Chapter Text
-17 years ago-
It was a morning, a regular morning. The sun was still rising when Jack woke up. He rolled over, his hand reaching out but only being met with emptiness. His eyes slowly opened as he could hear sounds coming from the kitchen. He stretched out his arms, cursing as he hit his wrist against the wooden headboard again. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. Today is gonna be a good day, you are off from work and your wife is also having a day off. You could finally try and go babyshopping today. A smile appeared on his face as he thought about dragging his pregnant wife through a baby store and trying to convince her why they need the stuff. He knew Marisol would love it eventually.
As he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, he felt the soft fur of the carpet underneath his feet. He reached for his phone and unplugged it from the charger and he stood up. After quickly putting on a shirt he made his way towards the kitchen. The smell of something homemade reached his nose when he walked through the door of the living room.
He leaned against the wall that separated the kitchen from the living. He could see Marisol standing in the kitchen, the sounds of latin music coming through the speakers as he could hear Marisol humming along with it. He remembered the song from their wedding, they used it for their first dance and they had practiced hours on perfecting it.
He could see Marisol cooking, stirring some mixture in one of the bowls while keeping an eye on whatever was on the stove. The smile that already was on his face grew bigger as he stared at the things that were happening in front of him.
He knew that the moment he would make himself known, Marisol would stop doing what she was doing so he stayed silent, enjoying the things he was seeing. Not knowing that this was the last time he would see this.
After a couple of minutes, Marisol turned around. Her brown eyes widened as she looked at Jack leaning against the wall. She was holding the spatula in her hand, the mixture slowly dripping on the ground.
‘What- what are you doing?’’ she stumbled as Jack laughed. He pushed himself away from the wall as he walked over and placed his own hands on her shoulders. ‘’Watching you,’’ he whispered as a smile formed on Marisol’s face. ‘’Our kid was hungry,’’ Marisol said as Jack nodded, an amused expression forming on his face.
‘’And you were craving?’’ he said as he looked over Marisol’s shoulder to the bowls on the kitchen island. ‘’Apple pie?’’
‘’They are your moms recipe! You will love them and yes I was craving them!’’ Marisol laughed as she wrapped her arms around his broad chest. ‘’It’s not weird to eat pie for breakfast right?’’ Marisol whispered as Jack laughed, leaning in to kiss the top of his wife’s head. ‘’No baby, it is not. And we can always tell people that it was a brunch,’’ he smiled as Marisol nodded in agreement against his chest.
‘’Wanna help make the pie?’’ she asked after a few minutes. Jack nodded, smiling as he placed one last kiss on top of Marisol’s head before he let her go.
Together they finished making the pie, talking about stuff they wanted to do today.
‘’Since we are both off work today, can we finally go to the baby store? You can search for things you pinned on your board!’’ Jack said as Marisol looked at him before letting out a chuckle.
‘You mean the things I pinned on my pinterest board?’’
‘’Yeah! that exactly!’’
Jack smiled as he put the pie into the already preheated oven and closed it. ‘’We will have a delicious pie very soon,’’ he smiled as he walked back to Marisol and put his hands on her stomach, lowering himself until he was on eye level.
‘’Hey bug, I know you can hear me because the doctors told us,’’ he said as he couldn’t stop smiling. ‘’Me and your mom are finally going to the baby store today. Your mom made a Pinterest board for everything she wants in your room,’’ Jack said as he looked up, his eyes glistening as he couldn’t stop smiling. ‘’You look so incredibly cute right now you know that right?’’ Marisol smiled as Jack nodded.
‘’I know, and you look cute too,’’ he whispered.
After a while the oven finally dinged, indicating the pie was ready to take out.
Jack was standing with his back to the kitchen, holding two plates and utensils in his arms as he closed the small distance to the wooden table in the living room. ‘’You need help my love?”’ he asked as he placed the stuff on the table before looking over his shoulder and waiting for Marisol’s answer.
‘’No I am fine!’’ Marisol said as she walked into the kitchen, holding the pie in her hands.
