this part is pretty long, but transitional, so enjoy....
PREVIOUSLY
My head snaps towards the doors as Dr. Thompson walks in.
We all rise, Alex and I meet her in the middle.
"Your son‘s okay, we’ve put him in an incubator, he needs help breathing for while till his lungs are fully mature but for now, he's stable," she tells Alex.
I suppress the desire to correct her and tell her that he’s my son, that won’t help the situation.
I exhale a breath. "Thank God."
"How's Liz?" asks Alex.
"She has to be okay right?”, I ask, “I mean if the baby's okay.”
Dr. Thompson hesitates, she seems to be having difficulty replying to my question and I don‘t understand. Why would she hesitate? There can‘t be anything wrong with Liz.
"With Liz...we had a few complications," she finally begins.
I stop breathing. "I don‘t understand what kind of complications?".
****
Nice to meet you anyway - part 17
Noah's POV
I burst into the waiting room just in time to hear Max ask about complications.
"Complications with who?" I ask. "With Liz, with the baby? How is she?".
Several scenarios run through my head in the seconds it takes Maria to calm me down.
"Relax Noah, the baby's fine," she tells me.
"And Liz?" I ask.
The look on her face tells me it's not good. "That's what the doctor was just about to tell us."
We both expectantly look at her.
"I think it might be best if I speak to Max and Alex alone," she begins.
"Like hell it is," I object. "Liz means as much to me as she does to those two and I want to know what's wrong with her now."
The doctor looks to Max for permission. He nods.
Like hell I need permission from Max Evans to find out what's going on with Liz.
"Liz’s blood pressure rose to dangerously high levels, she had a seizure…”
My heart thuds against my chest.
I drift in and out hearing the words, “… excessive bleeding…trouble delivering the placenta…for a few minutes, we lost her..."
Liz, my little Lizzie nearly died!
"...we've got her stabilized now, but it was touch and go for a while back there," she finishes.
"But she's alright now," questions Maria.
"Yes. She's resting for now," replies the doctor.
"Can we see her?" I ask her.
"Not yet. I'll have a nurse inform you when you can and when you do, make sure it's one at a time, she doesn't need anymore stress."
"Thanks Doctor," says Max.
"Your son's in NICU, he's on a ventilator right now, we‘ll eventually wean him off....it'll be a tough few weeks but his vitals so far are good. Just go on over and tell a nurse when you want to see him, she'll take you where to go."
Just as she finishes, she gets paged and apologetically excuses herself leaving us in the room to ponder on the information she had just given us.
"What happened?" I ask.
"She went into early labour," Alex replies.
"I know that, but why? who was with her?".
"I was," answers Max.
"You would be," I frown.
Max Evans has caused nothing but harm in Liz’s life, it figures he would have something to do with this.
"Don't blame Max, it wasn't his fault. These things just happen," says a woman I don't know.
"And you are?" I ask.
"Leslie, Max's sister," she replies.
Liz has talked about her, she likes her, so I won't rip into her.
Instead, I walk up to Max. "What happened?" I ask again.
"I went over, her dad rang, we argued and then..."
"She went into labour," I finish for him. I don't have to ask what they argued about, I already know, because I can see it in his eyes. Either Liz or her father told him the truth about the baby and that's what they argued about.
And she went into premature labour.
"You son of a-".
Maria is in-between us in a blink of an eye. "This won't help Liz," she tells us.
"Liz wouldn't be in here at all if not for him," I retort.
I don't have a lot of regrets in my life, but one I do have is encouraging Liz to pursue anything with Max Evans. To think I rooted for her to get laid by him, I feel sick thinking about it now because, I feel as if I contributed to the events that have led to my friend lying in a hospital bed while her baby is hooked up to a breathing machine.
"That's not fair and you know it Noah," Alex jumps in. "Max isn't entirely to blame."
"If he hadn't screwed her around in the first place, none of this would have happened!" I shout.
"Wait...what are we missing here?" asks Maria.
My eyes grow wide, damn. For minute there I'd forgotten that we had an audience of people who don't know the whole truth. The three of us look at each other questioning who's going to tell them. I'm not, it's not my place to tell, I'm just the friend and Max just found out today, so I guess it's up to Alex. After-all, he's part of the deception more than I am.
"Liz was never pregnant with my child," he begins.
A chorus of "what's" erupts.
"...he's not my child, he's Max's."
****
Maria's POV
"He's whose baby?" I ask.
"Mine," replies Max.
What is going on?
"So what?", I turn to Alex, "you lied? all this time you've made us think you were the father?"
"Seven months man?!," shouts Michael, "How could you do that?".
"Why would you do that?" asks Isabel.
"Because Liz asked me to," Alex replies.
If Liz asked you to jump off a bridge would you?
"So you just did it?" I ask incredulous. My eyes rest on Max. "Did you know?".
"Not till today when her dad called and told me."
He‘s off the hook for now.
I turn back to Alex. "I don't understand, why would Liz ask you to lie like that?".
"She was scared and confused-"
"And not ready to deal with him," adds Noah.
I assume the him he’s talking about is Max.
"And that justifies what you did?!" asks an outraged Leslie. "You weren't there to see how this news broke him. You're supposed to be his friend!” she shouts at Alex. “ How could you do this to him?!".
"Because I love Liz, because she asked me to, because I couldn't let her do this by herself," he replies.
"He had a right to know Alex," says Michael quietly.
"I know he did,” he responds.
"He is right here," says Max.
Alex faces him. "I know you did," he repeats, "and I am sorry for what we put you through, but I don't regret it…”
From the way Max clenches his fist, I don’t think that was a good thing Alex to say.
“… I can’t regret anytime I spent with Liz and the baby, don't ask me to."
"What I'm going to ask is for you to move away from me," Max warns him.
I can understand where he's coming from. If a friend did that to me, I'd want to kill them too.
"I can't believe Liz did this. I can't believe she lied to me," I say aloud.
I'm her best friend and she didn't tell me. Alex and Noah are my friends and they didn't tell me. All these months, they've known while I've been out of the loop. I feel so betrayed!
A nurse comes in. "Sorry to interrupt but Mr Evans, the press have somehow got wind of this, they're some reporters setting up camp outside the hospital. No visitors will be allowed in unless authorised by you."
"Damn it," curses Max. "Thank you."
We watch as he heads for the door. "I've gotta call my manager, do some damage control," he tells us.
I wait till Leslie follows him out before speaking.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I demand from Alex.
"Liz didn't want me to," he replies, "I guess the less people who knew, the better. I've got to call her parents and mine.”
He leaves us alone; me, Isabel, Courtney, Michael, Jesse and Noah. Apart from Noah, we were completely in the dark about everything but since now we're back in the light, there's a lot of drama to deal with.
I can't believe she didn't tell me.
****
