Babygirl, Don't Lie

Should I Stay, or Should I Go?

     When I finally awoke, I was in a hospital bed. Kai's hand was within my own as he slept in a chair beside the bed. He was wearing a Five Finger Death Punch shirt and a pair of scrubs pants. He even had his ID still clipped to the pocket. A sharp pain shot though my opposing hand as I tried to lift it to scratch my eye. An IV stuck out of my skin, pumping fluids into my body. My head was throbbing, and my eyelids were heavy. I returned my focus back to Kai and his tanned skin. His arms were covered in tattoos that worked in a way to tell a story. It started with the intricate crosses on his wrists and continued through a variety of different images. If Kai would have had his shirt off, one would've realize that his tattoo sleeves ended in very detailed and shaded skulls that faced each other. His shirt came down far enough to the point that I could see the wings that were tattooed on his collarbone. Although his face looked worried while he was sleeping, his breathing was slow and steady--5 second inhale, 5 second exhale. His muscles were tight, and it felt as though he was awake with the way he was holding my hand.
     Suddenly, there was a loud beeping noise that caused me to jump. It managed to shake Kai awake. He looked up at me with his greenish brown eyes and ran his thumb across the back of my hand. "Click the nurses button, love," Kai mumbled groggily. "You know how it works."
     I slowly reached for the remote and clicked the button. As soon as the nurse came on the speaker, I managed in the most broken tone I had ever heard, "My fluid bag just finished." She turned off the microphone soon after I spoke.
     Kai reached up with his long arm and softly began to stroke my cheek. "What caused this to happen to you? Where did I go wrong?"
     I tensed up from his touch and attempted to move away from his hand. "Well, you could've kept from bringing your side chick to work with you, for one." I managed to growl through my teeth.
     Kai's eyes grew narrow. "Excuse me?" I nodded, my eyes serious. "You think you can disrespect me because you saw me receive affection from another woman?"
     Although pain coursed through my body from the impact to the floor, I sat up and sighed. "That's just it, Kai. The same day you find out that I'm pregnant is the day I find you receiving a heated touch from another girl in our ward! You really expect me to be okay with this? You expect me not to think that she may be carrying your baby as well?" I yelled, furious now.
     "Calm down!" he hissed. "You are going to give yourself another really bad anxiety attack and cause yourself to black out again."
     I began to sob. "B...but...y-you didn't deny it..."
     All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door. A nurse dressed in green scrubs opened the door and smiled sympathetically. "I brought you a present, Silvia." She opened up the door slightly and walked over to the machine, turning off the alarm. My father stepped in to the pastel blue hospital room in his marine uniform. His face was cleanly shaven, and his eyes were a brighter shade of brown--a golden brown I had never seen before. He stood at the end of my bed. Unless my memory had begun to fail me, my dad had lost at least 20 pounds. Out of the corner of my eye, I began to watch the nurse; she had just finished changing out the bag when I saw Kai grab her wrist and whisper something into her ear.
     My dad finally broke the silence. "Hey, little one. Mind if I ask what happened to you? Because you look like you've been through hell for the past couple of days."
     I heard the hospital door room close, and the nurse was gone. "I collapsed after climbing the stairs during work, Dad.."
     "That doesn't just happen, little one."
     "I'm pregnant, Dad."
     He immediately looked at Kai, and his eyes were now the color of bark--almost a black. "If you hurt my daughter, I swear to fucking Satan in hell I will kick your motherfuckin' ass. Do I make myself clear?!" Kai's eyes were now wide with surprise, and he began to shift in an anxious manner. My father's eyes followed Kai's every movement--every fidget, shift, or twitch. My dad was serious this time. He wasn't going to have me be pregnant and already become a single mother. "I raised her on my own, you know that, Sir? I raised Silvia all on my own because her mother chose to cheat on me. Silvia was exposed to a broken home when she was only two years old; if you leave this baby--or hurt Silvia in any way--before it is even born yet, I will find you, and I will destroy you. She does not deserve to be broken, nor do you deserve her. She is my little girl, got that?"
     All Kai could manage to do was mumble, "Yes, Sir."
     My father smirked. "Listen, boy," He responded before clearing his throat. "I know how to kill you with my bare hands in under three seconds, and I know how to make your death look like an accident."
     I laid my body back down on the bed, my muscles aching like I had run a 12-mile marathon. "Dad, this is my boyfriend, Kai. Kai, this is my father, Johnathan. He's been active in the marines since I was 6 years old."
