Chapter 20

A few days before the next leg of the tour, going to Europe, Richie still wasn't sure if he was going. Sure Daniel was feeling better but he was anxious to leave him. Daniel's stay at the hospital had been an eye opening realization, anything could happen to his little boy.

Time was pressing and he knew he had to make a choice.

Leaving his fans again wasn't something he really wanted to do either, they wanted to see him perform but instead of feeling excitement before a tour, he simply didn't feel it. Right now, family seemed more important to him.

He needed to make his mind up, he also couldn't leave the band hanging just like that. If he was going to stay home, he had to let them know sooner rather than later.

"Richie?"

He looked up when he heard Sarah calling from their bedroom. They had just put Daniel in bed for his morning nap and were gonna spend some time together. She probably had thought of what they could do.

Getting up from his desk chair in his casual office, he already thought of putting on a movie and cuddling on the bed with his beautiful wife.

His office was accross the stairs landing, two doors away from their bedroom. In under a minute, he was standing in their bedroom but Sarah wasn't.

"Honey?" He asked, unsure if she was in the bathroom or the dressing room.
"Bathroom." She answered.

After gently knocking on the door to be sure, he carefully opened it and peeked in.

"Alright?" He asked, seeing Sarah sitting on the toilet.
"No."
Closing the door behind him, he quickly walked over to her. "What's wrong?"
"I'm bleeding, I need pads, underwear."
"Bleeding?" He asked confused.

She couldn't be bleeding. Sarah was pregnant again, they were going to see a doctor to be sure. She couldn't be bleeding.

"Richie?" Sarah asked. "Pads?"
He shook his head, "Right," and turned to reach for a pad to hand to Sarah.
"Thanks. Can you get underwear and pants for me too?"
"Yeah."

Dazed, he turned and walked to the dressing room to get clean clothes. It couldn't be.

He watched Sarah change in the bathroom but it didn't register in his mind.

"Rich? Are you alright?" Sarah asked once she had finished changing and noticed her husband standing there looking pale and absent.
He looked up and blinked a few times, feeling tears slip away. "Yeah."
Sarah walked over to him to take his hand. "Let's go lay down before Daniel wants lunch."

She pulled at his hand to make him walk out of the bathroom and to their bed.

Once they were laying down on the bed, Sarah moved close to him and put his arm over her body as he hadn't moved.

"Richie?" She asked again. "It was early on, we couldn't be sure of it yet."
"Yeah." He agreed.
Not feeling conviced, Sarah added. "It happened before Daniel too. We just try again next week."
Hopeful, he looked up at her.
"We weren't going to give up that quickly, were we?" She asked, looking into his worried, hurt eyes.
"We try again." He confirmed.

Sarah was right, they wanted another baby and weren't going to give up to quickly after they hadn't even really started trying yet. After Sarah's period, they'd just try again until they succeed.

"I'm sorry." Sarah said, looking at her husband and seeing him more hurt than she was feeling.

Knowing it had taken a few tries to be sure Daniel was sure, she hadn't put too much hope in it yet. She'd told herself to not get attached for another few months when it would be confirmed and sure that she was pregnant. She still felt the loss right now but felt strong enough to try again. It wasn't meant to be right now.

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault." Richie told her firmly, he didn't want her to blame herself for it either. "Next week we try again." He agreed with her. "I need to make sure you finally have your girl after all."
Happy that he was not giving up, Sarah snuggled into him again. "We've got time."
"Yeah. I'll be here to keep trying."
"You're touring." Sarah pointed out.
Richie shook his head gently. "No, I'm staying home."
Surprised Sarah looked up at him. "Why?"
He shrugged. "The last month and a half, I've spend so much time with everyone, it's been so nice and I don't want to lose that. I want to teach Ava and Noah to drive. I want to see Caleb graduate and go out to college. I want to see Daniel, crawl, stand, walk and talk. I'm not gonna be there for all that if I'm on tour. Most of all, I want to be here with you and keep trying for our baby girl." He explained. "I'm staying home."

Chapter 19

"Where's my beautiful wife?" Richie asked as he walked back into the house the next morning after driving everyone to school.
"Kitchen." Sarah answered him.

Richie put away his stuff and walked to the kitchen, finding Daniel sitting in his high chair and Sarah sitting next to him at the table.

"Still having breakfast?" He asked confused.
Sarah looked up at him. "No, I got the mail."
"Is that good or bad?"

