by Sian Ceinwen
“I stand by my assessment,” Sebastian shrugged. “Clothes don’t make her more beautiful; in fact, I can attest to the fact that she looks better naked.”
Lita was surprised by the comment and went back into the changing room to avoid replying. She took the dress off, setting it aside carefully before she tried on a top and pants. The top was a bit loose, but the pants were perfect, sitting nicely and shaped in a way that made her ass look amazing in the mirror.
“You’re some kind of miracle-worker, Heather,” Lita announced as she left the changing room. “I’ve never had pants that made my ass look this good even before I was pregnant.”
“She lies,” Sebastian said with a grin. “She was wearing a pair of jeans that made her ass look fantastic the night I met her. I spent a good portion of that night admiring the view.”
Lita didn’t know what to say in response. Sebastian hadn’t made any flirty comments like this to her since their conversation, and she had no idea what was prompting his change in behavior.
Sebastian gave Lita a strange look, then said, “Preferisco di gran lunga la vista del tuo culo quando sei nudo di fronte a me, però.”
Lita blushed at his words, and Heather narrowed her eyes at Sebastian. “I don’t know what you said, but I do know that you seem to be distracting my model. Watch yourself, or you can go hang out in my office or in the reception area with the bodyguards.”
Sebastian laughed, and Heather came over to Lita to start pinning the top for alteration.
“Do I want to know what he said?” she asked quietly.
Lita shook her head. There was no way that she was about to start that conversation today.
The rest of their time at Serenity passed in a similar fashion. All of the clothes were gorgeous and felt amazing. Heather would pin the ones that needed changing, and Sebastian would occasionally interrupt them with comments about how good Lita looked, telling her things in Italian that made her blush.
“Okay, well, I’ll fix up these clothes and bring them around to you,” Heather told Lita when she’d finished trying on all the outfits.
“Thanks, Heather, this is so amazing. I can’t thank you enough.”
They had packed up the clothes that Lita was taking back to the apartment, and Sebastian said, “You should put the green dress back on, Lita. Just, you know, to promote Heather’s brand when we’re leaving and having our photographs taken, of course.”
“Well, how very thoughtful of you to care about my business like that,” Heather smirked at Sebastian.
“You’re welcome. It’s absolutely for that reason and not because I want to fuck the shit out of Lita because she looks so good in it.”
“I thought you two weren’t— Never mind. I’m not saying a word.” Heather frowned.
Sebastian sighed as he looked at Heather, then said, “Can we go to your office? I need to talk to you.”
“What about Lita?” Heather asked.
“Do you mind if I just take a minute, princess?” he asked her.
“That’s fine. I’ll wait here,” Lita said.
If she was being honest with herself, Lita was just grateful that she wouldn’t have to be a party to yet another heated conversation between the two of them. As they walked away, she pulled out her phone and sent a text to Becky.
The maternity clothes are gorgeous. Seb’s gone to, I don’t know, yell at Heather or something.
Lita took the green dress back to the changing room, and when she got inside, she saw Becky’s reply.
What the hell happened?
Lita quickly typed out a response.
Give me a second and I’ll call you.
She pulled her clothes off and put the green dress back on, admiring her reflection, before snapping a picture of herself to send Becky, and putting her clothes in with the others they would be taking home. Then, she called her friend.
“Hey. So, Seb was flirting with me like mad while I was trying on Heather’s clothes,” Lita told her when she answered.
“Wait, I thought you said he’s barely spoken to you since last week?”
Lita laughed. “Yeah, he has. That’s why I was surprised when he was suddenly flirting with me today. I kind of think he was trying to piss Heather off.”
“Why would he do that?” Becky seemed confused.
“Good question,” Lita answered. “Fucked if I know; he told her to stop getting involved, then basically goaded her into saying something about us.”
“Their friendship sounds super healthy,” Becky commented.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Lita cringed when it slipped out and moved on quickly to cover her mistake. “Anyway, he basically seems to have gotten the fight he was looking for from her. He said they needed to talk, and they’ve gone to her office.”
“Do you ever think the rumors about them are true?” Becky asked.
Lita laughed. At least Becky seemed to have misunderstood her comment about Heather and Sebastian’s friendship.
“What? Come on, he ‘took her to her office’ so they could talk. That’s not normal, dude.”
“You’ve met both of them, and you’ve seen Heather and Harrison together; surely you know there’s no truth to the rumors that they’ve slept together?” Lita asked.
“I’ll admit that Heather and Harrison were pretty sickly together, but I’ve never seen Heather in a room with Sebastian.”
Lita shook her head. “Well, I have. Just trust me when I say I can categorically tell you that they’ve never slept together.”
“How are you so sure? What has he said?” Becky asked.
Lita didn’t keep secrets from Becky, but this wasn’t her secret. “I just know. They’re really good friends, that’s it.”
“If you say so. How are you doing?”
“As good as can be. We’re going back to see Eric on Friday, and we’ll know more after that,” Lita told her.
They talked for a few minutes more before ending their call. Lita was on her phone and looking at Reddit when she looked up and saw Sebastian walking toward her with Heather behind him, and she smiled.
