Life Support (The Breathe Series Book 2) (32 page)

A loud, staticky sound comes from what seems to be a call button on the side of my very techy bed. “How can I help you?”

“My girl woke up, Nurse,” Owen says softly.

“Excellent! We’ll be in shortly!” the nurse replies excitedly.

Owen, still standing, looks my body up and down as if to inspect me. When he’s satisfied, he bends over and kisses me chastely on the mouth. As he plants soft kisses from my mouth, up my cheek, to my forehead, he says, “You sure took your sweet time coming back to me.”

He brings his lips back to mine. Pushing my hair out of my eyes, he kisses me again, still chastely, but they linger.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” I say back, my voice scratchy and hoarse.

“How do you feel?” he asks as he sits himself back down next to me. He takes the hand closest to him and lightly holds it, tracing my fingers with his.

I grimace. “Everything hurts,” I say, trying to talk softly because my throat hurts so bad. “Owen, what happened?”

“You had an accident, baby. A very bad car accident.” His eyes become moist as he says this, and he runs his hand through my hair, stroking my head. It feels so good, my aching head relishing the touch.

A woman in very lively, purple scrubs with Hello Kitty faces on the top comes running into my room. “Well, hello there! Glad to have you back with us, Miss Burke!”

I scowl at her, her voice piercingly loud. “How long was I out?” Why does everyone seem so surprised that I’m awake?

“You’ve been out for a few days now, love. Three to be exact.” She comes over to the side of the bed and Owen moves out of the way. She checks my IV sites and vital sign stats being taken by the machines I’m hooked up to.

“Everything here looks good, Olivia.”

Next, she checks the fluid levels in IV bags hanging pole and looks to make sure my lines aren’t tangled.

“This looks great too. The two of you are healing nicely.”

I squint at her.
Two of us?
As she adjusts my pillow and sits me up just a bit, she tells me that she’s not surprised that I’m in a lot of pain and she’s going to get me some pain meds. She says that they’re being very careful with what they’re giving me so I don’t have to worry. What is she talking about?

Suddenly, I get a wave of a memory. The pregnancy test. The
many
pregnancy tests. All positive.
Baby. Pregnant. Oh God. The baby. Owen.

The nurse cheerily walks out of the room, off to get my medications. I am left with Owen, who doesn’t know about the baby.

I look over at him. “Baby,” I squeak out, my voice raw and unforgiving. “The doctor. I need to talk to him. It’s...important. I need to ask him something.”

Owen walks back to his place by the bed and takes my hand again. “Do you need to ask him about the baby, Olivia?”

My eyes grow wide with surprise, shock, and then terror.

“I know about the baby.
Our
baby. Your doctor said everything looks fine. We have nothing to worry about. He said you were very lucky. You had some spotting, which they reassured me was normal in the first weeks of pregnancy.” He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles.

I close my eyes and cry. A cathartic cry that I imagine my psyche has needed for three days now—forget the tortured weeks before. This is obviously not how I wanted him to find out. Nor did I even have myself formally checked by a doctor. So this is a bit of a shock to me too—that it’s now confirmed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Owen. I wasn’t keeping it from you. I just... I was terrified to tell you. I know this wasn’t expected. It wasn’t for me either. I don’t know how you really feel about kids. We never talked about it. I was so scared.” I’m rambling and crying harder, weeks of torment flooding out of me all at once.

Owen is smiling down at me, still brushing my hair from my face, just...listening. I can’t tell what’s going through his mind at all.

We stare at each other for a beat before, as if on cue, the nurse walks in. “I have meds!” she exclaims gleefully

Too cheerfully,
I think. My throbbing head agrees.

“So the meds are okay…for the baby?” I ask her, nervously. I know that most medications can’t be used during pregnancy.

She nods her head, smiling as she injects a syringe of pain medication into my IV port and double checks the IV site.

“I know this is a lot to take in all at once, Olivia. You’ve lost a few days too, so it’s that much more confusing. Do you have any questions for me?” she asks.

