“Holly, are you okay?” Kathy stuck her head in the door. She was concerned about her daughter, it wasn’t like her to hide out in her room. Holly lifted her head and looked at her mother and mouthed the word, “NO,” and put her head back down. She most certainly was not okay, but she did not wish to talk about it in front of Eve. Knowing now was not the time to push, Kathy simply said, “Get some rest, baby.” And quietly shut the door. Her daughter appeared fine this morning, whatever was troubling her now Kathy was convinced it had something to do with Lincoln. Given her and Holly’s disagreements about how to handle her situation in the past, maybe she wasn’t the person Holly felt like talking to right now, so she decided to call in reinforcements. Kathy called Maggie from the land line and asked her to come over. Maggie was currently busy, but promised to come over as soon as she could. While she waited for Maggie to come over, Kathy busied herself making an array of sandwiches a
Holly took Eve inside and put on a movie for her. Kathy was resting in front of the fire where she usually sat. Holly made the three of them some popcorn and joined her daughter on the couch. For a while, they sat in silence and watched the movie together. Holly watched Eve and was thankful that she had such a happy and healthy little girl. “I love you.” Holly said as she kissed her daughter on the head. Eve smiled back at her mother and kissed her arm and replied. “I love you, Mommy.” Holly loved to hear her daughter say that. The words always sounded so much sweeter when Eve said them. Thinking about what Maggie said, Holly decided to ask her daughter as casually as possible as to avoid upsetting her. “Do you ever wonder about your daddy?” Kathy stopped rocking in her chair, her daughters question caught her by surprise, she wanted to hear what Eve had to say. “I mean sometimes.” Eve looked sad but didn’t say anything more. “Do you want to talk to Mommy about it?” Holly wa
It surprised Holly to feel so comforted and welcomed, it didn’t feel any different then it did before she left. She knew they were good people, but she was certain what she had done would have been beyond their forgiveness, and yet here they were treating her with all the love, warmth and kindness they always had. The Smith house still felt like a home to her, it both put her mind at ease and made her extremely sad. The decision she made to keep Eve to herself had never felt more wrong then it did right now. Seeing them all together painted a very vivid picture of all the things she had stripped from Eve and her second family. Holly helped Keith, Patricia, Maggie and Lincoln carry the food in. Eve had wanted to help too, so Patricia let her carry in a few smaller items inside such as the napkins. Holly who felt right at home, chatted freely as she helped place the food around the dining table. Sasha didn’t know this girl but she hated her, she viewed her, and her daughter as a threa
“Hey, Mom, look who I brought home with us.” Holly announced as she entered her mother’s home. Maggie and Eve had manged to get the tree up, and the decorations out while she was gone. Kathy, who was getting tired quickly these days, had already retired to her rocking chair in front of the fire. “Oh, Patricia, how wonderful to see you.” Kathy made the effort to get out of her chair and embrace her old friend. She was overjoyed to have the house so full again. It had not been the same since Holly had left. This was turning out to be better than she could have ever imagined. “It’s wonderful seeing the girls together again, isn’t it?” If anyone were to understand how Kathy felt, it would be Patricia. “It really is.” Paticia was relieved to see Maggie so happy to have her friend back. She was over the moon when she returned home in the early morning hours after her trip to the Christmas market. When Lincoln had told her where Maggie was, she just had to wait up for to hear all about
Kathy found Holly asleep on the couch in the morning. She worried about her daughter, and what she would do when she was gone. Bringing her back here had been a good thing, she wasn’t sure she would find her way back to Maggie at first, but was relieved that she had. Kathy knew that when she passed, her daughter would need someone to help her through her grief. Even if she lived far away. Kathy busied herself with a coffee pot, the cancer had robbed a lot of things from her, her taste being one of them, she no longer drunk coffee for that sweet burnt caramel flavour she so often craved, but for the calming ritual. She placed a cup down on the table for her and got one down for Holly and poured her a drink too. She walked over to where her daughter rested on the couch and gently shook her by the shoulder until she woke. “Good morning.” Kathy said as she swept the hair from her daughter’s face. What a beautiful face her daughter had. She was going to miss those blonde curls and big b
Holly took her mother home and tucked her straight into her bed, she was worried about her as she wiped the thin veil of sweat from her mothers forehead. She had a temperature and it was only getting higher. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the ER?” Holly pleaded her mother one more time. “Holly, I’m fine, I just overexerted myself, I just need some sleep.” The last place Kathy wanted to be right now was back at the hospital. It was awful, loud, cold and sterile.“I know, I would just feel better if someone could take a look at you.” Holly was a nurse, she could do it herself, but her mother refused her help. Kathy didn’t want Holly to look at her like a patient, it was undignified. Seeing her like this was bad enough as it was. “Holly, I am immunocompromised because of the cancer and the failed rounds of chemo, I am in more danger there, than I am here.” Kathy said flatly. Holly knew that what Kathy said was true. The ER was full of sick people. Feeling like she was unable to
Holly was so exhausted that her eyes hurt and her body was sagging, but the doctor would surely be on his rounds soon and she wanted to ask him how her mother was so she continued to fight the need to rest. It had been a long night in the Hospital. Kathy had to receive plenty of fluids and would need to spend some time on oxygen, but was otherwise okay. If she had not choked on her vomit, she likely would have not needed to come in. How much longer she had to stay in here entirely depended on how long she needed to on oxygen for. She had called Maggie a little over an hour ago and asked her to relieve Lincoln. She appreciated his help more than she could say, but she was worried it would cause him issues at home. She was just about to call Maggie again and ask how things were at home when Maggie sent through a photo. To her surprise it was a photo of Eve and Lincoln. They were smiling at each other over a plate of pancakes. Of course, Eve talked Maggie into that one she thought.
The first thing Holly seen when she woke up was the text message from Maggie. She must have read it a thousand times and she would probably had to read it a thousand more before she grasped it. He thinks his relationship just ended? Did he break up with her? Did she break up with him? Are they going to work it out. She needed more information than that. ‘Is he okay?’ She texted Maggie back. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to pry to get the information out of her. Maggie liked to make you work for it sometimes and it was infuriating. ‘I don’t know the full story yet, he hasn’t told me what happened, he is inside with Mom and Dad. I thought it was best to keep away from all that drama while Eve is with me, but I will tell you as soon as I know, I swear.’ Maggie’s text back was quick, but frustratingly lacked any real information. Seeing how late in the afternoon it was, it was best that Holly collected Eve now anyway, she did not want to miss their visiting hours. If she did she wouldn
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