Holly did everything she could to keep herself distracted until Lincoln’s visit. She took care of Eve, and when she was putting her to bed, she read every book on the shelf, some of them twice just to help keep herself keep calm. Her worries and doubts were like an internal storm inside her, fear struck like lightning, over and over again. She wished she was able to talk to her mother about this, although Kathy would probably just tell her to rip the band aid off. And if she spoke to Maggie about it, Maggie would be so happy that she would forget how afraid Holly felt. She was pacing the kitchen back and forth practicing how this should go when there was a knock at the door. She opened it, but before she could get a word in, Lincoln grabbed her and kissed her passionately. He only stopped when he felt like he was out of breath. “I have been waiting to kiss you all day.” He rested his forehead against Holly’s and smiled. He still couldn’t believe it; she was giving him a chance. “Li
When Lincoln arrived home just a little while later, he found his parents arguing, and Maggie trying to calm them both down. Everyone fell silent the moment they saw him. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me.” Lincoln didn’t have to say anything more than that, they knew exactly what he was talking about. “She finally told you?’’ Maggie gasped; she had not wanted to admit it, but she was starting to doubt Holly would ever say something. “Yeah, it’s great, she finally told me, but why didn’t any of you?” Lincoln felt so betrayed by them, he turned around and walked back out the door, his family begged him to stay, they chased him out to his car even, but he ignored them. He did not care what they had to say right now. How could they do that to him? “I told you this would happen.” Keith looked at his wife and daughter, he felt so bad for his son. Keith walked back inside, found his car keys and went looking for Lincoln. If his son wanted space he would give it to him, but his son was a
Holly loaded up the car, Lincoln and Maggie had already taken almost everything over that they needed last night, except for the food. A daunting feeling rested in the pit of her stomach. “Hey, you look a little sick, is everything okay?” Lincoln had noticed Holly was a little quiet as the three of them got into the car. He took her hand, but instead of that usual radiant smile, he received a grimace trying to pass as a smile. “What is wrong?” He asked, he knew there was something. “We’re just leaving our bubble and I am scared.” Holly admitted, she felt silly, she loved these people, she shouldn’t be worried about what they had to say but she was. “What are you scared of, Hol?” Lincoln kissed the back of her hand, he wanted to understand, hopefully he would know what to say to make her feel better. “Once we tell them, then it’s real. Once we tell them, then we are open to all their criticisms and advice, like what if they think we are moving too fast? I mean we kind of have, but
Lincoln caught up to Holly quickly at the car and helped her take the rest of the food out. “When did you find the time to do all of this anyway.” He looked at the plates impressed. “After we got home from the hospital, I put Eve to bed and then while I waited for you, I did this. Mostly because I was trying so hard not to completely freak out, but also because I am determined that Mom has a good day today.” Holly hoped if they could lift her spirits, it would make her fight just a little harder to live. As a nurse, she seen it time and time again, when a patient gives up hope, so does their body and they die soon after. “Hey, she will.” Lincoln comforted Holly. When Lincoln and Holly made it back to the room, they were pleasantly surprised to find Kathy out of bed. She was sitting at the small table with Eve, who was still infatuated with the optics on the small Christmas tree, she was showing her grandmother all the different colours. Holly set her food down and went to hug her
Eve wasn’t hungry when they got home, she had eaten enough at the hospital, she brushed her teeth and was ready for bed. Holly went to read to her like she did every night, but Eve asked Lincoln to read to her instead. Holly went in to help them sort out her pyjamas, and kiss her good night. As Lincoln tucked the blankets down by Eve’s side, she asked, “Is daddy going to sleep over tonight?” Holly didn’t know what Lincolns plans were for the night, it was his last night here, maybe he wanted to go home. She decided to just let him answer that one. “Yeah, is that okay with you?” He asked. “Mom, do you think he will say good morning to you really loud? So loud that I will have to leave like Aunt Maggie did?” Eve looked at her mother with such sincerity that Holly had to leave the room; she began to laugh so hard. “Get back here.” Lincoln whisper shouted at her in a panic. He was going to freaking kill Maggie, he swore to himself. At least he wasn’t eating anything this time. “Is
Because Lincolns phone was dead, he didn’t get any of the messages his family had sent him last night, or this morning. If he had, he would have left Holly and Eve at home. Holly, Lincoln and Eve pulled up at his parents’ house. Holly got Eve from the back seat and they were about half way up to the house when the front door flung open. Holly and Lincoln froze in shock, Sasha burst out the door. “Sasha, what are you doing here? “Lincoln finally stuttered; he was both surprised and angered to see her. “I think we were too rash; I know I said I got with you for the wrong reasons, baby, and I did, but I want you back now for the right ones. I really love you, I know that now, I can’t live without you. I flew in hoping to surprise you for Christmas and make it up to your family and then fly home with you today, but you weren’t here, and your parents wouldn’t tell me where you were.” She started to sob, that was until she saw Holly standing behind Lincoln and then her anger took over.
