CHAPTER 481: MIRACULOUS TOUCH

T-Vino Island....

A normal-looking, aged man pushed an unremarkable door open in a small hut off the coast.

One would be surprised given the inside of this hut. The outside gave off the feeling that it was inhabited, but the inside was another story, and given the way the man did not react, he looked to be very familiar with the place.

It had state-of-the-art medical equipment in a seemingly small hut. The man himself could have passed for an ordinary man bored with life walking on the side of a road, but the fact that he pulled out a stethoscope as soon as he entered the room attested to his profession.

"How’s my favourite patient doing today?" He asked as soon as he closed the door behind him. He walked straight to the bed, and the woman lying on it and stared at his routine checks.

He kept his eye on the young man seated by the bed,

"She’s okay," the doctor said quietly as if trying to reassure the younger man, and also almost as if afraid to disturb the stillness in the room. "Her body’s stable. We have to wait for her to wake up."

"But it’s been four months," Rocky whispered, barely able to form the words. His eyes fixed on her face, searching for the slightest twitch, a flutter of eyelids .... anything. "Four months of nothing."

The doctor didn’t answer right away. What could he say? He continued the checks, sighing. They had done everything. All that was left now was time... and faith. Though they were not in the hospital, this place had everything they needed.

There were three of them assigned to this place to look after this couple. Though they had wondered why a comatose patient was transferred out of the hospital suddenly, they understood the power of the Thornstons and had worked with them accordingly.

For the duration of time, they had nothing else to do but to take care of this patient. He doubled as a trauma surgeon. There was an obstetrician and gynaecologist as well as one specialized in paediatrics. The team of nurses consisted of about five nurses with different specialities, but the patient’s fiancé did everything he could for her, unless he could not. But Ava had 24/7 care and did not lack for anything.

"You’re a doctor in training," the older man finally said, placing a steady hand on Rocky’s shoulder. "You know that medicine... has limits. Sometimes, it gives all it can, and then..." His voice softened. "Then it’s love and hope that hold the rest. That touch of miracle is all we have to cling on and hope that it touches her. I know that the heavens have seen your sincerity. Do not worry.... It won’t be long."

Rocky didn’t respond. He just nodded faintly, his gaze never leaving Ava’s.

Riding on the fact that Currey had told him not to worry about anything on the outside, he had blocked all news to concentrate on only his studies and Ava. Even for this, he only attended classes online, while the doctors caring for Ava helped him with his practical lessons. It had only been four months, but he had made even more progress than his colleagues at school, who were following a curriculum. That was all Rocky did to while away time.

Rocky had memorized everything .... the sound of Ava’s breath through the machine, the exact shade her lips turned when the light hit them just right. He spoke to her every day. Told her about the world outside, even though it felt wrong to live in it without her. He told her jokes, read her books that she loved, told her about his studies, and whispered her name like a fetish.

But every passing day chipped a little more away from him. Every sunrise made the silence heavier.

He had started to fear that maybe .... maybe she had already left in some quiet, invisible way... and he was just the only one too in love to let go.

Still, he stayed because he truly loved her and deeply so.

And what else could he do when the person he loved was asleep somewhere between this world and the next?

Rocky could only wait, even if it broke him. He was slowly becoming a shell of himself, but he could not show it. He had to be brave for her and their unborn.

The doctor did a few other checks and then left. This was his time with Ava. he steady hum of machines had become his daily hymn. They beeped and breathed for her. They echoed his silence.

The once lively Ava lay there, still, unmoving, her skin almost translucent under the soft lighting, her stomach just beginning to swell beneath the hospital sheets. More than four months in. Rocky had counted every day. Every heartbeat. He even knew her average heartbeat per minute as well as that of their unborn.

He reached for Ava’s hand. It felt warm, like life still pulsed inside her. And it did .... But not just hers anymore.

"Doc says everything’s stable," Rocky whispered, brushing a stray lock of hair from her forehead. Her hair had grown out, fanning her cheeks. It was longer than Ava kept it, but Rocky let it grow.

"He says your vitals are holding. Says the baby’s okay. But stable isn’t enough, is it, dear?" His voice cracked. "Stable isn’t you looking at me. Remember your promise? You agreed to marry me, so why are you not waking up? It isn’t you laughing when I mess up your pancake batter."

Rocky laughed bitterly, remembering a time when their breakfast had turned into a passionate lovemaking session.

"She’s growing in there."

He reached out and rubbed her tummy fondly.

"Did you know that? Our baby. Yours and mine. I swear I saw her wave at me in that ultrasound yesterday. Or maybe I imagined it .... Heavens! I don’t even know what’s real anymore."

Rocky remembered when they had told him gently, trying to sound clinical but kind: "At four months, the baby’s organs are forming well. From what we see, she’s viable and healthy. Your wife’s body is keeping her safe. That’s... something."

He knew all of these! He had studied so much because of Ava, but to him, that something wasn’t comfort.

Her functions were stable, but she was deteriorating. Rocky knew Ava enough to see this. He didn’t want to lose her. Rocky just did not know what to do anymore. He was helpless in every way. He could not even allow himself to think of anything else but them both; Ava and the unborn.

What did Rocky think of this? Because he could see what the doctor didn’t: the dark rings beneath his eyes, his world shrank down to this one room. The unspoken fear that both of them ... his wife and unborn child ... could slip away at any moment, and all he’d be left with was the emptiness they left behind.

He kissed the back of her hand, then pressed it gently to her belly.

"Sometimes... I think she kicks when I talk. Maybe she hears me. Maybe you do too. Maybe you don’t and maybe she doesn’t... but I like to think so! Come back to me, Ava. I miss you so much. I miss your voice, your warmth, your loving embrace. I just want you! Please!"

Rocky smiled, just barely, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

"I just wish - " his throat tightened. "I wish you could see her face. I wish I could stop being scared that I’ll have to meet our daughter alone."

He leaned back into the chair, exhausted in every way a man could be. Still, he kept talking ... because silence meant surrender.

"You’re her home, you know that? You’re both mine. Please... come back to us. Our daughter is depending on you, my sweet."

The machines kept humming. And somewhere beneath that stillness, two heartbeats ... one soft and fluttering, the other steady and familiar ... beat on.

The room had become part of him now. He knew every rhythm, every beep, every flicker of light. Rocky had learned to live in the spaces between hope and despair, like clockwork. But nothing could prepare him for that sound. He sensed it before it actually registered on the monitor. Her breathing rhythm, though supported by machines, changed. It was subtle, but he detected it instantly.

The long, drawn-out beep.

The flat, high-pitched wail that split the silence like a scream.

Rocky’s head snapped up.

"No—no, no, no," he stammered, already halfway up and around the bed. "What’s happening?!"

The monitor.

Her heart rate. It was dropping. Too fast. From steady blips to a chaotic, terrifying plunge toward silence.

He gripped her hand, trembling.

"Stay with me, Ava. Please - stay with me! Don’t you dare leave me alone!"

The door burst open immediately. Nurses rushed in. The same doctor called orders as another reached the fetal monitor. They had strict instructions..... This patient and the baby had to survive at any cost!

"Vitals crashing ... code blue!"

"Get the crash cart!"

"Clear her airway - prep the paddles!"

Rocky stumbled back, nearly tripping over the chair as one nurse gently ushered him aside. He watched, helpless, breath caught in his throat, as they hovered over her.

His wife. The mother of his unborn child.

"Come on," one whispered. "Come on, girl, stay with us..."

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