Nicole insists we wait for Emma to wake up before they do the ultrasound, even though the doc says they can roll a cart in here right now and check things out. Nicole gets right up in my face, flaring her nostrils at me, and I'm about to lose my damn mind when Tim and Alice rush into the room.
He puts a hand on my shoulder and I tense my whole body, not sure if I want to punch him just to release all this energy, or collapse against him like I'm ten years old and he's the only one I can lean on.
Tim pulls me into a hug and says, "We are going to figure all this out, Thatcher. All of us. Together." Alice grabs my hand and rubs my thumb and my breathing slows a little bit. I'm not sure how much time passes. Tim and Alice and Nicole cycle in and out, taking turns sitting with me by Emma's bed and I guess camping out in the waiting room. Who even knows.
It feels like one hundred years before Emma groans and opens her eyes, curling up in a ball on her side. "Shhh, Chezz." I put my face next to hers on the bed, my hand stroking her hair. I remember that she had terrible muscle aches the last time she had a seizure and I wonder if I should buzz someone to bring her any pain meds. “Emma, talk to me, please."
Her mouth works up and down, and side to side, before she meets my eyes and says, "Thatcher." A single tear spills out from one eye, and I bite my lip, wanting to take all this away from her and knowing it can't. "I thought I was done having seizures. I thought I was going to be normal." She starts to cry, and I kiss her forehead, trying to soothe her with gentle touches.
"You are perfect, Emma. You know that, right? You're perfect to me. You're my everything." I climb into the bed and try to scoop her into my lap without disrupting her IV, but all the commotion sets off a series of beeps on her IV pole. It's probably just as well, because the nurse comes in so I ask her if there's anything she can give Emma for her aching muscles.
The nurse frowns at me, but I'm not going to leave my Chezz and climb out of this bed without a fight. "Can you go get Dr. Khalsa?" My voice is sharper than I intend, but I've never had a pregnant girlfriend before and fuck everyone standing in the way of me knowing answers.
Emma settles in against my shoulder and asks me what happened. I'm not sure if she remembers the fight we were having before her seizure, but I leave that part out and assure her I called her doctor right away and drove her here to meet with him. "I actually don't know how long ago that was, Chezz. I think it might be morning by now…"
Nicole and, inexplicably, Ty come into the room just then. "Emma!" Ty crouches by the bed so she doesn't have to look up at his big, tall mug. "Listen. I have to fly out in like fifteen minutes, but I couldn't leave town without coming in to see if you were doing ok."
"Well, Ty," she says, grinning, "I feel like shit. But I appreciate you making a pit stop for little old me. Tell me what's going on out there." Emma gestures toward the waiting room while Nicole chugs coffee and taps her foot.
Ty smiles one of his devilish grins. "Did you see Juniper got a tattoo?" Emma nods. "It's fucking hot. You should get one, too." He winks at Emma. "When you're done being pregnant, obviously."
Fuck. I feel Emma stiffen. Her eyes widen and her voice seeps out in a whisper. "What?"
"Ah shit. Did I screw up?" Ty stands up, his joints popping, as Nicole swats him in the stomach.
"Get the fuck out of here and go win a hockey game, Tyrion," she says, capturing my sentiments. "Listen, Ems." Nicole sits on the bed and squeezes Emma's hand. "Dr. Khalsa thinks you had a seizure because your body is adjusting to rapidly shifting hormones."
"What are you talking about? Thatcher, what the hell do you guys know?"
Nicole raises her eyebrows. I sigh. "Emma, babe." I rub her shoulder and meet her eyes. Her pupils are tiny and I can tell she's terrified. "They did a bunch of tests when you came in, just to rule stuff out. One of them was a pregnancy test, sweetheart. And it was positive."
She starts shaking her head. "Nope. No. I'm on the pill." She looks at Nicole. "I always take my meds. I never miss my meds! I don't fucking drink. I set timers. I have little pill trays all sectioned out."
"Dr. Khalsa was saying that antibiotic you were on a little while ago might have made your birth control pills ineffective," I tell her. I'm not sure how I feel about how upset she seems, but then again, I'd be pissed too if people had conversations about me while I was passed out.
"Thatcher," she looks up at me. "That was 2 months ago." I nod. "So I'm 2 months pregnant? That's like…really pregnant…"
I weave my fingers through hers and raise her hand to kiss it gently. By this time, Ty has left but Tim and Alice have wandered back in along with Nicole, so the room is really fucking crowded when Dr. Khalsa pops his head in with a thin woman in scrubs. "Ah! Emma! I heard you were up," he says. "This is Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, one of our high-risk obstetricians."
Emma's eyes shoot around the room, flitting between all the doctors and Stags and Nicole. Dr. Hudson shakes Emma's hand and pulls a small machine out of her pocket. "Emma, if Dr. Khalsa's theory about your pregnancy is accurate, you should be far enough along that I could pick up a heartbeat on this device. If you could raise your gown we could check things out, make sure everything is ok with Baby."
Emma shakes her head, and I frown. I move to help her raise her gown but she swats my hand out of the way. "I'm not doing that," she says.
"Chezz," I start, sliding off the edge of the bed. "Come on. We have to see if the baby is ok after your seizure. I'm fucking dying here not knowing."
Emma meets my eye and I see a fury unlike she's shown me for a long time. She grits her teeth and says, through a locked jaw, "It doesn't matter if it's fine because I'm not going to stay pregnant."