Chapter Text
Chapter One
Claire Reznick-Browne was a few years beyond believing that she could lose everything at any time, no doubt a remnant from her unstable childhood born from her mother’s many issues.
These years brought a few major developments in her life, getting pregnant, falling in love with her best friend, marrying said best friend and then agreeing to have another child.
Initially, Morgan suggested that she be the one to carry to prevent Claire from missing out on surgeries.
After a number of tests, it turned out that this wasn’t meant to be so they agreed that she would be willing to miss any amount of surgeries if it meant giving Kayla Reznick-Browne a sibling.
If Claire hadn’t watched Morgan loving a child that she had no biological link to for years, she may have been more worried about her not getting to carry like she wanted to. After some initial, and natural, disappointment though, Morgan was just as enthusiastic about their plan, especially after the blonde doctor returned home to find Kayla wearing a ‘best big sister’ shirt and she proceeded to embrace her wife and spin her around with fervour.
A few months after this, Claire was still under the impression that her life could actually be perfect, that she was done with the struggle, tragedies and downward spirals.
Rather than an alarm clock, she was woken by a high-pitched but melodious, youthful laugh, fluttering in from the kitchen area and into the bedroom.
This had happened over the last few days so she felt only a little consternation at finding the other side of the bed empty.
Morgan had already explained that she turned off the alarm and got breakfast and Kayla was ready to maximise the amount of sleep that she could get before she absolutely needed to go to work.
Stretching away her grogginess, Claire slipped out of bed and wrapped her dressing gown around herself as she padded towards the source of the sound.
She hung back to behold that Morgan was finishing up with tickling Kayla before pushing the bowl of cereal towards the girl. The four-year-old happily picked up the spoon but became suddenly serious.
“Mama?” she asked.
Morgan looked up from the juice she was pouring, intrigued by the tone, she placed the jug down and replied, “Yes, Kayla?”
The girl scrunched her features up thoughtfully and then said, “I don’t want a brother.”
Morgan tilted her head, “You wanted a sibling, you were excited…”
“I wanted a sister,” the girl clarified, as if this had any bearing on the inevitable.
It obviously took a concerted effort to hide her amusement as she said, “We don’t get to choose Kay, but it doesn’t matter either way. But you will love your brother as soon as you meet him, just like I loved you the moment I saw you.”
Kayla frowned but after some processing time, a smile spread across her face and she said, “Could we call him Bandit?”
Chuckling as she urged their daughter to pick up the spoon to finally start eating her breakfast, Morgan promised, “We’ll add it to the list,” probably knowing that Kayla had chosen the only male name from Bluey that came to her mind.
Claire took the opportunity to approach the table, slipping into her seat between her wife and daughter, releasing an almost imperceptible contented sigh as she did.
This became audible as she accepted a kiss from Morgan who began pouring the plain cereal that didn’t make her nauseous and Katla swallowed her mouthful to announce, “Morning, Mommy.”
“Good morning, Kay,” she replied warmly and then to Morgan, “So our son is going to be Bandit?”
Morgan shrugged, absently touching the bump as had become a habit for her since Claire began showing, “It’s not like we have come up with anything better.”
Kayla nodded along with the illusion, seemingly under the impression that this had been taken as a serious suggestion.
Standing, Morgan took another kiss from her wife, “I’m gonna get ready.”
“Okay,” Claire grinned as the other woman slipped over the pre-prepared collection of vitamins for which she had done extensive research to pick the optimal ones for their growing child.
Beginning to eat her own breakfast, she prepared herself for an in-depth discussion with Kayla about Bluey.
She sank back into her chair, completely relaxed, the morning reaffirming that her life was now perfect.
S
Claire’s day remained perfect when she got to work, she found an interesting case with a surgery that would make the patient feel instant relief.
To top it off, the procedure was relatively short so that she would make it to lunch with her wife.
The only wrinkle was that she overheard a couple of nurses mentioning that a doctor in the ER had been attacked with a knife by a deranged patient; she froze long enough to hear them refer to the doctor as a ‘he’.
With Alex working on the case with her and having seen Shaun rushing down the hallway not too long ago, she resolved to make it through the procedure and ask Morgan for details on exactly what happened later.
Around thirty minutes later, Claire was fully scrubbed, the patient was open and she and Alex were working in tandem to fix the man.
As they worked, Alex asked, “So I hear Kayla wants to name her brother Bandit?”
“Yeah,” Claire chuckled, her hands able to work independently with her years of experience, “We haven’t been able to think of anything better. It was easy with Kayla, we don’t exactly have many men in our lives to honour.”
“I can think of one pretty great guy,” Park offered and Claire could tell that he was grinning under his mask, “Alex Reznick-Browne has a ring to it.”
Shaking her head, Claire chuckled, “Morgan already shot you down, Park.”
“Which is why I’m asking the nice wife,” he retorted.
Rolling her eyes, knowing full well that he was joking, Claire asked, “How did you come up with ‘Kellan’?”
Before Alex could answer the question, the door slid open behind them so that a nurse holding a mask to her face could enter, breathing deeply.
All of the OR staff glanced at her but returned swiftly to their tasks.
“Dr Reznick-Browne?” she asked.
“Yes,” Claire replied, bracing herself to be told that there was some major trauma coming in that would affect her chances of having lunch at a decent time.
The nurse’s eyebrows pinched, her extended silence earning her another glance from both surgeons.
Swallowing hard, she pressed, “Hasn’t anyone told you?”
“Told me what?” Claire replied, her relaxed tone effectively answering the question as she continued to operate.
“I…err…the incident in the ER…”
“The stabbing?” Park clarified for the stuttering nurse.
“Yes, they sent me to update you about her condition.”
Frowning deeply, Clair repeated, “Her?” her mind not yet able to comprehend that the conversation she’d overheard could not have been based on faulty or incomplete gossip.
“Dr Reznick-Browne…the other Dr Reznick-Browne,” she said shakily, “She was the one who…you know? Dr Murphy is operating on her right now.”
Completely frozen in place, Claire took deep breaths.
If they had been wrong about the gender of the victim, they had to have misinterpreted the severity of the injuries, right?
“W-What happened?” she just about managed to get out.
“The patient…he went crazy and he had a knife. He…stabbed her three times…but the surgery is going well. Dr Murphy is confident that she will be okay,” she detailed reluctantly.
Claire stopped listening after ‘stabbed’, no longer aware that she was holding surgical instruments over an open body cavity.
She was far too consumed with the shattering of her perfect life.
If the unthinkable happened, what would she tell Kayla?
How could she be a good mother to two children without the love of her life by her side to encourage and support her?
What would she do if she never saw Morgan Reznick-Browne again?
It took Alex inching around the table to stand beside her for her to be pulled back into the present and remind her of what she was doing.
“I’ve got this Claire,” he assured, making sure that she was fully aware of him before taking the instruments from her with caution befitting their proximity to their patient’s internal organs, “Scrib out and go and find out how she’s doing.”
Claire blinked at the tears pooling in her eyes, but at last, stepped away from the table as Alex took her place.
She tried not to focus on the pitying eyes all around her as she considered her next move.
She could stay right here in limbo, never knowing the status of her wife.
On the one hand, if this turned out tragically, that would be better than spending the rest of her life grieving. On the other, she needed to see Morgan, needed to know if she would be okay and, hopefully, hold her hand through her recovery.
It was for this reason that she drifted absently out of the operating room, attempting to ready herself for either eventuality.