“P-Pregnant?” I utter the words with amazement, and look over at Libby’s frozen body. Her eyes are wide and fearful as if she too can’t fathom what the doctor has just told us. “She’s pregnant?” I ask again, wanting to make sure I heard him correctly.
“Congratulations,” the doctor says with a smile. “She isn’t far along, but I would suggest an appointment with your midwife. It doesn’t look as if the fall harmed the baby, which is surprising. But I would recommend a quick check-up for any abnormalities.” He scribbles a note down on his report and then pulls the folder up to his chest. “I’ll leave you guys alone. One of the nurses on duty will provide you with the painkillers and ask you to sign a couple of forms before they can discharge you.”
And with that, he turns and leaves.
When the sound of the door shutting fills the room, I finally risk a glance at Dale and find him shaking his head from side to side.
“Tell me it isn’t his?” he demands to Libby, forking his thumb in my direction. “I don’t care if it’s from some random one night stand, but please tell me this isn’t his baby?”
I’m suddenly nauseas waiting for her answer. A million questions rush my mind all at once. Do I want this baby to be mine? What about Daniel? Is she sleeping with him? My hands curl into fists. Did that fucker actually knock her up?
“I’ve only been with Alex, so it can only be his baby,” she confirms quietly.
We both look at her simultaneously before I sag against the wall and emit a bout of shaky laughter, the shock playing havoc on my body. “I’m going to be a father?”
“You’re lying,” Dale spits, holding his chin high. “He can’t be the father. I don’t believe you, Libby.” Then, he turns to me with cold and hardened eyes. “You slept with my fucking sister again, after all this time?” His breaths turn rough and ragged.
A slow smile creeps over my lips, and I can’t hide the amusement in my voice. “She couldn’t resist it. Not that I’d blame her anyway.”
“Alex!” Libby warns.
But it’s too late. Dale reacts and launches himself across the room at me, his fists flying through the air, but none of them actually connecting with my body. He’s hurling the vilest abuse from his mouth. But that’s all it ever is with this douchebag. He’s all talk and no action. Even his puny little punches aren’t doing anything to me as I block each strike easily.
“You’ve trapped my sister yet again. You bastard! I’ll fucking kill you for this.” He manages to land one punch to the side of my face that I don’t block quickly enough, and the metallic taste of blood trickles onto my lips.
Enough of this shit.
I use the back of my hand to wipe away the blood and then push Dale back with as much force as I can muster. He staggers back, his mouth hanging open with surprise, before he regains his stability and lunges for me again.
I dodge out of the way and let him fly into the wall behind me with a loud crack. He crumples to the floor in a heap and I stand over him smugly.
“I didn’t even need my fists,” I chuckle, watching him bend over and rest his weight on his forearms, clearly winded from the impact of the hit.
“Go to hell,” he grumbles.
I kick his arms out from underneath him and he lands face first on the floor. “You’ve just learned that your sister is pregnant. Do you think she needs this bollocks from you? I mean, trying to start a brawl in the middle of a hospital? You need to grow up and have a little more respect for people.”
Dale coughs, rolls onto his back, and then leans against the wall. His face is red, but he isn’t bleeding. He just looks a little flustered.
I hear Libby shuffling in the bed and then her soft whimpers when she spots the two of us. She’s managed to sit herself up, but she isn’t amused by what she sees.
“I’ve had it with the pair of you,” she cries, her eyes flicking between the two of us. “I’m a grown woman for crying out loud. I make my own decisions and they have nothing to do with either of you, alright?” She cradles her stomach as if in pain, which triggers something unnatural in me, and I find myself rushing to the side of the bed.
“What is it?” I ask, putting my hand on her stomach, which she quickly bats away. “Are you in pain?”
“I’m just bruised.”
“You worried me.” Both our eyes widen as if we’re surprised by what just came out of my mouth. Libby gives me a weak smile that tells me she appreciates the concern.
