We could have a life, us two.. (Completed)

Hope of hopes

Nellie lay awake in her bed, it was the middle of the night. After sleeping for a couple of hours, she woke up and was unable to fall asleep again, with so many thoughts running through her mind for God knows how many days now. She could feel that not only she but her baby was awake too. "It's all right, love." She sighed, stroking her belly as she felt heavy movements, her baby was feeling all her worries. As the pregnancy progressed her worries grew, she was afraid to give birth, not because it would hurt, but because of the obvious death rates during childbirth and this fear was taking its toll on her. It had been a week since the morning Mr Anderson had spoken to her, she didn't want to think about it but she hoped no one had seen her there, she really couldn't take any gossip right now, not to mention the guilt she felt for not telling Sweeney about it. The more she thought about it, the more it kept her from sleeping.

She sighed and turned to her other side, she couldn't share her feelings with Sweeney now that he was finally feeling better. Thinking, she continued to rub her belly and then something finally made her smile as her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden desire to eat. "I think you want an apple?" she looked down and spoke to her baby, wanting an apple that would crack when she bit into it and let the sour juice drip onto her lips. Her mouth watered at the thought, but she was too tired to get out of bed.

Downstairs, Sweeney had been exercising on his own for days at night. He decided it was time to get up on his feet. There was not much time, two months and the baby will be there, what if it comes early? He had to walk again. He slowly moved his legs out of bed with the help of his hands. He never thought he would appreciate the feeling of his feet touching the floor again, but there he sat, grateful to be able to move at all.

He grabbed the edge of the bed and pushed himself up. He was standing! God, he did it! But then, within a second, he became dizzy and his legs gave in, causing him to fall forward onto his knees.

Nellie was startled by a loud bang downstairs and immediately felt anxious. "Sweeney" She whispered to herself, not wasting a second, she got out of bed and ran down the stairs as fast as she could.

"Sweeney" She called again as she came into the parlor, worried that he might have fallen out of bed, only to find him in his bed when she came in the parlor. She put a hand to her chest, relieved to see him unharmed "Are you all right, love? I heard a noise." She said as she came closer, so glad to see him safe and sound in his bed.

"I accidentally knocked the glass over when I wanted to drink some water." He lied, pointing to the broken glass on the floor with water everywhere.

Nellie breathed a sigh of relief as he pointed to the glass and went to the kitchen to get a cloth to clean it with. While she was gone, Sweeney stroked his ribs, which were hurting from hitting them to the table. Never in his life had he tried to crawl faster than he had a few minutes ago, and he felt like a child just learning to crawl.

When Nellie came back, Sweeney moved his hand away from his ribs so she wouldn't see and ask what was wrong. Since he could sit on his own and the pain had eased, he didn't need his back brace anymore, so it wasn't there to protect him, which was why it hurt so much. She knelt down to clean everything up. "Are you sure you're all right?" She asked, wanting to be sure, as if she sensed something was wrong.

"Yes, I just feel bad about waking you up and cleaning all this up." He felt so sorry and bad for giving her work again because his legs suddenly gave in and on top of that he felt bad for lying, it wasn't the pain, but her answer made him feel even worse.