Blood drained from my face, panic seeping into my bones as I fumbled to grab my things, heart in my throat as I listened to Ellie continue.
“They had me do—” She sucked in, like the words got stuck in her throat, and the way she was breathing was terrifying me. “A CT scan. And as soon as the doctor came in with the results, they ushered me into a wheelchair, and they took me to the ER, and now everyone’s whispering around me and acting like I’m dy?—”
“You are not fucking dying.”
Absolutely fucking not.
Too frantic to walk to the end of this giant fucking circulating front desk, I leapt over it instead.
“Sawyer.”
I could hear the catch in her throat, and fuck, I was in pain.
“I’m coming, baby,” I promised her. “I’m coming.”
“I’m scared,” she whispered, words I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard her utter aloud.
“I’m coming,” I repeated. “I’m on my way.”
I was sprinting now, outside, my feet slapping against the snow-covered pavement on campus. Cold air beat my cheeks raw.
“Okay. Thank you,” she said as though I was doing her a goddamn favor. As though I wouldn’t fight fucking tooth and nail to be by her side right now and always. As though I didn’t love her more than anything.
“Everything’s going to be okay, alright?” I needed it to be true, and I needed her to believe it. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
It was the only outcome I’d accept.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
sully
ILET MYSELF DROWN beneath the weight of heartbreak for approximately thirty seconds before resurfacing and snapping into action.
Because while I was devastated at the thought of losing this chance I’d had to be a parent, nothing would compare to the devastation of losing Eleanor.
And for right now, that needed to be my focus.
“Okay,” I breathed, and our lips grazed. Hers felt so cold, shooting more worry through my veins. “I believe you. I believe you, Eleanor.”
I didn’t doubt for a second that she knew her own body, and I wished I didn’t believe her, but I did. I wished it weren’t true, but I knew, from feeling the way her slight frame shook, that something wasn’t right. And I trusted her, the smartest person I knew, to understand what it was.
“But let’s get you to the hospital so we can check. I need to make sure?—”
“I know, Sawyer.”
“I need to make sure you’re okay, baby,” I said, pulling back so I could see her better. She looked so small in my bed. Fragile in a way that Eleanor never looked, except for once. Onemoment in time that fucking terrified me, and I never wanted to experience it again in my life. One moment in time that was currently replaying in my head, making me more anxious than ever to get her to a doctor. “Please let me make sure you’re okay.”
I searched her face, the wariness there. She chewed on her bottom lip.
She hated hospitals, but I was struggling not to explode with the urgency to get her to one.
“At least tell me what happened?” I begged. “Tell me how you know. Please.”
I needed to know if she was in pain, needed to know if I should call my sister, or brother, or Delaney to try to convince her to go in. Maybe all three of them, all at once, but that would probably seem like an ambush to Ellie. And I didn’t want to do that, but fuck, I was unraveling here.
“I had a little cramping this morning,” she revealed, and it took everything in me to ask why she didn’t call. Text. Send the Bat Signal. I would have been here in an instant. She seemed to see my expression, though, and added, “I didn’t think much of it. I had some light spotting, too. But that’s all normal. A few hours after you left, though, it continued. More spotting. More pain.”
“How much?” I rasped while preparing myself.
