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“He’s okay. He took a bullet to the shoulder as he was tryin’ to get everyone out of Jaded Outlaw. It was set on fire and a few explosions were rigged. They repaired the damage, removed the bullet, and patched him up. A few days later he got a nasty infection and they’ve been givin’ him the strongest antibiotics they can through his IV. The fever broke almost a week ago and he’s been as ornery as ever since then,” he informs me as I try to stifle the laughter at the thought of Sabotage being a good patient.
“I’m glad you can laugh at my distress,” Sab growls as I lose the battle.
“I’m sorry. It’s not funny. Are you okay?” I ask him, turning my head to look him in the face.
“I’m a lot better now, baby girl. Do you need a drink?”
“Yeah. My throat feels scratchy,” I answer, taking a minute to take stock of everything that hurts on me.
My throat is definitely scratchy and hurts. Though I don’t feel the wetness on my chin from the blood like I did before. Zeus moves to grab a glass of ice water and holds it out for me. I take a few small sips, my stomach is hurting from just the water I’ve taken in.
“Why is there a second bed in here?” I ask when I’m done drinking.
“You’re in my room. There was no way in hell I was gonna let you outta my sight again, baby girl. The doctor agreed if only to keep me calm and to stop arguin’ to be discharged so I could be with you,” Sabotage informs me with a smirk on his face. “They should be bringin’ breakfast in soon. I don’t know what you’ll be gettin’, but they said somethin’ about your throat bein’ inflamed and hurt from the fucker chokin’ you. You might only get liquids for now.”
“At least I’m not bleeding from it anymore,” I tell them, needing to be thankful about something.
“The fuck?” Zeus returns, staring at me as the door opens.
A nurse walks in the room carrying two trays.
“I see you’re both awake this morning,” she says offering up a smile. “Young lady you’re on a liquid diet until the doctor checks your throat again. It’s pretty damaged and he doesn’t want you talking a lot. I’m sure you’ve already been talking to these two, but that’s enough for now. I’ll get you a notebook to use so you can still communicate. The more rest you give it, the quicker it will heal, and you’ll be able to talk and eat again. I’m going to leave these here for you both and make sure the doctor comes in to see you as soon as possible. I’m sure you have questions.”
I nod my head, but don’t say a word. The last thing I want to do is inflict anymore damage to my throat, so it starts bleeding again. Or feel the pain in it like I was before. It was excruciating. I watch on as the nurse sets the two trays on the sliding tables and fixes it over my bed. She helps me sit up and get comfortable before removing the lids to take back out with her. As she leaves, I look down at the tea, milk, orange juice, and broth or something in a bowl. My gaze shifts to Sabotage’s tray where he has coffee, apple juice, milk, eggs, sausage, bacon, a bagel with cream cheese, and cereal. Even though it’s hospital food, it looks freaking amazing right now. Almost three weeks with no food in your stomach will do that I guess.
Sabotage digs in after handing over his apple juice to me. Zeus makes himself busy by opening my milk, taking the tea off my tray, and opening the orange juice. He knows I prefer orange juice, but I like apple too. Once everything on my tray is ready for me, Zeus sits back down and watches me to make sure I get some of this in my body. There’s a look on his face I can’t quite decipher, but it’s making me curious. They know something and aren’t sharing it with me yet. I wonder how damn bad this new thing is and what we’re going to go through next. I just want to relax for the time being, heal from my injuries, and get on with my life.
While I was locked in that cold as hell room, I made a few decisions about my life. No matter what anyone thinks, I’m going to start my catering business. It’s either going to succeed or fail. There’s no in between when it comes to business. I’m going to give my all to make it successful and to the two men sitting on each side of me. They deserve nothing less than that. The time for holding back, overthinking, and putting us on hold is over. Zeus and Sabotage have claimed me and now it’s time for me to act like their ol’ lady. I’ll do what I can to help them, give them strength when they can’t find their own, and try my hardest to anticipate their needs without them having to ask me what’s going on.
As we consume the food, or liquid in my case, on our tray, the door opens again to reveal and older man with grey hair at his temples. He’s carrying a chart with him as his glasses slowly slide down his nose. When he looks up, he’s got a genuine, warm smile on his face.
“I’m glad to see you awake, Jaelyn. We were wondering when you’d join us again. Your body simply needed the rest though. I can’t imagine you got a ton where you were being held. I might not know much about what happened to you, but I do know you were held captive and beaten on a regular basis for the length of time you were there,” he begins to say as he comes to a stop at the end of the bed. “I’m going to say now you’re actually a very lucky woman. The damage done to you is mostly superficial. Cuts, bruises, scrapes, and things like that. Obviously you can see you have a broken wrist we’ve put in a cast, so the bones set properly. We didn’t need to surgically repair it. You’ll be in the cast for eight weeks and then we’ll take it off. Your ribs are bruised, and they’ll take a while to heal. You’ll feel discomfort when you move, sometimes when you breath, and there’s nothing more I can do for them. Now, the area I’m most concerned about is your throat.
