You're Not Just A Teenage Dream | C.H.

"Yeah, of course, whatever you need."

Calum walked into Dakota's room to see her on the floor next to her bed, legs pulled up to her chest, crying, and she kept trying to say something, but when Calum's eyes went up to her bed, his stomach dropped.

"Dakota? Oh my god, are you okay?" He dropped to his knees and cradled her to his chest. "What's going on?"

"Blood...why is there so much blood? Should there be blood?" Dakota choked out.

"I don't know baby, I don't know..." He held her tighter to his chest. "Robbie, can you look something up for me?"

"Yeah, what do you need?"

"Can you look up bleeding during pregnancy?" Calum asked nervously as Robbie sat down at the counter and started typing on his laptop. "Baby, I need you to sit up and talk to me, okay?" He stroked her hair and tried to get her to calm down, but she clutched her stomach in pain.

"It hurts...why does it hurt so much?" She just kept crying as Calum held her in his lap. "There's so much blood..."

"Cal, you need to call someone..." Robbie called from the kitchen.

"Please, just bring it to me and let me read it, I'm not leaving her alone like this." Robbie just brought his laptop into the room, avoiding eye contact with Calum. He set it on floor and tried to scroll through the website Robbie had found. "No...no. There's absolutely no way. No. Get this shit away from me!" He pushed the laptop away from him and carried Dakota into the bathroom.

"Will you grab me clean clothes please?" Dakota asked, slamming the medicine cabinet closed after she grabbed ibuprofen.

"Give me a second princess. I'll be right back." He kissed her forehead and closed the door behind him. "Robbie, is Dave here?"

"No, I think he's out with his girl tonight." He was still avoiding eye contact with Calum after what he had read.

"Okay, then I need you to help me. Will you grab the blanket and sheets and put clean ones on while I get Dakota clean clothes?"

"Yeah, of course, whatever you need." With that, they set about trying to clean up as best they could. Dakota took her medicine and curled up on the floor again, still in way too much pain to function.

"Princess...I need to you to get up so you can change your clothes, okay?" Calum said gently when he re-entered the bathroom. She just nodded her head and stood up slowly, taking the clothes from him and changing. He tried to look away, but seeing the amount of blood on the bed, and now on her clothes, he felt like his whole world had been pulled out from under him. When Dakota finished changing, she left her clothes in a pile in the corner, and Calum picked her back up and carried her back to bed.

"Cal...I think I need to go to the doctor tomorrow..." She said sleepily as he tucked her in with a clean blanket Robbie had found in her closet.

"We can talk about that in the morning, okay? Just try and get some sleep now. I love you so much." He kissed her forehead before grabbing the dirty sheets and blanket and taking them into the bathroom. He threw everything in the bathtub and tried his best to scrub out as much of the blood as he could before filling the tub with hot water and laundry detergent to soak overnight. When he was finished, he crawled in bed with Dakota, holding her as close to him as he could, knowing he wouldn't sleep at all. Luckily, the medicine she had taken had finally kicked in and she was fast asleep.

—-

"I'm so sorry, I can't find the heartbeat. This, accompanied with the symptoms you described, you have, unfortunately, experienced a loss of pregnancy. When you're ready, there are resources I can give you to deal with this. I'm so sorry, I'll give you two a moment." The same technician who had first given them the unexpected good news all those weeks ago had just delivered the most crushing blow either of them had experienced in their 20 years. She wiped the gel off of Dakota's stomach and took the ultrasound machine with her when she left the room.

"Princess..." Calum whispered, grabbing her hand. "We can get through this. I know we can." He stroked her hair, not knowing what else to do.

"Can we just go?" Dakota said quietly, silent tears streaming down her face. She was trying to refuse to believe that her baby was gone, but she felt an emptiness that was different than anything she had ever experienced before.

"Whatever you want my love. Let's go." He helped her down from the examination chair and draped his arm around her shoulders, as if trying to protect her from the news they had just received. They walked out of the doctor's office silently, avoiding the sympathetic looks of the staff. Even as they got in the car, Dakota leaned as far away from Calum as she could, feeling like he must blame her for the miscarriage.

"Please, don't tell anyone yet. I don't want that kind of attention right now." Dakota's voice was flat, but there was an undertone of complete despair that broke Calum's heart.

"Alright princess." They spent the rest of the drive in silence again, save for the radio playing softly. Dakota looked out the window, not wanting to look at Calum. On the other hand, Calum could hardly keep his eyes on the road, he was so worried about Dakota, but he was also trying to keep his own emotions under control. Before Dakota had told him that she was pregnant, having kids seemed like another lifetime away, but as soon she told him, he warmed up to the idea immediately. He wanted to be a dad, and he was sure that he wanted Dakota to be the mother of his kids and his wife, and now that the baby was gone, he felt like he had been robbed. He was positive that he still wanted to marry her, but now, he had no idea if she would still want to marry him.

---

"I'm going to go lay down." Dakota said as they walked up to the front door of her apartment.

"Do you want me to come with you?" He didn't want to leave her alone in this state, he had never seen her like this.

"No. I just...want to be alone right now." She replied, never looking back at him as she continued straight back to her bedroom. She closed the door behind her, and, without even taking her jacket or boots off, she crawled into bed. She grabbed one of her pillows and cuddled it, mostly to muffle the sound of her crying. She still had really painful cramps that she had somehow managed to conceal for most of the day, but those were nothing compared to the emotional pain she felt radiating throughout her body. Initially, she wasn't even sure that she wanted to tell Calum that she was pregnant, but as soon as she did, and she saw how excited he was, she warmed up to idea of being a mom more and more, until she had no idea why she doubted it in the first place. Her life had finally begun to turn around, and she finally felt like she had a stable future, and it was ripped from her in one night.

---

Calum pretended to not hear Dakota crying for the first 10 minutes or so, but hearing her in so much pain was just hurting him more, so he turned off the TV that he wasn't watching anyway and opened her bedroom door.

"Dakota, I know you said you wanted to be alone, but I can't stand not comforting you right now." He took off her boots and helped her wiggle out of her jacket, before taking off his own shoes and wrapping his arms around her.

"I just...I was so ready to be a mom..." Dakota whispered, a fresh wave of tears hitting her. "You don't...you don't blame me, do you?

"Princess, why would I blame you? The doctor even said, there's no way to know what caused it. The universe just wasn't ready for the awesomeness that would come out of our kid. None of this is your fault, okay?" He tightened his grip on her, trying to let her know that he did not hold her responsible for this.

"But...what if we can't have our own kids?"

"Then we'll adopt. None of this will change how I feel about you, or whatever biological or adopted kids we have. As long as I have you, everything will always work out."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

"Do you still want to marry me?" Dakota asked nervously, not sure if he would change his answer or not.

"Of course I do! Whether we elope or not, I just want to be your husband and I want you to be my wife, forever." Dakota finally turned around to face him.

"I love you Calum, but maybe we should wait to get married..." She slid off her ring and placed it in his hand.

"As long as you're sure..." Calum sighed.

"I'm sure. Maybe a couple of years down the road, but, let's wait a little longer, okay?"

"Okay."