Hold On

Chapter 34

          

      I woke up again with an oxygen mask placed over my face. I was in pain. More than I had been before. I don't know what had happened since then. I remember fainting and that was it. I was back in my hospital bed, hearing the same old heart monitor beeping beside me and breathing in the given oxygen from the hospital's tools. I had a headache, feeling like it had been caused by pressure. Once I had the strength to hold my head up, I glanced up around the room. Once again, Ethan and my father were here. Ethan was dozed off in the chair by my bed, and my father had obviously stepped out of the room. I knew he was here because I saw his jacket dangling over another chair a few feet away from Ethan's.

"Great, you're awake." A familiar voice sounded through the room.

I glanced over to see the doctor waltzing in. Ethan's head launched up from hearing his words than instantly gazed over at me. I hardly had the strength to look over at him. I felt incredibly weak. He scooted his chair closer to sit beside my bed, and took my hand in his, giving me more comfort than I had experience consciously all day. I groaned, not being able to do much more.

"Oh, still in pain, I see." He continued, with a bit of amusement in his voice, which annoyed me quite a bit, if I'm honest.

"Baby, do you remember anything?" E asked me. I shook my head in response.

"Ms.Winter, after you fainted two nights ago, we had to induce you." The doctor explained.

"Two nights ago?" I asked shocked. "And what do you mean you had to induce me?" I said weakly.

"Claire, you've been out for a good 28 hours," E informed me.

"We had to give you anesthesia to keep you asleep. We had to give you D&E, which stands for dilation and evacuation." He said, and I just stared at him, confused by every word he spoke, then he explained, "We had to give birth to your baby."

Tears welled up in my eyes and I just shook my head, practically telling him that I didn't want to hear any more about the occurrences from the past day. E squeezed my hand, obviously only imagining what I must be thinking or what was going through at the time. He stared at me, his eyes and nose red from crying.

"When did you get here?" I asked him through gritted teeth.

"They called me at work yesterday...Told me what was going on. I got here as fast as I could." He explained. I thought about what people in school must have been thinking about the teacher ditching but soon dismissed the thoughts from my brain.

Suddenly, I thought of what time it was, and immediately looked at Ethan as the doctor made his way out.

"ETHAN...It's gotta be like six thirty in the morning! You have to get to school!" I said trying to get a better look at the clock on the wall.

"Don't worry about that, babe. This is much more important." He said trying to plaster a smile. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged, "How am I supposed to feel? Every part of me feels empty. There's nothing there anymore." I started to cry.

Instead of saying anything else, E just hugged me and held me there for the longest time while I cried into his chest. He pressed his lips to the top of my head as often as he could. Once I finally stole a glance at him, I noticed his red eyes and pulled him back to me, hugging him tighter this time. My face was on his neck, and I slowly turned into him, kissing the space between his neck and shoulder.

"Are we gonna be okay?" I asked, almost as a whisper.

He instantly looked at me, confusion took over his features, "We're gonna be fine."