     My dad plopped down on the other chair beside me, softly rubbing my right shoulder. "Hi, Kai. I apologize for....how do you say....threatening you, but Silvia is really all I have."
     Everything became silent within the room. I took the moment of silence to observe my surroundings. There were images scattered across the wall in front of the hospital bed--images of cats, dogs, butterflies, and small pigs. The walls were a pastel blue with a tint of purple. There was a large window spanning along the wall on the right side of my bed. It looked as though the sun was setting on the horizon, for the sky was pretty shades of purple and pink. I looked to the other side of the bed. The door was on the far side of the wall from me; the bathroom was hidden in a small corner of the room. A small closet sat beside the bathroom door to the left. Next to the bed was two beside tables. All along the wall behind the hospital bed was every medical supply needed--catheters, manual blood pressure machine, oxygen tank, light switches.
     Suddenly, Kai began to speak in a monotone voice. "I already hurt your daughter."
    My dad looked up from his phone, eyes wild with frustration. "What did he do to hurt you, Silvia?"
     I whimpered quietly, clinging tightly to the teddy bear in which the nurse had left on my bed with a note that said: I heard about why you ended up in the hospital. I hope you work things out with Kai, and you have a great pregnancy. I sighed quietly. "What day is it?"
     "Thursday, March 17th," Kai stated, his eyes following the curvature of my body.
     "So I was out for three days?"
     "Sadly so."
     "Have you been here since then?" I whimpered.
     "Of course, love. I got off my shift fairly early--as soon as you collapsed--I did have to tell my boss that we got married in December in order for him to let me get off early though."
     "But we're not?"
     Kai smirked  mischievously and nodded. "I know. He also knows you're pregnant," He exclaimed.
     "Um, excuse me for interrupting, Silvia," my dad interrupted. "But how did he manage to hurt you?"
     "I let another woman touch me. Silvia thought wrong of what happened. Our co-worker was only trying to comfort me after I went through my first stillbirth. I was freaking out because I felt like Silvia could end up like the woman who cried into her husband's shoulder over the dead baby." Kai began to sob in his hands.
     My mind went blank as I laid there in between the two of them. I stared at the white tile ceiling. It was as blank as my mind at the moment.
     My dad laid his hand softly on my shoulder. "I'm going to go to the cafeteria. Want me to grab you anything?"
     I nodded, looking over at him and smiling. "Bring me back a piece of pizza and a Sprite please, Dad." He nodded and disappeared out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.
     Kai scooted closer and held my hand. By now, his face was tear-streaked and no smile existed. "I'm sorry, my pet. I didn't mean for you to get hurt or worried over another woman," he muttered.
     "It's okay, Sir. You should've told me when I first woke up. I'm sorry for yelling..."
     "It's okay, sweetheart. I didn't know what was running through your head until you started getting upset with me. You have to learn how to speak when you get upset, not yell."
     I nodded, cuddling with my teddy bear as I curled up. "When can I go home with you, babe?" I questioned, pouting sleepily.
     All became silent as I laid my hand against my stomach. I looked up at Kai and saw galaxies--life forms and stars included--within his eyes. A long life had been in Kai's rear-view mirror. His silence spoke for the stars in his eyes and the darkness in his voice. No need for spoken words when he feels alone in a crowded room. When he blinked, I could see the hint of broken hearts and loneliness on his lips. When he opened his mouth to speak to me, no words managed to escape--only deafening silence managed to fill the empty space between us. His hair was fire, the streaks burning an auburn color while the rest shimmered brown.
     The silence was broken by a knock at the door. A doctor skipped across the threshold and smiled happily at me. "Hello, Miss Silvia Rider!" He walked over to the computer stationed beside my bed and logged in, looking at my chart. Vivid colors highlighted important information to indicate different subjects. "So the blood pregnancy test we had done shows positive which is good news--or so I believe with your boyfriend being right there." I took a look down to where we were holding hands and I smiled.
     Kai nodded. "I am guessing there is bad news as well," he stated plainly.
     "Yes, of course. Silvia has a mental condition that even present day medicine cannot fix, and also it doesn't have a name as of yet. When she is overwhelmed with any emotion, she has the possibility of blacking out and going into a coma, so you must be careful with how she is treated," he explained. "Best news is you can go home as soon as tomorrow. We just need to have a 24-hour-observation." He nodded to both of us, and after being thanked, he skipped out of the room.
     My dad never showed back up, and night came quickly upon us. Sleep fell heavily on me. I slept soundly that night, for they finally took the IV out of the back of my hand. The next morning, I signed the discharge papers and rode home with Kai. As soon as I was home, it was back to bed for me.