Destiny

He turned to see Arthur standing in front of him. The grief and fear was apparent on his face, but it seemed odd. It seemed… masked somehow, like bright colors through a translucent sheet. It was clear to Jourdan that Destiny’s father was a very brave man, and that there was nothing in the world that could make him panic.

“It’s going to be alright, son,” said Arthur. “Look, the doctors are doing everything they can. They have everything they could possibly need in their. She is in good hands, the best hands in fact. She is going to be alright, and she is going to make it. No matter what happens, she is going to make it.”

“How do you know that for certain?” asked Jourdan. “What if something else happens? What if there are complications? What if… what if something happens to my child?”

“You have done absolutely everything you could possibly do,” said Arthur. “You have taken care of her in a way that no one else would have been able to, and you have made sure that she came here to the hospital before anything serious happened. This is incredible, you did more for her than anyone could have thought. Listen, you did everything you could. That is something amazing given the severity of this situation. Now that all of this has happened, you need to relax because she might need you later on. She does not need you right now, but she just might need you later on, and if that time comes you will have to be ready for her, you will have to be strong. So sit down, son, and try to preserve your strength.”

Jourdan sighed. Arthur was right. He sat down and buried his face in his hands. “No matter what I do… all that happened will mean nothing if she does not come out of this completely whole,” said Jourdan.

“That is not your fault,” said Arthur. He was rubbing Jourdan’s back. Jourdan looked up at the man’s face and saw the same stifled stress and fear.

He hugged Arthur and said, “I just realized that that is your daughter in there, not just the mother of my child.”

“That is true,” said Arthur, “And I am quite scared of what could happen right now.”

Jourdan looked at Arthur and said, “It’s going to be okay.”

Arthur laughed and said, “It’s okay, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that in front of you is a guy who has not had a very good life. My wife died, and now my daughter might die too. If both of them die… I am not going to lie, it’s going to destroy me. I will not see the point in living on. But if she lives, then it will all have been worth it. The loss of my wife, taking care of my little girl on my own, all of these things will have been worth it in the long run because I will have gotten her to this point, and I will be able to see my own grandchild.”

Jourdan and Arthur sat next to each other, not saying anything but silently comforting one another all the same. There seemed to be an understanding between them. This was a truly difficult situation that the two of them were in, and in order to get past this situation they were going to have to work together. In order to get past this situation, they were going to have to be there for each other.

Jourdan saw Chantal up in a corner. He got up and walked to her, tapping her on the shoulder. She turned around and Jourdan saw that tears were streaming down her face. She smiled and wiped the tears away, “Look at me,” said Chantal, “crying in a corner while the mother of your child is in there. I… I’m sorry. I should be comforting you.”

“Hey,” said Jourdan, “I just got comforted by a guy whose daughter is in their. We all love her immensely, and we know that she is going to be here with us soon. She is your best friend, she is someone you love. Just because you don’t have a direct relation to her does not mean that your stress in this situation is any less than ours.”

“I just don’t know what to do,” said Chantal. “I want to help out but how? How can I make anything better? No, I just know how to come in and claim to be the smartest person in the room when in reality I do nothing. Nothing!”

“You have no idea how much you’ve helped us!” said Jourdan, desperate to calm Chantal down. “You have comforted us, both of us, at times when we thought that there was no comfort to be found. And this is what I am saying, you can imagine what your best friend would say to you if she saw you right now, claiming that you do not do anything to help out. You do everything and more, you have helped us with absolutely everything.”

At that moment, the doctors came out of the surgery with grim faces. Everyone rushed to see what the doctors had to say.

“What happened?” asked Arthur before anyone was able to get a word in. “What happened in there?’

“It’s all going to be okay,” said the doctor. “But the baby is crowning and it might not survive if we do not do something right now. Let’s put it this way… the baby is desperate to get out of there. We need to operate and get it out so that it remains, and then we are going to be able to see what is really going on.”

“What are the chances?” asked Jourdan grimly.

“Look,” said the doctor, “we can’t say anything until we operate. But we need your consent in order to do this. We need to know that you will not take legal action against us if anything happens, because this is a very risky surgery.

“Fine,” said Jourdan, “do it. Just make sure she is alright, because even if I do not take any legal action you can be damn sure that I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that you suffer.”

The doctors went back inside, wary of what might happen if they failed.

Jourdan sat on the chairs after pacing for a few minutes. He noticed all of the people walking by, and then realized that he was tired. He knew nothing after that, because he simply put his head back and slept.

Jourdan woke up to the sound of commotion. He saw that the doctors were outside and they were wringing their hands excitedly. Jourdan ran up to them and asked what happened. The doctors responded that the operation had been successful. Both the mother and the baby were healthy, and completely alright.

Jourdan felt dizzy for a second. He did not know what he was going to do now that everything was okay. It was a confusing feeling. It was almost like he was clueless about how he would rationalize his existence now that everything was over. But this feeling only lasted a minute or so, before fading away just like everything else that had been inside his mind just moments ago.