The Final Chapter
Pierce had never driven so fast in his life, and on his Bluetooth he called Lucas. He was thankful that Lucas answered the phone when he did.
“Lucas!” Pierce shouted anxiously.
“Brother! What’s going on?” Lucas asked, panic flooding his voice.
“I’m on my way to the hospital! Kate was in my helicopter and it crashed into the Hudson. We don’t know anything except that both the pilot and Kate were rescued, but from the little bit of information I got, things are not looking good. All I know is that she is alive for now, but only barely. I’ll be there in five minutes. It would mean a lot to me to have you all there. I need you,” he pleaded desperately.
“We’re on the way. You get there safely and stay strong for her and the baby.” Lucas’ tone had never been more serious.
Pierce pulled into the emergency room parking lot and fairly vaulted from his car, running through the rain to the doors. The moment he was through them, he grabbed the first person in a medical uniform that he found and demanded to know where Kate was.
With some fast help, he was taken to her room on the maternity level. There was no news for him when he arrived, and he was told that he would have to wait for a few minutes but that the doctor would be out to see him shortly.
He wasn’t there long before his brothers, sister, and father all walked in together. They all went straight to him, wrapping their arms around him in tremendous strength. “We were in town,” Ryder told him in utter relief. “All of us, ironically. We were able to be here right away. What’s the news?”
They all looked at him grimly, expecting the worst. Pierce shook his head and held his hands up uselessly. “I don’t know. I’m waiting on the doctor to come out and talk with me.”
Every one of them heaved a sigh of frustration. Camilla hugged him again. “You have to think positively brother, for her, for your daughter, for yourself, and for all of us, you have got to think as positively about this as you can.”
He dropped his head into his hands. “I can’t think anything until I hear from the doctor,” he groaned.
The doctor walked up just then. “I’m here, sorry for the delay. We are doing everything we can to save them both. It was a terrible crash. Your wife isn’t in good condition, I’m sorry to say.”
Pierce jumped to his feet. “She’s not my wife,” he said quickly, and then immediately regretted it. “I mean… never mind about that. That’s my daughter she’s carrying. I want them both alive and okay. Please, you have to do everything that you can.”
The doctor drew in a deep breath. “That’s what I’m here to talk with you about. We need to do an emergency C-section if we’re going to try to save your daughter’s life. Her mother is unconscious. Do I have your permission to do it?”
He nodded emphatically. “Yes! God, yes, please, just go do it. Do anything you need to do to save them both and do it now. Please… save them. I cannot lose either of them.”
The doctor nodded gravely. “I’ll do my best. I’ll see you when it’s done.” Pierce collapsed down into a plastic chair in the waiting room, burying his head in his hands. The doctor called his name sharply.
“Mr. Carrington, aren’t you coming with me?” he asked with a gentle smile. “With all good luck, this will be the birth of your daughter. Do you want to be there for it?”
Pierce shot up out of the chair and nearly beat the doctor to the operating room. Before he knew what was going on, he was dressed in a green gown and gloves, and masked with a surgical head cover on.
The medical team was one of the best in the state, and they operated like a well-oiled machine; all of them listening to each other, all of them working together. It was not much more than a matter of minutes before Pierce watched in stunned amazement as Kate’s belly was cut open and the doctor reached his hand into her, pulling out the tiniest human Pierce had ever seen. He handed a pair of scissors to Pierce, and with a trembling hand and hot tears in his eyes, he snipped the umbilical cord.
Moments later, the nurse put his daughter into his hands, and she lay there trembling and crying, looking up at him. He held her close to his chest and spoke softly to her, before looking up at Kate, who lay unconscious on the table.
“Oh Kate, my sweet, beautiful Kate. I wish you were here for this. I wish you were awake for this moment. This is our moment, and I can’t stand that I’m having it without you.” He held her daughter close and kissed her forehead, and then handed her back to the nurses so they could clean her up. The doctor was busy stitching Kate up and working on more than just her belly. There was a cut on her head that he tended to, and another doctor wrapped a cast around her ankle.
Pierce was sent out of the room and he and his family were once again waiting in the waiting room. The doctor came out two hours later and gave him a serious look.
“I have some bad news,” he began, and Pierce’s heart fell right through his body to the floor as terror gripped him. He was preparing himself for the worst.
“She has slipped into a coma, and there’s nothing I can do to wake her. We’re going to have to wait for her to come out of it. I don’t have high hopes for this right now. She hasn’t been awake at any point since the crash. It’s possible she could wake up, but right now much of her body is bruised and swollen as you saw, some of it is broken, and she is just going to need a lot of time to heal. We’re going to have to wait it out.” He spoke with a kindly voice, even though the news was awful.
Pierce could not stop the tears that streamed down his face. “What can I do? I’ll do anything. I will spare no expense. What can we do?”
The doctor shook his head. “You can hold your daughter close and keep her close to her mother. There’s always a special bond between parents and kids, and maybe Kate will feel that bond and want to wake up for her daughter. Short of that, we’re waiting while she heals. That’s all we can do for now.”
