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Liam shook his head. “No, we don’t.”
I tried to smile, but there was that pain again.
“Are you alright?” he asked, reaching for my hand.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just…damnit, Liam. I want her gone. I want them all gone! I saw her, and for the first time in my life, I was truly scared. If I was who I used to be, I would have stormed in there the moment I heard her voice…but…” I paused to stare down at my protruding stomach.
“Mel…”
“I don’t like to be scared. I don’t know how to be scared. That isn’t my nature and yet, there I was,” I whispered.
Taking my hands into his, he kissed the back of them. “You weren’t being scared, you were being a mother, love. You put your anger and your need for revenge aside and protected our child. That’s your nature.”
The smile on his face, despite all the things going on, made me want to smile. But I couldn’t. One moment I was sitting up, the next, I was hunched over just enough to see blood—my blood—rapidly staining the white of my dress.
No. Please no. Not again.
“Mel? Mel!”
LIAM
I don’t know what happened. It was all a blur. One moment I was in awe of her, so proud that she had been open with me. The next, I was surrounded by the press as I carried her into an ambulance. I wasn’t sure if I had gone deaf or if my brain had momentarily shut down, allowing me to focus without really breaking.
During to ride to the hospital, everything was moving so quickly. Mel was squeezing my hand so damn hard, and yet, I was frozen, unsure of what was going on, unsure what to say or what to do, so I held her hand, brushed her hair back, and kissed her forehead. She was curled up in the fetal position and there was nothing I could do. I was a phone call away from making a man the next President, and yet, I couldn’t help my wife.
The moment we stepped into the hospital, they wheeled her away, cutting her dress off as they went. The nurse was already preparing to put an IV in her arm, but I reached out to stop her.
“We don’t want drugs.”
“Mr. Callahan.” I looked up to find that doctor, Am… something. She looked down at Mel, pressing into her abdomen softly, which only made Mel cry out again.
“Your job is to fix her, not make her worse,” I snapped, wanting to pop her ugly little head off her neck.
“Mr. Callahan, I’m sorry but it’s going to hurt before it gets better. Either way, she’s going to need the fluids, and the painkillers have a dual purpose. She needs to be calm or we run the risk of losing this baby,” she snapped right back.
The nurse looked directly at me, waiting for me to release her arm, when I did, she had that needle in Melody’s arm before I could blink.
“We’re going to need a sonogram,” she spoke right past me, still pressing on Mel’s stomach. Each time she applied pressure, Mel would squeeze my hand. It was like that for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was probably only a few minutes; push, squeeze, until Mel stopped squeezing and her body relaxed. Looking at her, I found her staring at me, completely relaxed with her eyes wide open. It was scary as shit, and yet I welcomed it all the same.
“You look like shit,” she whispered with a smile.
“This how all men with wives who terrorize them look,” I whispered back, kneeling at her bedside.
She rolled her eyes at me before looking at the nurse who was currently taking her blood pressure.
“What are you giving me?”
“Acetaminophen.” The blonde haired doctor smiled, as she grabbed hold of the ultrasound. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”
“What’s wrong with her, doctor?”
“Dr. Lewis,” she corrected. “Dr. Amy Lewis we met last year and I just want to—”
“Question one: what is wrong with me?” Mel asked, cutting straight to the point. “Question two: how is my baby?”
“I’m checking your baby right now, but he or she should be just fine,” she said as the nurse closed the door and blinds.
“And question one?” I asked.
“You people waste no time…”
“Because we have no time to waste,” Mel and I said at the same time. “And please don’t make me have to ask again.”
I almost wanted to laugh at her attempt to be nice and use ‘please.’ It just made her sound even more annoyed.
“Mrs. Callahan, from what we can tell, you have preeclampsia. It’s not life threatening, yet. However, your blood pressure is very high. If this doesn’t change, there is a high possibility of you developing eclampsia, which can be hazardous to both your health, and that of your unborn child. You’re going to need to take it easy in the next coming weeks, alright?” Lifting up her dress and placing a blanket over her legs, Dr. Lewis placed some sort of gel on Mel’s stomach.
“Easy? As in bed rest easy?” she asked. The one way to make sure Mel didn’t relax was to tell her to do so.
“No, I don’t think it’s that serious yet, but I would honestly recommend taking some time off from work.”
“A Callahan that actually works?” the nurse whispered behind us, unaware that I could hear her and I was about two seconds away from strangling her with Mel’s IV. However, before I could comment, a small whoosh echoed through the room. It was like a tiny underwater drum.
“That is your baby’s heartbeat.”
Mel laughed, reaching for her stomach as the whooshing continued. It was strong and beautiful at the same time. It was like the music I could imagine God enjoying, and I couldn’t for the life of me tear my eyes away from the black and white picture on the monitor.
Smiling, Dr. Lewis stared at the screen, moving the wand over Mel’s stomach. “Would you like to know the sex?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“No?” I stared down at her. We were finding out the sex, now.
“Your parents really wanted to find out with us. Evelyn cornered me in the car. Is she here?”
I had no idea. Everything had happened so quickly and my main concern was getting her here as quickly as possible.
“Can you check if the rest of the Callahan party has arrived?” Dr. Lewis instructed a nurse.
Brushing her brown hair back, I watched as Melody fought the urge to fall sleep. We were working on almost eighteen hours of no sleep. That couldn’t have helped her condition. She needed to rest more. “Can’t we just find out a second time with them in the room? I’m sure I can fake a surprised face.”
With her eyes half open, she shook her head.
“This is the least I can do for your mom. Plus, maybe she’ll calm down a little.”
“Apparently you don’t know my mother.”
“Are you bad-mouthing me, son?”
Speak of angels and they appear.
Walking over to us, with my father an inch behind her, she kissed Mel’s forehead.
“You gave us quite a scare, young lady,” my father told her.
Laughing, she grabbed hold of his hand. “Now Sedric, you and I both know you were itching to escape those political asshats.”
He could only grin before kissing her forehead.
“Is the baby alright?” Evelyn asked, mesmerized by the black and white screen.
