My Breathless Mistress VI

Chapter Seven

            February 3rd 2010

                Another day, another rehearsal and that pretty much sums up my week.  We leave tomorrow night for Japan; it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been there.  My solo is doing surprisingly well, well not surprising for me but for the record company.  So much so they are thinking of upping my North American release date.  Which is good, for when the baby comes, I will most likely be around and not have to juggle an insane schedule.  Right now I’m just sitting at the kitchen table having my morning coffee before I head out.  Everyone is still sleeping but I gave them both a kiss before I came down, even my lil guy got one.  I felt him move last week and it was honestly the weirdest feeling I have ever had.  I hear woman joke about how when the baby moves they wonder if the baby will pop out like in the Alien movie but it’s true! And I never knew pregnant woman could be so…so…well horny.  I never thought I’d say this but the woman is tiring me out, ME! But I love her to death and I know she loves me too. I thank God every day he found me worthy enough to let me have this life, the life I always wanted and I promise nothing will make me let this go. No booze, no girl, no groupie, nothing, nothing will get me to let go of my family.

                “Come on Nick.” The choreography sighed as the guys stopped the dancing and moaned.

“Dude it’s not like this is the first time we’re learning this.” AJ said as everyone got in position to start over.

“Sorry I messed it up once.” Nick sighed.

“This one yeah, but the other eight fucking dances?” AJ moaned. 

“What ever it hasn’t been that many” Nick whined as he poured water into his mouth.

“Anyone up for breaking to eat, I’m starving” Howie said and everyone looked at him.

“Me” Nick replied.

“That’s shocking” Brian replied leaning over to AJ and AJ busted out laughing.

“Shut up Prick” Nick sniped as he walked by and lightly smacked Brian at the back of his head.

“Alright let’s go through it once, no mistakes and then you can eat.” The Choreographer said as he clapped his hands together.

“And if Nick fucks up again?” AJ asked as people around him started going over the routine in their heads.

“Than we don’t eat.” The man said.

“What?” Howie gasped as he looked at everyone. “You better get this right Nick, it’s like four in the afternoon and we haven’t had lunch yet. You don’t get this and I will get all Latino up on your ass.” Both AJ and Brian looked at each other and chuckled.

“No Promises.” Nick shrugged.

“Dude, seriously.” Brian sighed.

“Hey, I’m hungry too” Nick piped up.  Just then a cell phone started ringing.

“Who’s is that?” The Choreographer sighed.

“Oh” AJ said as the ring tone clicked in.  “That would be me”

“You guys, I said I want phones off.” The man sighed.

“Hey that’s the baby phone; you can’t shut down the baby phone!” Nick yelled.

“You’re a douche dude, seriously.” AJ sighed as he walked over to his jacket and pulled out his phone.  His smile got bigger when he saw the home number.  He pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear.

“Hello?” He answered waiting to hear Chelsea’s voice.

“Dad?” Nadia replied into the phone.

“Hey darling what’s up?” AJ asked as he looked at Brian and Nick play wrestle while Howie sat annoyed and most likely hungry.

“It’s Mom” Chelsea replied and he heard the tone in her voice.

“What’s wrong?” He asked as he turned back around and walked out of the dance studio as Nadia told him what was going on.

“She was upstairs I was downstairs playing on the Wii when she called me upstairs.  She was in a lot of pain Dad, I didn’t know what to do so I called 9-1-1 they’re here right now.” Nadia said and he could hear in her voice she was scared as his own mind tried to grasp what was going on.  “Hang on” Nadia said quickly.

AJ put his hand on his head, hoping that would help his brain processes everything, then he heard the studio door open and he turned around.  He saw his band mates staring at him and he looked away.

“Okay” He heard Nadia say.  “Dad?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m hear darling” AJ said as his heart raced faster than a Nascar on a straight away.

“They’re taking her to Brier on Oak, they said I can go with them.” She told him.

“Okay, okay good.” He said as his mind raced.  “Go-Go with your Mom I’ll meet you there.”

When he heard the phone at the other end click he pulled his cell from his ear and stared at it.  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  “Everything will be fine, it’ll be ok.” He said to himself as he tried to calm his emotions.  When he turned around he saw Brian, Howie and Nick standing in the hallway looking at him.

“What’s wrong?” Brian asked with worry in his eyes.

“I-I gotta get to Brier.” He said quickly as he walked back towards the dance studio.

“AJ what’s wrong with Chelsea?” Brian asked again.

“I don’t know, Nadia said she’s in pain and the ambulance is taking her to Brier on Oak.” AJ said quickly as he walked into the studio and grabbed his jacket.

“Is it the baby?” Howie asked.

“I don’t know!” AJ shouted as he stopped and looked at them. 

“Let me drive you dude.” Nick said as he grabbed his keys and jacket.

“I’m calling Kevin” Brain said as he reached for his things too.

AJ walked out of the studio and followed Nick to the parking lot, they walked to his car and Nick got into the drivers seat and AJ buckled into the passenger’s side.  His foot tapped on the floor of the car as he bit his thumb nail and stared out the window. 

“These things are normal aren’t they? Like woman go into false labor, it happens.” Nick said as they stopped at a red light.

“Yeah, at least from what the books say” AJ replied as his mind processed what he had read.

“Books? Was AJ Mclean reading?” Nick replied with a smart ass tone.

“Fuck you” AJ snapped but then found himself laughing.  “Just shut up”

“Okay fine but I’m just making sure you’re not jumping to conclusions.” Nick said.

AJ sat there for a moment.  “Right, yeah I mean it does say that it happens.” He paused and then sighed.  “But at 24 weeks?”