The smell reached his nose as Jack closed his eyes for a moment. This is almost the exact smile he used to smell when he was a kid, and his mom was making her well known, famous apple pie.
They sat down and Jack started to cut pieces of the pie. ‘’Okay so since it was your idea to make it, you will get the first slice of apple pie,’’ Jack said as he plated the pie and gave it to Elena.
He watched her take her first bite, he watched her eyes close and her face change. He knew, after twelve years of marriage and sixteen years of loving Marisol with his whole heart, he knew that she was enjoying the pie as much as he was.
‘’Okay can we thank our baby for being hungry and forcing me to crave your mom’s apple pie? Because man this is amazing!” Marisol smiled as Jack laughed softly.
‘We totally can love,’’ he whispered. ‘’We totally can.’
–
Jack woke up slowly, his mind coming out of whatever haze it had been in for the last couple of hours. The beeping sound of monitors slowly reached his ears. Jack could feel the slight tension when he moved his arms. His mind flipped into an automatic pilot. Jack tried to move his toes, then his feet and last his legs. and repeated the same with his fingers and hands and arms.
Extremities are working.
Jack could hear the sounds of the monitors,he could smell the faint smell of antiseptic. He could see the outlines of the room he was in even if it was blurry.
Vision and hearing are working.
Slowly his mind connected the dots. Beeping sounds, faint smell of antiseptic, the pain in his body.
‘’What- what happened?’ he asked, his voice groggy.
‘’Good morning mister Abbot, I am glad to see you awake,’’ a voice said. Jack turned his head to the other side. He could see a young man, around his age, standing next to his bed. Jack watched him checking his vitals before jotting some things down in the chart he was holding. ‘’What happened?’’ he asked again as the other man turned to face him.
Robby?
Jack opened his mouth to talk but Robby took a chair and sat down, crossing his leg over the other.
‘’This isn’t how I imagined our reunion, Jack,’’ Robby said as Jack let out a scoff.
For some reason his brain was finally catching up with everything.
Marisol.
The baby.
‘’Can someone please tell me what the hell happened and where the hell my wife and my unborn child are!’’ he said, his voice raised slightly and laced with concern.
Robby breathed in, moving closer to Jack’s side as he started talking.
‘’Jack, you and Marisol were in an accident, you were struck by another driver and the car flipped. Both of you were injured, seriously,’’’ he said as he paused, giving Jack a chance to process.
‘’Okay, so a MVC is what happened,’’ Jack said as he looked at Robby. His mind didn’t care about his own injuries, not yet. Not until he knew that Marisol, his beautiful and loving Marisol and his baby were okay.
‘’What about Marisol and the baby?’’ he asked.
‘’Jack, I need you to listen, I need you to promise me that you will stay in bed because even if you think you are fine you are not,’’ Robby started.
‘’FUCKING TELL ME MICHEAL. I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARISOL AND MY BABY!”’ he yelled, his voice laced with annoyance this time.
‘’I am so sorry Jack, we couldn’t save Marisol, she died on the operating table. Her injuries were too severe,’’ Robby said as Jack stayed silent, his eyes staring into space as his voice cracked when he spoke again. ‘’And my baby?’’
Robby had never heard Jack's voice crack.
‘’You have a beautiful babygirl, we were able to get her out in time and she is fighting in the NICU,’’ Robby said as Jack nodded.
I have a daughter. Marisol would have loved it.
Jack didn’t look at Robby when he asked his next questions. ‘’And my injuries?’’
‘’Concussion, broken ribs, one of them punctured your lung, some bruises and cuts and a small spleen laceration but they fixed you up,’’ Robby said as Jack nodded again.
‘’You got lucky Jack,’’ Robby said softly.
Yeah lucky. I lost Marisol and my daughter is never able to meet her mom.
‘’Can you go please?”’ he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
‘’I need to process this.’’
‘’Yeah of course,’’
Jack watched him leave, closing the door behind him as the noise in the hallway became inaudible.
When he knew he was alone, his mind finally allowed him to break. Tears welling up in his eyes before streaming down his cheeks and falling onto the mattress.
