by Sian Ceinwen
“Ah, yes, Lolita. If you can please complete this paperwork and bring it to me when you’re done, the doctor will see you shortly.”
Lita thanked the woman, took the clipboard and pen that she was given, and followed Sebastian over to take a seat in the waiting area. A lot of people were still looking at them, so Lita focused intensely on completing the paperwork, then pulled out her phone to send a reply to Becky when she sat back down after handing it back.
Thanks. Will do. How’s work?
She looked up at Sebastian, feeling oddly on the verge of tears. He smiled at her, and she bit her lip, then sent him a text as well.
Distract me. People are looking. I need distracting.
Sebastian pulled out his phone and started typing before her message even showed up on his screen.
What would work best? Want to know some Cruise Control secrets?
Lita gasped out loud involuntarily.
FUCK YES!!!!
Sebastian laughed as she was typing her reply.
Okay, well…what’s your favorite song?
Just So You Know. That’s why I put it in your game.
He smiled at her before replying.
Let me think…
He stared off into the distance for about a minute, then started typing.
Gabriel wrote the lyrics. I did the music with Hayden. Harrison didn’t have a huge amount to do with it. He was working on If I Were You.
He sent the message, then typed some more.
We recorded Cards Have Been Dealt at this shitty, tiny studio in downtown Chicago. So many times, we had to end our sessions way before we wanted to because we hit the end of our timeslot. Just So You Know took a few sessions to get perfect.
Sebastian waited for her to read the message, then when she started to write a reply, he said, “Lita.”
She looked up at him, and her breath caught as he smiled at her. Then he wrote another text.
If I’d known that it would become your favorite song, I would’ve sung lead.
Lita’s heart skipped a beat. This time he let her write a reply.
I don’t care who sings lead. You were part of creating it. All of your songs, they mean a lot to me.
Lita frowned and then sighed before hitting send and typing another message.
I have to remember that this is why people look at you. Because you’re awesome.
Sebastian laughed out loud.
If that’s the case, they should be looking at you because you’re more awesome than me.
Lita rolled her eyes, and Sebastian laughed.
Don’t roll your eyes at me, princess. I speak the truth. Your game broke our website, that’s pretty damn awesome.
Lita wrinkled her nose. It was true; the game had turned out to be so popular with the fans that the site went down overnight.
If I’d known that it would be made public, I would’ve made it better.
She really hadn’t expected anyone else to play it, not even the rest of the band. It was just the only thing she could think of to gift the man who had everything.
You didn’t put your best work in for my birthday present? I’m devastated to hear that.
Sebastian laughed out loud as she read it and shook her head.
Of course I did. I just mean that it would’ve been less Sebastian-focused.
Lita’s brain started running away with her, thinking about ways that she could’ve improved the game, and her phone pinged with his reply, pulling her back to their conversation.
I hope that you’re not less Sebastian-focused.
She couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
How could I possibly be anything but Sebastian-focused? I literally have nothing to do with my days right now except look at your pretty face.
Is that all I am to you? Just a pretty face?
Lita smirked as she wrote a reply.
Tell me what else you’re good for, if not for being pretty to look at, Sebastian Fox…
Sebastian gasped, and she looked up to see him feigning shock, “I have never been so insulted in my life!”
“I doubt it,” Lita replied with a laugh. “Want me to pull up some Reddit threads for you?”
“I think I’ll survive without seeing those, thanks,” he said, but he was smiling as he wrote a reply.
I’m good for making you look good at pool. I lose on purpose, you know, just so you seem amazing.
Lita was about to respond to his joke, but Sebastian kept typing.
I’m good for basically getting you IN with your favorite band. You’ve gotta admit, that’s pretty good.
She laughed and replied.
Okay, I’ll agree, that is pretty good. I mean, I totally got to talk to Hayden Vega last night! He’s my favorite member of Cruise Control, you know…
He laughed out loud before he wrote a response.
I don’t believe you. I’m also good for writing songs for you before I even knew I was writing them for you. Remind me to write a song FOR you, sometime, though.
She smiled at his message; he was strangely sweet when he wanted to be. Seeing him with his friends, it was odd how even with his closest friends, he had the arrogant façade up most of the time, even if they could probably see through it.
When it was just her and him, he usually dropped it. At times like this, Lita felt like she saw the side of himself that he hid away from the rest of the world.
Thank you for distracting me.
Any time, princess.
They fell into silence, and Sebastian took her hand in his, stroking her skin with his thumb as he usually did. Lita bit her lip and looked at the floor, following the patterns in the carpet as she waited. She looked up when another patient’s name was called, and a heavily pregnant woman walked over to the nurse, holding the hand of her wife as she did.
Lita sighed when she noticed that a few of the other patients hadn’t given up on watching them and looked back down again. Sebastian squeezed her hand when she did. Lita smiled at the floor and squeezed his hand back.
Eventually, Lita’s name was called, and they stood and followed a nurse down a hallway to an examination room. Lita had her blood pressure taken and answered some questions about her medical history before the nurse led her into the doctor’s office.
