You, Me and a Family by Sue MacKay

Author:Sue MacKay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘LIZ, GO TAKE a shower and grab some sleep.’ Alex draped an arm around her friend’s waist. ‘I’ll stay here with Chloe until you get back. That’s a promise.’

‘She’s so little. How can she possibly survive?’ Liz remained still, her voice wooden as she stared down at her fifteen-hour-old daughter in the humidicrib. Tubes and lines snaked in every direction, supplying oxygen, fluids and antibiotics. Monitors blinked and beeped. Bili lights to help lower the high bilirubin making Chloe’s skin yellow, eerily highlighted the wee girl’s predicament. The patch protecting her eyes added to the terrifying picture.

On Liz’s other side Kevin looked as stunned and disbelieving as his wife sounded. ‘She has to, Lizzie. She has to.’

Alex stepped around the incubator and checked the oxygen flow. ‘Liz, on a medical level you know she can. And yes, I know.’ She sucked in an unsteady breath and ignored the fear for these two now making itself known in her chest. ‘You’re fully aware of all the things that can go wrong. I’m sure your heads are crammed with every scenario imaginable. Today you two are Mum and Dad, not doctors.’ It must be dreadful for them. That precious little bundle held their hearts in her tiny, tiny hands. ‘Hang on to the fact that babies thirty-two weeks premature do survive, more often than not with great outcomes.’

The eyes Liz turned on her were bleak. ‘Gosh, Alex, how do we do that? It’s so different standing on this side of the equation. You have no idea.’

Alex’s mouth soured. Her eyes misted. Oh, yes, I do. More than you can imagine. Worse, I know how it is when your baby dies. But Chloe wasn’t going to die. No way was Liz going to know the anguish of losing her child. Not on my watch. Her hands were shaking. She stuffed them deep into the pockets of her white coat, at the same time thrusting away a mental picture of holding Jordan swathed in a tiny blanket as she pleaded for him to start breathing. Come on, get a grip. This is about Liz and Kevin and their daughter, not you and your son.

She sucked in air and winced as it touched the hole in her molar. ‘I’m Chloe’s doctor, sure, not her mum, so I’m not going through what you are. But believe me, I’ll be doing everything within my power to help her.’

‘As will I,’ said a familiar, deep voice from somewhere above her shoulder. ‘Chloe’s got the A-team on her side.’

‘Besides, Chloe’s already shown us she’s a fighter.’ Alex risked a quick glance up at Mario and instantly wished she hadn’t. He was watching her with a disturbing intensity that seemed to bore right inside to the place she kept her innermost secrets. She dropped her head, blinking away the telltale moisture at the corners of her eyes. Hopefully Mario hadn’t noticed that. But somehow she knew he had. The man never missed anything.

Kevin cleared his throat. ‘What about RDS? That’s always a possibility with her underdeveloped lungs.

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