Part 4
As the door closed behind them, the strong, confidant façade crumbled and Sarah began to cry once more. Kevin took her in his arms and held her close, her face buried in his chest and her tears soaking through his shirt. He stroked her hair tenderly as he held her whispering tender reassurances.
As Sarah began to calm down some, Kevin said, "You were great out there. Howie would be proud of you."
Wiping the tears, Sarah looked up at him and said, "He’s the one who taught me how to handle them. I need to call his parents now…and make arrangements for them to get here."
"Sarah, we can do all that for you," offered Becca.
Sarah shook her head, "No, I need to do it. Besides, other than Howie, I’m the only other one who can arrange for the foundation’s jet. Kevin, can I borrow your cell?"
Kevin handed it to her and she went to sit on the couch beside AJ. He put his arm around her as she dialed his number. As she waited for an answer, she put her head on his shoulder and he played with her hair.
On the other end, Mr. Dorough answered the phone and Sarah started, "Dad…I…I don’t know how else to tell you this but…Howie collapsed tonight on stage." Sarah went on to explain what had happened and what was going on with the doctor. She also told him that the foundation jet would be waiting to bring them to New York and a car waiting for them to bring them to the hospital.
After hanging up, Kevin made the arrangements for the car with Billy and Sarah called for the jet. Then she handed the phone to Kevin and nestled next to AJ for the long wait for Howie to come out of surgery.
AJ held her as the others watched. They had seen Sarah scared before but this was different. In the past, she’d always had Howie to lean on but now…now it was her ‘strength’ that was in trouble and she seemed lost. Of course, the only ones she let see this were the ones in that room at that moment. The press, the fans, Howie’s parents, and the children would never see this side of her either as long as she could help it.
The hours passed slowly and one by one, each one fell asleep. The last two hanging on were AJ and Sarah.
AJ whispered, "You asleep, ‘Tigger’?"
"No."
"How are you?"
"Scared to death. Alex, why did this happen? Why now that everything is going so smoothly?"
"I don’t know, Sarah, but you can’t give up."
"I’m not."
"Wanna take a walk?"
"Yeah…I’m kinda hungry."
The two got up and headed out in search of something to eat. Marcus and Tommy followed the two even though it was extremely quiet in the halls. The two found snack and drink machines and AJ dug into his pockets for change.
With their snacks and drinks, the two went to an empty waiting room to sit and talk.
"Sarah, I know I don’t need to tell you this but you need to take care of yourself."
Taking a sip of her drink, Sarah leaned back against AJ and said, "I know. I promise to be good. I don’t need to hear ‘D’ yelling at me."
"No, you don’t. Sarah, I need to tell you something and I don’t want you to get mad."
"You know more than you or Howie are telling me…that Howie had high blood pressure."
AJ was amazed, "How did you know?"
Sarah laughed softly. "Howie can’t keep anything from me. I’ve known
about the high blood pressure for a while now."
"There’s more to it though. Howie knew about the aneurysm…for a couple months now."
"How?"
"Right after the headaches started, he decided to get it checked out. Remember the day I just kinda hung around with you and the kids all day?"
"Yeah, you said you missed Ali."
"Yeah, I did but it was just a cover. Howie wanted me to keep an eye on you while he went to the doctor."
"Why didn’t he just tell me?"
"He didn’t want to upset you. This pregnancy has been so much easier on you that he was afraid that if he told you, it would cause problems. He promised to tell you as soon as the tour was over because it was tearing him up keeping it from you. You aren’t mad at him, are you?"
Sarah smiled softly, "How can I be mad at him for trying to protect me? Who else knows?"
"Just me. Kevin would have insisted on telling you."
"True," said Sarah as she gasped.
"What’s wrong?"
Sarah put her hand on her stomach. "This little sucker just gave me a karate kick."
AJ put his hand on her stomach to feel the next kick and laughed,
"Pretty active little runt."
"Yeah…if I didn’t know better, I’d swear he was doing Howie’s little salsa number in there."
"Promise me you’ll try to get some sleep when we get back."
"Only on one condition."
"Name it."
"You hold me and get some sleep too."
"Oh yeah, baby," growled AJ sexily. "I’d be GLAD to hold you."
Sarah laughed, "You’re bad, ‘Bone’!"
Hugging her tight, AJ answered, "But you love me."
"Yeah, I do."
That nap Sarah had promised was never to happen. When they returned to the waiting room, Mr. And Mrs. Dorough along with the others were waiting on them. Sarah moved to her in-laws quickly giving them each a hug and they settled down to wait and talk.
