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Artwork by Lademonessa
Oliver awoke to the sound of pounding on their bedroom door. “Daddy. Da,” Bobby shouted frantically. “Come quick, there’s something wrong with Prue.”
Oliver and Tommy were out of the bed and pulling on their pajama bottoms within seconds. Oliver opened their bedroom door to find their eleven-year-old in a near panic. As soon as their door opened, Bobby started running back down the hall. The light was on in the twins’ bedroom and Becca was holding back Prue’s hair as she threw up into a garbage can being held by Nate. Prue was whimpering and clutching her stomach.
Tommy climbed onto the bed next to Prue and felt her forehead, “She’s got a fever, at least, 101.”
Prue collapsed against her dad and began to cry, “My tummy hurts, da” Tommy carefully pressed on his daughter’s stomach and she let out a blood curdling scream.
“I’ll go get the car,” Oliver calmly said to his husband. “Bobby, come with me.” They raced back to Oliver’s bedroom so Oliver could pull on some clothes. He spoke to his son the entire time, “I need you to get clothes for your dad, underwear, socks, jeans, a shirt and his shoes and bring them downstairs. I need you to stay here and look after your sister and brother. I’ll call your Grandma and have her and your Gramps come over.”
“What about mommy?” Bobby asked.
Felicity was visiting QC’s operation in Bangalore, “Your dad or I will call her from the hospital.”
“Is Prue going to be okay?” Bobby asked as Oliver grabbed his and Tommy’s wallets from the dresser.
“She’s going to be fine,” Oliver hoped he wasn’t lying. It hadn’t even been three months since Prue had last been in the hospital. “Get that stuff for your dad.”
When Oliver pulled up front with their car, Tommy was dressed and running down the front steps with Prue in his arms. Nate was in Bobby’s arms screaming through his tears, “I have to go with Prue. She needs me.”
Luckily, the early hour of the morning meant that there was no traffic on the streets of Starling. The sound of his daughter’s whimpering had him gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. The worst part of being a parent wasn’t late night feedings, temper tantrums in public places or children who talked back, it was having a sick child and being powerless to make their pain go away. Tommy was in the backseat singing softly as he stroked Prue’s back. Oliver was able to make it to Starling City’s Children’s Hospital in less than ten minutes and he’d barely come to a complete stop before Tommy was out of the car with Prue in his arms running through the doors of the Emergency Department.
By the time Oliver parked the car, called Donna and returned to the Emergency Room there was no sign of Tommy or Prue. He walked up to the desk, “I’m looking for my daughter, Prudence Smoak. She’s five. I dropped her off with her dad and then parked the car.”
The receptionist looked up at him, “Yes, we already sent them back. Your husband,” she said more as a question, “said that you have his wallet. If you give me your insurance card, someone will bring it back to you.”
He handed her his card and then followed her directions to Prue’s room. He could hear Prue before he saw her. She was whimpering, da, over and over again. When Oliver entered the room, Tommy was sitting on a gurney with Prue in his lap as a nurse inserted an IV. Tommy glanced at a clipboard sitting on a chair and Oliver picked it up. It was an admittance form, one that he was all too familiar with filling out.
“Da, I’m going to be sick,” Prue announced. Tommy picked up a small pink plastic bucket that was beside him on the gurney and held it in front of his daughter.
“The doctor will be right in,” the nurse said quietly to Oliver as she placed three vials of Prue’s blood into her pocket.
Oliver sat on the chair and quickly filled out the form and handed it to the nurse. As soon as she had the clipboard she disappeared. He approached his daughter who was heaving but bringing nothing up. He rubbed her back as she continued to retch. “She said her tummy hurt at dinner,” Oliver said guiltily.
Tommy sighed, but he looked as guilt stricken as Oliver felt. He knew what Tommy was thinking because he was thinking it too, She always says that when she doesn’t want to eat. I didn’t take her seriously.
“I want mommy,” Prue sobbed.
“She’s going to come as fast as she can, sweetie,” Oliver continued to rub her back. At Tommy’s look he shook his head. Oliver had spoken with Jerry and the jet was being prepared for takeoff and one of Felicity’s assistant’s was packing her luggage, but Felicity hadn’t been told yet. He didn’t want to call her until he knew what they were dealing with. Whether they knew what was going on or not, the moment the jet was ready to leave Bangalore his wife would be on it.
Twenty minutes later, a doctor who looked as young as Barry looked the first time Oliver had met him entered the room with the nurse. “I’m Dr. Rea and I hear someone has an upset tummy.”
Prue buried her head against Tommy’s neck and held onto him tighter, “No shots, da.”