“I’m fine, Alex. Don’t worry.”
But I still am. Regardless of her telling me to stop, I have a building fear in the pit of my stomach, and a growing need to now protect her and our baby.
Baby ...
I’m still amazed at what I’ve learned tonight.
Finding out that Libby had a miscarriage, which fuelled our divorce, hurt like fucking hell and I was ready to throw in the towel on everything. But now, with this, this feels like I’m being handed the second chance I asked for. I’ve got the opportunity to try and put things right, and to be there for her this time. But I’m not sure if it’s the right thing for me to be doing.
She’s carrying my child. I guess that should be as good of a reason as any for me to try and put the past behind us. But I don’t know if I can.
I’m conflicted.
My heart squeezes in my chest, but I ignore it. I’m not ready to make this decision just yet. The first step is getting Libby discharged and then we work from there.
“The nurse will be in here soon to let you leave.” I cast a hasty glance at Dale and turn back to Libby. “How would you feel about coming back to my place and resting?”
“Not a fucking chance,” Dale spits, bracing his hand on the wall and standing. “She’s coming home with me, and that’s the end of it. She needs to admit to our parents what the fuck she’s been up to over the last few months.” He shakes his head. “How the hell are we going to tell them about this baby? They are gonna be fuming.”
“You’re like a little dog with a bone.” I sigh and arch an eyebrow. “Are you going to argue over everything I say?”
Dale walks over to the opposite side of the bed and holds onto his sister’s hand. “Let me take you back home to mum. We’ll look after you Libby and help you decide what you’re going to do about this baby.”
“I’m keeping it, if that’s what you are trying to imply,” she snaps, pulling her hand away. “This is none of your business, Dale.”
“You can come home with me and we’ll discuss this later.”
My blood starts to boil. “Like hell she’s going home with you,” I mutter, keeping my voice low. “Libby, you’re coming home with me. That’s that.”
“I won’t allow it—”
“Well that’s tough shit, isn’t it?”
“You both need to cut this out,” Libby demands when a nurse pops her head round the door.
“Would you like me to come back?” she asks, clearly sensing the tension in the room.
We all turn to face her and she immediately flushes.
“No, it’s fine.” Libby beckons the nurse into the room and smiles. “They both want to look after me, but I’m going home to my own house instead.”
“I don’t—”
“You aren’t—”
Dale and I both object while the nurse simply smiles and passes Libby a couple of forms for her to fill out. She takes the clipboard after and detaches the monitor from her arm. “I’ll be back with your tablets in a few minutes. You’re lucky those wounds are superficial and you can go home. I’ve seen people kept in for a lot less.”
“Thank you,” Libby nods. “Do you have something I can wear? They cut my clothes off when I came in the ambulance.”
“I have your gym stuff in the boot of the car. Let me go and get it.”
Dale leaves with the nurse and I’m left alone with Libby who throws off the covers almost immediately and swings her legs off the bed. She’s wearing a pale mint coloured hospital gown that clips around the back o
f her neck and exposes the slight curvature of her spine, but that’s all I glimpse before I’m holding her hand and helping her to stand on shaky legs.
She puts most of her weight on me and I feel how weak she is. Her face displays the genuine pain she feels with each step, and it winds me up knowing she won’t come home with me. “Will you reconsider my offer? Not just for you, but for the baby?”
She shakes her head and points to the sink. “I want to wash my hands.”
“So that’s no, then?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you’ll stay?”
“No,” she sighs. “Stop tricking me, Alex.”
“But what about the baby—”
The baby.
I can’t believe I’m going to be a father. It doesn’t seem real at all. “I still can’t get my head around all this, and me being a potential father,” I confess.
“We had unprotected sex, Alex, and I told you I haven’t slept with anybody else. There isn’t any potential about it. You are going to be a father.”
“So naturally, I want to make sure you’re both alright. You can’t blame a bloke for trying to do the right thing. Let me look after you, Libby.” I’m hoping to press her until she changes her mind.
