Midnight Masquerade

Chapter 15 It's Darkest Just Before Dawn

August 25

Age 18

Adriana-

I blink in the daylight fading from view.

"Please let her be okay Father," I hear Travis's murmurs, "I don't know if I can live without her. I need her. I'm better when I'm with her. She helps me see who I can be. She showed me you." Travis's sitting in the chair his head bowed his hand clutching mine, "I can't lose her, not now, not after this."

"Mr. Maxwell." A doctor, Dr. Baker says. "Miss Carlton," Her voice is surprised. "We'd hoped you would wake soon." Travis's head shoots up eyes wide. He lets out a long sigh of relief. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm a bit confused, and my stomach still hurts, but other than that. I'm fine." I tell her.

"There was a bit of a complication and I'm sorry, but you lost the baby we can't find her." She says. The whole world slows almost to a stop. Travis catches my gaze and the hurt in his eyes, it wasn't even his child and he's still in agony over it.

"How?" I ask her.

"It was a delicate case your former doctor said, the condition in which you were brought in, the extensive abuse you'd taken since, pregnancies are delicate, yours especially, the baby didn't recover after that last beating you took. There was the possibility, but she didn't recover. All the stress of recent events made it even harder. She didn't survive. I'm sorry." Travis sits silently staring intently at the blanket of the hospital bed, not making eye contact. "It seems that in this set of events that it's for the best. You would've had no way to finance a baby or the time to raise her."

"We would've made time! We always manage to have just what we needed. We may not have a lot of extra money laying around, but we always have what we need!" Travis yells at her the rage in his voice enough to scare anyone this is the Travis that they must have been warning me about. "She may not have been my daughter, but I love her. Like she was my own. She'll always be a part of me." Travis's voice breaks and Dr. Baker remains speechless. She walks out. "I can't imagine what you're feeling." He tells me. His eyes glistening with the tears he'll refuse to shed until he's alone. I sit up the pain in my abdomen shocking me keeping me from moving for a few moments. "Are you okay?" He asks immediately and worry lacing his voice.

"It surprised me is all." I tell him.

"We could try again, when you get your strength back." Travis says.

"When we get a solid footing perhaps? After college?"

"If that's what you want."

"I'm trying to be realistic Travis." I tell him, "Dr. Baker was right, we wouldn't have been able to afford a baby. Not with student loans and college debts, rents and mortgages, and no where to go."

"Something always works out for us." He says. "It would've again. But if you want to wait, we'll wait. I won't force you. I love you."

"I love you too."

"And we will try again, just not now. Not for a while."

He nods blankly. "I checked you out. Come on, Professor Grimm's car is in the lot." He says. He helps me out of the hospital bed and I quickly change clothes behind the hospital privacy screen. He helps me out to the car and we ride in silence to campus. We make our first stop to Professor Grimm's office.

"Does he know?" I ask Travis before we enter his office building he shakes his head.

"Miss Carlton." He greets.

"Professor Grimm," I greet him still letting Travis help me, we both sit across from him. "How much would it set me back to take a few weeks off."

"I'd highly recommend it. I insist you both take some time off." He says. "You could both spend some time home."