Deserve [H.S.]

Chapter 57

CHANGES

The harsh tiles of the bathroom floor were cold underneath Noah's folded legs, just barely offering her some cooling comfort for the discomfort she was feeling.

For the third time that week, she was hunched over the toilet due to nausea. Her forehead and the back of her neck had beads of sweat on them, as she tried to catch her breath after emptying her stomach into the toilet.

Nearly twenty minutes prior, Noah had woken up feeling nauseous and rushed to the bathroom. She threw up a bit and made her way back to bed after cleaning herself up, but Harry had begun to stir when she climbed in the bed.

"You okay, baby?" Harry had asked groggily, laying on his stomach and just barely lifting his head to look at her. His eyes were hardly open, anyway.

"Yeah, I'm good," Noah had replied easily, not wanting to disturb him much more.

"Okay," he had half-heartedly responded. "Just try to get some rest."

That advice was great on paper, but Noah was back in the bathroom not long later, throwing up once again.

Crumpled on the bathroom floor beside the toilet, Noah tried to will the nausea away, but was clearly failing as she felt another bout of it shine through, making her retch into the toilet yet again.

Having been disturbed once more by the noise, Harry's sleepy figure appeared in the doorway to the bathroom. He was only wearing a pair of boxer-briefs and was rubbing his eye with his knuckle as he glanced down at Noah on the floor.

"Aw, bub," he muttered sadly, walking over to her and kneeling beside her to instantly pull her hair out of her face and into a makeshift ponytail.

Despite the disgusting sounds and smell, Harry was the picture-perfect husband and stayed beside her until she felt she was done and flushed the toilet, sitting back up to rest against the side of the bathtub. Her eyes were closed and she once again took purposeful breaths to even herself.

Harry stood up to get her a quick cup of mouthwash and a facial cleansing wipe, which she accepted graciously. She swished the mouthwash in her mouth before spitting it back out in the toilet then wiped her face with the wipe, both actions being a temporary fix to the real clean-up she was desperate to do.

After she was done, she was still slumped on the floor as she hoped the nausea would completely pass. Harry sat beside her, even wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his chest as he rubbed soothing sweeps on her arm.

"This is the third time this week, munchkin," Harry said simply, not wanting to imply anything but wanting her to initiate the conversation of what could be going on.

"I know," Noah defeatedly responded. She had been experiencing some on and off nausea for the past week, with three of the moments resulting in the condition she was in at that moment.

Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, Harry managed to ask, "do you think you could be pregnant?"

Yes, Noah thought. In fact, she very much thought she could be, since her period was a few weeks late. She just didn't want to get her hopes up, but it seemed like she had a strong reason to do so now.

"I could be," she answered quietly.

Truthfully, they were both exhausted as all hell, so they weren't entirely able to express the bubbling excitement they both felt. They didn't want to get ahead of themselves, either, in case it ended up being a false alarm.

"Fuck, that's exciting," Harry managed to let out, tugging her even closer into him.

Giggling lightly, Noah said, "we'll have to see if I actually am, first, before we celebrate."