Dr. Floyd was a tall, handsome black man, and he gave Lita a friendly smile when she walked into his office. “Hi, Lolita, Sebastian, it’s lovely to meet you both.”
“Call me Lita,” she said, forcing herself to return his smile.
“Lita, great. Take a seat.” He indicated to the chairs in front of his desk. “Dr. Sanders sent through your file, and I’m glad you were able to come in today for a scan. Obviously, we have your scans from Seattle, but I like to have my own scan done with our machine for a baseline, so there’s some consistency. I’ll be taking you through to do your scan in a few minutes. Do you have any questions for me before that?”
“How many cases like ours have you managed, and what was the survival rate in those?” Lita asked.
“Quite a few; this is not my first rodeo. I won’t be able to give any predictions of outcomes until after I’ve done the scan, and I would never presume to give certainties, but looking over your file, I am optimistic. I won’t sugarcoat any news that we get where it isn’t as positive.” Lita felt as though she could breathe again, despite his warning. “Obviously, yours is a high-profile case, so I will be personally handling it and will keep the file with me. I trust my staff implicitly, but I want to ensure everything for the rest of your pregnancy is as smooth as it can be, Lita.”
He smiled at Lita again, and she said, “Thank you. I appreciate it, Dr. Floyd.”
“Call me Eric; we’re going to be spending a lot of time together, so we might as well be on a first-name basis. If you don’t have any more questions for the moment, we’ll go do the scan, and we can talk more afterward.”
Eric led them to a room with an ultrasound machine. Lita was used to this experience now. She got on th
e bed and waited for Eric to start the scan. It wasn’t long before Mirabella was on the screen in front of them, wriggling about.
“Busy baby,” Eric noted as he started taking measurements.
Lita clutched onto Sebastian for support. He was sitting in a chair near her head and watching the screen. She squeezed his hand, and he looked down at her. Lita felt as though she was going to burst into tears. Worst-case scenarios where Eric told them the other scans were wrong, and everything was much worse than they had realized were running through her head.
“Oh, princess,” Sebastian whispered.
He reached a hand over and stroked her head while they waited for the doctor to finish the scan. When he started scanning Mirabella’s heart, Lita felt like hers would stop beating. She tried to gauge what the doctor was seeing, but she couldn’t.
Eric turned the scan off, wiped Lita’s belly clean from the gel that was on it, and encouraged her to get up as he said, “No real difference from your scan yesterday. We’ll talk more back in my office.”
Lita was incredibly grateful that he’d told them that much, so she wouldn’t continue panicking. No change was better than those worst-case scenarios she’d been imagining.
Sebastian held her hand as they walked back to Eric’s office. When they sat down, Eric was smiling, which Lita supposed was a good sign.
“Well, as I said, there’s little change from yesterday. We wouldn’t expect to see massive changes in a day, however. I’ve looked through all your scans, and the rate of growth of the tumor is concerning.
“I want you to know that if I had to perform surgery today, I would feel comfortable doing so. It wouldn’t be ideal, of course, but it could be done. I do want to warn you, though, that surgery does seem to be an inevitability in your case.”
Lita felt the tears finally start to fall when he said this.
“Really? You don’t think there’s a chance that Lita might not have to have surgery?” Sebastian asked.
Eric sighed. “Look, I wouldn’t say there’s zero chance of anything. What I’ve seen from all of your scans is enough of an indication that it’s incredibly likely that surgery will be needed, and I want to prepare you for that.
“Our goal is to get Lita as far through her pregnancy as we can before that happens. Every day that passes means better odds for the surgery and an easier recovery. It will be a balancing act between waiting as long as possible and not waiting too long.
“We will monitor your baby’s growth, along with the tumor’s growth. While the tumor is growing faster than we’d like, your baby is growing at an acceptable rate as well. Unless that changes, we will probably look to do surgery in your twenty-seventh week of pregnancy, Lita.”
It was a lot to take in, but at the same time, Lita felt as though she’d been expecting this outcome all along.
“So, if”—Lita caught herself and sighed heavily—“When we have the surgery, and you remove the tumor, does that fix her?”
Eric smiled at her. “Yes, unless there are any other tumors, your baby should be fine once the tumor is removed.”
“I assume there are risks,” Sebastian said.
“Yes, all surgery carries possible risks, and those are higher when we’re talking about in utero surgery. As I said, every day that we can keep her safely inside and avoid surgery is a gift. She gets bigger and stronger, those risks get smaller, and the surgery gets easier for me.
“I’m very good at what I do, but I like the odds to be as much in my favor as they can be when I perform surgeries.”
Their appointment ended after that, and Sebastian paid as Lita waited with Daryl and Ben, while the new patients that were waiting now stared at them. When they reached the main lobby of the hospital, though, they were swarmed at once.
“Step back!” Daryl’s voice boomed as they approached the group of paparazzi.
