After the death of Belle's parents in Solace, Belle doesn't think anything else could possibly go so wrong in her life. Despite her booming business, flourishing relationship with Harry, and overall happiness with her life, Belle can't quite escape...
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Same Night
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I'd been a doctor for seven years and have seen many unsettling sights in my time, but nothing could have possibly prepared me for this.
Belle's face and head were the first things to gain my attention, normally due to her unmistakable beauty but today for a different reason. Her face is pretty much unscathed aside from some light bruising around her temple, a cut on her lip from the high possibility of her biting it, and some bloating. Somehow she looks just as beautiful as ever, even bruised and battered. My eyes are drawn to the device sticking out of the top right side of her head, just slightly above and to the back of her ear. There's a long cord at the end of the device, connected to a monitor on her bedside table, the screen showing her pressure levels in her skull. The numbers look fairly normal all things considered and that does more than enough to ease the worry in my heart. The device on her head is surrounded by some gauze, but I'm able to see that the area had been shaved. For some reason, that fact alone causes a quiet choked sob to leave my lips.
This is real. Everything about this is real. This isn't some nightmare or dream; this is reality.
My tear-filled eyes take in the rest of her body as I stand about a foot from her bed, too scared to touch her. Her right arm is braced and rests on her upper torso, the splint on her appendage wrapped in fabric gauze to keep her from moving it accidentally and injuring it further. She doesn't have a sling on, but there is one on the table at the end of her bed when the time comes for her to need it.
My eyes drift to her middle, unable to see anything wrong from over the blanket, but just knowing the deep purple bruises there I'm thankful I can't see anything. I want to look away, but my eyes are just locked on her lower abdomen.
I don't think the reality of her pregnancy has really even hit me yet, it seems so much like a fever dream. There's a baby in there, a tiny, tiny baby that we made together out of love. A baby that's already been through so much. A baby that Belle doesn't even know about yet. A baby that may not survive all this.
"Hi, love." I quietly whisper, my voice hoarse with my crying. Slowly, I fall into the chair at her bedside, just staring at her fully before settling on her peaceful expression. "Need you to wake up for me, and wake up soon." I sniffle, wiping the tears from my face as I slowly place my hand on her knee that's covered in the scratchy hospital blanket. I have half a mind to tell my mum to bring the soft blanket at the foot of our bed when she comes tomorrow.
"Baby, I'm so, so sorry. I know it doesn't even matter right now, but I'm sorry." My brain remembers the voice message she left me early in the day, the one I've listened to no less than ten times by now. Her frustrated tone and tired I love you have been eating away at my sanity all evening. I can't believe how blind I'd been this morning. What if that was the last thing she ever said to me?
