Meryl and Don: An Unforeseen Journey

Chapter 33

"Sweetheart." Meryl began from her hospital bed in the ER. "Why don't you sit down? Or lay down with me? I would happily make room for you."

What Don needed to do was pace, but he couldn't. He had too much anger inside of him. Not only at what that psychotic bastard did to his wife and their baby; but his fear of something happening to her and the baby like in his nightmare was threatening to overtake him. He didn't want to lose it for her and the baby's sake. Don kissed her hand as he turned his red face to hers. "No, you stay right where you are."

"Baby, look at me." Meryl said squeezing his hand as he did what she wanted. "I'm okay, the baby and I are okay, I promise."

Don tried to take a calming breath. "Mer, you had a pain that literally took your breath away; and you were throwing up not long before that. I need to make sure you both are PERFECT. I would NEVER forgive myself if something happened to either of you. You went through hell today."

"And you were right there with me." Meryl assured him; she knew him better than she knew anyone and knew exactly what he was thinking. "You saved me, and our baby. You are my hero."

Don looked at her as he thought about everything she had been through that day; and here she was assuring him. "You are mine; you know that?"

"Sweetie, sit down, please." Meryl said as she pulled on his hand until he sat down on the bed facing her. "You still need to be careful."

Don stroked her face. "I'm okay; or will be once I know you two are."

"We should be at the courthouse." Meryl sighed as she rested her head back on the pillow.

Don shook his head as he tucked her hair behind her ear. "No way. We are EXACTLY where we should be. Well, YOU are exactly where you NEED to be and I'm EXACTLY where I need to be-with my wife and our baby while our other baby is being well taken care of and doted on by his grandparents.  Yes, making sure that fucker pays is VERY important; and Larry is making sure he does. You, this baby, and Henry are EVERYTHING to me. I'm not fucking around with this."

"We are in a bed." Meryl winked trying to calm him down. "We could fuck around."

Don couldn't help but chuckle as he knew exactly what she was trying to do. "Not yet, my love."

"You, Henry and this baby are my everything too." Meryl assured him.

Don winked as he kissed her forehead. "Never a doubt in my mind about that. Where is Dr. Abbott?"

"Sweetheart, he said he would be back once he got the test results back. Just try to remain calm." Meryl said trying to calm him. 

Don ran his fingers through her hair. "Not bound to happen when it comes to the health and safety of you and our babies."

***

"How are they?" Don asked standing up but not letting go of Meryl's hand when Dr. Abbott entered the room.

Meryl brought his hand to her lips to kiss it. "We're okay, right Hal?"

"Relatively." Dr. Abbott said bringing the ultrasound machine over.

Don looked at Meryl then at Dr. Abbott. "Relatively? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, your blood pressure is higher than I would like. You are also showing some traces of pre-eclampsia. So, I'm going to give you some blood pressure medications to help bring it down." Dr. Abbott explained.

Don looked at Meryl then back at the doctor. "She didn't have that with Henry."

"Well, considering the stress and that it has only been 17 months since you had Henry I'm not surprised. Women are at a higher risk of it when they have babies within 2 years of one another; and you'll be a little under two years since having Henry when this little one is born." Dr. Abbott explained.