Only Him

Chapter 35

*Dimitri*

Dimitri looked at the prone figure laying on the hospital bed and wondered if there would ever be a stretch of more than a few months between Rose nearly dying or getting seriously injured. It wasn't good for his own health and he was convinced that each scare such as this one took years off his life.

After Rose's seriously understated comment of "something's wrong" she'd dropped like a sack of potatoes in the middle of the residential courtyard. He'd caught her only barely and—ignoring the cries of surprise and curiosity from onlookers—swung her up into his arms and made for the infirmary.

Over an hour later and Rose hadn't regained consciousness. He sat beside Lissa in the small, private room watching her breathe and listening to the reassuring, if a little rapid, beeps of the heart monitors.

Doctor Gibson came through the door and Lissa immediately jumped up.

"I tried healing her," she informed the doctor. "It didn't work. Why can't I heal her?" she demanded.

The doctor, who was visibly startled at the outburst, took a moment to regain her composure before speaking.

"When Rose came in both her and the baby's heart rates were elevated as was her blood pressure," the doctor said, addressing them both. "I'm having a urine protein test and platelet count run just to be sure but I think Rose may be exhibiting signs of preeclampsia. That's a condition only curable through the birth of the child so I wouldn't expect you to be able to heal her."

"Preeclampsia?" Dimitri demanded, shocked. "But Rose is young and healthy. I though that women who got that were either unhealthy or older."

The doctor nodded in agreement. "In most cases, yes. But many cases also present during first pregnancies, particularly high risk ones, which Rose's definitely is considering the circumstances."

The circumstances. Dimitri hated that phrase. Why was their child a circumstance? Why couldn't it just be a miracle like he thought it was?

"Rose had mentioned headaches when I last saw her," the doctor said. "Have they continued or gotten worse?"

"Worse," Dimitri and Lissa both answered. Dimitri continued. "She tried not to complain but you could tell they were getting worse. But Rose has always suffered from headaches and she's been under a lot of stress lately. I don't think anyone really thought much of it." Dimitri silently berated himself for not forcing her to go to the doctor when the headache hadn't gone away by this morning. Going to the meeting about Boston had most certainly not helped it. Neither, probably, had the confrontation with the royal in the courtyard.

"Increased stress would mask the symptoms at first," the doctor admitted. "Can you think of any other changes? Edema—swelling? Vomiting? Abdominal pain or vision changes? Shortness of breath?"

Dimitri thought over the past few weeks carefully. "Vision," he said at last. "She's been tripping a lot more often, and bumping into things."

"Abdominal pain," Lissa added. Both the doctor and Dimitri looked at her with curiosity. Lissa shrugged. "She's always rubbing her right side. She says the baby kicks a lot but he kicks everywhere and she only favors her right side."

"Its common for pain to present under the right ribs," Doctor Gibson supplied in agreement. "I'm fairly convinced we have the right diagnosis but I'll wait for the tests to confirm. I'd also like to keep her overnight for observation.

"Can we do anything about it?" Dimitri asked. "Since Lissa can't heal it."

The doctor shook her head in negation. "Unfortunately, the cause of the condition is the pregnancy itself. Until the child is delivered the stress on Rose's system will continue. We can manage it with careful monitoring and reduced activity. Her blood pressure is the biggest concern at the moment. It needs to be brought down to safer levels. Ideally I'd put her on bed rest until she gives birth but I doubt seriously that will do her any good either. We'll really have to limit her activity levels though. No more trips to the gym, no more stressful situations, no more sex," she informed Dimitri, who nodded obligingly. "The good news is that she's already twenty-eight weeks which is considered viability. If something drastic were to happen and we had to deliver the child its odds of survival are very good." 'Odds of survival' did not sound good to Dimitri at all. He didn't want any odds other than the full health of his son and Rose. The next several weeks were bound to be difficult.