Never Told You

Chapter Fourteen

A tickling sensation on my collar bone caused me to flutter my eyes open. River's hand was on me, and he looked lost in his thoughts.

"River? Is that you?" I sounded like I hadn't used my voice in months. River looked shocked, and jumped up quickly.

"NURSE!!!" River's loud voice scared me out of my skin. At that thought, I realized River was tracing my tattoo. The tattoo I never told him about, along with others. I looked around the room, and realized I was in a hospital. I could barely remember what happened, and how I got here. The last thing I remembered was Hunter showing up to my apartment, and walking me to the living room with his friends. Hunter..he's the reason I'm here. I wonder if they were able to get a hold of my mom. A nurse ran into the room, and looked shocked to see me awake.

"Ms. Grey, we weren't expecting you to wake up. I need to do an examination on you, and draw some samples of blood." I nodded, but remained silent. My throat hurt, and I didn't feel like talking. As the nurse began her examination, pain started spreading through my body. My ankle was in a boot; my hand wrapped in medical bandages. My forehead felt tight, and my face felt deranged. Under my gown, I saw a long skinny bandage going from the middle of my chest all the way down to my belly buttons. My breasts had bruises. I wondered where Hunter was now. As soon as the nurse left, I asked.

"Is Hunter..in jail?" River cleared his throat and looked down.

"Well...I knew I would have to answer this eventually. Hunter and his buddies got arrested. There was a trial, but the only evidence pointed to his buddy Gavin. Hunter got off again, and no one has seen him. I swear when I find him, I will kill him." My nerves dropped hearing the bad news about Hunter. River's deep voice also sent chills down my spine. How could this even be possible? The nurse came back into the room with a file and clipboard.

"Ms. Grey, I'm your nurse. My name is Betty. I have some results here that I need to discuss with you." I nodded and paused before responding.

"You can call me Lauren, and it's nice to meet you. River...can you leave the room? I would be more comfortable discussing this in private." RIver nodded and walked out of the room. I hope I didn't upset him.

"Lauren, before you woke up I drew some blood and had it sent to the lab. It seems as though you're a month and a half pregnant. I'm not sure if you knew, and I hate to break the news to you. Your blood is also exhibiting high risk of blood clotting, also known as thrombophilia. It means you're at a higher risk of miscarrying. Where you've been through so much trauma the last few weeks, we'd like to keep you to monitor you and the fetus." My voice caught in my throat. A month and a half? That would mean that River would be the dad..

"A month and a half? That can't be right." The nurse looked at her papers again.

"Blood results don't lie. Where we have Hunter's DNA on file, we compared the amounts of trace DNA from the fetus and Hunter's together, and there's no match. This could be caused because we didn't have very much DNA from the baby. So these result could be inconclusive." I cleared my throat.

"How long have I been here? How am I a month and a half pregnant? I had sex maybe three weeks ago, and that's too early to determine pregnancy." The nurse put her hand on my arm to calm me.

"You've been here for a month. In a coma of course, and you haven't woken up until today. You have progressed greatly in the healing process, and like I said before, we'd like to keep you for a couple days to monitor you and the fetus. Unless you wanted to abort, then we offer those services here as well to any rape victims." I gulped my saliva down. Was I raped again?

"Was I...did I test positive to a rape kit?" I was nervous to hear the answer, even though I knew she was gonna say yes.

"You have. We had trace amounts of semen to convict Gavin of rape during the trial." No wonder there was already a trial, and of course the victim wasn't awake to speak up against her attackers. I sighed.

"I don't think this baby is Gavin's. Is it possible to do an actual DNA test with the fetus so young and already at risk?" Betty remained silent for a minute reading her papers.

"Yes, it is possible. We would, however, need a sample from who you believe the father is. Anything really. Is River who you believe the father is?" I nodded my head yes.

"I do believe that River is the father, but I don't want him to know about the baby until I know for sure that he's the father." Betty nodded, thinking hard. I knew she was going to come up with someone.

"When you first arrived here, River was by your side. You needed a blood transfusion so we already have his DNA on file. We need to get an ultrasound done to determine how stable the baby is, and go from there on how to extract DNA from the fetus." I nodded.

"Okay. Let's do it." Betty nodded and left my room. About five minutes later, River came back in.

"Are you okay?" I nodded.

"Yeah. I actually wanted to thank you for staying with me." I couldn't read River's face.

"Of course. I would never want anyone to wake up alone." I sighed.

"I was wondering if you'd go get me a burger and french fries from..that one diner you had me meet you at. I can't remember the name." River chuckled.

"Of course. I'll be back Lauren. Get some rest." River then kissed my forehead and left. The diner was across town, and I knew I had bought myself an hour for Betty to perform the ultrasound and extract the DNA. I was relieved I got River out of here. The ultrasound and DNA extraction went faster than I thought it would.

"Lauren, we have some news from the ultrasound." I swallowed hard and then responded.

"Okay.." Betty chuckled at me.

"Your baby, even after having experienced terrible trauma, is in healthy shape. Everything we were worried about, appeared normal. Of course, we found the heartbeat and you got to hear it." I nodded in agreement with her statement. Hearing that my baby was healthy made me less stressed. I couldn't lose another baby to Hunter.

"THank god." You could hear relief evident in my voice.

"The DNA is at the lab being tested. It's hard to say when we'll have the results. Hopefully within thirty more minutes."

"Okay. Thank you so much Betty. You don't know how much you've helped me." As soon as I finished my sentence, River walked in. It had already been an hour.

"Lauren, Betty. Hope all you've been discussing is good news." Betty walked out of the room, and left River and I alone.

"Thank you so much. It smells amazing. I went a whole month without this yummy food." I smiled at River as he chuckled.

"I would do anything to make you feel more comfortable." Butterflies spread in my stomach. Even though I was still upset at what he had done, he still had this crazy effect on me. By the time I finished my food, River went to the vending machine for a drink and Betty was in my room with the DNA results.

"So, the DNA results have been conclusive. They show that River, is indeed, the fetus's father." I was shocked to hear the news, but was expecting River to be the dad. I couldn't keep this from him. He needed to know, and the thought of telling him scared me.

"Hey Lauren, they didn't have 7up, so I just got you a Sprite. I hope that's okay." River rushed over to me when he saw me crying.

"River..we need to talk. Betty told me some news, and you deserve to know." River nodded, watching me intensely.

"Okay, anything. Are you okay Lauren? I'm worried." I looked into his eyes and nodded.

"River, I'm pregnant. You tested DNA positive as the father.." The room remained silent, and River had a shocked expression. I couldn't tell if it was good or bad. It was at this moment, I regretted telling him about the pregnancy.