"You had a baby 10 years ago"
That was the first thing he said to her when he walked through the door of that ICU room.
Given he should have checked on her first, told her their daughter was as okay as she could be for the circumstances, told her that he loved her.
Any of those would have be great first options.
But it came out of his mouth before his brain even had time to stop him.
He stood there frozen at the end of the bed as she stared at him with a blank stare.
"Who told you that?" She asked in barely a whisper
"The nurse.." he shook his head "she was telling me the reason you were bleeding so much and how we ended up here had to do with the amount of pregnancies you've had." He took a breath "I tried to correct her when she said you'd had four pregnancies, then she drops this bombshell on me that you had a kid 10 years ago" he shook his head
"I was 16, a kid, in a bad relationship and scared" she said with a nod "I found out after one of the numerous beatings I took from him... one of the worst ones, I ended up in the hospital and they did a bunch of tests and found out I was pregnant"
"Why did you never tell me this before?" He asked as he pulled the chair from the corner of the room to the side of the bed
"Because I was embarrassed" she shrugged "You knew me as a goody goody.. this always working, head in her books, focused adult" she said and he nodded "but it took me a long time to get there.. after I found out I was pregnant, I didn't have much time to figure out what to do. I was already almost seven months in at that point"
"You were seven months pregnant and didn't know?"
"My periods have never been normal so I didn't think anything of it, I always been on birth control and it made me have weird side effects and gain weight" she shrugged
"You were also a kid" he nodded
"I knew I couldn't raise a kid still being one myself" she shook her head "more so I knew I couldn't have his kid and ever expect to get him out of my life.. by the time I found out it was too late for any other option so adoption was the only logical choice"
"Do you know anything? Like what it was or where they are?" He questioned and she nodded
"It was a Boy, his adoptive parents named him Greyson.. but they call him Grey" she nodded "they moved to London when Grey was a little over a year old.. he's doing really well with them, he's got really good grades in school, he's got a good group of friends around him, he's on a soccer team" she nodded
"You know all of this how?"
"I get semi regular updates, like every year they'll send me information and pictures to my mum's house"
"Wait.." he shook his head "the picture on your the wall at your mom's house of the little boy you were holding at a park.." he trailed off and she nodded
"That's him" she said
"I wish you would have told me this sooner.." he reached for her hand "we could have tracked him down, had dinner with him.. we could have done something with him when we were in London"
"No" she looked him in the eyes "no" she shook her head "We leave him alone, we don't find him, we don't reach out.. we don't track him down"
"Why not?"
"Well for starters I told his parents I wouldn't ever do any of that as long as they kept me somewhat updated" she nodded "and for two.. I don't want word to get back to Nick.. if he ever found out that he has a kid in this world.." she shook her head "just no.. to keep Greyson safe.. nobody else needs to know about this. Ever" she said sternly "promise me" she looked him in the eyes once more, this time with a more determined and protective look in her eyes
"I promise" Colby nodded "Nobody else will know"