As he asked to the question, he walked to the fridge to get himself a drink. The mornings were getting hotter, summer was approaching.

"I'm not sure. There's a letter here for Caleb, from a university."
"That could be good." Richie said, pulling out a chair next to her.
"Or not."
"Why not?" Richie asked.
"It's from the University of Lethbridge."
Richie frowned. "Lethbridge? Where's that?"
"It's where my cousin lives, remember the ranch last summer?"
"In Canada? Why did he apply there?"
Sarah shrugged, looking at the unopened envelop. "I don't want him to go that far."
Richie looked at the envelop. "You didn't open it?"
"I can't open his letters."
"Maybe he didn't get in?" Richie tried.
"Maybe." Sarah shrugged, putting the letter down and getting up from her chair.

She picked up Daniel and waited for Richie to follow her to the living room where she sat Daniel on the floor and gave him his blocks again. The boy loved building.

"What are we doing today?" Sarah asked, sitting down again.
"Be together?" Richie suggested as he sat down next to his wife and pulled her close to hug. He gently placed his hand on her belly. "How's that going?"
"Still late." Sarah sighed.
"That's good."
"You better have made a girl this time."
Richie chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, I know, a girl. I didn't know we were trying, otherwise I really could have tried my best for that."
"Yeah, right, how?" Sarah chuckled.
"My super sperm can do anything."
"Super sperm?" She chuckled again.
Richie pulled her closer. "We got Daniel and with our age that was supposed to be hard."
"Took 6 months." Sarah pointed out to remind him that it hadn't been successful from the first try either.
"Yeah but it worked out perfect and now you might be pregnant again so, Super Sperm."
Sarah reached up to kiss him. "Whatever you say dear."

Chapter 18

After dropping everyone off at school, Richie returned back to his hopefully pregnant wife. He had made a quick stop to pick up some donuts for a morning snack and had driven home straight away.

Now that Daniel was out of the hospital, his mother had gone home to her house. Construction had finished and she had been very excited to go home. They would go visit her very soon.

When he walked back into the house, putting away his car keys and shoes, he noticed how quiet it was. Perhaps Sarah had taken Daniel upstairs after he had left.

He walked into the kitchen to get a drink to go with the donuts when he heard sounds coming from the living room.

Closing the fridge again, he turned around and went to check out the sound.

Unlike he had expected, Daniel was sitting in his playpen building a house out of his soft blocks.

He also noticed Sarah laying on her belly on the couch, a pillow over her head.

"Sarah?" He asked confused. "What's wrong?"
"Shhhh." She urged him to be quiet.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, he walked over to her and sqautted down next to the couch. Gently, he laid his hand on her back and started stroking.

"What's wrong?" He repeated.
"My head's killing me."
"Headache?"
"Everything hurts, every sound, all the lights. It hurts." She complained.
"I'll get you something."

On his way back to the kitchen, he quickly checked on Daniel but he seemed perfectly fine with the house he had built.

Once in the kitchen, he found different kinds of painkillers. Knowing Sarah couldn't take them while pregnant, he quickly started reading the instructions to them. Which weren't helpful at all because they all suggested a doctor's opinion. He wanted his wife to feel better now, not in an hour after he got off the phone. Besides, they didn't know if Sarah really was pregnant.

Picking up the instructions, he looked for one that was specifically for head aches and migraines.

Finally he found an appropriate painkiller to help his wife. He already felt bad it had taken him so long to find them.

He took a small bottle of water from the fridge, a cold pack and the donuts too and brought it all back to the living room.

"Can you sit for a second?" He whispered.

A few seconds later, Sarah managed to sit up and take the pill that was handed to her. She drank most of the water and wanted to lay down again but she was grateful for Richie closing the curtains as she drank.

He returned a second later and sat down where Sarah had been laying her head under the pillow.

"I was laying there." She said, not appreciating he had taken her spot.

Richie placed the pillow in his lap and patted it.

"Lay down," He said, reaching for the coffee table, "eat something first."
"I can't eat, it hurts to just sit up. I just want to lay down again."

Putting down the donut, he picked up the cold pack.

"Lay down." He instructed again as he patted the pillow.

This time Sarah listened and moved to lay down with her head on his lap.

Once Sarah was settled, she weakly smiled up at him before closing her eyes.

Her eyes opened in surprise when she felt the cold on her forehead but closed them again as it felt good.

