The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Still laughing at a joke Olly had told me, I looked in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. Placing my toothbrush back into my bag, I felt a slight twinge in my side in my side, causing me to grasp my bump. They weren’t anything serious. It didn’t hurt or anything; it was just uncomfortable - a bit like a stitch.

“Are you still laughing at it?” Olly asked, laughing himself as he walked into the bathroom, holding onto the glass of wine that he had been drinking. 

“Yeah,” I smiled, trying to ignore the twinge. 

“What is it?” Olly asked, looking at me in horror as I clutched my bump again as the pain came back stronger.

“Nothing,” I laughed. “It’s probably just those Braxton Hicks thingymabobs. I got them with Katy and it turned out to be nothing.”

“Are you sure?” he questioned. “It won’t be no trouble to go to the hospital to make sure you’re okay.”

“Go to the hospital?” I giggled. “I don’t think you’re in any state to drive.”

“We’d obviously get a taxi,” Olly chuckled, putting the empty glass of wine on the bathroom counter. 

I grinned. “But yeah, I’m sure. They’ve stopped now. It was probably just indigestion.”

Convinced by my reassurance, Olly grabbed hold of my hand and led me into the lounge. The sound of Spice Girls was blaring through the speakers, causing Olly to run across the hallway and grab a show girl feather. With Olly dancing away to the beat of ‘Wannabe’, I laughed. It was there as I walked into their hallway that the twinges returned. This time it was pain. Agony. I felt a sudden rush run through my veins and I came over light-headed. My whole body became disorientated and I felt my head spinning. Even though I was weak, I managed to grab hold of Olly’s shoulder with my other arm as he pranced about. “Olly.”

He turned around to look at me. His face looked like he had seen a ghost as he grabbed hold of me. I collapsed beneath my own weight and fell to the floor, knocked out cold.

*

“Sammy.”

Gently opening my eyes, I saw a man dressed in a white coat leaning over me, flashing a torch in my eyes. I felt weak. I could hardly move. I tried to lift my hand to remove the oxygen mask that was covering my mouth and nose but I had no energy in me at all. Looking around, I saw Olly stood in the corner, biting his nails anxiously as the doctor continued to assess me.

“What..”

Before I had chance to finish my sentence, the doctor took the oxygen mask off me and smiled at me. “You’ve gone into premature labour,” he began to explain as he hung the oxygen mask on a hook beside the bed. “But it’s nothing to worry about. We’ll make you comfortable and hopefully the baby will refuse to be born yet.”

“Olly,” I said.

“I’ve rung George,” he smiled. “They’re on the first flight back.”

“If you experience any contractions, let your friend here know and he’ll come tell us,” the doctor said. “Just keep relaxed.”

I nodded as the drowsiness began to subside. I still didn’t understand a thing but I nodded regardless.

“What happened?” I asked Olly as the doctor left the room.

“You fainted,” Olly said, sitting down in the chair beside the hospital bed I was laying in. “I don’t even know how. One minute we were walking into the lounge and the next minute, you were passed out in the hallway. I panicked so I rang the ambulance straight away.”

Then it hit me. The realisation of what the doctor said finally reached my brain. Premature labour? That couldn’t be a good thing. Oh God, why was it all turning bad again? I couldn’t lose this baby as well. 

All of a sudden, another dizzy spell came over me and I felt my whole body weaken as my head fell back onto the pillow. A bolt of pain ripped through my whole body. The last thing I saw was darkness. 

“Sammy!”

*

Lost in a state of confusion, I looked around the room. The hospital room looked familiar, but there was nobody here at all. I was laid in the bed in an empty room. All alone. Looking around in confusion, it took me a few moments to realise where I was - I was evidently on the maternity ward as I could hear the sound of newborn babies crying. I attempted to sit up but my whole body was numb; my body felt so heavy that I couldn’t move. All I could remember was talking to Olly in the hospital bed just moments before – why was I all alone now? The sound of constant bleeping filled my head as I looked around the room, trying to work out where Olly had gone.

After a few minutes of being alone with my thoughts that were running away with one another, Olly entered the room looking relieved. 

“Olly,” I croaked.

“Relax,” he hushed, rushing over to the seat beside my bed. “You’ve just gotta relax, okay?”

“Why do I keep fainting?” I asked, coughing slightly to clear my throat. “What’s going on?”

“Sammy,” he paused, looking at me with an apprehensive look across his face. “You went into - I’ve forgotten what the doctor called it, something..” Olly stopped as he noticed I was looking at him. “Anyway, you ended up being rushed to surgery and they did an emergency C-section.”

“Where’s my baby?” I panicked.

“He’s in the intensive care unit. He’s so tiny, Sammy,” Olly said.

My heart broke. All I could think about was my little baby that wasn’t even supposed to be due for another two months, at least. I could tell by the look in Olly’s eyes that he wasn’t pleased to tell me that my baby was born. I could tell by the look in Olly’s eyes that it wasn’t good news. Why was nothing going right for me these days?

“I called George and told him everything,” Olly said, holding my hand as I began to tear up. “They just landed and should be here soon.”

I sat in the bed, staring into the corner of the room at nothing. I felt empty. This wasn't supposed to be happening. None of this was supposed to be happening.

*

After half an hour of silence, Olly had gone to ring Jaymi to see where they were, leaving me alone in the hospital room. Laid in the bed, I had my head on the pillow, facing away from the door as tears trickled down my cheek. All I wanted to do was to go see my baby but the doctor wouldn’t let me go until the anaesthetic from the operation had worn off. As I lay crying, I could only think of my tiny baby all alone in the intensive care unit. If it wasn’t bad enough that he had lost his twin sister a month ago, now he was fighting for his life by himself.

“I’m so sorry,” a voice said as I felt somebody climb onto the bed and wrap their arms firmly around me. 

I turned my head to see George cuddling me tightly. “Why?” I sniffled. “It’s not your fault.”

“I’m sorry for going away when you needed me the most,” he said, kissing my cheek as I turned back to rest my head on the pillow.

“I just wanna see him.”

“We’ve got a boy?” George asked, sounding surprised.

I nodded as a tear fell off my cheek and hit my shoulder. George held onto me like he was never going to let go. I wouldn’t have minded. I just wanted the world to swallow me up as my baby was fighting for his life and there was nothing I could do to help him get through it.