The last words he said to Marisol was about how excited he was when he finally could build the crib.
Jack stared at the wall, his vision getting blurry with the tears. He didn’t care. All he wanted was to see Marisol again, to tell her that she was gonna be okay. He would never hear her laugh again.
-
It was a few hours later when Jack woke up again. He didn’t know when he had dozed off.
After blinking a couple of times he could see a figure standing in the room. He blinked again, trying to see more clearly.
‘’Robby?’’ he asked.
Robby looked up from the piece of paper in his hands. ‘’Hi Jack, how are you feeling?’’ he asked softly. Sitting down in the same chair as he sat in when he told the news.
‘’How is my daughter?’’ Jack asked as he tried to sit up but gave up when he felt his ribs and abdominal muscles protesting. ‘’Okay let’s not do that brother, you are still recovering from major surgery,’’ Robby said as he held out his hand.
‘’Micheal, how is my daughter,’’ Jack asked again as Robby nodded and breathed in. ‘’The last I heard is that she is still fighting, she is a fighter jack, just like you and Marisol,’’ Robby said as Jack nodded, trying to take some deep breaths.
‘’I wanna see my daughter, she has been out there for twenty four hours and she is there all alone,’’’ Jack said as Robby looked at him. ‘’She isn’t completely alone Jack, there are nurses and other fami-,’’ Robby said before Jack cut him off. ‘’Yeah but I am not there! I am not at her side and Marisol is in the fucking morgue! She needs at least one parent there with her,’’ Jack said as Robby nodded, reaching for his phone as he looked at Jack. ‘’You are right, let me find out if I can fix that so you can see her,’’ he said as a young woman popped her head into the room. ‘’Mister Abbot, there is someone here to see you, she said she is your sister in law?’’ the nurse said as Jack could hear the voice of a woman coming from the hallway.
Emery. They must have called Emery and she must have driven out while Jack was asleep.
‘’Send her in,’’ Jack said as the nurse left and not much later a woman with dark brown hair that was quickly put in a bun, walked in.
‘’I will try and figure out a way to let you see your babygirl,’’ Robby said as he stood up and walked out of the room, passing Emery on his way out. ‘’I am so sorry for your loss ma’am,’’ he whispered in passing. ‘’Don’t ma’am me!’’ Emery snapped as Jack looked at her, he didn’t speak, he knew he would only make it worse.
Emery walked over to the foot of the bed, dropping the backpack on the ground as she looked at Jack. ‘’I need you to not die. I need you to stay alive,’’ she whispered, her voice cracking as she spoke.
‘’I can’t lose my brother in law too,’’ she continued as Jack looked at her. He could see the stains on her cheeks from the tears, he could see her bloodshot and puffy eyes even though she tried to hide them with make-up.
‘’When did they call you?’’ Jack asked as Emery looked up. ‘’This morning. I was on my way to a surgery when I got the call. I came as soon as I could,’’ Emery whispered as Jack nodded. ‘’They must have told us around the same time then,’’ he whispered as he raised the head part of his bed a little.
‘’I tried to save her, I tried to save Marisol, but I couldn’t,’’ Jack whispered only loud enough for Emery to hear. She didn’t speak. She didn’t do anything. She just simply stood at the foot of Jack’s bed, her hands gripping the hard plastic until her knuckles turned white. ‘’I need you to promise me that you don’t die on me,’’ she said after a moment of silence.
‘’Jack!’
‘’Promise me I won’t get a call that you died somewhere.’’
Jack nodded slowly. He wanted to reach out and hold her like he used to do when she was dumped by her stupid boyfriend in high school.
‘’I promise Emmy, I promise that I will stay alive if I can do something about it. I have a daughter now who needs her dad,’’ he sighed as a smile formed on Emery’s face.
‘’Oh my- she was born?’’ Emery asked as she walked closer to Jack, sitting down on the chair Robby had been sitting in earlier. ‘’Yeah, they had to take her out when-,’’ Jack said as he stopped. He looked down, tears welling up in his eyes again as he stared at the blankets.
