Tears stung my eyes. The harder I tried to keep them buried, the pain in my chest worsened.
The door to the room opened and a nurse came in, one that I'd seen a few times before. I think her name was Kim. She was actually my favorite out of all the nurses. I wondered if she would tell me to go back to my room. I wasn't supposed to be in here this late, but I just couldn't stay away any longer.
"Hi, Reed. How's our patient doing?" she asked.
I wiped my eyes in case any tears had escaped as she walked over to the other side of the bed and added a bag of clear liquid, then adjusted the IV in Emily's hand.
"She's…" I hesitated, fighting back the lump rising in my throat. "I'm not sure. I just want her to open her eyes." My thumb moved over Emily's hand as I stared at her peaceful face.
"I know," she said, bringing a cart up to the side of the bed. "She's going to open her eyes. We just need to give her body some time to heal first. The doctor isn't going to like you being in here, you know. You need your rest, too." She gave me a pointed look and then her face softened.
I leaned in closer and wrapped both of my hands around hers. "When she opens her eyes, I want to be the first thing she sees."
"Okay, I think I can keep quiet, but I need to check on her and it would be helpful if you back up for just a minute while I check on your baby."
Your baby.
My baby.
Our baby.
The word baby still sounded foreign to me. It had been three days since the doctors told me Emily was pregnant, but I still hadn't gotten over the shock of the word yet.
I pushed my chair back, just enough for the nurse to do her job. My eyes followed the nurse's every movement and then they moved over to the monitor and I watched the screen come alive. I sat there and watched in both amazement and shock. This was all still sinking in. I wasn’t even sure Emily knew herself. The doctors said she was about six weeks pregnant and as far as they could tell, the baby was fine.
"Everything seems to be going great." The nurse smiled over at me.
The tightness in my chest eased a bit, yet I still couldn't shake the possibility that I could lose her, lose the baby. I was scared to death of being without her for another second.
My cell phone buzzed in the chair next to me. I leaned over to grab it, expecting it to be Lexi. She had been calling non-stop. She was in the hospital when I woke up and never left my side. I sent her home last night to get some rest.
When I glanced at my screen, I saw the call wasn't from Lexi. It was Robbins.
"I'll watch over her if you need to take that," the nurse said, glancing over at me.
I gave her a small nod and stood up. "Thank you." I leaned over and kissed Emily's forehead. "I'll be just a minute," I promised her.
My ribs ached and it hurt to stand, so I leaned against the wall on the other side of the hall.
"Robbins, talk to me. Tell me you found the son of a bitch." I winced. It hurt to breathe, let alone talk.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have much information. He hasn't returned to his residence in Las Vegas and we don't have any leads on where he's staying here in New York, if he's even still here."
The fucking coward. How can he just disappear? How can he not own up to what he did?
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, feeling the need to punch something to release the anger growing inside of me. I wanted him to pay for hurting Emily. I wanted him to pay for hurting our baby. I also wanted to keep him from ever hurting her again. This time, I wouldn't fail her. This time, I would keep my promise.
"I don't care what you have to do, Robbins, find him." I ended the call, took a deep breath and then headed back into the room. I didn't want to be away from her any longer than I had to be.
As I was making my way back across the hall, I heard Lexi's voice at the nurses’ station. She was trying to talk them into letting her come back and visit even though it was still thirty minutes until visiting hours started. Is it really almost eight in the morning? I didn't think I slept more than a few minutes during the night. I didn't want to miss it if Emily woke up.
Leaning against the wall, I peeked my head around the corner and saw Lexi standing there. The nurse turned in my direction and Lexi followed her gaze.
"Reed," she practically yelled. "What are you doing out of bed?" She looked like our mother as she stomped toward me. I knew I was about to get a lecture. "You should be resting. Do your doctors know you're down here?"
I sighed. "I couldn't be away from her. I came down here to check on her in the middle of the night and couldn't make myself leave."
Her face fell. "How is she doing?" she asked, wrapping her arm around me, helping support my left side, the one I didn't even realize I was holding.
Before turning around, I glanced toward the nurses’ station, and she gave us a wave of approval. The last thing I wanted was to be rude to the nurses. They were the ones that allowed me to come down here. I didn't want that to stop.
"Her condition hasn't changed." I took in a deep breath as we turned to make our way back down the hall toward her room. "She still hasn't opened her eyes."
"I'm so sorry, Reed. How's the baby? Have they said anything?"
"The nurse just checked her out. As far as she can tell, everything is fine."
EMILY
VOICES. BEEPING. Constant beeping. My eyes fluttered opened for just a second and then closed.
Forcing them open again, I looked at my surroundings, not recognizing anything I saw. As hard as I tried to keep them open, they fell closed again. Where am I?
The voices. The voices were getting louder. I knew those voices. How do I know those voices? My mind felt cloudy, confused. My body felt weak and sore. My eyes were tired and heavy. So heavy. I couldn't find the strength to open my eyes again.
"Okay, Emily. Everything looks good with you and your baby." A woman's sweet voice filled my ears.
Baby. Did she just say baby? Is she talking to me? She couldn't be talking to me. I don't have a baby. What is happening? Who is this woman? Where am I? There were so many questions that I wanted to ask. I wanted to demand answers, but I couldn't open my mouth to speak.
Open your eyes. Open your eyes. I repeated those three words over and over in my head a few times, hoping I would find the strength to open them, but they wouldn't budge.
More voices filled my ears, but they sounded more distant.
"I'm glad she's doing okay, but I'm a little concerned for you. You don't look so well."
That voice. I knew that voice. Lexi.
"I'm not leaving her. I want to be here when she wakes up. She has to know I'm here."
I knew that voice, too. Reed. He was okay. Reed was okay.
"She knows, Reed. She has to know."
"When the nurse is done checking on her and the baby, you should go see her. I think the more people she knows are here, the better."
Wait… did he just say, baby?
"I still can't believe she's pregnant. Why didn't she tell me?" Lexi asked.
What the hell is going on? Why are they talking about a baby and being pregnant? Am I hallucinating? Is this even real? Maybe I’m dreaming.
"There's a chance she had no idea. The doctors think she's about six weeks along," Reed answered.
Oh God. I have to be dreaming. There's just no way. I can’t be pregnant.
Open your eyes, Emily. Open your damn eyes so you can get some answers!
"This is just crazy. She's lying in a hospital bed right now and the asshole that did this to her is still out there." Lexi sounded mad. I didn’t think I'd ever heard her so angry before.