“He or she will be fine ... don’t worry, please. I know you are obviously feeling guilty right now.”
Her words are like a slap across my face, and I flinch. “Ouch ...”
She flushes when she realises what she’s said. “Alex, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Okay,” she nods. “Maybe I did, a little. But you can’t blame me, right? And you can’t expect me to undo the last seven years we’ve been apart and sweep it all under the carpet. It doesn’t work like that.”
She’s right.
I won’t be sweeping anything away anytime soon. We are both going to need the time to get over tonight and decide what we want to do moving forward, because my earlier reasons were selfish. I wanted to just give-up and push her away because it was the easiest thing to do. But now we have somebody else to think about. And that little person needs more than a five minute decision made about their future.
I don’t know how Libby is feeling or if she wants to give us another go, but I’m prepared to give it my all this time if she agrees. I know it won’t be all love and giggles at first, but patience and understanding; something I’ve clearly lacked in the past.
Things will take time.
It isn’t something we are going to be able to rush.
“I understand,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her waist and helping her back over to the bed after she has washed her hands.
She sits down on the edge of the bed as Dale comes back through the door with a gym bag in his hand. He rummages around and pulls out a slim-fitting yoga vest and matching leggings which he throws on the bed.
“Do you want help getting dressed?” I notice she is simply staring at the clothes and making no effort to move, so I’m wondering if she is in too much pain to move.
“I don’t think that’s appropriate. I’ll get the nurse,” Dale mutters, backing through the door.
“For fuck’s sake,” I curse under my breath, rolling my eyes at this bloke. He’s purposely pushing my buttons.
“Calm down.” Libby murmurs softly to me as she gently eases her arm out of the gown. “Pass me that top please,” she asks, pointing behind her, like I didn’t just watch that dickhead put it there.
I reach over and snatch it. “Here,” I say, rolling it up in my hands and putting it over her head. “Now pop your arms through.” I slide the gown from her other arm and it falls to her waist, baring her breasts to my eyes. But I don’t take any notice.
Libby on the other hand, flushes a deep scarlet when she puts her arms through the top and watches me gently pulling it over her chest.
I know she is expecting me to come out with some sort of reaction, but I’m resisting with everything I’ve got. She’s beautiful as always, but her brother is right, it isn’t appropriate in her current state.
“Let me take this away so I can put your leggings on,” I say, gathering the flimsy hospital gown and chucking it on the bed. “Can you lift up your leg?”
Libby complies and raises one leg. She’s clad in just her thong and a skin-tight yoga vest, and it takes everything I have to stop my mind from wandering.
“Other leg, please.” I tap her ankle and she lifts compliantly, her eyes burning a hole in the top of my head as she watches my every move. I pull them up as far as I can with her sitting down and offer to hold her up while she does the rest; however, as soon as she bends to grab the waistband, I spot the immediate grimace on her face.
“Here,” I say, kneeling down in front of her. She puts her hands on my shoulders to steady her balance while I pull her leggings up, but I realise I’m virtually eye-level with her crotch.
Fuck.
Not my smartest move, but I try and make light of the situation after when she sits back on the bed. “I’m used to taking them off rather than putting them on,” I chuckle to myself.
“And I wonder how many pairs over the years,” Libby muses. “I bet you didn’t keep it in your pants for very long.”
And then the mood plummets.
I can’t bloody win.
“Do you honestly want me to lie and say I’ve stayed celibate for seven years in the hope we bumped into each other, and oh, I don’t know ... have a one night stand that gets you pregnant? Don’t make me laugh, Libby.”
She pretends to be taken aback, but I catch her cheeky smile that she hides with the back of her hand. It was brief, but still enough to light up the room for a nanosecond.
“Can we go?” she asks, looking at the door longingly. Her brother hasn’t come back, and there is nothing to really stop her. “We can meet Dale out in the hall if he is lurking around the nurses’ station or something?”
