The longest hour of George's life

[KrJ]

Sitting in the waiting room for Jorja to come out of surgery was the longest hour of George's life. Everytime a nurse, or doctor, or even a receptionist walked through the room, he would ask how Jorja was doing. And the most frustrating thing was that no-one was telling him. He was kind of getting on their nerves asking all the time, but it was understandable.
A surgeon walked out the doors marked "Operating Theatre. Staff Only[/u]" and looked around the room.

"George E-Eads?" she asked, struggling to pronounce his surname.

"Yes! Y-y-yes! That's me. I'm George" he responded, shaking and stuttering, and rising to his feet in excitement to hear about Jorja and the children.

The surgeon sighed. "Err..dya want to sit down?" she said comfortingly, with a look of disappointment on her face.

"What's wrong? Hows Jorja? Hows my babies?" he asked anxiously in a teary voice.

"We have delivered one of your twins and she - " she paused, knowing that she had given away the gender of the baby.
She then continued. "She has gone straight to Intensive Care, but the chances that she will be okay are very high." she forced a small smile.
"But, i'm afraid it's not looking good for Miss.Fox and the other twin. Nothing is 100% yet but...I just don't want to get your hopes up. I'm sorry" she said with disappointment in her voice. She looked into the devastated brown eyes that starred back at her. They began to fill up.

"Jor-Jorja" he whispered, breaking into a sob.
The surgeon walked over to her desk and brought back a box of tissues.
He collapsed onto the nurse's shoulder in tears. But the second he opened his eyes, he saw someone being wheeled out of surgury at a rather quick pace. He caught glimpse of the motionless body that lay on the bed. He was sure it was Jorja.

"Jorja!" he shouted after her.
He quickly looked back at the surgeon, who was talking to another nurse that followed the bed Jorja lay in.
The surgeon looked back at George
"That was Miss.Fox!" she said excitedly to him.
She then had to follow the crew of nurses and surgeons that went to Intensive Care with Jorja, but George was told to wait, again.

It was about anotherhalf an hour went by, when a doctor came into the waiting room and called George.
"Yes? Yes?" he asked excitedly.

The doctor smiled at him. "You can see Miss.Fox now"

George shook his hand with many thanks as he followed the doctor to the ward Jorja was on.

(( you can choose what happens to the other baby ))

[Jorja]

((ooh, we can be reeeeeealy mean with that ))

Jorja was still unconscious and it was another hour and a hald before she began to come round. Opening her eyes groggily, she squinted to try and get everything into focus. The whole room was spinning.
But she saw George and felt a wave of relief pass through her. His very presence calmed her a little.
"George...where's the babies...?"
She asked, her voice barely audible. Everything was starting to stop spinning now and she looked around the room for any signs of the new lives that had been brought into the world....she hoped.
"Oh God, please...tell me they're...alright."
She whimpered, panic gripping her.


((IDEA! I'll PM ya!)

[KrJ]

"They're both in Intensive Care, honey" he said, not really knowing if they were going to be okay.
He decided not to tell her that one of them was a girl in case it got her hopes up and got her excited and then...well...there was bad news. He couldn't let her go through anymore pain than she already had.

((come on they both gotta live! i wont be able to cope if they dont!))

[Jorja]

((Neither will beech - hun, we should totally do my idea from that PM!))

Jorja let tears escape their confines and she tried to cough to clear her throat a little. It felt so dry and painful.
"Can I see them?"
She asked, trying her best to talk.

[KrJ]

(( well, okay only one lives. but dont have the "having to pull the plug " thing cuz i will cry....i don't wanna cry!!! ))

"I'll go and ask the nurse. I've wanted to go and see them, but I wanted to wait for you" he smiled.
"I love you so much" he said with a single tear rolling down his cheek.
"I'm so sorry" he continued, but then realised she had probably forgotten about what had happened with him and Kelly so he changed the subject.
"I'll just go and get the nurse, babe" he smiled, taking one last squeeze of her hand and then realeasing it as he walked over to the staff desk.

"Excuse me?" he said to attract attention.
"Jorja and I would like to go and see our twin children. They're in Intensive Care, we haven't seen them yet" He had a very proud look on his face as if you say "Yeah! That's right!I'm a Dad!"

