My wife was a fighter, and I'd be d.a.m.ned if I let her go without a fight.

"You realize that if you die, I'll have to find a replacement woman to take care of our kids. She'll be sleeping in your newly remodeled house and cooking in your state of the art kitchen, right?" I said with as much of a straight of a face as I could.

I didn't really feel like that. G.o.d forbid if something were to happen to her, because I'd be f.u.c.king lost.

She'd become such a big part of my life that I didn't think I could survive without her, without great cost to myself.

She'd also become an integral part of my son's life. And the lives of the Dixie Wardens.

She was a good wife for me. One that a vice president of a motorcycle club, like me, needed. Every day she had off, she spent at the clubhouse, or taking care of something for one of my brothers.

h.e.l.l, just last week I walked in on her sewing a patch for my father.

And that was huge. Bikers didn't let just anyone touch their colors.

"You're such a s.h.i.t head. Let's go." She said, rolling out of bed, as she tended to do lately.

I got up as well and took a quick shower, while Baylee dressed.

Once I was done, I grabbed Baylee's bag and headed out into the living room to find her hugging her dad.

Her parents had flown in last night for the birth.

They'd also keep an eye on Johnny during the birthing process.

"We'll meet you up there in a couple hours, sweetie. I love you, you'll do fine.'

We left shortly after that, and arrived at the reception desk in the maternity wing at five in the morning on the dot.

"Can I help you?" The nurse asked sweetly sending me nervous looks.

Baylee looked down at her protruding belly and then up at the woman and glowered. "I'm here to have a baby."

I snorted, but otherwise stayed quiet as the woman checked Baylee in and then a.s.signed her a room.

"You'll be in 3214 at the end of the hall. You're lucky; it's a birthing suite and the furthest away from all the others."

I wasn't really seeing why being further away from the nurses was a good thing. It wasn't like we were going to be doing anything private in there. She was having a baby. We'd be staring at her v.a.g.i.n.a all day long.

But who was I to argue?

"You can come right on in through that door right there, and I'll have a nurse take you to your room." She smiled sweetly at us.

The next twenty minutes was spent changing and starting an IV on Baylee, drawing blood, discussing our birth plan that consisted of drugs and more drugs on top of drugs, and speaking with the nurses about Baylee's condition.

"Alright, this bag is Pitocin. I'm going to go ahead and check you, check your cervix and dilation, and then you're all set. The rest is on you." She said.

A few minutes after she left the room Baylee finally asked, "Does this gown make my b.o.o.bs look big?"

"Very."

Seventeen hours later Baylee "If you eat that hamburger in front of me, I'm going to throw this book at your face." I hissed at my brother and husband.

They both looked at each other and shrugged before getting up and leaving the room.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.ds." I snarled.

I'd been in this hospital for eighteen hours now, and hadn't progressed past a five.

I hadn't eaten in well over 24, and those big b.a.s.t.a.r.ds thought it'd be okay to eat in front of me? What the h.e.l.l was that?

"I just cannot believe that man brought food."

I said to my mother.

My mother looked over, with a mouth full of something, and shrugged.

"What are you eating?" I yelled.

Sebastian poked his head in from the hallway with a burger in his hand, and I accidentally let 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' slip from my fingers. Towards his head.

He slammed the door close in time to prevent a concussion, but I was frustrated.

I was tired. Hungry. And I wanted a hug.

I'd received my epidural when I hit five centimeters, and hadn't progressed past that point since.

The doctor was supposed to come in any minute to break me bag of water in hopes to speed up the process.

"Hey, mom. Can you get me more ice chips?" I pleaded, batting my eyes for good measure.

She smiled, snuck the package of cookies she was eating from her purse into her shirtsleeve, and walked out carrying the pink jug that was my friend.

Planting my hands in the bed, I tried to get into a better position when I knocked the belt that was looped around my belly, causing the machine to start going crazy.

The one measuring the baby's heartbeat had been moving and sliding off my belly all night. It didn't like me at all.

I got frustrated, trying to get the thing to pick up the baby's heartbeat when a nurse came in wearing a resigned smile. "It came off again? I wish we weren't so busy or I'd go steal another room's monitors!"

It was clear, after another two minutes of moving the finicky piece of equipment, that something was wrong.

"What, what's wrong?" I asked frantically.

The nurse shook her head, pulled the entire gown from my arms, leaving me naked and held the monitor over my own heart.