“When can I see Kate?” Pierce asked as his family circled around him in a tight knit group.
The doctor looked hesitant. “Well she’s set up in her room now, and she’ll be there until she wakes up, but she shouldn’t have too much going on in there. She needs quiet and she needs rest. You can go in, and you should, and you ought to take your daughter with you. If you all go to visit, then keep the group visit brief.”
With that the doctor left, and Pierce turned to face his family. Lucas shook his head. “I’ll wait until she wakes up to meet her.”
Ryder nodded. “Me too. I’m not going to risk anything with her tonight. We have time, brother.”
Carter agreed. “I’ll go with the boys and head home. We are there for you if you need us. Always, anytime.”
Camille shook her head. “I’m staying with Pierce for a while. I’ll go home tomorrow. I know right now that you’re going to stay here all night. I don’t want you here suffering alone, so I’ll stay until tomorrow. Also, I have a niece I want to meet.” She smiled widely and encouragingly.
“Yes, please… all of you are welcome to come and meet the baby now, and I’ll go in to see Kate with Camilla when you leave,” Pierce said quietly.
They followed his lead, and every one of them held Pierce’s little girl, showering her with love and affection. Then they left, wishing him and Kate and the baby well. Camilla stayed as she said she would.
Together she and Pierce went to Kate’s room and sat, taking turns holding the baby and talking quietly. While Camilla held the baby, Pierce held on to Kate’s hand, rubbing his fingertips over it gently.
“How is it that you’re so attached to her, Pierce?” Camilla asked, watching him. “I’ve never seen you like this before. Not ever.”
He spoke with a quiet voice. “Kate is the baby’s surrogate mother, but we didn’t go with the invitro fertilization process. We did it the natural, old-fashioned way. We spent so much time together trying to get pregnant, that we wound up having strong feelings for each other, and we continued the affair long into the pregnancy. We thought we were going to have to choose to be apart once the baby was born, but now that I’ve almost lost her, or if I have lost her, it has made me take a serious look at my feelings. I’ve realized how I really feel for her, and I’m terrified now that I’ll lose her.” He turned to face his sister then.
“I can’t lose her, Camilla,” he stated flatly. “I can’t.”
She nodded and rose from her chair, walking to him. She wrapped one arm around him and he cried into her neck as he released all of the anguish and fear that had built up in him. When he quieted, she gave him the baby to hold. His daughter brought some peace and joy to him, and Camilla’s presence there was a balm.
She stayed late into the next day, and then she left Pierce there with his daughter and Kate.
Two weeks passed, and Pierce had settled into Kate’s room, using the bed beside hers, never leaving her side. Their daughter was nearly always with him unless one of the nurses had her. His sister came now and then, but most of the time, it was just Pierce and the baby.
He had just finished giving her a bottle and laid her down in her bassinet. He moved over to his chair at Kate’s bedside. Taking Kate’s hand in his as he often did, he brought it to his mouth and kissed it softly. He began to speak to her, as he did every day.
“I wish you could wake up and see our little girl. She looks just like you, just like I wished for her to. She is so beautiful, just like her mother. I wish you were here. We need you. God we need you so much. I had no idea how much I needed you until I lost you. Listen to me, Kate. You listen to me. I love you. You cannot imagine how much I love you. I know this was just supposed to be business, but I fell in love with you and there’s just no going back from that. I’ve never loved like this. I can’t lose you. I need you in my life. Please, Kate, my sweet, beautiful Kate. Please come back to me.” Tears stung his eyes as they often did, and he kissed her hand again and looked up at her face.
She opened her eyes slowly and the hint of a smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. “I need you too,” she whispered. “And I love you.”
“You’re… oh my god… how… you’re awake!” He jumped up from his chair and leaned in close to her face to kiss her cheek and then ever so softly, he kissed her lips. “I love you. I love you. God I love you. I should have told you every day how very much I love you.”
She blinked slowly at him and the smile tugged at the corner of her mouth again. “I love you too, so much,” she whispered.
He looked right into her green eyes. “Kate… marry me. Stay with me always, marry me. Help me raise our daughter. Be her mother and be my wife, please. Say yes. Make this dream come true.”
Kate smiled a little wider then. “Yes,” she said in the softest voice.
“Thank you,” he whispered back, kissing her forehead. “I’m going to introduce you to your daughter.”
Pierce let go of her hand and went to the bassinet, lifting their little girl out of it, swaddled in her snug soft blanket, and he brought her to her mother, bringing her close to Kate’s face. Kate wept and kissed her little girl on the forehead.
“She’s perfect,” Kate said quietly.
“Just like you. Like my wife. Perfect.” He grinned at Kate and he knew as he stood there, that everything was going to be alright. Everything they wanted was before them, a happy forever, from that day forward.
{{**}}
Message From The Author:
Hiii
Hope you LOVED the book and if you want to check out the other books in the “Manhattan Bachelors” series then they are listed below!
Susan x
xx