"Okay, that's fine, I'll just find someone to wheel Jorja up there" she explained, rather proud of herself that she pleased them both.

"Hey, Gary?" she spoke to another person down the telephone.
"Yeah, anyone free? We need someone to take Jorja Fox up to Intensive Care to see her children?"
She nodded for a while, answering with the occasional "Hmm." and "Uh Huh"
"Right, okay, is it alright if her husband comes with her?" she asked.

George was quite pleased that people considered them husband and wife and he smiled to himself at that comment.

"Right okay thanks a lot. See you soon" the nurse finished her conversation with "Gary" and hung up the reciever.
"We should have someone hear in a few minutes" she told George, looking at him and smiling.

George returned to Jorja and told her what would be happening.

[Jorja]

((ok, if we dont do it in detail then, can we do it? I really think it'd be the perfect trigger for what I've got planned for Jorja!))

As they entered the intensive care unit, Jorja's eyes filled up with tears. All around her, babies and small infants lay in incubators attached to machines that bleeped incessantly, some with anxious parents sitting next to them. Jorja had never wanted to be one of those parents. As she stopped in front of two incubators next to each other, she felt her heart break. They were so small. Her children. Her babies. And now they were in the world, fighting for their lives attached to too many monitors.
Looking at the nurse brokenly she whispered,
"Why did this happen?"
The nurse sighed softly and placed a hand on Jorja's shoulder.
"When the babies were being delivered the surgeons found that you had internal bleeding in the placenta."
"That's....because of the crash, isn't it?"
The nurse slowly nodded, "We think so, yes....Miss Fox, you've got to understand, the babies are three months early - statistics for that age of birth..."
But Jorja cut her off, looking at her babies.
"Keep your statistics - they're about what's happened in the past, don't compare them to that - my babies are alive, here, in the present."
The nurse nodded again, feeling desperate empathy for both George and Jorja. If the little boy didn't improve any, they had a horrible task to consider in the very near future.
Jorja rubbed her head a little as tears ran down her cheeks. A sob caught in her throat as she slowly reached her hand through the hole in the incubator and touched her baby. They had a little boy and a little girl. Attached to so many tubes, so small it was hard to believe they were really fighting for survival.
Reaching her other hand into the incubator where their daughter lay, the little girl wrapped her hand around Jorja's finger and she sobbed again.
"Oh God...this is all my fault."
She said in an agonized whimper.


((Found this 3 months preemie pic: members.aol.com/rosanneps/nicu5s.jpg So I've decided that's the boy))

[KrJ]

(( ooook then, just dont make me cry!! ))

"No! No, it's not. It's mine, it's - " just stopped, knowing that the two of them blaming themselves wouldn't make anything any better.
"It's neither of our faults. It's just...i don't know. But, look, honey? We have our own little babies, don't we?" he forced a laugh, putting his arm around her.

"Right, Jorja, this is entirely up to you babe, okay? But, do you want to name them yet?" George was kinda worried that he'd said the wrong thing, because asking in the way he did showed there were doubts in his mind about how the babies were. He didn't want to show Jorja his doubts but, well, what's said is said. He looked at her comfortingly for an answer.

[Jorja]

Jorja slowly nodded.
"...At least while they're here, we can call them by their names...."
She said in a choked voice, soobing once more before bursting into tears.
"Why is this happening to us..?"
She whimpered heartbrokenly, clinging to George. After composing herself a little she tok a deep breath and tried to keep the shakiness from her voice.
"What're we gonna call them?"

[KrJ]

"Well, I think you wanted Daisy for a girl? Didn't you, babe?" he was trying to be as cheerful as he could. Maybe that would cheer Jorja up? But he wasn't cheerful at all. His heart was gradually breaking. But, for Jorja's sake, he had to keep on a happy face.

"And I wanted Nick for a boy!" he said, "happily", trying to let out a laugh. It wasn't a convincing laugh, though.

[Jorja]

"Nick? Nicholas Eads - it's cute!"
She strained a laugh, wanting to make this time easier for them all. She desperately wanted to hold her children, her arms were aching too...but she couldn't. She didn't know if she'd ever get to. For the first time in her life, she prayed.
"Daisy it is then...George, they've gotta pull through this...I don't know what I'll do if they don't."