Your Guardian Angel

Chapter 9

Ben stirred awake from his deep slumber when he got a feeling of being oddly warm. He opened his eyes expecting the sun to be in his eyes, but he was met with pure darkness. Looking down, he saw Cassie had turned in his arms to face him and was sleeping peacefully on his chest. He could feel her belly on top of his.

But that didn't explain the warm feeling.

Very carefully, he lifted up the duvet thinking Cassie had an accident. He's read about that happening during pregnancies and if she did, he wanted to get her cleaned up and the sheets changed.

Or maybe he had the accident.

He couldn't see with how dark it was, so very carefully he reached over Cassie and turned on her bedside light.

"Fuck!" He yelped and jumped out of bed, but his hands never leaving her. "Cassie! Cassie!" Cassie groaned and slowly opened her eyes. "Come on baby, wake up, I need to get you to a hospital!"

Those words made her eyes shoot open. "What?" She asked, still disoriented from sleep. "Why?" She looked down and for a moment, she thought she was dreaming. "B-Ben? What..." She was frozen staring at the sheer amount of blood.

Ben put his hands on her cheeks and made her look at him. There was nothing but pure panic in his eyes. "Baby, you need to get up now. Can you walk?"

Without saying anything, she got up but felt a sharp sting when she did. Ben was immediately at her side. He looked down and saw her sweatpants were coated in blood, all the way down to her feet. He had it on his boxers and his legs.

"Fuck," he breathed out.

"The baby, Ben," she suddenly cried.

"I know, honey, we're going right now." He quickly gathered his jeans and threw them on with his shirt. He helped her carefully down the hall and out the door. He got her in his car and he wasn't sure if he should drive quickly or carefully, so he tried to do both.

When they got to the hospital, she was immediately seen to. They put her in a wheel chair and rushed her into one of the rooms. Ben was hot on their heels and never left her side. It all started to hit at once for both of them, but he refused to show it.

"Ben, the baby," she kept crying. She was squeezing his hand, but it was getting weaker and weaker. They hooked her up to all sorts of machines to monitor her and the baby.

Ben smoothed his hand down her hair and kissed her forehead. "I know, sweetheart, it's okay. It's okay, just look at me." He noticed her eyes were drooping. "What's happening?" He quickly asked one of the nurses.

"She's lost a lot of blood," they explained. "Give us a moment, we're checking on the baby."

"Fucking check on her!" He yelled.

The nurses froze for half a second before the Doctor gave one of them a nod. She went over to Cassie and looked her over, who was in and out of consciousness.

"Nurse, stop," the Doctor ordered. Ben was about to yell a flurry of the most horrible words he could come up with, but it was then he realized he wasn't talking to the nurse checking on Cassie. The Doctor only shook his head at the nurse who was checking on the baby.

Ben felt a punch in the gut. He put his head down and sighed. The nurse he had just yelled looked at him. "She's stable now."

"I'm sorry," he told her. "I'm sorry for yelling, I..." He choked on his tears.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I've dealt with much worse, trust me. It's alright."

He shook his head and continued to cry, "But you were checking on my baby and now he's - he's..." He couldn't help the sobs that came from him. He held onto Cassie's hand tightly, even though she was passed out cold.

"It isn't your fault," the Doctor quickly assured. "There wouldn't have been anything we could have done. She had an infection that had gone untreated for too long. Was she feeling sick at all these past few weeks?"

He shook his head. "I don't know," he cried. "I don't know. What the fuck are we supposed to do now?" He hesitated to put his hand on her stomach, but couldn't help himself. He loved feeling it.

"When she wakes up, we'll have to put her in an induced labor. It's too dangerous to make her wait full-term."

Just as she said that, she started to wake up. Ben put his hand over his forehead, thinking of anything he can say to comfort her once he tells her the news. This was going to absolutely break her.

"Ben," she mumbled.

"I'm right here, baby," he sniffled. She opened her eyes as he was trying to quickly wipe away his tears. "What happened? Is he okay?"

Ben looked into her hopeful, tear-filled eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't find the words. How could he? What was he supposed to say? "Sweetheart..." He felt her squeeze his hand. Before he could say anything more, she got the message.

He watched as she started to cry softly at first, but then it got more and more until she could hardly breathe. Quickly, he got into the bed with her and just held her. She cried into his chest, soaking his shirt in tears.

He kissed her head repeatedly and rocked her very gently. The Doctor gave him a look after a few minutes. Sighing, Ben had her look up at him. He wiped the tears from her eyes and snot from her nose.

"Darling, they need to induce your labor." She started shaking her head, but he assured, "Baby, I'll be right here." She started to look away, but he sternly told her, "No, listen to me. I am right. Here. I am not leaving you. Do you understand? You are not going through this alone."