I woke up in bed, propped up with pillows and covered in my heaviest blanket. I looked over and saw Hopper, arms folded across his chest and sleeping on the end of the bed. I nudged him with my foot to wake him up.
“Hey bit, how are you feeling? You gave us quite the scare there.” Hop said, rubbing his eyes and I could tell he had been crying. Hopper was my mom's brother, and he raised me when my parents died when I was 12. He was more like a father to me than my own, who would rather drink and gamble than take care of me. Thank god for being an only child.
“I’m ok pop, just a little cold and tired. What happened and where’s Eddie?” I asked, expecting him to be the first person I saw when I opened my eyes.
“Out in the living room with Owens. Joyce took Ivy home, she’ll stay with us for the night. I don’t know who’s more excited, her or El.” he said, with a laugh. I smiled, suddenly feeling sick again. I think he noticed because he grabbed the bucket next to the bed and held it for me to use. All I did was heave, nothing came up. He handed me a bottle of water and I drank it all in one go, and I realized I hadn't eaten all day.
“I’m gonna go get the doc. Stay put, okay?” I nodded and lay back against the pillows, feeling a headache coming. I reached over to my nightstand to get a pain med and took one, waiting for it to kick in.
“Hey kid, how are you feeling?” Owens asked, coming in and over to me to feel my head. He took my arm to check my pulse and took a blood pressure cuff from his bag.
“I’ve been better. What happened?” I asked.
“Looks like you have some high blood pressure. You’ll need to rest as much as possible, and you need to keep up a good food intake. You’re eating for 2 now, remember?” He said, patting my arm.
“Ok doc. How easy do I have to take it? I need to work to be able to pay bills and such. I can’t just lay around all day.” I asked.
“Well don’t worry about that. My office will take care of all that. As a thank you to the both of you for helping with our research. You just focus on you and that baby, ok?” I nodded and he walked out, letting Eddie walk in after him.
“Hey Dove, How are you feeling? Can I get you anything? You scared the hell out of us.” Eddie said, cupping my face in his hands.
“I’m sorry baby. I didn’t eat anything and it just caught up to me. Owens said I have high blood pressure and to rest as much as possible. And yea, I’m fucking starving. Can you get me something to eat?” Eddie let out a loud laugh.
“Of course Dove, anything for you. What sounds good?” Eddie asked.
“I would almost kill for a greasy bacon cheeseburger from Lou’s place.”
“Then that’s what you’ll get. I’ll be right back, don't move, kay?
“Eddie, wait.” When he turned to look at me, I held my arms out and made grabby hands at him. He laughed and came back over to hug me, planting a light kiss to my lips.
“Also I want a strawberry shake.” I said, laughing. Eddie rolled his eyes and walked out.
Thanks to the entire bottle of water I drank, I needed to pee. I started to get out of bed and I heard footsteps coming at me quickly. I looked up to see Eddie standing in front of me.
“What are you doing out of bed Dove? You’re supposed to be resting.”
“I know that baby, but I also need to use the bathroom. I thought you left already?” I said, walking past him to the bathroom.
“I was about to when I heard you get up. Just be careful, ok?”
“Seriously Eddie? I’m just going to the bathroom. I’ll be fine.” I said over my shoulder.
“Watch your tone with me y/n.”
“Where the hell did that come from? Don’t talk to me like that Eddie.” I said, slamming the door in his face, locking it behind me.
“Fuck Dove Im sorry, i have no idea where that came from.” I could hear his head thumping softly on the door. He’s never even raised his voice at me, let alone whatever that was.
“It’s fine Eddie, just go get dinner, kay?” I heard him mutter something and walk away. I shook my head, did what I needed to and stood up, feeling a shooting pain in my stomach. I looked into the toilet and saw blood, dropping to the floor in pain.
“Eddie?!” I called out. I heard him run to the door and when he couldn’t open it, he kicked it open. Seeing me on the floor, he dropped down to me.
“What's wrong? What happened? Talk to me Dove.” All I could do was point to all the blood and I saw his eyes flash red.
“Eddie, the baby. Somethings wrong.”
“Fuck. Ok. We’ll get you to the hospital. Shit, Hopper!! Help!!” Eddie yelled, pushing himself away from me.
“My dads still here?” I asked as I heard him running down the hall.
“Hey what…..Oh shit. Eddie get back. NOW!” Hopper yelled, seeing his eyes a full blazing bright red. Eddie crawled away, telling Hopper to take me to the lab.
“I got it Eddie, just back away. She’ll be fine, Okay.” Hopper said, picking me up and walking away from Eddie quickly but carefully. It broke my heart to see Eddie curled into a ball, hands wrapped in his hair and crying, but I knew why. It was the last thing I remember seeing before blacking out for the second time that day.
