr. Thomas believes they have Cardiac Arrhythmia instead of it being caused by the umbilical cord,” Belinda didn’t go too far into it; she just took Kassie to the waiting room and sat her down. “They could have serious complications during surgery, please, sweetie be prepared for the worse.”
While Rider stood frozen, Kassie sobbed uncontrollably until she couldn’t sob anymore. She didn’t want to believe what she had heard was real; it had to be a dream. A very terrifying, unbelievable, wrong dream—no, nightmare. “This can’t be happening, they have been doing so good, Belinda you told me they were!” Kassie looked up from her hands to Belinda, who was showing her emotions clearly on her face. She didn’t want to have to explain this horrifying event to her, they didn’t deserve it—no one did, but life was hard and things happened that never should. “Talk to me Belinda because I don’t understand. I need to understand but I just can’t.”
“I don’t know how to say this simply. Kassie, they are—dying, their chances are very, very slim to survive. I’m so sorry, if I could help them I would, but I can’t,” Belinda hadn’t wanted to say it so bluntly but she couldn’t say it any other way, she couldn’t prolong their suffering. Belinda glanced once more at the grief stricken mother and left before she to, broke down and cried beside her.
Bidding them both goodbyes, Belinda went to the OR to check on the children that were so suddenly taken from the light into the darkness. “Kassie,” weakly and almost unheard, Rider called out as he sat down beside her, putting his arms around her in a strong comforting hug. “Baby, come here.”