The steady beating of my own heart was read by the machine, and then the nurse yanked the red cord above my head, making the room's alarm start shrieking.

"What's wrong?" I screamed again.

Sebastian came inside with a half-finished hamburger and dropped it on the floor on the way to the bed.

"What's wrong?" He asked desperately.

"I d-don't know!" I cried.

The nurse spoke some kind of nurse-speak to the other nurses who poured into the room, and then I was being wheeled out, leaving a frantic looking Sebastian in the dust.

I was moved into an operating room.

The room itself was large, and freezing.

I hadn't been in an operating room before. At least not conscious.

A baby station, similar to the one in the delivery room, was set up in the very corner.

The bed that they moved me onto felt hard and unforgiving, and I started to lose control.

"I need him. I need him. Please let me have him. I need him!" I was screaming; by the end of my tirade a nurse bent over me.

She looked familiar, but at the moment, I didn't really care if I knew her or not. "Calm down, honey. I'll go get him. They're just going to get you set up for an emergency C-section, and then they'll get him. I promise. It's okay, calm down."

"What's going on? Please tell me." I pleaded.

The woman smiled sadly at me. "Your baby doesn't have a heartbeat. Something's wrong, and they're trying to get him out as fast as they can."

"I need my husband." I whispered desperately.

Sebastian "Why can't I go in there?" I pleaded.

"Mr. Mackenzie. They're just getting her prepped. As soon as it's ready to start, they'll call you in. Please." The haggard nurse scolded me.

I didn't care who I had to p.i.s.s off. I was getting in there. She wouldn't go through that alone. I'd promised.

"The doctor knows about her bleeding disorder?" I asked again, clarifying.

"Yes, sir. You've told me, and I relayed the message. The doctor on call is aware of her problem. They won't forget. Her doctor's on her way, but it's not likely she'll make it in time. Now please, have a seat right there, and I'll come back for you."

My wild eyes went to my father's, the calmness in them somehow settled me, made my rational brain come back online momentarily, and I nodded.

"Okay." I nodded, heading for the chair she'd indicated at the end of the hallway.

The nurse came back a few moments later, handing me a pair of scrub pants, a shirt, and some booties that were never going to fit over my ma.s.sive boots, but I'd try.

The shirt was snug, and the pants were well over five inches too short, but I was wearing them.

When I exited the bathroom she'd pointed me to moments earlier, she was waiting there with an indulging smile on her face. "You ready?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to answer, and followed her cautiously into the room.

My wife was on a table with a sheet that cut the top quarter of her body off from the bottom three quarters.

Her arms were restrained straight out, and she had an oxygen mask over her face.

When I entered, she was staring at the door, as if she was counting down the seconds until I came inside, and I was glad that I kept pushing the nurse to let me come in, regardless of the fact that it was an emergency.

I didn't move, stopping just inside the door as I waited for the nurse to instruct me on where to go.

"Just go sit to her side right there, where the little blue stool is. Please don't move from that spot. No matter what." She instructed.

Baylee's eyes followed me as I maneuvered my big body around equipment, until I came to a stop at the side of her head.

Bending down, I kissed her wet cheek and let my hand fall to her head that was covered by a hair net.

"This look is s.e.xy on you." I teased, plucking the hair net with his fingers.

"They're letting me keep it." She rasped.

"Alright, starting time is 2203 hours. Scalpel." The male standing over my wife's body said.

His authoritative voice soothed something savage inside of me, and I calmed for the first time in twenty minutes, as I waited for my baby to be brought into the world.

I studied Baylee's terrified face as her body moved and jostled with the work they were doing behind the suspended sheet.

At one point, a spray of...something, hit the screen and I cringed, hoping that it wasn't blood that I'd heard, but knew in my heart that it was.

"Alright, careful now. I need suction. More. More suction. All right, baby's out. I need more suction." The doctor's voice echoed.

I waited long moments for my child to cry, but the cries never came.

Then, as if in a dream, Baylee's eyes started to flutter.

"Baylee?" I asked urgently.

"I'll love you for the rest of my life." She whispered weakly.

The operation room exploded in activity.

The nurse that'd directed me to sit came to my side and yanked me up, urging me frantically to move out of the way.

"Sir, I think it's best if you leave. Can you please back away? They'll need the room." The nurse was repeating to me over and over again.

But rational me wasn't there anymore. Only reacting me. Emotional me.

And I saw my wife dying on the table.