●be mine, valentine●

chapter thirteen

'Valentine?'

The booming voice of Greyson rings through the walls of the bathroom.

Valentine tries to get off of the cold tiled floor but his body rejects the idea as yet another wave of nausea hits him.

"I don't suppose it's very professional for you to be wasting time here while you should be working. I pay you to work for me. If having that other job of yours is leading to this tardiness I suggest you get rid of it before we get rid of you." Valentine suppresses a shudder when he hears the venomous voice.

Greyson's right, he pays Valentine good money to work for him and all Valentine gives him in return is being late to work and prioritizing his own needs over his bosses'. It didn't matter how poorly he felt, he had to get to work.

He tried standing once again, bracing his hands on the seat of the toilet and attempting to push himself up. His arms shook with the strain as sweat consistently dripped down his forehead. Just as Valentine was finally starting to rise his body gave out and he collapsed onto the floor, only managing to move his head over the toilet before he was dry heaving once more. It burned and his throat ached, there was nothing left to throw up but it seemed his body was rebelling against him.

"I-I'm sorry, s-sir. I'll be out s-soon." Valentine finally responds to Greyson through a shaky breath. He heard a deep sigh coming from somewhere outside of his locked bathroom stall.

"Valentine, are you okay?" Greyson sounded different now, he noted. Almost like he was...worried?

No.

He couldn't be.

Greyson hates him, he knows that. He's always yelling at him for little mistakes or making him work such long hours that he comes home and just wants to sob.

"Valentine, please answer me. I wont get mad, I promise." He's lying, he has to be. He just wants Valentine to come out so he can fire him to his face. He wanted to watch him truly break apart as he tore his dreams of providing for his children into pieces.

"No, I'm o-okay." He tried his best to sound convincing but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone. The effort was pathetic.

"I'll crawl under the stall, Valentine. I swear I'll do it. So you either open the door on your own or I force myself in the hard way."

In a moment of pure weakness and his body's hormones begging for someone to take care of him, Valentine unlocked the door.

He wasn't sure what he was doing or why he was doing it. He was just so tired. He didn't want to fight anymore.

It was a struggle reaching up to get to the lock but he managed somehow before he was gagging into the porcelain bowl once again.

"Oh, baby." Greyson's voice took on a tone that Valentine had never heard before. It was soft and caring despite his usually cold demeanor. "It's alright, get it out." He says soothingly.

Valentine felt large, warm hands begin rubbing his back as he retched into the toilet. He was hurting so bad that he didn't have time to think about how nice it felt to be touched by another person that wasn't his own child. Let alone the fact that the typically large and scary man was now being so sweet and caring.

Baby.

The word vibrates through his head as he rests on walls.

Greyson had called him 'baby'.

"I-I'm sorry." Valentine mumbled out once he finally caught his breath. His body suddenly exhausted from the exertion of his morning sickness. It had been getting a bit worse every day but it had never been this bad.