Three weeks later. Holly arrived home, finally some good news she thought. It’s been such a rough three weeks. “Hey, you’re home.” Maggie called out to Holly from the lounge room floor where she sat with Eve. They had newspaper down to protect the carpet, but were having fun painting each other’s nails. Holly squeezed past the moving boxes to find them. “So, did you get the job?’’ Maggie asked. Holly moved home a week ago. She had been getting nervous because she hadn’t heard back from anywhere, but luckily on Monday the hospital called and offered her an interview. Kathy was still in hospital, in fact she had taken a turn, she was now in an induced coma after catching a cold, she had been that way since boxing day, it was incredibly ironic how everything fell apart at once, Lincoln left and her mom got worse. The hospital staff were not hopeful that she would wake again, but Holly refused to listen to them, she wasn’t ready to let her mother go yet. With her mother unable to
Eve and Maggie had both fallen asleep, but Holly couldn’t. Every time she tried to close her eyes, she either thought of her mom or Lincoln, and both brought her great sadness. She didn’t want to accept that her mother was passing, or that she had lost Lincoln for good. She just couldn’t get that kiss out of her head. He may not have returned it, but he didn’t stop her, he caught her when Sasha threw himself into his arms, and when he should have defended Holly, he asked her to leave instead. Had he seen her again since he left? He would likely tell her if she asked but she was to afraid to do that. She didn’t want to hear him call them a mistake, she didn’t want to see the pity in his eyes when he told her he was going back to Sasha. As she did most nights lately, she just sat at the table, with a hot chocolate in her hands until she was too tired to feel sad anymore and would simply fall asleep where she sat. She had almost finished her cup when she heard a knock at the door. Too t
Epilogue part three. Holly was in the bridal room getting ready for her big day. Her hair was styled to perfection, her makeup had never looked so flawless, and her stunning tulle wedding dress was more than she could have ever dreamed of. All day she had Patricia, Maggie and Eve fawning over her as they helped her get ready, but she had asked for a moment alone, and so they had left to gather the bouquets and check that everything was in order. Holly was missing her twins desperately, today had been the first time she had spent any amount of time away from them. As if he could read her mind Lincoln stepped into the large bridal tent, the vineyard had loaned them. In the corner of her eye Holly noticed the fabric moving and turned to talk to who she assumed would have been Maggie, but when she saw who it was she panicked just a little. “Lincoln.” Holly felt dismayed by his arrival. “You’re not supposed to see me until it’s time.” She tried to hide herself behind the large mirror in
epilogue part two. Maggie was resting in her room, when Doctor Evans knocked on the door. “What do you want?” She said coldly. “I went to see the baby.” Joel walked into the room and looked at the window. The car park wasn’t a very good view, but it was a distraction and that helped. “You did?” Maggie was surprised but mostly annoyed. “And why would you do that?” “When I walked into your delivery room yesterday, I didn’t want to be anywhere near you. But then I had no choice, I couldn’t just leave you without medical care, and I told myself that it was fine. I hardly knew you, I could detach and treat you like you were any other patient. But then I held that baby and she is so cute, and I don’t know how else to explain it, I felt proud for some reason. She took my breath away. I tried to forget her, forget you, I went outside and I got in my car, I was ready to leave but I couldn’t turn it on. Instead, I turned right back around and I found her in the NICU, and I just stood there
Epilogue. Part one. The storm was raging out of control. Hail belted against the glass as Holly drove Maggie to the hospital. Holly hated driving in this type of whether, but she had no choice. The storm had knocked out the cell phone towers and the emergency lines were so busy, that nobody was answering her. She couldn’t even call Lincoln who was at work, to let him know she was coming in. “I can’t be, I can’t be in labour.” Maggie cried as she screamed again as yet another contraction rippled through her body. “I am only thirty-two weeks, Holly.” Holly knew how afraid Maggie must be. Once the storm hit a few days ago, Holly had begun to fear herself that this would be the position she was in, she was thirty-eight weeks pregnant with her twins, she was sure she was going to give birth before she could make it to her scheduled C section at the end of the week. She was just glad that Maggie had been at her house when this happened and not somewhere all alone. “I know, Maggie, I know
Maggie, Eve and Lincoln were all eating the breakfast at the table together. “Why are you so upset, Daddy?” Eve asked, she had noticed that her dad had hardly eaten a thing, he had mostly frowned at his breakfast this morning. “Oh, nothing, sweety. Why don’t you go and get your bag and shoes, it’s almost time to leave.” Lincoln said. They knew such blessings wouldn’t happen often, but Holly and Lincoln’s shift actually started at the same time today, that meant they would be able to take Eve to school together this morning. “Okay, she is out of the room, now spill.” Holly dropped her fork and waited for Lincoln to tell her what was wrong. Eve wasn’t the only one to notice his broody demeaner. “I’m just not looking forward to seeing Evens at work today. I hate that I will have to see him all the time. I just, I can’t fathom it, okay so he doesn’t love Maggie and they aren’t going to be making any trips to the chapel anytime soon, that part I get, not everyone is as lucky as we are
