Working Love

22

I've lost my mind.

Or I'm dreaming. Whatever the case, I hope this is real. I hope that I am really staring at the beautiful gray eyes I have been dying to see for the past three weeks. I can see him sitting there, smiling at me, but I don't know if it's real.

"Carter." He places a hand on my cheek, and wipes away the tears I didn't even know I had. His hands, they are so warm.

"Ethan." My voice cracks, but I don't give a damn. "Please. Please don't be a dream." He leans forward and kisses my cheek. His soft warm lips leave a trail of sparks behind. I can't hold myself back. I wrap my arms around his waist, and bury my face on his stomach. All the pain of not being able to hold him for weeks, just pored right out of me. My tears soaked his hospital gown, but he didn't seem to mind one bit.

"Carter, everyone's watching." I heard his parents, my dad, James and Jenny all come rushing in. Normally I would never let anyone besides Ethan or James see me cry, but right now I couldn't give two fucks.

His mom was right there with me, holding him while crying. James was trying to calm down a very emotional Jenny, and our dad's looked like they didn't know what the hell to do.

*******************

After all the crying, I placed Ethan between my legs. I held him by his waist, and enjoyed the feel of him in my arms. The doctors and nurses tried to tell me not to, but one look from me shut them all right up. He's my husband, and I can hold him if I wanna.

"Have I really been out for three weeks?" I could hear the pain in his voice. I held him closer to me, and he seemed to relax. He held onto my hand, and gave it a light squeeze.

"Yeah. How does your head feel sweety?" Val brushed away a strand of his brown hair away from his face.

"It's okay. I have a headache still, but the medicine should help with that." He placed a hand to the side where he got hit. I could tell something was eating at him, and I wanted to know what it was.

"Guys." Everyone looked up. "Would it be possible to have a quick moment alone with Ethan, please?"

"Sure. Come on everyone, let's go grab a bite to eat." Val ushered everyone out, but I saw the look on James' face before he left. He also knew something was up with Ethan.

I waited until everyone was out, and Val shut the door. I heard her tell the doctors to give us some privacy. Ethan got his own room, so I knew no one would bother us. I gently moved him around, until he was now facing me. I could now clearly see the swirls of emotions clouding his eyes. Covering the once bright gray eyes in a blanket of fogged emotions.

"Alright, spill it." He seemed surprised by my tone, but didn't say anything. "I want to know what happened during that fight."

"What do you mean? He beat me." His nose scrunched up. He does that when he tries to lie to me. I figured it out when he ate my chocolate bar. He tried to say he didn't do it.

"No, he stunned you. During the fight he said something to you, I saw it, and it made you freeze. Whatever he said, it's still bugging you right now. So save yourself a bigger headache, and spill. What did he say?"

I was expecting him to try and lie, Or maybe even yell at me for once to drop it. Never would I have expected what he did. He wrapped his arms around my neck, and covered his face in the crook of my neck. His gut wrenching sobs scared the hell out of me. I sat up straighter, and held him closer to me. "Ethan?! What's wrong?! What happened?! Did I say something wrong?!" I felt him shake his head no, but it was beyond obvious something was wrong.

"D-during the m-match, I-I realized. I can't give you, W-what a woman can." I didn't know what he was going on about, but now wasn't the time to worry too much about that. I needed to calm him down first before even trying to get any answers from him. I gently pulled him back, and saw the pain clear on his face. It's a sight that I have never seen before, and it broke something in me.I tried to wipe his tears away, but there were too many. For every one tear that I managed to wipe, it was like five more would take it's place. So I settled for the next best thing. I cupped his cheeks, bringing his tear stained face up, and kissed him. It didn't take him long to respond. He pulled me closer, like he wanted to be as close to me as possible. I could feel the love, need, and fear in that one kiss.

"Ethan, I love you. You are my husband, what can't you give me?"

"A, baby." I would be lying if I said that didn't shock me. I wasn't expecting him to say that. I quickly snapped out of it and looked at the man in front of me. I hadn't really thought about it before, but he had a point. We wouldn't be able to have a baby of our very own, but we could always adopt. Or even have a surrogate mother if he wanted to. There were plenty of options, but I didn't think we would be talking about that so soon.

"Why the hell does that matter? Ethan, there are other ways. Besides, we still have plenty of time before we have to worry about something like that. Now tell me why? What did the match have to do with a baby?" He took a few deep breaths and wiped his eyes. He looked at me with blood shot eyes, fear hidden just beneath them. Reflecting a coming storm that I was not yet fully aware of.

"My opponent's name was Andrew, Andrew Harrison." Harrison, that name sounds familiar. "He told me, he is Katherina's older brother." That feeling in my gut was back. The look on Ethan's face told me that I was not gonna like what he had to say next. "During the match, he told me something. He told me that he was Katherina's older brother, and that he was gonna be an uncle soon." It was like every warning sign was going off in my head. I could feel a tightness in my chest, like all the air was being pushed out of me. "I didn't understand why he was telling me this during a match. I was too busy trying to land a punch, that I wasn't paying much attention at first. But what he said next, was what made me freeze Up." I have a feeling I'm about the do the same thing. All that's running through my head was the same thing. Dear god, please don't be what I think it is. "He told me that Katherina was pregnant, and that." I watched as another tear slipped passed his eye, and glide down his face. It was like the second that drop fell from his jaw, and landed on the blanket that sat between us. Our perfect little world that was just starting out, was about to be shattered with the impact of Ethan's tear.

"Don't say it." My voice came as a whisper, but I know he heard it. I pulled him into my arms, and practically prayed for all of this to be a dream after all. But it wasn't. What started out as a sweet and beautiful dream, was quickly turning into a nightmare.

"Carter." His face was hidden by my chest, and he clung to my shirt. The tears hitting me, feeling like bullets at the moment.

"Please don't say it!" At this point I had tear running down my cheeks too. Silently cursing myself for all the stupid mistakes that I have done in my life. Because those very same mistakes were about to cost me the one thing that I thought would save me.

"She's pregnant. With your baby!" I think I just heard his heart break, and I'm the asshole holding the hammer.