Baby May

Relief

A week after the incident, Olivia is discharged from the hospital. Alyssia is glad, however, Toby still hasn't woken which means she is looking after Olivia and Ivy without him.

She has help from everyone and by that, she means everyone, Victoria, Zoe and Paige, her parents and siblings, Toby's mum, sister and grandma, Roger, Ben and John and Veronica but it's not the same as having Toby at home.

Looking after both her daughters isn't a problem, she's finding it easier this time than when Ivy was born. Probably because she knows more about what she's doing, but also because Ivy is a very doting big sister and likes to help her mum when she can.

Exactly a week after the incident, Alyssia is giving Olivia her morning bottle while Ivy is feeding herself under Victoria's watchful eye when Alyssia's phone rings.

Victoria answers the phone for Alyssia, "Alyssia's phone?"

"Oh hey, Vicky, it's Ben can you put Alyssia on?" He sounds excited. She hands Alyssia the phone and takes Olivia to burp her.

"Ben?"

"Lissy, I'm at the hospital visiting Toby, he's awake," Heart pounding out of her chest, she can hear Ben's grin.

"Are you serious?" She's dreamt of this call all week.

"I wouldn't joke, get here as soon as you can, he's asking for you. Oh, and ring Sarah," He hangs up and Alyssia squeals.

"Can you watch the girls for me?" Alyssia asks her best friend, "Toby is awake and asking for me."

"Oh my gosh, of course," It's just as much a relief for Victoria as it is for Alyssia, she's felt nothing but guilty since it happened, feeling like she should have noticed what Matt was doing sooner, "Do you want me to give you a lift in?"

"No, thank you though," She'd drive herself if it wasn't for her leg, "I'm going to ring mum to take me." Anita picks her up and they pick up Sarah and Jenna on the way.

Alyssia flies into Toby's hospital room not caring about her leg at all, "Toby," She tears up. Toby smiles weakly holding a hand out to her.

She takes the invite and hugs him tightly, he winces slightly, "Sorry," She mutters loosening her grip.

"It's okay," Toby rasps, "I'm sorry I scared you all."

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," Sarah tells him with a hug, Jenna and Anita hug him before sitting around to bed, Ben with them too.

"What happened to your leg?" He points to Alyssia's leg as she sits on the bed beside him, "And the baby?" She doesn't look pregnant anymore.

"Matt also shot me in the leg, there's no permanent damage, but I'm on crutches for around four to six weeks. The shot also caused my body to go into labour, we have another baby girl, Olivia Sarah."

Toby's blood boils about Matt shooting his wife, but he doesn't comment more concerned about his new daughter, "So early," He frowns.

"At 33 weeks on the 1st of May at 2.01am. She's doing so well, she's small, but beautiful and a fighter. She was discharged yesterday, a week after being born."

"I missed a week and her birth," His disappointment grows, he was so excited to be at the birth of his second child.

"It wasn't your fault," She feels his pain having missed the first 24 hours of her daughter's life because she was stuck in surgery.

"I'd like to see both of them."

"I'll ring Vicky and ask her to bring them in," She leaves the room and an hour later Victoria arrives with both girls in tow and Anita, Sarah and Jenna have gone home.

Alyssia guides Ivy into the room while Victoria keeps hold of Olivia for the moment, "Gently," She instructs helping Ivy climb onto the bed.

"Daddy?" Ivy mutters being careful where to place her hands, "I missed you."

Toby uses his stronger arm to pull Ivy into a hug, "I missed you too." After a good amount of time in the hug, Ivy gets down and sits with Ben.

Alyssia takes Olivia from Victoria and lies her in Toby's arms, he adjusts her so he can see her face. Her eyes are blue like Ivy's but her hair is dark brown curls compared to Ivy's light brown curls, "I'm sorry I missed your arrival little one, I'll try not to miss any other big milestones."

If Matt wasn't already dead, Toby would kill him. He missed the birth of their second child, Matt shot him and his wife and could have killed both his children, he's thankful that Nelson got there when he did and the police shot on site.

"She's beautiful," Ben compliments when he went over to the house at the beginning of the week to see how Alyssia was getting on, Olivia was just being put to bed so he only saw her briefly.

"Well, I'm glad your both here because I wanted to ask you two to be her godparents," She and Toby agreed on that ages ago.

"Sure," Victoria agrees.

"Absolutely, can't be godparents to you and not your sister," Ben tickles Ivy's sides.

------

After Toby woke up, he was in the hospital for another two weeks before being discharged. By that point, Alyssia is no longer on crutches and Victoria has finally moved into her apartment and Sarah and Jenna went back to Australia.

Toby's recovery process will take a while, he can't go back to work for at least 6 weeks until his chest is fully healed and he passes a medical assessment to make sure he's fit to serve, but he's getting stronger by the day and he's glad for the time off to spend with his girls.

The first night he got home, the house felt safer and calmer. Ivy slept straight through without a bad dream, until that point she'd been having them almost nightly and Alyssia felt happier knowing her husband is alive and next to her.

During the night, Alyssia rolled over to snuggle into Toby and his side of the bed is empty. Sliding out of bed she heads to the nursery, neither Olivia nor Toby are there, but she can hear Toby's voice.

She stops at Ivy's bedroom door which is open enough for her to see Toby lying on Ivy's bed, Olivia in one arm and Ivy is cuddled into his other side.

Smiling, Alyssia coughs lightly getting Toby's attention, "What's going on in here?" She whispers.

"I got up to go the bathroom and heard movement on the landing. It was Ivy going to the bathroom too, she asked me to read her a story to help her get back to sleep," That's not quite true, he missed Ivy's cuddles and used the excuse of reading her a story when he found her on the landing.

"And Olivia just climbed out of her cot and joined you too huh?"

"No," He chuckles, sliding his arm out from under Ivy and taking Olivia back to the nursery, "I was reading when Liv started crying, just needed a change. I figured I'd read them both a story to get them to sleep."

"Hmm... The doctor said sleep helps you heal quicker, so back to bed you," She smirks a thought popped into her mind, "Or they'll be no physical activity once the doctor deems you fit enough."

"Well if that's the case," He jumps back into bed, "Sign me up for bed rest."

Laughing lightly, Alyssia lies beside him and goes quiet, "What are you thinking?" He looks over to see she's not asleep.

"I'm thinking about what happened," Since it happened she hasn't had a moment to stop and fully think about it, "When he shot you and you dropped to the floor, I thought for sure you were dead."

He's refrained from telling her, but when he was shot, he didn't black out entirely. He could hear Alyssia screaming to get to him, it breaks his heart when he thinks back on it, "I'm okay," He assures her playing with her hair, "We're all okay, I promise I'm not going anywhere. I love you."

Sadly, she doesn't feel entirely reassured. A feeling in her gut tells her this isn't over, but she decides she's being paranoid and goes to sleep, "I love you too."