Life Goes On (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 2 of the Hardships Saga)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

❝afraid (pronounced əˈfreɪd or uh-freyd), adjective
to feel fear, anxiety or apprehension; frightened
eg. he was afraid of losing her.❞

He was in a hospital room again.

"The baby's not going to make it, save the wife!"

"We can't, they'll both die!"

"No," whispered Hunter, trying desperately hard to get to the bedside. "No! Not again!"

He heard a baby's cries. But for some reason, he could tell something wasn't quite right. Something was wrong. More wrong that it already was. That wasn't Lilly crying from the bed. It wasn't Lilly begging Hunter to make the pain stop, to end it all. "We're losing her!"

"Please, it hurts!"

"No! NO!" yelled Hunter. But he managed to push the nurses and doctors away from the bed. And he saw what was now his worst nightmare.

Her blonde hair was drenched in sweat, her big, green eyes wide and filled with pain. "Hunt, just let me go-"

"Ryan!" he sobbed. "No! My dove, please!"

"Just wake up," she whispered. "Wake up, Hunter!"

He gasped, his eyes fluttering open, and Ryan was leaning over him, looking worried. "Hunt? Honey, are you okay? You started shaking and mumbling, and-"

Without letting her finish, he pulled her down and kissed her deeply. "Oh my gosh," he whispered, hugging her.

"Hunt? Bluejay? What's wrong?" she said softly, slightly muffled against his chest.

"I thought I'd lost you... I thought I'd lost you for good..."

"You're not making any sense, my darling."

"I don't care," he said, and kissed her again. She gently pushed him away.

"Hunt, please. Tell me what's going on."

"It's not important."

"Darling-"

"Shut up," he groaned, rolling over so that he pinned her to the bed and kissing her. She pulled away again.

"Stop it, Hunt," she said. "Tell me what your dream was about."

He shook his head. "Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"I thought I lost you. Simple."

"It's really not."

He tried to just kiss her again, but she reached up and forced him to look at her. "Hunter," was all she said, and he sighed, rolling off her.

"Nightmare."

"I worked that part out."

He just looked at her. "If I tell you, then you have to tell me something else about yourself. I still only know that your parents are Swedish, eleven years apart, and that you like birds."

"Fine, I'll tell you something else. But you have to communicate with me here. What happened?"

"Okay. Okay. It's a recurring dream that I have."

"About?"

"Lilly."

She frowned. "But then..."

"It's about the night she died. Giving birth to Elle. But this time, it wasn't her. It was a girl with blonde hair and greenish-blue eyes."

Ryan was stunned. "M-Me?"

He shook his head, more out of confusion than anything. "I don't know why it was you, petal. I swear I don't. But I thought I had lost you. It scared me."