And Then There Was You (Chris Evans AU)

June (Part 3)

Daphne POV

  I cross another day off of the calendar my mother gave me that now continuously sits next to my hospital bed that I have now occupied for the last two weeks. 

  Thirty-four weeks.

  The ultimate goal is of course forty weeks, which Dr. Kallen is certain that as long as I continue to follow their strict orders, and that Juniper doesn't do something crazy, we'll meet without issue. 

  However, I just continue to hold my breath. Bedrest at home was miserable enough, but bedrest in a hospital is a whole different world of restrictions. I have to even buzz the nurses station to get help to go to the restroom. Showering or bathing is on their schedule, not my own, which is a pain in the rear when my limbs become extra restless in the middle of the night. 

  Outside of two meals a week, I'm on a strict low salt diet of hospital food. Dr. Kallen said I couldn't have Mr. Danny's chicken sandwiches anymore after my mother was nice and brought him up one as well. He couldn't believe how salty the breading was, so I talked him into a compromise. I'd eat hospital food every day until this baby was born if I could have just one small sandwich a week. He reluctantly agreed as long as none of my numbers changed drastically. I even bartered with another twenty ounces of water on that particular day. 

  I really hate water at this point.

  Flipping through the same stations on the television day in and day out becomes mind numbing. I can only read for so long before my eyes are heavy and want to close on their own accord. I basically just try and bide my time until the next visitor comes through my door.

  Mom comes by at least four times a week for a handful of hours at a time. Dad always pops in on his lunch break. It's short, but it's something. Ollie and James take turns with Rene and Hazel, switching off in the parking lot with the kids since they're not allowed on my particular floor. 

  But my favorite time of day is six in the evening. The door always opens at the same moment each night, revealing my  hard working husband. No matter his exhaustion he always greets me with a smile. 

  We've been lucky with Meridian, considering how he was at the start of coming on at the station. He's kept Chris and Hayden both on the same shifts every day, and said he'd give a heads up if or when it would change so we can prepare.

  But, there's still hours before that hunk of man comes waltzing through the doors and I am bored out of my mind. Grabbing my phone up I decide to scroll through old photos over the last year, pausing every so often to remember what was happening when certain moments were captured. 

  I stop at a photo that is almost a year old at this point. Fourth of July is around the corner and I think back to that night full of fireworks at the fair grounds, twisting my ankle and Chris making it very apparent to a flirtatious bystander that he was happily taken. 

  Coming to a silly photo I caught of Chris the night I surprised him with ice cream sundaes for dinner I can't help but giggle. I remember now that it was the same day Dr. Kallen told me I needed to start taking ovulation tests. Just a month later we realized exactly what kind of trek we were on when we discovered I wasn't ovulating. 

  I scroll even further back, going as far as the night of the homecoming game when Chris told me I was his girlfriend. I laugh now, thinking how silly it is for a near thirty year old to want to be called girlfriend and boyfriend, but at the time it meant everything to me. It was the first step in knowing that he was in fact serious about me.

  And a month and a half worth of photos earlier than that brings me to the week after the accident. The event that started our whole story, without our knowledge of course. I think about how different the outcome would be right now if he hadn't picked up that shift.

  I can pretty much guarantee I wouldn't be sitting in a hospital bed counting down the minutes until he walked through the door. 

  A text notification comes across my screen from my mother. I open to see a video of Dodger and Sarah playing outside at my parent's house. They'd been keeping him on and off during the week since Chris was barely home except to sleep.

  "I miss him so much," I type out. "Think you can sneak him in?"

  She sends a laughing emoji before telling me she doesn't have a purse big enough. And pretty positive that his barking would alert more than one person on the floor. 

  "Give him belly rubs for me and tell him I can't wait to see him again."

 I'll be lucky if he doesn't gnaw me in half once I come back home with the baby.

  "Daphne," I hear my name whispered above my head before feeling a soft kiss against my temple.

  "Hmm," I hum in my sleep, trying to pull myself back into the land of the living and out of my dreams.

  "Sleepy head?"

  Rolling from my left side onto my back, I groan a bit louder than I'd planned. "Baby, you okay?" his hand immediately finding my belly.

  I nod my head, blinking my eyes awake. "I just missed the best moment of my day," I whine, shifting over to the side of the bed, giving him space.

  Chris' brow furrows. "What do you mean?"

  "I didn't get to see you walk through the door." My lower lip pouts out at his own smiling ones. "Go out and come back in."

  He laughs at me, thinking I can't possibly be serious. I point at the door. "Go."

  "Daph,-"

  "Chris." I push myself to sit up a bit better, careful of all the wires and monitors wrapped around me. "Don't make me ask again."

  "Yes, ma'am, " he chuckles as he heads back out the door. It closes behind him before I hear him ask, "Ready now?"

  "Yes."

  The door swings open, revealing my gorgeous husband, giving me exactly what I've longed for all day. 

  "Ya know," he says, walking back over to the hospital bed. He toes off his work boots before finding his spot next to me again. "I realized something we've not done in a while, especially with you being here in the hospital."

  I stop to think for a moment, unsure of what he could possibly be talking about. "What is that?"

  He takes his cell from his pocket, flicking through a handful of screens before stopping. A melody beginning as he works his left arm behind my back, bringing me closer towards him while his other hand rests against the bottom part of my womb. "We haven't danced in a while. So, Mrs. Evans, can I have this dance?"

  "Sure, if you wait for my next trip to the bathroom," I laugh out. "I mean, you'll have to deal with a nurse taking a part in the jig."

  "No, Daphne. Right here, in this bed." And he begins rocking me ever so slightly as I continue to lay in the hospital bed. 

*I know it's been a long couple of months without a Daphne and Chris update. But, here we are. Hopefully this jumpstarts their story again, but we'll see.