Because Of Love

Rafe stumbled into the ward and found Carrie pacing the floor. Her face was wet with tears, and his heart jerked.

Please, God, let them be alright!

“Carrie, where is she?” he rasped.

Carrie looked at him for a long while before she spoke. “You need to convince her to let them do it! You just have to!” she cried, fresh tears rolling down her stricken face.

Rafe took a breath to calm himself before he grasped Carrie’s shoulders. “Convince her to do what?”

“Signore DeLuca?”

Rafe looked up at the doctor who stood behind Carrie. He swallowed the fear and nodded.

“How is she?” he asked, a tremor in his voice.

The doctor sighed visibly with relief before he moved closer. “Her blood pressure is climbing dangerously high, and she refuses to let us deliver the babies.”

For a second, Rafe had held the hope that that look of relief on his face meant that Talia was fine, not that he was happy to see him.

Rafe could understand why Talia was being stubborn. It was too early for the twins to be born. “What are the risks to the twins if they are born prematurely?”

“Signorina McKenna is seven and a half months along, we have high hopes they will survive. But we hold no such hopes for the mother if she refuses for us to proceed.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Rafe nodded again, willing himself to stay calm and objective. He needed to be strong for Talia. He needed to make the decision and take the blame if it came down to it, because Talia wouldn’t be able to bear it.

“May I see her?”

The doctor nodded and led him to a room. The first thing he heard was the sounds of machines and then he saw them. They were large and at Talia’s head. They frightened him just looking at them, he couldn’t fathom Talia’s terror having them around her.

He moved to her side, sat in the chair close to her head, which was partially covered with an oxygen mask, and took her hand in his.

“Why the mask?” he asked the doctor.

“She’s come close to having an asthmatic attack several times. We can’t afford for that to happen now; there are too many risks. We thought it prudent to administer oxygen and medication through the mask.”

Christo! They had so much working against them, against their children.

Rafe covered his face with his free hand and cried in it. Releasing all the pent up emotions that had been broiling inside him for months. He’d never felt as defeated in his life as he did at that moment, sitting there, powerless to help Talia and his children through this difficulty.

He felt Talia’s hand weakly grasp his. He moved his hand from his face and looked at her. She smiled faintly behind the mask as her eyes fought to stay open.

“I can do this. Please, Rafe, give me a chance. I know I can do this,” she whispered weakly.

Rafe smiled at her determination, which served to break his heart more. He knew better. He just had to convince her of it. For once, Talia needed to set her stubborn need to be right aside.

“Tesoro, you can’t. Your will is strong but your body is weak. Please let them do this, let them save you and our babies.”

A tear ran down her temple as she struggled to shake her head. “Please. Our sons will die if they are taken out.”

Rafe felt his chest crush into his heart, paralyzing him. She shouldn’t have told him that. The decision had been easier to make without knowing. He’d easily picked her over them because he loved her more than the unknown. But now, as the love for his sons blossomed with much pain in his heart, could he really condemn them to save the one he loved most?

“I’m sorry, Talia, but I can’t let you die. We can have other children and we will, but I can’t have another you.”

She shook her head, weakly trying to pull her hand out of his. He held on tighter, willing her to understand his desperation. He turned to the doctor to give his consent but the man was already running towards them, cursing in Italian. He pressed a button above her bed, and pulled the covers away from her body.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“What I feared. Her water broke.” He gentle pulled Talia’s knees up and spread them, looking between them under her gown.

Talia screamed loudly, tightening her grip on Rafe’s hand. That’s when he noticed the wet bed, with a large pink stain on the blue sheets.

“What the hell is going on?” he yelled.

“She’s having the babies. Now.”

The room suddenly buzzed with activity, as nurses rushed in, two of them pushing large plastic boxes. The breath in Rafe’s chest grew heavy with fear as he watched. The doctor yelled orders and the nurses moved into action.

“Signore DeLuca!”

Rafe heard his name but he didn’t respond nor act like he heard. He was frozen.

“Rafael!” he yelled shaking him.

Rafe blinked looking straight into the doctor’s eyes. “I need you to be alert. The first one is already on his way out. You will have to help her.” Rafe nodded his tongue dead in his mouth. “Sit behind her and hold her up.”

Rafe turned to find Talia was already been held up by a smiling nurse. His first instinct was to ask what the hell she was smiling about but instead, he climbed onto the bed and sat behind Talia. The nurse leaned her against his chest and Rafe wrapped his arms around Talia’s torso.

“Everything will be all right,” he whispered in her ear when she cried out again, her hands fisted in the fabric of his pants at his thighs.

“Nurse, be ready. I want you to place your hands above her stomach and push down when it’s time.” Then he turned to Talia as he climbed to kneel on the bed between her legs. “Talia, when I tell you, you have to push with all the strength you have. Okay?”

Rafe felt Talia’s head nod under his chin, then she cried out again and the doctor yelled push. Rafe held her hands tightly as he watched the nurse press her hands down on Talia’s stomach as she pushed, her legs held up and apart by two other nurses. Rafe felt like he was in a nightmare. He couldn’t believe what was happening. It was all surreal.

They pushed four more times before the doctor told them to stop. Rafe held onto Talia, as he watched the doctor turn with a small grey creature in his hands, giving it to a nurse who was standing at the ready. She wrapped it in the blue cloth she was holding, completely covering it from sight. When that nurse left, another took her place, a blue cloth in her hands.

Talia mumbled something under him and he leaned in to listen.

“Why isn’t he crying?”

He’s supposed to cry! Rafe thought in a panic before he repeated the question to the doctor.

The doctor spared him a wary glance before he turned to Talia with a fake encouraging smile. “Ready for the next one?”

As if on cue, Talia cried out, bending over.

“Okay, when the next one hits, we all push, capisco?”

Rafe nodded, wishing he was somewhere else but here, but whispered encouraging words to Talia when the doctor ordered them to push. And with two short pushes, Talia slumped against him with a sigh of relief and the changing of hands was made again.

This one didn’t cry either.

Rafe watched as the covered boxes with his sons in them were rushed out of the room. Then there was a loud alarm and he was shoved off the bed and out of the room as they all surrounded Talia.

That’s when it sank in. She wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing and her heart wasn’t beating.

He stood there, staring at the closed door, without another thought in his mind.

“What’s going on? What happened?”

Rafe turned to Angelo. He was holding Carrie as she cried against his chest.

She knows, she already knows.

“Rafe, what happened?” he demanded, his voice rising in panic.

“They are dead. They are all dead. Talia, my sons…all dead…” he mumbled before his world went dark.