Maggie chose to go bowling. Sure it was a little unconventional to celebrate life changing news in a bowling ally but it was something they had used to do often when Maggie and Holly were children. Maggie thought that as she was celebrating having a baby, it might feel nice to be a little childlike, one last time. Eve thought it sounded like great fun, and so everyone else kind of just went along with it, they looked out of place, all dressed up in their evening wear while most other patrons were wearing casual clothing, such as old T-shirts and jeans. Despite how well the rest of the night had gone, Holly was utterly exhausted when she collapsed into bed, but somehow she managed to stay awake while she waited for Lincoln. Eve had fallen asleep in the car on the way home, so he had carried her into bed. Tired himself, Lincoln did not bother to undress, he simply kicked of his shoes and climbed into the bed with Holly pulling her close to his chest. “So, what happened last night, yo
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, for Lincoln at least. Poor Holly was left to suffer for the rest of shift alongside Emily, whose mood continuously soured. It was so bad that by the end of the day Holly had considered going to Director Julain about it. However, she was worried about starting drama in the department when she was still so new. It made Holly miss her old hospital, where the nurses while often too busy to chat, still remained friendly with one another. Checking the clock once again, she had done this too many times in the last hour wondering if her shift was almost over. Holly was relived to see that it was indeed finally time to clock out. As she was walked past the director’s office, he called her name, surprised but not anxious she stopped to see what he wanted. Emily squeezed past her as she entered the room and that is when she started to have a bad feeling about this. Did she tell the director she had compared her to a blow-up doll? “Holly, how are you?
Holly was at work; she was filling in some patient charts when a couple of her new coworkers joined her at the nurse’s station. “Have you heard about the new surgeon that starts tomorrow?” Sarah gossiped excitedly. “He’s supposed to be like super well-built and very good looking, like as if you need to be when you’re a surgeon. They are even giving him his own department. Like who gets that straight out residency?” Sarah bragged. “Yeah, I heard he turned down a place at Mass Gen, who turns down mass gen, and for here? He must be crazy.” Emily, another nurse whispered back. “I also heard he’s engagement recently fell through, who knows, maybe he’s looking for a rebound.” Sarah smirked. Holly felt uncomfortable; they were obviously talking about Lincoln, but what did she say, and why didn’t he tell her they were going to be giving him his own department to run? That was insane. She knew foetal surgery was rare, and surgeons like Lincoln were a gold mine, maybe she should have expe
As soon as Lincoln finally let her up again, Holly got on her phone and called Maggie. She answered it on the first ring.“I can’t believe you let him kick me out of the house.” Maggie complained as soon as she answered the call. “Sorry, I tried to go after you, but he was a little excited.” Holly apologised. “I love you Holly, but he is my brother, that’s disgusting.” Maggie shivered. She was happy they were together but it was going to take some getting used to. “Sorry” Holly laughed. “Okay, so did you tell your parents? What did they say? Have you called your baby daddy yet? Is he on board? How did it go? Well, I hope.” Holly didn’t know what to ask first. “I haven’t told them yet, I am hiding out in my room. I know it’s kind of childish and whatever I don’t care, but I was kind of hoping you and Lincoln would be there when I tell our parents, you know, to buffer some of the questions they are going to have for me otherwise, especially if you announce your pregnancy as well, th
Holly was so happy to see him she immediately forgot what they were doing. “What are you doing home?” She squealed and ran over to give him a hug, he pulled her in for a kiss. Lincoln was kind of annoyed that Maggie was here, he hadn’t kissed Holly in a week, his hands we’re desperate to wonder, she was killing the mood, but he couldn’t say that, so he pulled back. “Is Eve still up?” He asked hoping to catch her, he didn’t get to call her because he was on the plane, but he wanted to hear all about her big day. “No, you just missed her, she asked to wait up for you, but I didn’t think you would be back until morning and it’s a school night so said no, now I feel bad.” Holly explained. “Oh, well how did your day go? Wasn’t too hard on you, was it?” Lincoln asked. “It was different, but that’s not what is important, did you pass you boards?” Holly asked excitedly. “I don’t know yet, the results won’t be posted for another few hours, but I am confident.” Lincoln told her. “Hey, M