Quinn woke up, quickly remembered where she was and walked over, looking down at Mac in her little bed. She cried as she carefully ran her fingers over the different wires and tubes connected to her little body. The door opened and she looked over to see Elliott,
"Good morning." She wiped her tears,
"Hey." Elliott had been there almost from the beginning when Mac was rushed to the hospital that night,
"Don't you have to be at work? I don't want you missing another day of work because of me, my parents are here." She looked around the room for the first time, last time she saw her parents was late the previous night before she fell asleep,
"Somewhere." He walked over and looked down at Mac,
"They went back to the hotel after you fell asleep." She told her parents they could stay at her place but they insisted on getting a room at the hotel a couple of blocks away so they could be as close as possible.
"And don't worry about me, I'm here for Mac, not you. Besides, I didn't have to work yesterday and I don't have to today." He bumped her with his hip,
"You just concentrate on this one." he ordered as he pointed down at Mac. He took Quinn by the hand and led her to a chair then sat her on his lap,
"Does Nick know yet?" She sighed, she was tired of admitting how Nick had let her and Mac yet again. Tired of having to admit he didn't love his daughter, that she didn't mean enough to him to come rushing to her hospital room,
"I, it doesn't matter, there's nothing he can do for her." Elliott grabbed her face in his hands,
"You have to stop doing this." She frowned,
"Doing what?" She wasn't doing anything except praying her daughter would be ok and lying around a hospital room trying to keep it together,
"Trying to make decisions like she doesn't have a father. First, you kept him out of her life for the first months and now he doesn't even know she's sick. Quinn, whatever it is you feel for Nick, that's not important. You have to start thinking about Nick and Mac, not just your feelings." Her heart began to beat fast,
"What?! Think about Nick? Nick doesn't care about her, I've been there for her from the beginning." Elliott sighed,
"And you have to get over the fact that Nick wasn't there from the beginning because it's not his fault, it's yours for not telling him. It's not Nick's fault he isn't here right now." She jumped up off his lap and cried,
"It is his fault. I told him yesterday and he's not here now ok, so just drop it." Elliott followed her lead and stood up,
"What do you mean, you told him? When? A message or you actually talked to him. Quinn, I find it hard to believe he just wouldn't come after you told him how sick she was." She shook her head and wiped her tears,
"Yeah, well that's exactly what happened. I told him she was sick. Him, not his stupid voice mail." The tears were falling harder now,
"And you know what he said? That he was too busy, too fucking busy to come see his daughter. That he had the tour and stuff. The tour?! The tour is more important that my daughter. So, are you happy now? Huh? Happy now that I have to stand here and tell you that my daughter's father doesn't love her?" She knew she blew it for Mac, the chance to have a real family like she did and that hurt her deeply, maybe even more than the fact that Mac didn't have a father. It hurt more because it was her fault and no matter how many times someone said it wasn't her fault, it was the father's fault, she couldn't go along with that. It was her responsibility and she should have been more careful, shouldn't have had a child with someone so irresponsible and uncaring. Elliott held her and began to rock her in his arms,
"Shhh, baby it's going to be ok." She pulled away and looked at him, her eyes full of tears, her face streaked with pain,
"No, no it's not so don't say it. I hate when people say that. You can't see into the future so how do you know? You don't." She walked over to the bed and climbed back inside with her back to Elliott, crying as she closed her eyes and buried her face into the pillow, wishing she could disappear,
"I'm going to get you some breakfast, anything in particular you want?" His caring and refusal to be angry at her outburst only made it worse. When she didn't respond he continued,
"Ok, I'll just bring back a little of everything. Your parents should be back soon, they said they'd be back first thing in the morning." She heard the door close and he was gone.
It wasn't more than ten minutes after Elliott left that her parents walked through the door,
"Honey, are you still asleep?" She muttered just loud enough,
"No." She rolled over and her mother ran her hand over her hair,
"Sweetie, you've been crying. Did something happen?" She glanced over at Mac,
"No, just tired and all." Her dad stood by Mac's bed,
"How you doing kiddo?" She shrugged,
"I don't know." He walked over and kissed her on her head and held her in his arms and she started to cry all over again,
"I know you're scared but you just have to keep the faith." She allowed him to rock her back and forth until she heard Mac gurgle. She rushed over and looked down at her, it seemed so unbelievable that this little girl needed heart surgery, other than the night she stopped breathing, she seemed to be a healthy normal baby. It was hard to accept that they were going to cut open her daughter and do anything to her little heart. She didn't even know what they would be doing, once she heard Mac would need surgery she lost it. They tried to tell her what was wrong with Mac but she made them give her the end of the story, what needed to be done and she wasn't prepared for it. She remembered being given a pill and put to bed, next thing she knew it was morning.
James walked through the door and immediately wrapped his arms around Quinn,
"Hi baby." As he held her he shook her father's hand and smiled at her mother. They all looked down at Mac as James asked,
"Has the doctor come and explain anything to you yet?" She shook her head, she didn't know how she was going to be able to sit through the diagnosis. She cried the first time Mac got a immunization shot, cried the first time she left her at the daycare how was she supposed to cope with surgery. Her mother shook her head,
"Honey, we need to know-" She held up her hand,
"I know, I'll talk to them soon." Elliott walked back in with her breakfast,
"Good morning everyone." He was greeted and smiled as he placed her food on the tray,
"Come eat." She walked over without a fight and whispered,
"I'm sorry." He nodded,
"I know."
Chapter 38
Reunited
Stories
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