Chapter 85-Saying Goodbye

“Carter, um I hadn’t expected to see you.”

“Yeah I was on duty and saw the family out in the waiting room.”

“Oh, do you want to see her?”

Carter walked over and pulled the chair up close to the bed. I was happy to see him but a little cautious since the last time we spoke wasn’t on the best of terms.

“I called Jonas, but I guess he must be at work.”

“No, he’s here.”  Now I was really worried. Maybe Jonas had changed his mind about wanting to be in her life and couldn’t figure out a way to tell me so Carter was sent to soften the blow.

“Oh, I see. Does he not want to see her, or me?”

“I’m sure he would if he was able…” Carter paused and took a shaky breath. “Jonas was admitted.  He was at work and he and his partner were exiting after doing a final sweep of the building but a beam—“ He paused again, but this time I could see the tears forming in his eyes. “A beam fell on him, pinning him. He landed on a piece of rebar that punctured a lung. Because the floor had partially given way from the impact they couldn’t get to him right away.” My heart dropped as I feared where this was going. My thoughts started racing, not wanting to believe what I was hearing.

“But, but he’s ok right? He has to be ok.” Without fully thinking I started climbing out of bed.

“Whoa where are you going?” Carter asked trying to stop me.

“Where is he Carter?  I need to see him.  Please Carter.”  Letting out a heavy sigh Carter left and returned with a wheel chair followed by Ceula. “Is he awake?”

“I’m not sure why?” I looked over at the sleeping figure and he immediately knew what I wanted. “Let’s go check and if he’s up then I’ll have the nurse bring her down. It’s against procedure, but since he might…” He choked on the words unable to say out loud what we were both thinking. He had been trapped for a while, in a fire, with a dirty piece of metal going through his body.  The nurse was checking his vitals when we arrived.

“He’s in and out of consciousness Dr. Day.”

“Thanks Judy, we won’t stay long.”

Carter wheeled me to his bed; he looked so different laying there. There was beeping and wires and his chest was all bandaged.

“Jonas you have to be ok.” I whispered taking his hand. “You’re a dad now. You were so excited about becoming a father you can’t leave us now.” His fingers curled around mine and I looked up to see him trying to give me a weak smile through the mask he was wearing.  He attempted to move the oxygen mask off his face but Carter stopped him.

“You need that.” He scolded gently. Jonas made a scribble motion with his hand; Carter looked around to find him some paper and a pen.

What did we have?

“A girl. Finley Duff.  She’s so cute and tiny and has black hair like you.”

I want to see her. He showed it to Carter who nodded then left the room. It was hard to see him like that and I couldn’t stop from crying.

I’m gonna be fine.  It’s only a scratch. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Even hooked up to all the machines that were beeping keeping check on his vitals he was trying to make me feel better. Carter walked in with Finley bringing her over to the bed so Jonas could see her.

“You’ve scarred the poor girl; I think she has your nose.”  Carter joked. Jonas laughed a little which turned into coughing which sent the machines screaming. The nurses came rushing in ushering us out of the room.

The funeral was hard, his co-workers all gave their condolences to Carter and I. The kids all showed up for support, it was still hard to believe he was really gone.  He had gotten an infection that ravaged through his body. The antibiotics weren’t effective; his body had gone through too much trauma to fight it off once it got to his kidneys everything starting shutting down. I was determined not to let myself sink into that depressed state like I had with Marcus.  It was hard because with each passing day she looked more and more like him which was a curse and a blessing all at the same time. 

Carter started coming around to check on us on his off days.  We never spoke about our last conversation, it no longer seemed important.  We put it behind us and moved forward helping each other grieve and taking care of Finley. I was getting to know Victoria better as well.

She was a very nice woman, and she appeared to really adore Carter.  I was happy that he found someone special.  He deserved it. Things were hard, but I was used to that being part of my life.  I could whine and complain about it, but that wouldn’t change the cards I was dealt.  It wasn’t all bad so I was determined to try and focus on the good.

Aric and Nina had their baby, a little boy they names Jonathan, and couldn’t be happier to finally be parents. Dax at gotten on with the local minor league sports team.  He was always very athletic so it only seemed like a good fit for him. Dunham and Embry were making things work. He had gotten an internship at the Science Facility.

I got to babysit Kylie on occasion when their schedules overlapped. Embry was still not my favorite person, but I tried not to dwell on that instead choosing to focus on the adorable little girl that came out of that terrible situation.  The triplets were becoming more and more exclusive. They didn’t want to interact with Finley much and spent an awful amount of time either in the tree house or at the park down the street. Their teacher had called wanting to have a conference.  She wouldn’t say what it was about over the phone but she sounded very troubled when we talked. I asked them about it when they got home, but denied knowing any reason that she would want to see me. Nervously I waited outside the principal's office trying to figure out what they were in trouble for.

“Mrs. Smith, Mr. Polax will see you now.” The elderly secretary lead me towards the back into the office. There sat Mr. Polax and the triplet’s teacher Mrs. Brookstone.

“Mrs. Smith thank you so much for joining us today.”

“Of course. I wasn’t given much information on what this meeting was about.” I gave a glance over at the teacher then back to the principal.

“Well Mrs. Brookstone has voiced some concerns about the behavior of your children and requested that we have a meeting to discuss them.” Mr. Polax leaned back in his chair waiting on Mrs. Brookstone to begin.

“Um yes, well you see Elton, Elphie, and Edson were delightful children at the start of the school year. Always listened and got along with the other kids. But in the last few months they have started acting…well a little strange.”

“We’ve had a few changes at home and they have began spending more and more time together as a group but they are triplets so they have a special bond.” Mrs. Brookstone sat wringing her hands in her lap as she tried to come up with the words she needed to continue.

“Changes at home? What sort of changes?”

“Well their older brothers graduated and moved out of the house. They just got a new sibling and they loss a close family friend. All of these things happened in a matter of months so they may be be having some adjustment issues.”

“Yes, yes that could explain why they are acting out now. Little minds have a hard time processing loss sometimes. And sometimes it’s a cry for attention.” She gave me a pointed looked as if she were questioning my parenting skills. I chose to ignore that instead wanting to focus on the more pressing issue at hand.

“Acting out?”

“Yes well. They play a lot of make believe with the other students. They like to tell them they are vampires and that the students are there as a food source. They have even attempted to bite some of the children.” I sat there staring in disbelief. We hadn’t talked much about them being responsible with who and what they are but I never thought I would need to.

“Oh.” Was all I could manage to get out.

“Yes and on occasion they have tried with me to get me to change grades. Which I don’t understand because when I looked at my grades for the class they have pretty much aced everything.” I tried to think of times I recalled seeing them do homework or studying lately and nothing popped. Life had been hectic but they were pulling in good grades so I assumed they were on top of things. Now it seems that they were compelling their teacher somewhat to make changes. This is not what I needed to hear.

***********************************Bonus Pic of Jonathan*****************************

****Thanks to Kiddo for making the 'Bad News' hospital poses for me*********