“Sweet pea, the doctor needs to take a look at you so he can make you feel better,” Tommy said as he stood up from the gurney and attempted to lay her down.
Prue shrieked and held on tighter, “I want to go home. Da. Daddy.”
“Prue, daddy and I are right here. I’m going to hold your hand, okay,” Tommy promised with his lips pressed against her head. “Da’s right here.” Prue let go of her grip and allowed her dad to lay her down on the bed.
“Hi, Prue, I’m Dr. Tommy,” the young doctor smiled.
Prue wiped her eyes, “My da’s name is Tommy.”
“It’s a good name,” the doctor said and Prue nodded. “I’m going to touch your tummy and see what is going on, okay. You tell me if it hurts. The doctor palpitated her stomach until she let out a loud howl. “You did really well, Prue.” He turned to the nurse, “Please order an ultrasound.”
“What’s going on?” Oliver asked as calmly as he could.
“It’s looking like appendicitis. Her blood work came back. Her white blood cell count is high. I’m going to order an ultrasound to be sure, especially considering her medical history,” Dr. Rea said.
“She’s going to need surgery?” Tommy’s hand held his daughter’s.
Once again, Oliver knew exactly what his husband was thinking. This surgery would be her sixth. It felt like their baby would never catch a break.
“Let’s wait for the ultrasound, but it is looking like she will require surgery,” he informed them.
“Her mom’s in India,” Oliver hoped that the surgery was something that could wait until Felicity arrived. She felt guilty enough about being a working mom without being on the other side of the world when her child required emergency surgery.
The doctor shook his head, “If it is appendicitis, we’ll need to do the surgery immediately. If we wait and it ruptures, we will have to worry about sepsis.”
A woman entered the room and smiled at them before turning her attention to Prue, “I’m Dr. Gonzalez and we’re going to take a look at the inside of your tummy.”
“Will it hurt?” tears spilled from Prue’s eyes.
Dr. Gonzalez looked at her sympathetically, “I have to press on your tummy, so it might hurt.”
Prue curled into the fetal position, “No, thank you.”
“Prue,” Tommy said firmly, “you need to straighten your legs for the doctor.”
“I don’t want to.” She looked up at Oliver with her large blue eyes, “Please, daddy. It hurts.”
“Is it necessary?” Oliver asked the doctors. In that moment, he didn’t care that his child saw him as the parent she could most easily manipulate. His baby was in pain and he didn’t want to put her through something that was going to cause her more pain when they seemed to already know the outcome.
“We wouldn’t do it, if it weren’t,” Dr. Rea said. “We need to know if this is her appendix or if we are dealing with her intestines and bowel again.”
Oliver leaned over his daughter and pressed a kiss to her forehead, “I know your tummy hurts, but this nice doctor needs to use her machine to look inside so we know how to make you feel better. I need you to straighten your legs for me.” Prue began to cry harder, but she rolled onto her back and straightened her legs. Oliver and Tommy each took a hold of one of her hands and Oliver said, “You squeeze our hands as tight as you can.”
Dr. Gonzalez worked quickly and Prue only cried out once. When she finished she said to them, “It’s definitely her appendix.”
“I’m going to call the O.R.,” Dr. Rea said, “I’ll be right back.”
Tommy picked Prue back into his arms and rubbed her back, “Do you remember in your Madeline books when Madeline had to go to the hospital because of her appendix?” Prue nodded against his shoulder. “Well, you need to have your appendix out, just like Madeline.”
“Will I get a present too?” she asked.
Oliver couldn’t remember if Madeline received presents for her appendectomy, but if his baby wanted a present, she’d get one. “What do you want?” he asked as he stroked her hair from her feverish forehead.
“A bunny,” she said with a faint smile.
Prue was obsessed with rabbits and she already had twenty stuffed bunnies at home, but Oliver would gladly add to her collection, “I think we can get you a bunny.”
“Can I go home now?” she snuggled closer against Tommy.
Oliver hated that he couldn’t do what Prue wanted. He wanted nothing more than to take her home and tuck her into her own bed. He ran his hand over her head, “Sweet pea, the doctor needs to do an operation to make you feel better.”
“I don’t want an operation,” she cried. “I want to go home.”
“You’ll go home in a few days,” Tommy promised.
She lifted her gown and pointed to her stomach, “Da, kiss it and make it better.”
“Oh, baby,” Tommy kissed her forehead, “I wish my kisses could make this better.”
“I want my mommy,” she whimpered into Tommy’s shirt.
“I’m calling Felicity and then I’m calling Barry,” Oliver pulled his cell out of his pocket.
