Beneath the Surface

Jax

I follow the doctor through the halls feeling numb. Everyone else stayed with the boys. I wanted to do this on my own. What if my baby isn’t okay? What if Lexie isn’t? We walk into her room, and tears run down my face again. She’s hooked up to all kinds of monitors. I walk over and grab her hand and kiss her forehead. “I love you baby.”

“Mr. Stephens this is Dr. Morgan. He’s an ob-gyn and will be performing the ultrasound. I am your wife’s main physician for her stay here and Dr. Morgan will be your baby’s main physician while your wife is her.”

I nod at the new doctor. “I’m very sorry about your wife Mr. Stephens. I was told you have two sons here also?” I nod my head, “I hope they’re doing well. As Dr. Jesser has said I’ll be the baby’s physician while your here. I would have checked the baby immediately, but checking your wife’s brain for a bleed had to come first. Then I was in an emergency c section. Now, let’s get started. I’m about to check for a heartbeat and then we will have a look around in there. Just so you know, I have to do the ultrasound internally as she’s only about six weeks along. I doubt y’all even knew she was pregnant yet.”

After a few minutes of him messing with the strange looking machine in front of him a strange quiet whooshing noise fills the room and my eyes tear up. “Is that my baby’s heart?” I look at the doctor to see his head is tilted to the side as he listens and his eyes narrow. He nods his head, “That is the heartbeat, but I think….” He drifts off, and I almost choke him.

“You think what doc?”

“Ummm, it’s strong Mr. Stephens, but I need to have a look. Tell me about your sons while I check some things. It’ll help with the nervousness.” A black and gray static looking thing fills the screen as he starts looking.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Jason and Justin. They’re nine years old.”

“They’re twins?”

I nod my head. “Identical”

He smiles as he keeps messing around on the machine. “Go on.”

“They both like baseball, and football. Huge fans of the Atlanta braves and Alabama football. They’re blond hair blue eyed great little boys. What’s going on doc? Why are you trying to distract me?”

“So I could check everything before we talk. Everything looks fine Mr. Stephens. Look right here. Do you see that flickering?” I nod. “That is your baby’s heart beating.” My eyebrows pull down in confusion and I point.

“What’s that other thing flashing?”

He starts chuckling. “That is the other baby’s heart beating. That’s what made it not sound quite right listening to it.”

My eyes about pop out of my head, “Are you shittin me?” He starts laughing harder.

“No sir. If everything goes well over the next week then it seems like you’re having another set of twins.”

I let out a whoop! Hell yeah! I couldn’t love Jason and Justin anymore if they were my own. I wonder if these will look the same as them. Will they be girls? If they’re boys will they like the same things Justin and Jason do? Will they be absolute handfuls like they are? God I kind of hope so. Even though I’m completely overwhelmed I can’t wipe the smile off my face. Until I look down at Lexie’s bruised, sleeping face. Then I sober. God baby please wake up so I can tell you about our babies.

“What do I need to worry about?”

“Well since she’s so early the babies are so tiny and have so much padding in there that they’re fine right now. Our main worry now is the stress from her injuries, stress from her surgery, and when she wakes up in pain. My biggest worry is the surgery. If they make it through that then I think they might be okay, but there’s no way for me to know for sure. When she has surgery in two days I’ll check them again before to make sure they’re still okay before they start the surgery, and then I’ll check them again about twelve hours after the surgery.” I nod and he prints me a couple pictures. All I can see are two small circles. “Those small circle looking things are your babies Mr. Stephens. Congratulations and I’ll see you in two days after her surgery.”

“Thank you Dr. Morgan.”

*********

I walk back into the boy’s room and sit down on the bed they’re both laying in. I don’t look at anybody or say anything. I’m still trying to hold tears back from begging Lexie to please wake up for me. The boys will be released in the morning then we can go stay down there with her, but for now the boys are awake and need me more. Walking out of her rooms was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I’ve never been so torn in my life. Stay with the woman I want to marry and our unborn babies or go to the boys I love like they were my own.

“Is it okay?”

I look up to see everyone staring at me, but Maddie is the one that spoke. “It?”

She looks over at the boys than back at me and raises her brow. Oh! No one has told the boys yet. I nod at her and she releases a sigh. Should I? Or should I wait until I know for sure they’ll be OK. I feel like I should tell them, but I’m not sure.

“For right now everything is fine. The doctor is worried about the stress from the surgery and if everything will still be okay after that. He’s going to check before the surgery and again twelve hours after.”

Everyone nods. I stand up and pull the sonogram out of my pocket. I walk over and hand it to Shawn knowing he should know what he’s looking at. He barely glances at it when his eyebrows hit his hairline. “Holy shit!”

Maddie looks at us “What’s going on?”

I look at the boys and back to Shawn in question. He shrugs at me, “That’s up to you man. It’s not my decision.” I nod and go to sit back with the boys. I pull Justin over to the other side of me and scoot over so that I’m in the middle between them.