"Since when do you get migraine attacks?" Richie asked, still whispering.
"I don't know. Hormones?"
"Maybe." He agreed.

A few minutes later he felt somewhat relieved to notice Sarah had fallen asleep.

He felt bad for her and hoped a nap would help her to feel better. He never liked seeing his wife in pain, especially this badly. Profusely he hoped that this wasn't going hand in hand with pregnancy. Nine months of pain like that would be too much to bear, he knew that without having felt it.

If it wasn't a sign of hormones and pregnancy, there were a number of causes. His mind immediately thought of the worst cases.

Those simply couldn't be true, Sarah was healthy, there was no reason to think that one migraine could have such drastic causes. It was a one time thing.

Trying to forget that train of thought, he looked at Daniel in his playpen who was rebuilding his block house. Seeing Daniel sit there as he laid the black perfectly on top of each other, made him feel very proud.

A week out of the hospital and he had made such progress. What did doctors know anyway?

Chapter 17

"He's doing it! He's doing it!" Richie said excited, scaring away the cat that was sleeping on the couch and waking up the dog.

Sarah rushed into the room, only a short distance from the dining room where she had been studying.

"What?" She asked, worried about what was going on.
"Daniel's sitting." Richie looked up at her with the proudest smile.

Sarah smiled back and walked around the couch to see Daniel sitting on his own on the couch. He was looking up at her, a little excitement and confusement in his eyes. Immediately she became as proud as Richie was.

A week after being discharged from the hospital and a lot of practice, their little boy finally got a hang of sitting on his own.

"Well done." Sarah reached for her son and picked him up to cuddle as she sat down where he had been sitting.

Richie got up from the floor and joined his wife on the couch, seeing how happy Daniel looked right now.

"How's studying going?"
"Good. I think I might finish this course earlier than expected." Sarah said confidently.
"That's great. Keep up the good work, I know you can do this."
She smiled up at her husband and reached in to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

As she pulled back, she looked down at Daniel in her lap. Her little boy was growing up. If he could sit, crawling wouldn't be far away, she didn't need to have studied for that.

"I have to tell you something." She looked up at Richie, worried that he might not be happy about it after all.
"What?" He asked.
Sarah hesitated for a few seconds but then decided to just say it and have it over with, it wasn't anything bad after all. "I haven't had my period since before we went to Hawaii."
"You're late?" Richie asked to be sure he had heard it right.
"About a month now."
Richie nodded, thinking it over. "So you might be pregnant?"
"I guess." Sarah shrugged. "It's very early, so maybe I am just late. Stress can cause that and Daniel in the hospital was definitely stressful."
Richie nodded again, he knew that was true so maybe he shouldn't get his hopes up just yet. "But if you are pregnant, that's great."
Sarah smiled at him. "I'm glad your happy."
"Of course I'm happy. Daniel needs a brother or sister."
"Yeah." Sarah moved over to lean into her husband's side. "I was worried you wouldn't be happy about it."
He frowned, how could she think that? They both wanted to try for more children as long as they could. "Why?"
"Because Daniel is only 6 months old, the world tour and all that."
"I'm very happy." Richie clarified, "but like you said, it's very early."

Later that day, Richie recorded a short video of Daniel sitting. He had to inform everyone of the fact that his son was finally able to sit all on his own. Besides, his mother had gone home and Grandma Joan also needed to know that her youngest grandchild could sit.

Only a few minutes after he had sent the video, David was the first to answer.

Do I need to get him a "congratulations on learning to sit" present?

Richie laughed at that and immediately told him that Daniel would need presents for each mile stone he achieved.

He was proud of his son and wanted everyone to feel exactly the same. Daniel had had a very rough month and for him to end a month like that with such a big achievement made him a very happy father.

Chapter 16

Sarah walked into the living room to find her mother and mother in law having coffee together.

Joan looked up at who walked in, and asked right away, "Is Richie staying with Daniel today?"
"No, I'm not." Richie piped up from behind Sarah, carefully moving past her, carrying Daniel in his arms.

Both Joan and Abbey's faces lighted up with happiness.

Richie sat down on the couch, Sarah followed his motions and sat down next to him.

"Discharged this morning." Richie said happily. "Still on meds but well enough to finally go home."

Both grandmothers huddled around their grandchild immediately, making sure he really was okay now.

"He looks so much better." Joan said, watching Daniel look at them all.

