To Love A Serpent | Shivian | TNN OneShot

Broke, But Not Broken.

"Vivian!!! Don't fucking walk away when I'm talking to you!!! Vivian!!!!!"

Screams erupt through the 2 bedroom apartment as Vivian picks up her suitcase with one hand as she held her new born 2 week old baby in her other arm close to her chest to protect him.

Before she opens up the door she closes her eyes and listens to the hurls of abuse from the other room.

"Vivian, Jamie is my son too!! I swear to fucking god if you take him away from me, you'll hear from my lawyer and you'll never see the boy again!!!"

She places her suitcase down to allow her to open the door up, she pushes the case out with her foot and exits the place that once brought her peace and comfort, and walked away with the only man she would need in her life in her arms, never looking back.

Funnily enough, it wasn't always like this.
It never is though, is it?

Vivian was a young 25 year old qualified nurse, she still lived with her mum, after losing her dad as a teenager and being an only child, she felt guilty at the thought of leaving her mum on her own, she was her best friend.

The weekend was approaching, but not soon enough. Vivian worked long hours, she was planning on eventually buying her own house, she was working in the A&E department, it was Friday night so it was always busy, usually drink related accidents and tonight was no different.

At around 10pm that's when floods of people started coming in, all staff worked as quickly as they could, as Vivian dismissed one patient, she was already onto her next. She checks her forms to see what what's in for next;

27 year old male
David Anderson
Split opened head

Vivian rolled her eyes.
Great.
Another drunk.
She thought to herself.

She makes her way out to call the man in, expecting to almost see someone looking a bit worse for wear, as she calls out the man's name, he stands up and his eyes instantly widen at the beautiful raven haired girl.

He wasn't too bad looking.
She thinks to herself, but she kept it professional.

At this point in her life, Vivian was openly bisexual, she had never been with a man physically and she did prefer the company of women, but in all honesty she just wasn't ready or too sure on coming out as a lesbian.

David walks towards her and smiles, Vivian offers a smile back.
"Hi David, my names Vivian. Would you like to follow me and we will head round to room C?"

As they approach the appointed room, she can't help but feel his eyes burning through her, once inside she asks him to sit up on the bed so she can get a look at his head properly.

As she puts her gloves on and inspects the man's wound, she begins to talk.

"That's a nasty cut you've got there. How did this happen, David?"
She asks him, almost certain it would be drink related.

David looks up at her and smiles.
"Would you believe me if I said I tripped over my mums cat and fell down the stairs?"

Vivian looks down at him and raises an eyebrow and gives him a chuckle.
"Probably not."

David rolls his eyes and smiles.
"Well.. it's true. I'm not a drinker, I was going to leave it in all honesty and deal with it myself... but I'm glad I came in now."

Vivian gives him an awkward cough and turns round to take her gloves off after she put a couple of butterfly stitches on the wound and put a bandage on him.

"Well, that's you all sorted. If you go to the front desk they'll sign your release forms."
She knew he was flirting with her, but she wasn't sure she was interested.

As David jumps off the bed, he awkwardly stands for a minute.
"Sorry if this is forward.. but could I maybe, get your number? I'd love to take you out for dinner one night, I promise no funny business and definitely no tripping over cats!"
He walks bashfully, trying to make a smooth joke.

Vivian couldn't help but laugh at the young man, she normally wouldn't give a patient her number, she was used to older drunk men hitting on her, but David seemed some what genuine, innocent.
How wrong she was.
But in that moment, she agreed.

The two parted ways and he texted her that very same night. Over the next couple of weeks David and Vivian went on multiple dates, between dinner, the zoo, walks, the beach.

He seemed like such a nice young man, the two hadn't gone any further than just kissing, he never pushed her to having sex with him, after about 2 months of dating he asked if she would like to stay over at his house and she agreed.

That night the two had sex for the first time, unprotected.

A few days had passed, Vivian didn't think too much of their night together, they weren't an official couple yet and it was her first time with a man in that way, she noticed she was losing her appetite and started to feel sick at random points through out the day, she's not sure why but she felt the urge to buy a pregnancy test, so on her lunch break at work she went to the nearest pharmacy and picked one up and took it back to work with her.

She was certain she wouldn't be pregnant, she put the sickness down to working in the hospital, she was always picking up sickness bugs there.
Not this time.

The test lit up like a Christmas tree.
She was pregnant.
And she was scared.

She never gave children a thought, it wasn't in her life plans.
But she had to tell David regardless, after her shift she texted him asking if she could come round and talk to him, he agreed.
When she broke the news to him, he was so excited to be a dad, he suggested for the sake of the baby they should become an official couple, Vivian of course agreed, for the sake of their child.

Over the next couple of months she even moved into his 2 bedroom apartment, she thought it would be perfect, they would be the perfect little family.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

She noticed a change in David, he stopped going to work, he had started drinking heavily, he would argue with her at any given opportunity and on top of all of that, he started doing cocaine behind her back.
Everything went down hill through out the full pregnancy, he was never at the scans of the baby, he wasn't there when Vivian found out she was having a baby boy.

She tried her best to get him back into work and stop drinking, but David didn't want to know.

When Vivian went into labour, he of course wasn't there, her mum Val was by her side the entire time when Vivian welcomed her baby boy into the world, she names him Jamie after he late father, as she lay looking at her perfect little man, she can hear shouting erupting through out the ward, before the doors swing open and David staggers in, barely being able to stand up.

He was high.

It took Val and two other members of staff to get him out the room away from Vivian and Jamie.
Vivian couldn't help but cry.
As she looked down at Jamie she knew she couldn't stay with David for the sake of Jamie.

She had to leave him for the sake of Jamie.