I'll keep you safe

Chapter 37

Eddie sat in the waiting room, shaking with nerves.

Rachel had been rushed away by doctors and nurses as soon as they had arrived at the hospital. He'd watched helplessly as she was wheeled away on a hospital trolley, unconscious and dangerously pale.

Eddie had been left behind in the waiting room to answer questions from one of the Nurses.

An hour had gone by and he had heard nothing. He couldn't believe he was sat here again, in the same place he had been six weeks ago.

How could this have happened again?

He couldn't get the image of the blood on the sofa out of his head. It stained his mind, just as it had stained his hand and clothes.

He'd really thought that was the end of it. Stuart had been arrested, he couldn't hurt Rachel anymore. Of course Rachel had been shaken up by the encounter with him, but physically, she had seemed unharmed, to Eddie's relief.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Stuart had hurt her, again, possibly detrimentally this time.

As if he hadn't taken enough from her already.

Just when he'd thought things were going to be alright. They had sorted things out between them and made amends. Rachel had decided she wanted to come back to work, and she had asked Eddie to move in with her. They had been on the brink of calm. And now he was about to lose her, maybe for real this time. He couldn't bear it.

Of course he wanted to believe she would be ok. But with the amount of blood she'd lost, he couldn't help but have doubts.

"Mr Lawson?"

Eddie turned to see the same nurse who had taken Rachel's details from him stood in front of him. The kind smile she gave him gave Eddie no comfort whatsoever.

"What's going on? Is Rachel ok?" He asked

"She's fine. We've stabilised her and she's resting" the nurse nodded

Eddie breathed a sigh of relief

"What about the bleeding?" He questioned

"We managed to stop it, but unfortunately she lost the baby"

Eddie's jaw practically dropped to the floor.

Had he heard her properly?

"I'm sorry, a baby?" He frowned

"Yes. Rachel was around 6 weeks pregnant. The bleeding was the result of a miscarriage" the Nurse explained

Eddie closed his eyes, sighing painfully.

"Has someone told her? I don't think she knew she was pregnant" he asked

"The doctors are in with her now, explaining everything. I can take you to her if you like? She's been asking for you"

Eddie nodded quietly; desperately trying to process everything he'd just been told.

Eddie's mind swam with thoughts and questions as he followed the Nurse down the hospital corridors. He knew who the father of the baby was, or would have been, and it made him feel sick. As if Rachel didn't have enough to deal with.

He was desperate to get to her, to be by her side. This wasn't going to be easy for her. He couldn't imagine what was going through her mind right now. To be brutally attacked and raped by a man and then to find out you were pregnant with his child, an innocent baby conceived as the result of a traumatic and horrific situation. Eddie couldn't fathom it.