Both Nick and AJ sat quiet in the car for the rest of the ride.  They pulled into the hospital and AJ was unbuckling his belt before Nick even found a parking stall.  “Just drop me off here.”

“Alright I’ll wait for Brian and Kevin.” Nick said as he stopped the car.

AJ got out and closed the door, he walked behind his car and Nick pulled away.  His eyes darted around and looked for an entrance, not even worrying about the rain that came down.  When he got inside he followed the signs to the ER.  They had him zig zagging throughout the hospital and he found himself getting very impatient.  Finally when he reached the Nurses’ station he held his breathe.

“I’m looking for Chelsea Mclean; she was brought in here by ambulance.” He said nervously as he wiped his hands on his pants.

“She’s in a room right now, have a seat and the Doctor will be right with you.” The Nurse said.  He stared at her.  They’re making him wait, he felt himself starting to panic. “Um, is-is my daughter here?”

“Yes I will bring her out” She replied with a light smile as she got up.  AJ gave her a polite smile and turned to walk into the waiting room.  It was packed.  He walked over to a wall and leaned up against it.  Standing there he waited, nurses walked in and out of the doors, no Nadia.  He found himself craving a cigarette which then started to add to the impatient mood he was in.  His head turned when he heard the door to his right open but his heart sank when he saw another Nurse.  Then the woman stepped to the side and he saw Nadia behind her.  He stood up from the wall and walked over to her, she almost slammed into him wrapping her arms around him.

“It’s ok” AJ said as he lightly kissed the top of her head.  “Let’s go over here.” He said as he nodded to a free bench down the hall.  “So what happened?” He asked and he held his breath as the two of them sat down.

“She drove me to school but she said she wasn’t feeling well.” Nadia told him.  “When I got out she wasn’t there to pick me up, so I got a ride with Kandis’s Mom, she said Mom probably was having morning sickness and fell asleep or something.”  She paused.  “When I got home she was on the couch sleeping, she apologized over and over but I told her it was ok.” She paused again.  “She said she was going to go take a bath so I started playing the Wii, then she called me upstairs, she was in pain and crying and…” Nadia stopped. 

AJ didn’t know what to say as he pulled Nadia into his arms.  He sat there holding her his mind blank, he couldn’t think of anything, or he just didn’t want to.  When his brain did start processing again all he wanted was answers, he wanted to know what was going on.

“There they are” He heard Brian say and he looked down the hall.  Nick, Brian and Kevin were walking towards him and he pulled away from Nadia as he stood up.

“Where is she?” Kevin asked.

“In a room, I’m waiting for the Doctor to come out and tell me what’s going on.” AJ said not hiding his frustration.

“Hey Nadia are you hungry?” Nick asked.

“A little” She replied.

“Well I’m starving gonna head to the cafeteria wanna come?” He asked.

She looked up at AJ.  “Go get something to eat, when I hear from the Doctor I’ll come get you.” He told her. 

He noticed Kevin had waited for her to be out of ear shot before speaking. “Do you know what happened? Did she have an episode and fall?”

“No” AJ replied shaking his head.  “From what Nadia said no”

“What did she say?” Brian asked.

“Chels took her too school said she wasn’t feeling well, Chels didn’t pick her up from school, she got a ride home with Kandis’s Mom and when she got to the house Chelsea was on the couch sleeping.” AJ told them as he scratched his head.  “She went upstairs to take a bath I guess and then a few minutes later she called Nadia upstairs, Nadia said Chels was in a lot of pain so she called 9-1-1 and then called me when they arrived.”

“Mr.Mclean?” A woman said from behind him and he spun around.

“Yeah” AJ said staring at her.  She was wearing a long thick lab coat, she had green scrubs underneath, and her hair was covered by a white net.

“I’m Doctor Lane” The woman told him. “Chelsea is in the operating room right now.”

“Fuck” He thought to himself as a small crack started inside him.

“Operating room why?” Kevin asked and the woman looked at him and then back to AJ.

“Chelsea went into labor, her water broke but wasn’t dilating, the baby started going into distress.” She said.

“Distress?” AJ asked looking at the woman, the crack ripping more.

She nodded.  “So we moved her to the OR and another Doctor is performing a c-section to get the baby out.” She said as AJ dropped onto the bench. The crack inside of him just went from a rip in a piece of paper to a rip the size of the Grand Canyon.

“What does this mean for the baby?” Kevin asked as AJ ran his hands over his head.

“When we get him out we’ll get him on a ventilator, we’ll get him incubated and then we’ll see from there.” She told him.  “He’s 24 weeks and has a long, very long road ahead of him but we’ve had babies survive less than that.”

“What are the odds?” AJ asked, he was always a gambling man.

“If he survives getting on the ventilator and can handle that, the odds are about fifteen percent right now.” She said as he put his head into his hands.

“FUCK!” AJ’s mind shouted as he felt the tears rise into his eyes.

“If the ventilator goes well we’ll get feeding tubes into him, which will help a lot, and each day that passes is another boost to that percentage.” She said as AJ felt someone’s hand on his back.

“Do you know why this happened?” Kevin asked as AJ wiped the tears away and took a deep breath trying to keep himself together.

“We took some blood well know the results soon but either than that no, sometimes the body just decides it’s time.” She said.  “I or the other Doctor will come see you when Chelsea is out of the OR.”

AJ couldn’t say anything.

“Alright thank you” Kevin replied as AJ sat there staring at the floor.

“I need air” AJ gasped out as he stood up and bolted past his two friends.