Both of them stayed silent, Emery carefully taking Jack’s hand in hers as she held it in her own.
It was a while later when Robby came back, smiling and pushing a wheelchair into the room. ‘’Guess who fixed it so that you can see your babygirl?’’ he smiled as Jack perked up, a hopeful smile forming at the corners of his mouth. ‘’Really?’’ he asked as Robby nodded. ‘’Yeah, just for a little while though since both of you are still recovering.’’ he said as Jack kept smiling looking at Emery. ‘’I will take pictures so you can see her too!’’ he smiled as Emery nodded, squeezing Jack’s hand before letting go. ‘’I should go to my hotel anyway, I will come back tomorrow okay?’’ she said as Jack looked at her, a sad expression still on his face. ‘’We will plan it together okay? I wanna help and I don’t want you to do it all alone,’’ he said as Emery nodded, wiping away a tear with the back of her hand. ‘’I expect pictures of my niece okay?’’ she said, her voice cracking slightly as Jack nodded before Robby helped him into the wheelchair.
‘’Okay let’s get you to see your babygirl,’’ Robby smiled as he started pushing Jack towards the nicu.
When they arrived in the NICU, a nurse pointed to one of the incubators standing in the far corner against the wall. Jack leaned forward, ignoring the pain in his abdomen, when Robby pushed him towards it, hoping to get a glimpse from the baby.
‘’Say hi to your beautiful baby girl Jack,’’ Robby said as he put the brakes on the wheelchair and stepped away.
Jack looked at the tiny human laying in the incubator. Her body was filled with wires and tubes and she looked so incredibly small.
He placed his hand against the glass as he couldn’t stop smiling. ‘’Hi sweetheart, I am here, your dad is here and we are both gonna be okay,’’ he whispered as he looked over his shoulder at Robby. ‘’Can you leave me alone for a bit? I promise I won’t do anything stupid,’’ Jack said as Robby nodded. ‘’Yes of course, I will come back when your time is over, okay?’’ Robby said as Jack nodded and focused back on the tiny baby in the incubator.
Jack looked at his daughter. He closed his eyes as he imagined holding her in his arms. Ever since they found out Marisol was pregnant he hoped that she was pregnant with a girl he dreamed about the day that he could hold his daughter and have princess tea parties when she was a little bit older.
You would have loved her so much Mari, I really needed you here because I don’t know how I am gonna do this all on my own.
Can you please help me when I need you? We were supposed to do this with the two of us and not just me alone.
He didn’t know for how long he had stared at the little human in the incubator, his hand was still pressed against the glass when he heard a voice from behind. He cursed underneath his breath as he thought it was Robby before he realised it was a female voice.
He took his hand off the glass and turned his wheelchair so he was facing the woman. ‘’Hi,’’ he said as he could see the young woman’s tired facial expression.
He figured that it must have been another mom whose baby was staying in the NICU. ‘’I am Baran, my daughter is in the NICU just like yours,’’ the woman said as Jack nodded, shooting Baran a soft smile as he looked at his own daughter.
‘’I am so sorry for your loss, having a baby in the NICU is hard but-,Baran didn’t finish the sentence, she didn’t have to. Jack knew what she was gonna say.
‘’This is the first time I have seen her and I can’t even hold her,’’ Jack said as Baran nodded. ‘’She is strong, I watched her come in and her vitals are being stable,’’ Baran said as Jack looked up.
At first he thought Baran was just a normal mother but now he started to think she could be a health care professional.
As if Baran could read his mind she started talking again, ‘’I am a med student, I have been wanting to become a doctor for quite some time now.’’
‘’I am Jack by the way, I finished my ED residency a couple of weeks ago so if you need any help or just want someone to talk too,’’ Jack said as Baran nodded. ‘’Does your little fighter have a name already?’’ she asked as Jack looked over his shoulder again, smiling when he looked at his daughter. ‘’Florencia Marisol Abbot,’’ Jack said as a small smile formed on his face. ‘’It was the favorite name my wife had on our name list.’’