I think for a second.
Do I have questions?
I have a lot of them actually.

“What injuries did I have?” I ask warily. I’m not even sure if I want to know what’s wrong with me.

“Well, the doctors are waiting for the swelling to go down with your leg and will do a few more tests. The good news is you didn’t break anything. You may have tweaked your knee pretty good, considering it was caught under the dashboard, but let’s wait to see what the ortho’s say in a day or two. You had a rather serious head injury but no skull fracture, so that’s good. Although, you’re going to have quite a headache for a while. You also have a lot of abrasions along your body in various places. You probably don’t feel them yet, but you will. You’ll be feeling pretty beat up for a while. Because you’re pregnant you’ll be here a few more days. They’re going to want to observe the baby a bit longer, make sure it stays stable...deal with the knee, that sort of thing. Although, I have to say, Miss Burke, considering what you’ve been through, you’re one lucky woman. Best news of all is that your baby looks fantastic.”

I take a deep breath of relief. I could have broken every bone in my body as long as the baby is okay. “Um…do you know how far along I am?” I ask looking at Owen out of the corner of my eye. It occurs to me that I only guessed how pregnant I was, but I had no way before of knowing exactly.

“You’re ten weeks, sweetie.” She smiles widely.

I feel Owen squeeze my hand.

“Thank you,” I call to her as she walks out the door.

Owen sits back down next to me. He leans on the bed, his head propped on his hands as I stare at the ceiling, trying to absorb all the information I’ve gotten in the last five minutes.

“So...”

There’s that awkward silence again, and I wish the nurse, as annoying as she was, would come back. I can feel Owen looking at me, even feel his smile.
What is he smiling about?

I speak, not moving my eyes from the ceiling. “I knew for two weeks, Owen. I didn’t know how to tell you. I was scared and not sure how to let you know. We haven’t been living together all that long and I didn’t want you to think it happened on purpose. It
didn’t
happen on purpose. You need to know that. You need to believe that.” I ramble all this in a rush of breath. It has to be said. At this point he knows… What’s the difference?

He casts his eyes down at the floor then at my hand in his. He is playing with my fingers and breathing heavily but steadily. Oh shit. I don’t know what that means, and what’s worse, I can’t see his face.

“Owen, look at me,” I say with as much authority as my broken self can muster.

He raises his head, and the friendly, loving smile he had for me earlier is gone, replaced by something that looks like...hurt?

“I would
never
think this baby was on purpose, Olivia,” he growls sounding emotional. “I’m hurt that you didn’t know how to tell me. I’d like to think of myself as a pretty approachable guy, especially when it comes to you. I would have wanted to know, wanted to share in this with you. I know this is unexpected and we’re not doing things in the most conventional way, but I need you to know that I’m...I’m excited about this. I’m scared as fuck”—he shrugs his shoulders—“but what guy who almost lost the love of his life—but didn’t—comes to find out he is going to be a father all in one day wouldn’t be scared?” He gently lays a hand on my stomach, and tears begin to pour from my eyes. “I love you so much. I almost lost you. I almost lost
both
of you. Don’t you know that nothing in the world could keep me from wanting you? From needing you in my life?”

He kisses my forehead and nuzzles his face into my neck, his hand stroking my belly, his tears leaving cool marks on my skin.

“You can’t get this into your stubborn, beautiful head, but you are
it
for me, Olivia. I have what I need. There’s nothing left to look for. We are in this together, okay?”

I tear up again as he lifts his head and kisses me lovingly. All the emotion of the day has exhausted me.

I rest my hand over his as it covers my belly. “Okay. Together,” I say softly. I can feel my eyes drifting closed. I’m so tired.

“You’re getting sleepy,” he says. “You need your rest. Close your eyes. I’ll have the nurse bring you whatever you can eat for when you wake up.”

I nod slowly, my eyes already closing and my body already drifting. I feel him kiss me on the forehead again, and I drift off, thinking about the little family that has suddenly appeared in my life. Despite my bruises and injuries, I realize just as I fall asleep that I am blessed.

