When Ava found Cameron he was still standing watching where Ellie had gone.

“What happened Cameron?”

“The heartbeat, it stopped and they rushed her out of there to take the baby,” he explained.

“Was Ellie okay?”

Cameron didn’t answer.  He knew he couldn’t give Ava the answer she wanted so instead he said, “She wants you to call her parents.”

“Okay I’ll go now and call so they can be here when she comes out.”

“I’ll wait here,” he said still watching the hall.

******

“Okay Ellie the baby’s heartbeat is there but it’s very weak.  Sometimes the monitors in the patient rooms aren’t quite as sensitive as the ones in the OR.  That’s good news. Now we have time to administer an epidural so you can be awake for the delivery,” Dr. Stevens explained.

Thank God!  Ellie said to herself.

After a while Ellie was numb and ready for the surgery to begin.

“Ellie I’m about to start the first incision.  You will feel some tugging but nothing should be painful.”

Ellie nodded her head in understanding.

“Alright we’re moving right along.  I’m now starting the incision on your uterus.”

Ellie’s body was tense.  In a matter of minutes she would be a mother.

“There he his.  He’s bottom up.  Boy, that’s not what I’m supposed to see first,”  Dr. Stevens said.

Ellie smiled.  She wanted to see him so badly. 

“Okay here is your son,”  Dr. Stevens said.  But Ellie didn’t get to see him.  He was whisked away.

Dr. Stevens went on to deliver the placenta and started to close Ellie’s abdomen.

“Was he breathing?”  Ellie asked unable to stand the silence.

“He is looking good.  He was breathing on his own but that may change Ellie.  Dr. Lambert will talk to you about everything in just a minute.”

Ellie just lay there waiting.  She could fell her body being pulled and tugged as it was stapled shut.  She began to shake.  ‘It’s a normal after effect,’ she was told.  She continued to wait.

Just as she was about to ask what was going on, a woman stood beside her.

“Hi Ellie, I’m Dr. Beverly Lambert.  I’m a pediatrician in the NICU.  Your baby is doing great right now.  He was breathing on his own but we went ahead and placed an oxygen tube just to make sure he was getting enough oxygen.  That’s why you haven’t heard him cry.

He is a pretty big boy for 27 week gestation.  He weighs 2 lbs and 9 oz and is 15 ¾ inches long.  He is getting swaddled now, I’m going to let you see him and give him a quick kiss then we’re taking him to the NICU.”

Within seconds Ellie was looking at her son for the first time.

“He’s beautiful!”  Was all she got out before they started to leave with him.  “Wait,” Ellie called.  She placed a kiss on his nose.  Then he was gone.

Ellie pulled her eyes back to the doctor who was talking again.

“I’m going to follow him to the NIC unit.  After you are in your room and settled someone will bring you up to see him.  It will probably be a couple of hours.”

******

Three hours later Ellie and sat through visits from her parents and Ava and Cameron.  She was finally on her way to see Aidan.  She was really nervous.  They had told her what to expect.  He’ll be red and shiny, his eyes most likely will not open.  You will be able to see blood veins because his skin is so thin.  But worst of all to Ellie, he will be on a ventilator. 

But knowing what to expect and actually seeing him was not comparable.  He was so small and tubes and wires were everywhere.  He was laying in an incubator with nothing on but a little blue and pink hat.  He didn’t even have a diaper. 

Ellie was told she couldn’t touch him yet.  She could talk to him, softly so not to startle him.  Aidan couldn’t waste his energy on crying.

Ellie told him she loved him and she wanted him to say with her.  “Please don’t leave m,e” she begged. 

When she broke down sobbing a nurse wheeled her back to her room where her family and friends were waiting to help her in some way.  But she was beyond their help.  If Aidan wasn’t going to be okay Ellie knew she wouldn’t ever be either.