“I don’t believe there will be any permanent damage to your vocal cords. Right now they’re swollen and will hurt if you talk. You’ve been in here for six days and that’s a good resting period. However, it’s not enough. I want you to barely use your voice for the next week and we’ll see how things look then. If you don’t overuse them, I don’t see a problem with you starting to talk more in a week’s time. There is one more thing we do have to discuss, Jaelyn. When we did an ultrasound to try to determine if you had any internal bleeding, we found something. In a few days, you’ll be approximately three weeks pregnant. At this point, we’re not sure if the fetus will last through the vicious attacks you’ve been through. So, we’ve ordered bed rest. We don’t want you out of this bed for any reason. You have a catheter in so there’s no need to get up to go to the bathroom. I can have an obstetrician come down to talk to you more about the chances of keeping, or losing, the baby at this point of your pregnancy. I will say your hormone levels are higher than we were expecting for you being so newly pregnant. Does anyone have any questions for me?”
“Is she allowed to move in the bed? I mean, if she’s gettin’ uncomfortable and needs to change how she’s lyin’ or sittin’, can she move?” Zeus asks, concern filling his voice.
“Yes. I don’t want her up and walking around, or even sitting just yet. It will put too much strain on her body, and it needs to continue healing before anything else happens. She will more than likely have to see her obstetrician more frequently and have ultrasounds performed in order to determine when she gets off bedrest or what’s going on with the fetus. That’s going to be up to whoever she chooses as her doctor.”
“When can I eat soft foods? Have something other than liquid?” I ask, my voice almost a whisper so I don’t strain my injury any more than necessary.
“Let’s give it a few more days okay. I imagine you’re hungry with how dehydrated you are. We’ve got fluids going through your IV along with medicine. The obstetrician that’s been keeping an eye on you so far has agreed for a low dose pain medicine that won’t hurt the fetus. We’re trying to do everything we can to ensure you don’t lose the little one,” the doctor answers. “So far, your vitals look good. If everything continues to look good, we’ll let you out of here in a week or so. I want to make sure your throat and vocal cords are healed up more before releasing you.”
I nod my head in response. With no more questions, the doctor leaves us alone and the nurse returns with a notebook and pen. Sabotage and I eat in silence while Zeus leaves us to head to the cafeteria to grab something for himself. Before leaving us, he leaned down to give me a deep kiss filled with every emotion coursing through him.
“I know we need to talk about the baby, but I think you need to process what you’ve just been told. So, when you’re ready, we’ll be here to discuss everythin’,” Sabotage tells me, his voice filled with emotion. “Just know, I’m not mad about this. Zeus isn’t either. We’ve known since you were brought in and have had the time to process it and come to terms with what may happen. No matter what, we’re not leavin’ your side and we’ll get through whatever happens together.”
Nodding my head once again, I feel my eyes welling up with tears. I have no clue what to even think about learning Sabotage and I created a baby the first time I had sex. Yes, I understand it can happen when you use no form of birth control, but it’s crazy to believe I’m the girl who managed to get pregnant from my very first time. Then to learn I may lose the baby because of what Bastard and those other assholes did to me while I was with them crushes something deep in my soul. Was I expecting a baby? Not at all. Am I upset or mad I’m pregnant? No, I don’t believe I am. For now, I’m going to take some time to think everything through and we’ll go from there.
Picking up the notebook, I write out a note for Sabotage before grabbing my broth to drink.
I’m not upset about the baby. It’s going to take time to come to terms with the news, but I want this. It’s a part of us and there’s no way it wasn’t meant to be. That’s how I feel. For now, I’ll do everything the doctor’s tell me to do and hopefully nothing else will happen. Is my sister coming to see me today?
“Baby girl, she hasn’t left. Right now, they’re all down gettin’ breakfast in the cafeteria. Zeus will let them know you’re awake and the doctor has been in to see you. They’ll all come up to visit as soon as they’re done. Just don’t talk. They’ll have to get used to you writin’ everythin’ down for now. We don’t want anythin’ to happen to your beautiful voice,” he tells me after he reads what I’ve written.
I drink as much of the liquids on my tray as I can before I start to feel nauseous. The pain I’m in is starting to increase, but I don’t want more pain medicine just yet. I’m not going to let things get out of control, but there’s a threshold before I’ll need anything else again. Right now, I want to spend some time with my family. Not seeing them for a total of three weeks is the longest I’ve really ever gone without at least talking to my sister on the phone. We have a lot of time to make up for. Grabbing the notebook again, I need to see if one person in particular is here.
Is my nephew here? It’s been so long since I’ve been loved on by him and I need to hold him in my arms. I need to stay with you and Zeus too. Bastard tried making me believe you were dead. I’m sure it’s what he was hoping for. I knew in my heart you weren’t though. I would have felt it if you were.