Sarah and Richie smiled, it almost felt like the first time they brought him home. Then too, everyone had rushed over to make sure Daniel was alright and comfortable.

Now, he laid on Richie's chest. One of his favorite places to be, he was very happy to be so close to his daddy again. Richie felt the same way, even though Daniel couldn't say it, he just knew Daniel like this too. So close together, he could protect Daniel whenever he needed it and this was very comfortable for the both of them.

Sarah watched her husband, she could see how happy her husband was to have his son back. She felt the same but in a while she'd make sure she could hold her baby son for a while too.

At the hospital it had been difficult to cuddle him so close with the IV and all the coughing spells, now they felt like they did a few weeks ago, a new family again.

It was only morning so Daniel had a few more hours to spend with his parents before his siblings got home and the excitement would start all over again.

Sarah moved close to her husband, resting her head on his shoulder, looking down at her precious son. So very glad he had pulled through.

As she realized that, another thought crossed her mind. Daniel was healthy again, Richie had stayed home from touring to stay with his sick son but now that Daniel was healed, would he leave on tour again?

He had only been gone for a month but giving up your husband for a month and only see him a few times during that month, isn't as easy as people would think. Sarah needed her husband, she knew that wasn't a selfish thought, every married person needed their spouse and so did she.

She never wanted to let him go, home was where he needed to be, with his wife and children but his job took him places. Just like many other jobs would but that didn't change the fact that she would miss him. Not only Sarah would miss him, there were four children that would miss their father just as much.

Gently, she turned her head to look up at her husband's handsome face. For the first time in weeks, she could see the stress and worry had finally faded from his features.

Finally, she decided to just ask him. The easiest way to find out instead of worrying about what his decision would be during the next week until he had made up his mind on his own.

"Will you be going back on tour now?" She asked carefully, not entirely sure if she even wanted an answer to it just yet.
Richie turned and smiled down at her. "I don't know." He confessed.

He had a difficult choice ahead of him. Leave his son alone again or go back on tour. He knew he wasn't leaving Daniel alone exactly but if he went back on tour, he'd have to leave Daniel behind. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that just yet. Having seen his little boy so sick, he didn't ever want to leave him alone again. Who knew what could happen to him.

Of course he'd be just fine with Sarah but it was still different than actually staying home wit him. A choice that right now was too hard for him.

Instead, he looked down at that precious boy they had created and watched how he dozed off to sleep. Here, with Sarah and Daniel so close to him, he was perfectly happy.

Chapter 15

A week later, Daniel was finally going through his last check up. Today would be decided if he could go home the next day or not. It had been 24 days since he had been admitted to the hospital and to his parents and family that had finally been enough.

If it was needed, they'd have to let him stay longer but hopefully they could take him home again. Three weeks had been long enough. It had been very stressful for the entire family and it was time to release that stress and have Daniel home again.

Dr. Smillie entered the room along with nurse Jenny. Hopefully it would be one of the last time they'd meet.

Richie and Sarah were waiting eagerly with Daniel. They both knew the progress Daniel had made, he still coughed but didn't stop breathing or vomited anymore. It seemed like a normal cough that would go away in another week or two.

"How's little Daniel today?" The doctor asked as they entered the room. By Daniel's bed, he picked up the chart and started reading it.
"Much better." Richie answered right away.
Dr. Smillie nodded. "Looks like it," he looked up at them, "everything seems alright. We just want to do the same tests as we did three weeks ago to compare and see how his lungs are doing right now."
"Another blood test and x-rays?" Sarah asked, already dreading a blood test.
"Yes, we'll have the test results by tomorrow morning and then we'll know if he can go home."
Richie looked at his. "You'll be ready to go home go buddy, we're more than ready to have you home again."

Sarah reached over and rubbed her husband's back, knowing his words were very true. The house had become very quiet without Daniel there.

Sarah picked up her little boy and held him in her arms, letting the doctor get ready to do the blood test as nurse Jenny went to schedule him for an x-ray.

As they had expected, Daniel cried when the needle pierced his skin to get to a vain but Sarah held him tight and close, comforting him as best as she could.

"That's all." Dr. Smillie said. "Now we'll have the results in the morning but I have a pretty good feeling he can go home in the morning."
"Great." Sarah and Richie both agreed.

