| |
––––––––
ZACH WAS STARTING TO lose sleep. Actually, starting to wasn't exactly the truth, was it? He'd been getting less and less sleep since first meeting Betty, and in the weeks since returning from their weekend at the cabin, it had gotten much worse. They had had a wild time that weekend, full of experiences he never expected to have when he'd convinced her to enter into his strange little agreement. When they had returned home their trip had been splashed all over the media, and Lucille seemed to be having a harder and harder time making it seem like there was still anything between the two of them. The headlines on the gossip sites were changing from titles implicating that Zach was messing around before he settled down to suggestions that he and Betty might be the real deal. It was good; it was exactly what he'd wanted, and the two of the had continued to go out on dates to keep appearances up. Everything should have been gravy, and it would have been except that he could tell something was off. It was in the expression on Betty's face as she stared out of the car window when she didn't think he was paying attention. It was in the forced smiles he’d received when he cracked a joke or the silence that consumed more and more of their conversations. She was still there with him when she was supposed to be, but for the first time since meeting her, it felt like she was only going through the motions. It was all he had any right to expect of her. He was paying her for that much and nothing more. He had no right to be annoyed by her lack of presence during their time and yet annoyed was exactly how he felt. He wanted what the two of them had had sitting outside of the cabin when they had spoken to each other like they were both human beings, without any of the bullshit that so often got in the way. There had been something between the two of them and for some reason, it was gone. Except that he didn't think it really was gone. He thought that, for some reason, she was closing herself off to him and it was driving him half-mad. It was driving him mad enough that he took it upon himself to show up at her front door one evening without announcing himself or being invited.
"What the hell am I doing?" he muttered to himself with his fist poised just over the surface of her front door. This was moving squarely out of the carefully drawn-out guidelines of their agreement and into something else. He didn't know what the something else was, but he knew it was dangerous. It was a gray area, full of his feelings and God only knew what was going on inside of Betty's head. The best thing for him to do was turn around and go back home, and do it quickly, too, before she looked out the window or something and realized he was there. Instead of doing that he knocked and waited for her to appear, his blood rushing through his veins so quickly it sounded like an ocean moving through his head.
"Hello?" she called quietly through the door. It wasn't a nice apartment, not by any means, and the door didn't have a peephole for her to look through. He felt a wave of anger over the fact she was living in a place like this and wondered what it would take for her to let him put her up some place nicer. She would never let him do it, but if he thought for a second that she would, he'd have a moving van there faster than she could even finish the sentence giving her consent.
“It’s Zach, Betty.”
"Zach?" she asked in a groggy, puzzled voice as she undid the multiple latches and opened the door. She looked exhausted and now that he was seeing her without being made up for a date like she had been that way for a long time. Nothing could have made him feel like more of an asshole. He'd been worrying about himself and himself alone and never once realized that she might be going through some shit, too.
"Hey, babe." He had no idea where the use of "babe" had come from, but it felt right. If she was thrown off by it she didn't show it, but only peered at him in confusion.
“Hey. I’m sorry, did we have a date tonight? I must have forgotten. I haven’t been feeling quite myself today.”
“No,” he answered quickly lest she feel like she’d somehow dropped the ball, “we didn’t. I just wanted to check in. Wanted to see how you were.”
“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you are. I’ve just been getting a weird vibe lately.”
“Do you listen to every vibe you get?” she asked. He looked for a smirk, some sign of humor, and got nothing. She only looked at him with those beautiful, tired eyes.
"Not all, but most. Hey, would it be okay if I came in?" The question was blunt, and Zach had to work to hide his irritation. He had worked harder to make this woman like him, to trust him, more than he'd ever worked for anyone in his life and it didn't seem to matter even a little bit.
"Sure," she said uncertainly, opening the door only a little further as if to indicate that she was allowing him in against her better judgment. He followed her inside nevertheless and would likely have said something he regretted if Betty had not collapsed on her living room floor. When he saw that he sprinted forward, doing his best to catch her before she hit the floor and not quite making it.
"Betty! What is it? What's the matter?" he shouted. She gave no answer, passed out cold on the floor. He checked her pulse and then fumbled his phone out of his pocket, desperate to get her help. The first thing he did was call Matt. He knew without a doubt that Matt would get her to the hospital quicker than anyone, quicker than the ambulance, even. While he waited for the car to arrive, he cradled Betty's head in his lap and willed her to wake up.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I’M SURE YOU’LL BE happy to know that your baby is going to be just fine.”
“Wait. What? What do you mean?”
Zach could only imagine what his face must look like. Matt had done a bang-up job getting the three of them to the hospital, and because Zach was who he was, she had gotten in immediately to see a doctor. Zach had felt like he was losing his mind waiting to get some kind of an answer and he was relieved to see the doctor walking towards them with a smile on his face. What he wasn't prepared for were the words that came out of said doctor's mouth. The doctor looked at him with surprise, then smiled, and Zach wondered how many times he had seen something like this happen.
“Ah, I see. I’m the one delivering the good news. Then I suppose you’ll be very pleased to know that both mother and baby are just fine.”
“That’s...that’s good. That’s good to hear. Can you tell me what–?”
“What happened? She’s not taking as good of care of herself as she should be. She needs to make sure she’s staying hydrated and taking her prenatal vitamins. I’m going to send the two of you home with some just to be on the safe side.”
“Good,” he said in a voice that sounded too far away, “that’s good.”
"I know this must be a lot to take in, but I'm here to answer any questions you might have."
“Good. Great. I have one question, though. More of a request, actually.”
“Of course. Shoot.”
“I would very much appreciate it if you kept this whole thing quiet. I don’t know if you know who I am–”
“I do. I think most people know who you are.”
"Then you know that discretion is important for me. I don't need anybody catching wind of this, if you take my meaning."
“I do, and I can assure you that would never happen. I’m bound to silence. It’s part of my oath.”
Zach nodded and settled back into his chair. He didn’t need to look at Matt to know that the two of them were feeling pretty much the same thing.
"Shit," Matt said in a low voice.
“Yup,” Zach agreed, “Shit sounds about right.”