Lita hugged Heather goodbye, and Sebastian carried the clothes out to the reception area, where the bodyguards assisted them into the SUV. They were asked more questions about Heather and the baby, but Sebastian had been right when he’d said that people would ask Lita about her dress as well. She didn’t answer them, unsure if Heather actually wanted to publicize her idea of doing a maternity line or not.
She settled in the car next to Sebastian and looked over at him. He was looking out of his window, and Lita wondered what was going through his head.
On Friday morning, Lita sat in Dr. Floyd’s office after their next scan, and he was looking somber. Lita was tense, and her nerves were in full force as she waited for what he had to tell them.
“I’d like to schedule surgery for two weeks on Friday, unless any of your scans show any need to do it sooner. We’ll want you in the hospital for two weeks afterward for monitoring and recovery. This way, you’ll be out of the hospital before Christmas Day.”
Lita hadn’t even thought about Christmas. Clearly, she’d be spending hers in Chicago. What if the surgery didn’t go well? It would be the worst Christmas ever. She began twisting her fingers about one another as she thought about it.
“I’m confident that the surgery will go well. You’ll only be two days before the third trimester. I’ve done this surgery on much earlier pregnancies than yours.”
“What if she dies?” Lita managed to ask before her tears overtook her.
She hadn’t managed to voice this thought out loud before, and it hurt her to think about it. Lita talked to Mirabella all the time now, and she loved her so much. Her little baby was kicking away inside of her even as they had their conversation.
“I can’t make promises to you, Lita. I can say that I am confident that she will come through the surgery fine, but I can’t pretend that there aren’t risks, and the chance of a poor outcome
will always be there.”
Lita appreciated his honesty, even though his words were terrifying as much as they were comforting.
“I can assure you, though, that the surgery is necessary. The tumor has continued to grow, and while her heart function remains stable, that’s okay, but the tumor formed early and has grown at a rapid rate for one of these cases. We have been fortunate to put off your operation this far; getting to twenty-seven weeks is a very good gestation for in utero surgery.”
“Okay. Thanks, Eric.” Lita nodded.
She was terrified about the surgery, but they had a date now. After a month of being in limbo, they finally knew exactly when Lita would be having the surgery. She felt confident in Dr. Floyd and his ability to perform the surgery successfully, but the worst-case scenarios still played on her mind.
34
LEVEL 26.5 – The Good Doctor
Your baby is the size of poor Yorick. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.
Lord help the women who are 26 weeks pregnant during hayfever season. By now, your baby is putting a ton of pressure on your bladder, it’s hard enough to make the approximate ten million trips to the bathroom every day, but when you have to sneeze…well, there’s a term for it. Snissing. It’s on Urban Dictionary.
Lita was wearing a hospital gown and lying in a bed in a private room at the hospital. Dr. Hunt, her anesthetist, had just visited her to discuss the surgery, and she was waiting to be taken in.
Her parents had flown to Chicago on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate Christmas early with them because Lita couldn’t be in Seattle this year, as well as to be here for her surgery.
They’d gone to Giovanni’s for dinner and had spent yesterday doing some sightseeing at Navy Pier. Their visit was cut short when they started being followed around the pier by a group of fans, and shortly after that, the paparazzi arrived.
Her parents had stayed at the apartment when Sebastian brought her here today and were waiting for news of the surgery. Lita had never in her life been as nervous as she was right now.
“I think that I’m going to be sick,” she told Sebastian, who was sitting in a chair next to her.
“Me too.” He was uncharacteristically serious when he said it. “I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to either of you.”
Lita realized that, in some ways, she was lucky that she would spend those hours unconscious, while Sebastian had to sit here and worry about them both.
“If it’s a choice…” Lita trailed off around the lump in her throat as tears started to fall.
“Lita, don’t.”
She wiped at her tears, then continued with what she was trying to say. “I need to tell you, Sebastian. If something goes wrong and it’s a choice between her and me, I want you to choose her.”
“It won’t be a choice. It will never come to that,” Sebastian said, shaking his head. “I’ve heard what you said, Lita, but I can’t think about either option.”
He looked into her eyes, and his own fear was apparent in his expression. Lita’s phone buzzed, and she looked down to see a text from Hayden.
Good luck today, Lita. I just wanted you to know I’m thinking of you.
She smiled when she read it. They’d started texting when she had some questions about the video game, and they were starting to become good friends. Both of them were very analytical and had similar interests, so they got along well.
“Your favorite band member hasn’t even texted me. Tell him I’m completely offended,” Sebastian said with a smile, and his joke broke the tension in the room.
“Will do,” Lita said as she wrote a reply.
Thanks. I appreciate it. Sebastian is devastated that you didn’t text him.
It was only a second before Hayden’s reply showed up.
Tell him to check his messages and stop being so needy.
Lita laughed out loud, then announced, “Check your texts. He says to stop being so needy.”
Sebastian picked up his phone, looked at the screen, and said, “Oh, he did text me. My bad.”