Sarah held her son a little closer to comfort him as Richie got up and followed the doctor out of the room. He Just needed to ask a few questions about Daniel. Mostly about the fact that Daniel had to go through a hearing test, which made no sense at all.

Gladly, Sarah looked down at her son. So very happy that he was finally getting better enough to go home again. More than three weeks at the hospital was definitely enough, they all needed the comfort of home again, to be their own little family instead of part of a hospital.

She was sure that Daniel would recover at home too.

Richie's conversation with the doctor didn't last very long but he wasn't any happier with the doctors explanation at all. He didn't agree with the fact that Daniel wasn't responding to his name.

Instead, he knew from what Sarah had told him from her textbooks that every child had it's own speed of developing. Some were faster than others but that didn't mean there was anything wrong with Daniel at all. There was enough time for Daniel to develop on his own time, the weeks in the hospital couldn't have been beneficial for him at all.

At his age he should be learning to crawl but at the moment he was only learning to sit. Richie was very confident that Daniel would catch up as soon as he had recovered from whooping cough, it had had a big impact on him, Sarah thought so too, he knew that.

He didn't want to hear from any doctor that anything was wrong with his boy. Daniel was a perfect 7 month old little boy.

Chapter 14

Having been sent home by Richie to study in peace, Sarah did as he had asked and found a quiet place at the dining table. David had stayed at the hospital with Richie and even though it was Sarah's turn to stay with her son, she also gladly took the time to study a little more. She had until February to write her exam but she had finished the first part of the course quite quickly and was eager to receive her diploma in childhood development. Already she was thinking about expanding on the subject.

Back at the hospital, David and Richie were discussing the past month. How different it had been for the both of them.

"I'm telling you man, even with Daniel in the hospital for three, I've never spend this much time with my other kids."
"Kid." David corrected him.
"Kids, the other three."
David nodded, understanding him now. "You mean Sarah's children."
"They're my kids too. I adopted them, they're now officially Noah Sambora and Caleb Sambora."
"Really?" David asked amazed, he didn't know it worked like that.
Richie smiled, proud of his two oldest sons. "Yeah, my sons." He confirmed. "I never knew how obsessed Noah is with books, it's really cool actually. Any book you name, he's probably read it and he remembers them all. I didn't know til a month ago."
Frowning, David answered, "How don't you know he likes books, wouldn't he have a ton of books?"
Richie shook his head. "No, he buys them at this used bookstore and returns them there too, so they can - as he says - live a second life."
That made David laugh out loud.

The noise made Daniel wake up, startled, he started crying.

In return, Richie got up immediately and rushed over to the yellow painted crib to pick his son up. Settling Daniel in his arm, he picked up his Winnie the Pooh bear and walked back to the couch where he passed the stuffed bear to David.

"He loves that thing." Richie told him as he sat down on the couch, laying Daniel down next to him.
"He's supposed to. He loves his uncle Davey." David answered, leaning over to see Daniel, still holding the bear.

Daniel looked up, reaching for the bear.

"Can I hold him?" David asked, leaning back to sit again.
"Yeah sure, just be careful with the splint, it's his catheter." He picked up his son again and carefully moved him into David's arm.

To Richie's surprise, Daniel stayed quiet and didn't cry at all. He frowned.

"What's wrong?" David asked confused.
Richie shook his head in thought. "Nothing, I was just thinking. When Jon visited and wanted to hold him, all he did was cry. Same with my mom when she first came to live with us. So we ended up just holding him ourselves but he's not crying, that's great."
David looked up at him, a serious expression on his face. "Honestly, if Jon was this close to you, you'd start crying too."
Richie chuckled, "Maybe."

Steering their conversation back to where they were before Daniel had woken up, David brought up his own thoughts on being home instead of touring.

"I'm missing Tiger's play tomorrow night, she finally got the lead for it and now I'm gonna miss it." David sighed, looking down at Daniel in his arms, remembering when his own children had been that small.
Richie sighed too, knowing the feeling but there wasn't much to be done about it. "She'll get the lead again." He tried.
"I know she will, she's amazing but it won't be the first time again. That's what I'm missing."
Richie couldn't agree more. "We miss a lot. We need a break."
David frowned. "Are you gonna be back in May?"

Richie looked at Daniel, who was comfortable in David's arms, right now he seemed fine but he wasn't being discharged from the hospital just yet. Next week perhaps, they didn't know.

"Are you?" David urged.
Richie shrugged. "I don't know."