Something is moving against my face. It's soft. Then I hear a humming, like someone talking through a filter far away. I struggle to open my eyes, but it's hard. My head is pounding. It feels like a woodpecker is trying to escape from my head while an elephant sits on it. I finally pry my eyes open and see Owen pulling away from me. He was kissing my cheek. He runs his hand over my hair, his knuckles grazing the spot where his lips just were.

"Hi, beautiful," he says.

"Hi," I respond softly. My throat still hurts. It's hard to talk. "Ice?" I ask.

Owen swiftly gets up and retrieves a small, plastic pitcher from the side table and shimmies some ice chips into a Styrofoam cup.

"Do you want to try and sit up a little? I can raise your head?"

When I nod yes, he presses a button on the side of the bed, which slowly raises the head until I'm not fully sitting up but at more of an angle than I was before. Owen takes a plastic spoon and scoops in some ice. Holding the spoon up to my lips I open up and moan as the cold shards slide into my mouth. I know in this moment that nothing in the world has ever felt so fantastic.

Owen smiles and laughs. "Good?"

I nod enthusiastically, and he gives me another spoonful.

"How long have I been asleep?" I ask, noticing that it's dark out now.

"About three hours or so. Your parents stopped by again a little while ago. They’re going home for the night to shower and get some clean clothes, but they’ll be back tomorrow.”

My parents.
How did I forget about them through all of this? Oh yeah, I’m pregnant and my boyfriend didn’t know.

“They came? Are they okay? Do they know about the baby?”

“They came the first day you were here and have been here since. Simon and Reese have been by too. They’re okay. Terrified and sick that their little girl is hurting, but okay. And yes, they know about the baby.”

I sigh, feeling awful that I’m putting my parents through all of this. That I’m putting Owen through all of this. And on top of it all, I’ve been hiding a pregnancy from them.

Geez. When I think of it that way, I feel like a really bad person. I try hard to push the thought from my mind.

“God, I feel so bad. They came all this way. My mom must be all over the place about the baby. I need to not sleep so much.” I take a deep breath as I try to adjust myself in the bed.

“It's fine, sweetheart. You need the rest to heal your body and take care of our baby." He smiles again, so broadly that it hits his eyes.

I can't help but smirk back. "You look rather smug," I say.

"It just occurred to me while you were sleeping—I knocked you up. You were on the pill. I'm virile, a total stud." He flexes his biceps and I giggle, causing me to gasp in pain. Owen’s face immediately transforms from gleeful to panic. "Shit, baby. I'm sorry!"

I beam at him. "Don't be sorry. I want to laugh." I lower my gaze, the realization of what is happening becoming abundantly clear.

"What, Liv? Look at me," he commands, clearly sounding concerned.

"Nothing, nothing." I glance back up at him. "I just… I was so terrified you would leave me. So worried you would just walk away, ask me to move out. This was so unexpected. But you have completely thrown me. You really want this, don't you? This baby?"

Owen's face softens as he puts the cup down on the side table. He sits next to me on my bed and lowers himself so he's only an inch from my face. "I want this baby. Was it planned? No. Would I have rather you trusted me enough to tell me? Yes. Do I understand why you were scared to tell me? Absolutely. Am I scared as fuck that I'm going to be a father? Fuckin’ shit, yes. Am I feeling blessed that you, my beautiful girl, are in my life? Fuck yes. Am I awestruck that you are going to give me a child and that we are going to be a family? There are no words. I love you so fucking much." With that, he leans forward and kisses me, his mouth parted.

I know he wants a more romantic, deeper kiss, but he's hesitating, like he's not sure if it's okay. I help him out by opening for him, slipping my tongue in his mouth, suddenly grateful that he helped me brush my teeth earlier. We kiss softly, delicately, lovingly for a moment before he pulls back slightly, resting his forehead against mine, his eyes closed.