“Oliver,” Tommy cautioned, “you just told everyone she’s in India.”
“I don’t care. This is an emergency. We’ll tell everyone she took an earlier flight to surprise us and figure out the rest later.” He really didn’t care. If he couldn’t take advantage of friends who could run across oceans or fly, he didn’t know why he spent so much time helping out the Justice League.
Twenty minutes later, Oliver and Tommy were standing in front of the O.R. doors. Prue was on a gurney. She had on a pink cap over her blonde curls and a yellow hospital gown covered in dogs. The anesthesiologist had given her a sedative and her eyes were getting sleepy.
“I’m here, I’m here,” Felicity called out as she ran down the corridor with her laptop bag. She was breathless, her cheeks were red and her ponytail was frizzy, but she was there. She stepped in front of Oliver and leaned over her daughter, “Hi, baby.”
“Mommy,” Prue smiled sleepily. “Daddy says I’ll get a bunny when I wake up.”
“If he said it, it must be true,” Felicity kissed her daughter’s forehead. “I love you, my sweet girl.” The doors to the O.R. swung open. Felicity kissed her daughter again, “Your daddies and I will be here the whole time. We love you.” Felicity rested her forehead against her daughter’s, “Sweet dreams, baby.”
Prue yawned and mumbled something that could have been, “I love you too.”
Felicity stood flanked by her husbands as the O.R. door closed behind their daughter. She sagged against Oliver and he pulled her into a hug. “Thank you for calling Barry,” she whispered.
“She needed her mommy.” Oliver looked up at Tommy, “We needed her mommy.”
Felicity looked between her husbands, “Are you okay?”
Tommy ran his hands through his hair, “She told us at dinner that her tummy hurt, and,”
“We didn’t believe her,” Oliver finished.
Her brow creased, “This isn’t your fault. There was nothing you could’ve done at dinner that would’ve changed her needing surgery.”
“Except she was in pain,” Oliver felt devastated by his failure to recognize suffering in his own child.
Felicity didn’t try to use empty words that wouldn’t provide him solace, instead she held onto him tighter. Once he relaxed in her arms, she let go of him so she could hug Tommy.
Tommy kissed the top of his wife’s head, “Let’s go sit down. One of us should call Donna with an update.”
“I’ll do it,” Oliver offered. He was about to ask if they wanted coffee when Quentin and Dig stepped off the elevator. Dig was carrying a tray of coffee and Quentin was carrying what appeared to be a box of donuts.
The parents approached their visitors and Felicity hugged John. “How is she?” he asked as he held her tight.
“They just took her in,” Oliver replied. “It will take about an hour.”
“How are the kids?” Tommy asked Quentin.
“They’re fine. Nate was pretty upset, but Donna calmed him down. William was feeding them pancakes before I left to come here,” their father-in-law replied. He raised an eyebrow at Felicity, “We’re flying Flash Air now?”
She shrugged, “It was an emergency.” Felicity took a cup of coffee, “Speaking of. An hour will give me just enough time to create a fake flight manifest.”
Quentin looked at his watch, “Impressive. A federal crime and it isn’t even three in the morning yet.”
Felicity rolled her eyes, “Would you like to explain to the media how I know the Flash and how he does me huge personal favors, like pick me up in India and carry me across the ocean to bring me home?”
Tommy and Oliver paced in the waiting room, as Dig and Quentin sat quietly, and Felicity’s fingers flew across her keyboard. Exactly an hour after the O.R. doors closed, they opened again and they were approached by Prue’s doctor.
The five adults stood in a semi-circle as they waited for the doctor to approach. He smiled at them, “Prue did just fine. We were able to remove her appendix before it burst. She’s in recovery. It will probably be an hour before she wakes up. We’ll keep her two days for observation, but she’ll be running around with her siblings before you know it.”
“Thank you,” all five adults said at once.
“Can we see her?” Felicity asked eagerly.
“Sure, I’ll have a nurse come out and bring you and her dads in to see her,” the doctor said with a smile.
Oliver and Tommy shook the doctor’s hand. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief as they watched him walk away.
“Where do you think I can get a stuffed rabbit at 3:45 in the morning?” Oliver asked no one in particular.
Dig put an arm around Oliver’s shoulder, “Come on, there’s a twenty-four-hour pharmacy over on 8th. I’ll drive you.”
“Will you guys be okay if I go?” Oliver asked Felicity and Tommy.
Tommy hugged him, “A promise is a promise.”
Oliver kissed Felicity’s cheek, “I’ll be back in a half hour.”
When Prue opened her eyes an hour later, she had a new bunny in a lavender dress tucked into her arm and her parents smiling down at her.