Shawn has a huge grin on his face, “Do you want us to leave so y’all can talk?”

I shake my head at him, “No it’s fine.” I pause and look at the boys. “Yall know I love you right?”

Jason smiles and Justin shrugs, “I kind of figured you might when you didn’t get super mad when we locked you in the basement.” I hear Mason snort and everyone else chuckle. Jason looks up at me. “Is momma gonna be okay?”

“I think so. Do you know what a coma means?” They both nod

“The doctor put momma in that last time. Uncle Mason said it means she’s going to sleep for a while, and nobody knows when she’s going to wake up.”

I nod at him, “Well your momma is sleeping again, but the doctors didn’t do it this time. She has a broken arm and a sprained ankle, and she hit her head and that made her go to sleep. When y’all get released tomorrow I’m going to take y’all down so y’all can talk to her. The doctors say she might be able to hear you even though she can’t answer. Do y’all want to do that?” They both nod solemnly.

“Can we stay with you until mom wakes up?”

I clear my throat, “I’m going to stay with y’all tonight and tomorrow when you’re released I’m going to stay with your momma. Yall will have to go home with your uncles or Carson or Dillon to sleep. But y’all can come back up here during the day and stay with me. Okay?” They nod again and I take a deep breathe.

“Do y’all know what pregnant means?”

“Yes sir it means someone has a baby in their stomach.”

“Well your momma is pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.” Both of their eyes widen and they smile at me.

“Is the baby okay after the wreck or was it hurt like us?”

“Right now the baby’s fine, but we need to pray really, really hard. Your mom has to have surgery on her arm, and the doctor is a little worried about the baby after the surgery.”

They both look sad and nod. I lean back against the pillows and hold the sonogram where they both can see. “See this little circle looking thing right here? That’s the baby. They both squint their eyes and nod, smiling again. I move my finger over to the other little circle. They both look confused now.

“Well what’s that then?”

“That, Justin, is the other baby.”

Everyone in the room gasps, and Justin jumps up off the bed and yells, “They’re twins like us!” Everyone laughs at his excitement.

Jason looks up at me, “Are they boys like us too?”

“I don’t know, it’s too early to tell.”

Everyone starts congratulating me and I feel like breaking down all over again, “Let’s wait until we’re out of the woods before we do all that. Okay?” They all no solemnly.

**********

Late that night after everyone has went back home, and the boys are asleep I sit next to the bed they’re huddled in together and think. Shawn is spending the night downstairs with Lexie so that she isn’t alone, and I can stay with the boys. Knowing that someone is with her eases my mind some, but I still wish I could be sitting next to her. The boys need me more right now though. They’re scared spending the night in the hospital. Shawn offered to stay with them so I could spend the night in Lexie’s room, but both boys asked if I would stay with them. As I looked into their scared faces asking me to stay with them there wasn’t a choice. I’m nervous being away from her with her being hurt, but I know Shawn will call me if there’s an issue. I stand up and walk to the door to peek out for something to do, and I am shocked when I see two men standing outside the doorway.

“Who the hell are y’all?”

They both turn to me with hard stares and nod at me, “Mr. Stephens.” who the hell are these guys and how do they know me?

“I’m going to ask one more time. Who the hell are y’all and what are you doing outside this door?”

The one on the right holds a hand up to stop me, “I’m James and that’s Dixon. We work for Bailey security. Mr. Bailey posted us to the kids. We’re their new body guards. There is also one downstairs watching Ms. Evans.”

I walk back inside and call Carson’s phone keeping my voice down so as not to wake the boys. “Why did you post bodyguards to the boys and Lexie?”

“With everything you’ve got going on I’m not surprised that you didn’t catch it. I don’t think anyone else did either. Did you not listen to the boy’s story? Lexie yelled that she couldn’t stop before the wreck. The brake line being cut is how her stalker killed her parents, Jax. That seems a little too big a coincidence. I might be wrong and there was just a problem with the car. I’m going to go check the car in the morning, and see if the brakes were in fact cut, if not then I wasted one night of a few of my guys time. If they are cut then her stalker tried to kill them today. He could come back, and I’m not letting that happen. If the brake line was cut they have 24/7 security from here till the mother fucker is caught.”

I sit back in chair heavily. That never even occurred to me. How did I miss that? I can understand being distracted with the boys and Lexie hurt and finding out about the babies, but damn it’s so obvious now that he’s pointed it out. “Whoever this guy is he better hope that that brake line isn’t cut. I’m going to kill the son of a bitch when we find him if it is.” Carson grunts. “I’m serious man. The boys are hurt and in pain and scared, Lexie is in a fucking coma with a hurt ankle and an arm broken, not sure when she might wake up if she does at all! We might lose our babies over this. I’m going to kill him if he’s behind this!”

“Yeah, I hear ya man. Can’t say I blame you. I’d like to get my hands on him too.”