On the wall above her desk were posters of Demon’s Wings and one of OtherWorld. All of them newer, having been taken in the last two years. I loved that she liked our music, but didn’t let her listen to all of our work. Some of the stuff Nik wrote was too hardcore for a nine-year-old.
My gaze went to her bedside table. A picture of her, Lana, and Layla in a purple picture frame with a dolphin sat beside her lamp. They all looked so similar, but so different. Lucy and Lana had the same shade of dark hair, but Lucy’s short locks were so curly it took her forever to get her hair sorted in the mornings. They all had brown eyes, but in varying shades. Lana’s whisky, Layla’s chocolate, and Lucy’s an almost midnight black. While her sisters were slightly tanned, Lucy was a soft cream. The three all had the same nose, the same lips.
I lifted the second photo from the table. I remembered the day it had been taken and my lips lifted in a half smile. We had been sitting on the beach in the sand, watching as the sun was taking its time setting. Layla had been shouting at us from the kitchen to come in and have dinner but we couldn’t be bothered to move. We were settling in well, I thought. And Layla and I had signed the adoption papers that afternoon. We had finally become the family I wanted us to be and it felt like nothing could ever go wrong in my life.
“I love it here,” Lucy had said, a happy sigh escaping her.
“Me too. It’s finally feeling like home.”
“Thanks for today.”
My head turned to frown at her. “You’ve been mine since the day I met you, Lu. Today just made it legal.” I reached over and tugged on one of her short ringlets. “If anything, I should thank you for wanting to be my daughter.”
She threw her arms around my neck so suddenly I nearly fell back into the sand. “I love you, Dad,” she had whispered.
Those four words had been my undoing and I had to blink hard to keep from crying. I hugged her tight against me, never wanting to let this little girl who had snuck into my heart so quickly go.
“Say cheese!”
We had both turned to find Layla standing over us with a camera. Our first picture as father and daughter…
The thought that I was going to lose my little girl made my chest ache and I put the picture back where it had been before standing. No matter what, I wasn’t going to lose Lucy. It would destroy me. If anyone tried to take her away I would kill them with my bare hands.
A glance at the clock on Lucy’s desk told me I had been in her room for nearly an hour. Turning the lights off, I walked down the hall to the master bedroom and cracked open the door. I was expecting Layla to still be in bed, but it was empty. “Baby?” I called out, moving toward the bathroom on the other side of the room.
“J-J-Jesse?”
Her trembling voice kick started something inside of me and I moved faster. She was crying, I could hear her sobs through the closed door. As I opened the door she moaned and my heart actually stopped at the sight before me.
Layla was standing at the sink with the water on. She was bent in half, holding onto the edge of the counter as her body shook. The baby blue leggings she had on were damp, a red spot soaking through. “What..?”
“My water broke!” she sobbed. “I’m in labor.”
“No.” I shook my head stupidly. “No, you are only seven months pregnant! They aren’t supposed to come for another nine weeks.”
“I… I know that!” she shouted at me. “But these babies haven’t got the memo… Call Emmie. Call the hospital.” She gripped her stomach and moaned. “Call a fucking ambulance!”
With shaking fingers I pulled my phone from my pocket and called 911. She was in too much pain, the contraction coming too close. Every time she moved more fluid flooded her pants, pooling at her feet. As soon as I told the operator what was going on and our address, I tossed the phone aside and lifted Layla into my arms. I didn’t want her to slip in the mess.
“Emmie,” Layla panted as I carried her downstairs. “Call…Emmie.”
“Emmie will see the ambulance and know something is going on,” I assured her. My heart was beating so fast I was sure it was going to explode, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. I could hear an ambulance in the distance and thanked gods that there had been one so close. “Take deep breaths, baby,” I urged, knowing that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Our Lamaze classes didn’t start for another week, and I knew nothing about what was going to happen.
All the nightmares of Emmie’s delivery flashed before my eyes and I was sure I was going to vomit. I had been terrified when Emmie went into labor with Mia, but this? This fear that I was experiencing, witnessing the woman who owned me heart and soul in so much pain. The fear of something being wrong with our babies because it was way too soon for them to come into this world…
There wasn’t even a word for this kind of gut wrenching fear!
The ambulance was pulling to a stop as soon as I opened the front door. An EMT jumped out of the passenger side and ran toward us. “How far apart are the contractions?” the dark skinned man demanded.
“Minute… Maybe,” Layla told him because I sure as hell couldn’t. I couldn’t even talk. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I talk? I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Not a single sound. “Twins… I’m only thirty-one weeks.”
“Sir, can you put your wife in the back for me?” the EMT instructed. “Place her on the gurney and we can go.”
I moved automatically. He opened the back door and I climbed in before placing Layla on the narrow bed. As soon as she was out of my arms the dark skinned man was pushing me out of the way. I dropped down on the small bench behind them and just watched in horror.
“Jess! Layla!”
Emmie’s frantic voice called out before the back door opened again and Emmie climbed in. “What..?”
“Ma’am, Mrs. Thornton is in labor… Her water has broken and she appears to be at four centimeters… Mr. Thorton seems to be in shock… We have to go now, ma’am.” I only caught parts of their conversation and then Emmie was sitting beside me as the ambulance started moving, racing toward the closest hospital that had a maternity ward while the EMT kept working on Layla.
Emmie held her phone to her ear with one hand and gripped one of my hands with her free hand. “Nik… Pick Lucy up from school. Call Lana… Yes. I’m with him… Not good. Love you, too.” Then the phone was gone and Emmie was in my face. “Jesse! Look at me.”