Sebastian placed his arm around Lita’s shoulders and pulled her closer to him while she put her hands protectively on her bump. They made their way slowly out of the hospital, causing a huge scene as other hospital visitors started to take notice and take pictures along with the paparazzi. Lita felt herself starting to panic, but she focused on the feeling of Sebastian’s warm body next to hers. She couldn’t tune out the questions they were asking, though.
“Is there something wrong with your baby’s heart?” asked one person.
“Are you two going to get married?”
“Marry me instead, Sebastian!” a fan called out.
“I’ll have your next baby!” declared another.
Daryl and Ben were close to Lita and Sebastian now as the crowd pressed in on them.
A reporter came toward Sebastian and asked, “Is it true that you’ve hired out a theme park for your birthday party?”
Sebastian didn’t answer, and Ben pushed the reporter back with a gruff, “We said to keep back.”
The crowd eased back a little but gave them no reprieve all the way to the exit of the hospital. Some continued to follow them to the black SUV, but they finally made it inside the car, and Lita felt a massive sense of relief.
“Assholes. They can’t just leave us alone for five minutes?” Sebastian cursed.
“Are you okay, Seb?” Lita asked quietly. “It’s not like you to get worked up by them.”
He sighed heavily and gave her a hug. “Yeah, I’m fine. I wouldn’t care if you weren’t there. I was so worried about you being safe.”
“If it gets that bad again, Mr. Fox, we may need further assistance for these visits.”
“I’m aware,” he replied. “I won’t hesitate to do that, but it was my first time out in Chicago for a while; it may not be as bad next time.”
“I hope you’re right, Seb.”
Lita looked out the window and watched Chicago flying past them. She was worried about the press and the fans, but her thoughts were consumed by her fears for Mirabella. Surgery for their tiny baby loomed on the horizon, and her only hope was that Dr. Floyd was a miracle-worker.
31
LEVEL 23.6 – Happy Birthday Part Deux
By now, you probably feel as though a little alien has taken over your body and you’ve lost all control. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Rest assured, your body knows what it’s doing…that's why it’s decided to start practicing for giving birth. When you feel an odd sensation and your belly gets super tight, that’s called a Braxton Hicks contraction. These are your muscles flexing and preparing for labor.
“Nothing fits me anymore,” Lita moaned as she walked into the living area of the apartment wearing a dress that sat at an odd angle because of her baby bump.
“You should definitely wear what you’re wearing right now,” Sebastian grinned from where he sat on the sofa. “It looks very stylish.”
He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and looked incredibly handsome, with his legs stretched out in front of him.
“Very funny. I should’ve gone clothes shopping yesterday morning.”
Lita had been so nervous about their appointment that she hadn’t gone to get new clothes, and now she was seriously regretting it.
“Here, let me help you. Your pants still fit, right? Go get some pants on, and come to my bedroom. Maybe one of my shirts will work,” Sebastian said as he got up from the sofa.
Lita smiled. “You’re crazy, but thank you.”
She followed him down the hallway, then split off to go to her bedroom, where she pulled off the dress and put on a pair of pants. She considered putting a shirt on but figured that the sight of her in a bra wasn’t exactly a new one for Sebastian.
Lita knocked on his bedroom door and entered when she heard him call for her to come in. She hovered near the end of the bed, and he appeared from the walk-in closet a minute later with his arms full of different shirts. He smiled seductively at her when he saw that she was topless.
“Looking good, princess. Is this your way of telling me that you want to skip the party and spend the day in bed with me instead?”
> It had been three weeks since they’d had sex. Sebastian had been out with other women in that time, of course, but Lita definitely missed it. She’d masturbated last night to the picture he’d sent her the night they’d had phone sex, and she’d come incredibly close to going to his bedroom and begging him to screw her senseless.
Lita forced herself to focus on the task at hand instead of her raging desire to have sex with Sebastian. “Very funny, but no. I figured if I’m going to be trying on shirts, there’s no point in wearing one that I have to take off anyway. It’s not like you haven’t seen it all before.”
“I would very much like to see it all again, though,” Sebastian told her as he walked over and dropped the shirts on the bed next to her.
“Sebastian…” Lita trailed off, trying to keep her tone stern but managing to sound like she was begging him for something instead.
“Come on, princess, it’s just sex.”
“Where have I heard that line before?” Lita asked and rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, two seconds before you told me you were in love with me.”
“It’s my birthday, though.”
He stepped closer to her, and there was only an inch of space between them. Lita had to tilt her head up to look at him.
She laughed despite herself. “It’s not your birthday; it’s your party, there’s a difference.”
“Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that your birthday starts on your birthday and ends at the end of your party. So, it’s my birthday, and I know exactly what I want for my present.” Sebastian reached a hand out and leisurely trailed a path down the side of her body from her chest to her waist, where he rested his hand on her hip.
“I already gave you a present,” Lita reminded him.
“I’m selfish. I want two presents.”
He dropped his head and kissed Lita’s neck. His lips were soft and warm. Her neck burned from his kiss, and her breathing rate increased.
“I gave you two presents. The game and not playing you at pool,” she said breathlessly.
“Three presents, then. Four presents. Five hundred presents. However many presents I need to get you into my bed right now.”