“Okay.” I throw the rest of her belongings in the gym bag and sling it over my shoulder before slipping my arm around her waist and walking to the door.
We make it out into the hall and instantly spot Dale lingering at the nurses’ station, exactly where Libby had indicated he would be. He gets given a white paper bag with tablets which he smiles graciously for, and starts flirting with the nurse on the other side of the counter. He doesn’t notice us until we walk past and I swipe the tablets out of his hand.
“Fucking dickhead,” I mutter, shaking my head. “And that is why I don’t want you going home with him. He only gives a shit when he wants to.”
The automatic doors open for us and we walk out into the car park. I realise I don’t have my car with me, but thankfully a taxi is conveniently dropping somebody off and we get straight in. Dale comes out a couple of minutes later and pushes his face up to the glass.
“Get out,” he mouths to Libby.
I shake my head on her behalf, lock the door, and then mouth not so subtly for him to, “fuck right off.”
“Libby, get out of the fucking taxi,” he roars, slamming his hand against the window.
“Can we go, mate?” I ask the driver. “This psycho is doing my head in.”
“You got it, boss. Where are we off to?” he asks as we pull away from the Accident and Emergency department.
~
We pull outside of my building a little while later and I find Libby fast asleep against my shoulder. The taxi ride mixed with the drama from this evening has clearly tired her out. She just needs to sleep which is why I’ve brought her back to my place. It is sort of against her will, but she’ll thank me in the morning when she hasn’t got her arsehole of a brother lingering around.
“Keep the change,” I say, handing the driver twenty quid and opening the door.
The gym bag gets slung over my shoulder again as I reach inside of the taxi and scoop Libby into my arms. Her head falls against my chest and I hear her whimper, but it isn’t long before her soft snores echo once again.
“Mr
. Lewis?”
Jeffery greets me on the door and I see his questioning eyes at me carrying another woman into the building. A couple of weeks ago it was my sister, and this time it’s my ex-wife. Although, to Jeffery, Libby is just another girl I’ve brought back. She has never been to my apartment before, so I’m interested what she’ll think in the morning.
“Jeffery, would you grab that lift for us, please?” He rushes forward and grabs the door as I step into the car. “Nice night?” I ask, trying to divert the attention away from Libby.
Although Jeffery is a good man, I don’t want anybody looking at her like this, and I’m sure she would be feeling the same if she were alert.
“It has been a little busy this evening, sir,” he replies, pressing for my floor and keeping his eyes focused on the large steel doors. “Ms. Lewis came by earlier this evening, but I told her that you were not available.”
Why was Alice here?
“Thanks, Jeffery. I’ll give her a call in a little while,” I say, stepping off the car when we reach my floor. I hear him murmur his goodbye as I step up to my front door and buzz myself inside, being careful not to crack Libby’s head off the side of the doorframe as I’ve seen in countless comedy films over the years.
I’m sure she’d love me for that ...
“Almost there,” I whisper under my breath as I head for the spare room. My foot springs out to lightly kick the door wide, and I step inside and realise that my housekeeper hasn’t been today, and my mother and sister only left this morning. The room is a mess and the sheets haven’t been changed.
I’m trying to think on my feet about what to do when Libby starts to stir in my arms. She fidgets uncomfortably and I feel my grip on her loosening.
There isn’t anywhere for her to go but ... My eyes drift toward my bedroom door.
It’s wrong what I’m about to do, but I don’t have a choice. It’s either that or she sleeps on the sofa, which I doubt she would thank me for in the morning; especially not with the bruising on her back and chest. She needs to sleep in a bed.
You can protect her if she is with you.
There isn’t any time to weigh up the pros and cons. Instead, I head for my bedroom and carefully place Libby in the centre of my super king bed. She rolls over to one side and buries her face into a pillow with a groan as I attempt to slide off her trainers.
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