Free From the Heart (A Valentine's Day Anthology) by M.B Feeney, et al L.J. Harris

going nowhere without you.”
    “What’s your name?” The firefighter said as he climbed into the car next to Ella.
    “Ella,” she replied as the tears trickled down her face. “I think I am in labour, but it’s too soon for the baby to come. I am only twenty seven weeks.”
    “Okay, Ella,” he said in a reassuring tone of voice. “Try not to worry, we will get you out of here and get you to the hospital.”
    Ella just nodded before she looked past the firefighter, to where Logan was standing, watching everything that was going on. He held his breath the whole time he was waiting for the rescue services to free her from the car.
    Once she was out, they wasted no time getting them both to the emergency room, but by the time they arrived, it was too late. Ella was in full labour and the baby was arriving thirteen weeks early.
    Logan held Ella’s hand as she gave birth to their baby, and despite the complete terror he was feeling, he thought she never looked more beautiful.
    “Just one more push,” the doctor urged an exhausted Ella.
    “I can’t,” she cried as she flopped back onto the bed.
    “Come on, Ella,” Logan said as he brushed her hair back from her face. “Just once more, then it will be over.”
    “One more,” she nodded, before she pushed with everything she had.
    “That’s it,” the doctor said. “You did it, Ella, your daughter is here.”
    “You did it, baby,” Logan cried as he kissed Ella. “You did it, we have a little girl.”
    “Is she okay,” Ella asked as she slowly lifted her head. “I don’t hear her crying.
    Logan looked down at the doctor waiting for him to reply, but he said nothing. Instead he took the baby to a warmer on the far side of the room.
    “Logan, what’s happening?” Ella asked, and he could hear the terror in her voice. “Why isn’t she crying?”
    “Doctor?” Logan asked, holding Ella’s hand tightly.
    “Logan, Ella,” the doctor said walking towards them. “I am afraid the baby isn’t breathing on her own. We need to take her to the NICU.”
    Before either of them could answer, the doctor left the room with the baby.
    “We didn’t even get to see her,” Ella said looking like she wanted to cry.
    “You will,” the midwife reassured her. “Once we have you all fixed up here.”
    Ella never said another word until the midwife led them to the NICU an hour later. Logan watched her, wondering what was going through her head. She had this quiet calm about her, that told him she was expecting bad news, and deep inside he knew he was expecting it too.
    When they walked into the NICU, nothing could have prepared them for what they would find.
    They were led to an incubator where the tiniest baby they ever saw was connected to what seemed like a million tubes and wires.
    “This is your daughter,” the midwife told them.
    “She is so beautiful,” Logan said as he reached for Ella hand. “She is perfect.”
    “She is so small,” Ella whispered. “Too small.”
    “Ella, Logan,” the doctor that delivered the baby said, as he appeared behind them suddenly. He was accompanied by another doctor who introduced as Alice Willis, a neonatal specialist.
    “Is she going to be okay?” Ella asked, as she looked from the doctors to her baby.
    “Ella,” Doctor Willis said as she stepped forward. “Your baby was born very early, she has a lot of problems.”
    “But she is be okay,” Ella repeated, looking up at the doctor.
    “She has necrotizing enterocolitis,” the doctor replied.
    “What is that?” Logan asked, knowing it wasn’t good.
    “It’s quite common in babies that are born so early,” the doctor explained. “It’s where portions of the bowel undergo necrosis, eh…tissue death.”
    “Her bowel is dying?” Ella asked.
    “But there is something you can do?” Logan said as he tried to comprehend what that doctor had just said.
    “Yes, we can operate,” the doctor said in a calm, sympathetic voice. “But a scans show that she