“Call an ambulance!” Luke heard himself bark as he rushed to Hunter’s side. He didn’t bother looking back to see if Melinda heeded his order. In that moment, all that mattered was the motionless form laying on the ground in front of him.

It had all happened so fast. He hadn’t had a chance to react, and now he was silently cursing himself for not standing closer and supporting Hunter better.

Hunter had tried to protect the baby. He’d spun around at the last moment, taking the brunt of the fall and smacking his head against the pavement. He was lying perfectly still, staring up at the sky, barely breathing. Blood had begun to pool around Hunter’s head.

“Hunter?” Luke asked, kneeling by Hunter’s head and stroking his forehead. “Can you speak? Are you okay?”

“I...my head hurts.” Hunter’s eyes flicked towards Luke. “Everything hurts. Trying not to move. Don’t want to hurt the baby...”

“Y-yeah. Good idea.” Luke felt like his entire body had been electrified. He wanted, needed, to do something and yet he was afraid and unable to do anything.

“The ambulance is coming!” shouted Melinda from the front porch. She quickly approached and knelt on the other side of Hunter. “They’ll be here soon, don’t worry. It’ll all be okay. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Luke could sense the worry in Melinda’s voice though. She was trying to reassure herself just as much as anyone else.

Everything was a blur when the EMTs arrived. The ride to the hospital in the back of the ambulance was a nightmare, the repetition of a dream he thought he’d escaped from. He’d never once imagined he would be sitting there again, watching EMTs desperately working to stabilize Hunter.

When they reached the hospital, he struggled to keep up with the gurney as medical jargon was flung around his head. At some point, however, a nurse peeled him away and held him back as the gurney was wheeled through a set of doors and out of sight.

He felt as if his heart was going to break all over again. A familiar sense of helpless disarray settled over him as he was directed to a nearby waiting room. There was nothing to be done. He was here once again, staring at another white wall, and struggling to make sense of the hand fate had dealt him.

Luke wasn’t sure how long he sat there, alone, before Melinda and Leonard arrived.

Leonard was loaded with a duffel bag of supplies. He’d learned to be prepared after Hunter’s last incident. He’d brought snacks, pillows, blankets, and even books and magazines.

Luke politely declined all of it. He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. Right now, the danger centered around not just Hunter, but their unborn child as well. Right now, two of his greatest loves were in harm’s way and he could do nothing but wait.

***

“HOW IS HE? IS HE OKAY?” blurted Luke when the doctor finally approached the waiting area where they were all sitting. “And the baby? Is the baby okay?”

“Hunter is sleeping peacefully. He probably won’t wake up for another hour or two,” said the doctor, holding up his hands reassuringly. “There was a wound on the back of his head that we’ve managed to repair. Other than some slight bruising on the rest of his body he appears to be okay, but we’d like to keep an eye on him for a few days to make sure there’s no damage to the brain this time.”

“And the baby?” Melinda asked.

“The fall caused Hunter’s body to enter labor prematurely. We were forced to perform an emergency C-section or you would have potentially lost them both,” the doctor explained. “Before you panic, the baby has been transferred to the NICU. He’s very premature, though. You’ll have to talk to the neonatologist in order to get more details on his current condition.”

“Where?” asked Luke, rising from his chair. “Where is the NICU?”

***

THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE Care Unit was located several floors up from where they were currently located. It was eerily quiet despite the flurry of activity from doctors and nurses. Prominently posted signs near the entrance forbid cell phone usage. Luke had hesitantly shut down his phone. The lights were low, strange equipment was everywhere. On some level, it looked like a hospital from a completely different planet.

His baby was in here somewhere.

“Can I help you?” asked one of the nurses, approaching Luke as he cautiously moved further into the wing.

“I-I was told my baby was brought here,” said Luke.

“What’s the name?”

“I...” they hadn’t chosen a name. They had decided to wait. He doubted Hunter had been able to pick anything in the middle of the procedure. He didn’t even have the slightest idea of where to begin.

“The last name,” said the nurse, reassuringly.

“O-oh, right. That makes sense,” said Luke. His nerves felt raw. He wanted to bolt or pinch himself and hope he woke up in bed with Hunter at his side. None of this should’ve been happening. “The name is Kilder.”

“Let me check for you,” said the nurse as she turned and made her way towards the nurse’s station.

Luke followed after her uncertainly.

“Are you Luke?” asked the nurse, looking up at him.

Luke could only nod in response.

“Okay, we’ve got you down as the alpha party. Is that correct?”

“Y-yes,” said Luke with another nod.

“Okay, your baby is just through here.” The nurse led him towards a nearby room.

The room was almost dark, save for a single diffused lamp that cast its light towards a wall. The dimness of the room was unsettling at first, but after a moment of trying to get his bearings, Luke adjusted.

Sitting almost in the middle of the room was a strange looking machine. The most prominent feature of it was a tiny bed enclosed on all sides by plastic. Two holes, covered by tightly sealed plastic doors, sat in the sides of the enclosure.

Lying almost motionless on the tiny bed, surrounded by plastic was the tiniest little baby. The tiny pink form was almost hidden beneath the mess of cables, tubes, and monitors that seemed to be stuck to him.

“The doctor will be around shortly, but for now I can try to answer any questions you might have...” said the nurse.

“He’s so little,” said Luke, stepping towards the middle of the room.

“He is, that’s why he’s in the isolette. Its temperature and humidity are all optimized to keep him warm and healthy,” explained the nurse.

Fear gripped Luke’s heart. “Is he going to survive?”

“That’s a question for the doctor. I can’t speculate on survival rates. What I can tell you is that I’ve seen babies younger than him leave here perfectly healthy. So there’s no reason to give up hope.” The nurse smiled at him softly. “If you want you can sit there beside him and watch him. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to wait to touch him until the doctor gives the go ahead.”

Luke could only nod in reply. He felt numb as he approached the chair beside the isolette. Right now, it was hard to imagine that tiny little baby ever growing up into a child. It was so small that even the tiny diaper they had put on him seemed far too large.

The rhythmic beeps and hums of the hospital equipment slowly faded into background noise for him. He sat down and could only stare at his child while silently praying to whoever was listening for a miracle.

When the doctor finally entered the room, he nodded a hello to Luke and briefly checked the monitors and their readouts before turning to Luke.

“I’m going to be honest with you okay, Luke?” said the doctor, holding his clipboard close to his chest. “Your son is what we call a micro-preemie. Those are babies that are on the very edge of what we consider viable. A viable baby is one with a halfway decent chance to survive and eventually grow up with minimal complications.”

“Now, there are still potential complications in his future, but your son does have a few things on his side. First, it looks like your partner was having a fairly healthy pregnancy. There were no deficiencies in Hunter’s blood work and that means your baby here didn’t start off with any either. Second, despite the fact that he’s premature, there’s not actually anything else wrong with your baby. Your partner took the brunt of the fall, and despite being jostled around a little, the baby doesn’t appear to have taken any injuries.”

“What this means is that his little body can completely focus on growing. His organs are still not fully developed and getting him through these next few weeks is going to be rough. We’ve got a lot of technology and medicine on our side to keep him healthy though, so there’s every reason to believe he’s going to make it.” The doctor was nodding to himself as he talked, but paused once he’d finished speaking.

“Sorry to interrupt,” said a nurse, popping her head in the door. “I just got a call for Luke. They wanted me to tell you that Hunter is awake.”