Grace

21

A few weeks later, it the day of the long awaited surgery.

Grace and Alex were at the hospital by 6 in the morning, checking in and preparing for the operation.

"You ready?" Alex asked as they sat in the hospital room.

"Not really. I'm so nervous," Grace sighed, laying in the hospital bed as she waited for them to come and take her back.

"It's gonna be fine. I'll be right here waiting for you," he promised, "And our baby is gonna be perfect,"

She nodded, "Do we want to know what it is?"

"I'm gonna leave that up to you, because I'm fine either way,"

She just nodded and took a breath as the nurse came in to double check everything and do one final ultrasound before they would take her back to the operating room.

"Alright, do you guys know the gender?" The tech asked, looking at the picture before looking back at the couple.

"I don't. Do you?" Grace asked, looking over at Alex.

"I don't. It'll be a nice surprise,"

"Alright. Well than everything looks good and we're gonna go ahead and go," the nurse smiled.

"Alright," she nodded, sitting up and turning to Alex, "I'll see you later,"

"I'll be right here waiting," he nodded, pulling her into a hug, "I love you,"

"I love you too," she sighed, holding on slightly tighter before she let go and kissed him.

After that, it was time to head to the OR and do what she needed to do for their baby.

——————

The surgery lasted for about 4 hours, and luckily nurses were updating Alex as much as they could. A few of the other drivers had come by and hung out, waiting with him until he was told that Grace was in recovery.

The doctor came out and pulled him aside to tell him everything, "Everything went great. Baby looks perfect, heart rate was right where we wanted it. Grace is also doing great. She woke up a few minutes ago and she asked her nurse to get you so i said I'd just do both, follow me,"

They both quietly walked in and Grace gave him a little smile.

"How you feeling?"

"Sleepy but I wanted to see you," she mumbled.

"Okay. Well now you have, so go back to sleep," he chuckled, "I love you,"

"I love you too," she smiled a little again and fell asleep easily.

She was moved to a room a little bit later, sleeping for a good few hours.

Moving was the worst, and shot pain through her every time but she was always a side sleeper so being on her back was the most frustrating part of the whole ordeal.

Alex was doing everything to make her as comfortable as he could but nothing was really working.

The only thing that worked was getting some medication, which helped her relax enough to fall asleep for a few hours.

A lot of the drivers in the field knew that Sonoma was Grace's last race as well as the Hendrick drivers since Alex was there a few days a week. Most of them texted him, just to see how she was and a few called. Grace was always pretty transparent about their life online so fans even knew what was going on. He went back and forth on tweeting something out, knowing that Grace eventually would so he just focused on answering texts and calls about how she was doing.

William Byron was the first one to call him from Hendrick, and since Grace was sound asleep, he figured it was safe to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Figured we'd check in. How you guys doing? The 3 of us are here," William said, setting his phone on speaker so him, Chase and Kyle could all hear.

"We're okay. She's sleeping now. Doctor said everything went well and now it's just resting and waiting,"

"When is she gonna be able to go home?" Kyle asked.

"She's not. They're gonna keep her in the hospital until the baby's born to monitor her and baby,"

"Dang. I liked her. She was always super sweet when we wrecked out," William said, getting a agreeing nod from the other 2.

"You guys haven't ever crossed her that's why," he chuckled, "Suarez did one time and I'm pretty sure he hopes that he never wrecks out so he doesn't have to see her anymore,"

"Suarez also tried to take out my husband," Grace mumbled, smiling a little at Alex.

"Well she never lost her smart remarks," Chase chuckled.

"Guys are on the phone. Wanna say hi?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, watching Alex put the phone on speaker. "Grace is up. Wanted to say hi,"

"Hey guys," she mumbled, continuing to lay in the bed and thank her lucky stars that it was not a FaceTime.

"How you doing?" Chase asked, all of them looking at the phone as they waited for her.

"I'm alright. Not moving much but I'm good," she sighed, "Alex has been the real trooper,"

"Hahaha,"

"I'm sure he has. As long as you get back to us whenever. We still don't know whose replacing you yet,"

"Leave it to them to wait last minute. I told my boss everything the second I found out I was pregnant. And then when I found out about the baby and needing the surgery, so they can't say they didn't know," She shrugged.

"We should probably let you get some rest, I'm sure there's things we need to be doing around here," Kyle said as they all said their goodbyes and eventually hung up the phone.

"Get some more rest okay?"

"Do I really have much of a choice?" She asked, chuckling slightly but quickly regretting that.

"Not really," he chuckled also, kissing her before tucking her in, "Goodnight,"

"Goodnight,"