She watched him type out a reply and sighed as everything came rushing back to her. Hayden’s messages were a nice distraction for a few minutes, but her surgery was looming. That sword dangling above her head was threatening to fall at any moment, and she wanted off the throne, but she couldn’t leave; she was tied there with no way to escape it.
Sebastian looked up from his phone and smiled at her. “It’s going to be okay, princess.” He didn’t sound totally convinced himself, though.
Dr. Floyd walked into the room, and they both looked up at him.
“Hi, Eric,” Sebastian said.
“Hey there, Sebastian, Lita. It’s time for me to take you to surgery.”
She looked over at Sebastian, and he smiled. “It’s okay, princess. I’ll be right here, waiting. You’ll be fine.”
“I’ll…see you afterward.”
Two nurses entered the room from behind Dr. Floyd and raised the sides of the hospital bed before wheeling Lita out of the room and up to the operating theatre. It was bright, cold, and sterile. Lita’s fear was threatening to overwhelm her. One of the nurses got her a warm blanket from a cupboard that must be heated, and she was grateful for it as she listened to Dr. Floyd.
“Okay, Lita. I’m going to go scrub in while Dr. Hunt puts you under. You’re going to have a little sleep. Then, when you wake up, your baby will have a perfectly fine heart without a tumor taking away any of the blood supply that she needs for growth.”
Lita nodded.
“Do you have any last questions for me?”
“No, just one thing. I told Sebastian, but I don’t know if he will do it. If it comes to a choice between her and me, I want you to save her.” Lita felt tears welling in her eyes again.
Dr. Floyd nodded. “Okay. I don’t think it will come to that at all. I know that this is very scary, but remember that this is what I do, and I am very, very good at my job.” He squeezed Lita’s arm comfortingly and then added, “I will see you afterward.”
He left the room, and Dr. Hunt talked her through the procedure again. He put a needle in her hand and had her count back from twenty.
Lita groaned as she struggled to open her eyes against a light that felt far too bright. She was groggy and unsure of what was happening.
“Lita?” Sebastian’s voice sounded concerned from next to her, and then he called out, “She’s waking up.”
“Hi, Lita,” a nurse that Lita had never met before said to her. “How are you feeling?”
“Like crap,” Lita groaned, and Sebastian chuckled.
“That’s pretty normal. You’re on some fairly strong painkillers, have a drink of water.”
The nurse held the cup out, and Lita struggled to sit up enough to take a sip. As she did, she felt Mirabella kick her hard in the stomach and almost dropped the cup.
“She kicked me! She’s alive!” Lita broke into tears at once.
“The surgery went perfectly, princess,” Sebastian said softly from next to her.
“Oh my god, she’s alive. I’m alive. We’re alive.” Mirabella was still kicking her, and Lita couldn’t stop crying with relief.
“Yes, you’re both alive,” Sebastian said.
The nurse smiled and added, “As your partner said, the surgery went very well. In a few minutes, we’ll take you back to your room, and then Dr. Floyd will be around shortly to give you more information.”
Lita heard the comment about Sebastian being her partner and let it slide. “Thank you so much.”
Even though both Sebastian and the nurse had told her that the surgery was a success, Lita couldn’t fully believe it until she was back in her hospital room, and Dr. Floyd confirmed for her that it was.
“We couldn’t have held off on surgery much longer,” he admitted. “There were signs that her heart was working harder than it should be, but nothing too concerning. We got the entire tumor, and there were no other tumors present.”
“We’ll keep you here for one to two weeks for monitoring, and I’ll continue to see you once a week through to the end of your pregnancy.”
When Dr. Floyd left, Sebastian hugged Lita carefully and said softly, “It’s going to be okay, princess.”
It was the first time that he’d done it since their new ground rules were put in place, and Lita felt as though this was where she belonged. She put her arms around him and melted into his embrace as relief washed over her.
“I can’t believe it. I was sure that it was going to be terrible. I can’t believe we’re actually going to get to keep her.”
“She’s all ours, and she’s perfect and healthy,” Sebastian confirmed.
He removed his arms from around her and sat back down in the chair. Lita ached to have her arms around him again. Sebastian was smiling at her, and Lita felt her heart throb painfully. She needed time to think about everything, but for now, Lita’s worries were eased as she felt Mirabella kicking inside her.
They both called their parents, who were relieved to hear the news, then called their friends and passed it on to them as well. Hospital staff came around with lunch for both of them, and they sat and ate it while they talked.
“I think that when you get discharged, we should go out to Galena,” Sebastian said. “It’s much safer than Chicago, and the perfect place to recuperate. We can drive into the city for your appointments.”
“That sounds good. What about Christmas?”
Sebastian grinned. “It’s at your favorite band member’s parents’ place this year. If you’re feeling up to it, you’re more than welcome to join us.”
“I’ll see how I’m feeling,” Lita told him.
After she finished eating her food, Lita felt a wave of tiredness come over her. A nurse came in to check on her and reassured her that it was normal, and the painkillers were probably causing her to be a bit drowsy.
“I’ll go home, princess, but I’ll come back when visiting hours start tomorrow morning,” Sebastian told her.