Promised (The Promised Series)

world he has to do down there. Dani’s smiling, looking in the direction the baby went; I’m smiling, watching her be so happy.
    “Doctor, we need you over here, now.” The nurse calls, shattering our happy little bubble.
    “What’s wrong?” Dani calls out, but gets no response. The nurse rushes out of the room with the baby in the warmer and the doctor comes back over to us.
    Dani is broken when she asks. “What’s wrong with my baby?”
    “We believe she has infant respiratory distress syndrome. We’re putting her on oxygen and an IV and we’ll be monitoring her closely. Usually, with the right treatment, this clears up in a few days.” The doctor explains gently.
    “Can I see her?”
    “We need to get you finished here and moved to a regular room. Then, when they have her stabilized, a nurse will take you to see her.”
    Dani nods, tears coming down her face. The doctor moves to finish what he started at the end of the bed. Dani looks over at me. “Can you call your brother and let him know what’s going on?”
    “Of course. I’ll be right back.” I give her hand a squeeze and release it.
    I find my parents and Dani’s in the waiting room. I explain what’s going on to them. Dani’s Mom heads to her room to be by her side and I excuse myself to call Adam.
    Once I’m outside in the cool night air, I take a seat on the curb and dial the number. He picks up on the second ring. “Does my baby girl look like me?”
    “Where are you?” I ask instead of answering.
    “On the road. I’m still about four hours away.” He gets quiet for a second and then asks. “Did something go wrong? Is Dani and the baby alright?” I take in a lung full of the cool air, release it, then I explain what’s going on. I hate that he’s driving when I do it, but I know he wouldn’t pull over for me to explain. That’s why I didn’t even waste the breath asking.
    His voice is shaky when he responds. “You stay with my girls and watch over them, Winnie. I’ll be there soon.”
    “I will, Addie. Don’t speed. You need to be safe.”
    “I need to get to my girls.”
    “Yeah, and they need you here in one piece so don’t do anything stupid.” I remind him.
    “Sorry, you’re right. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I don’t even want to find out. If it wasn’t for you, Dani would’ve had to go through this with only our parents. And you know how fucking crazy they are.” I know he meant this as a thank you, but it’s like he stabbed a knife in my heart and twisted it for good measure. I can’t leave my family. I love Linc and I want to be with him, but look what happened tonight when I turned my back on Dani. She almost had to go through delivering my niece alone. She wouldn’t have had anyone by her side when she found out about the baby’s health problems. I can’t leave them. We support each other. That’s what Dani and I have always done. I was just complaining about how she wasn’t supporting me and look at what I was planning on doing, leaving her without her best friend’s support for the rest of our lives.
    I lean my head down against my knees and let the tears come from the realization that I have to let go of Linc, and my dream of college, and for my tiny niece who is upstairs fighting for her life.
    An arm snakes around my shoulders and my head snaps up to find my dad beside me. I wipe at my tears and he squeezes my shoulder. “They’ll be okay. Don’t forget that little girl is a Scott which makes her a born fighter.”
    I lean into his side, laying my head on his shoulder. “She gets that from you.”
    I feel him kiss the top of my head. “Ah, some would say she got it from you too.”
    Tilting my head back I ask. “How so?”
    “You may not have fought with your fists like the rest of us, but you’ve been fighting since you were a kid. You fought all of our ideas of what was right for you to be the girl you are today. And though I didn’t support some of those decisions you made, I know they were right for you. Because I couldn’t be prouder of the woman you’ve grown to be.” He wouldn’t be proud if he knew that I was planning on leaving and not marrying Shay, but I guess now he’ll never have to deal with that truth about his daughter.
    “Thanks, Daddy.” I whisper.
    He scans my face and I have to wonder if he’s seeing more than he should. “You done crying, baby girl?”
    “Yeah.” I say, knowing it’s a lie.
    “Then let’s go back inside.