Suddenly

Josh is Here

Grace woke up with an unfamiliar soreness covering her body. Her stomach held a dull pain that she had never experienced before. Everything felt incredibly hazy. Behind her closed eyelids, she could tell the room was dark and quiet. It worried her slightly. Where was Ayla?

She tried to think of the last thing she could remember. Being sick. Hannah.

Flashes of the hospital, the pain of what felt like countless IV needles sticking at her skin.

But how had she gotten to this point?

Her lower belly hurt terribly, she still felt feverish and nauseous.

She wanted to open her eyes, hopefully Hannah or Mamrie would be around to explain everything to her.

Her mind went to the worst. Fever, nausea, pain. She had surely miscarried. She wasn't sure if she was ready to face that right now. Maybe she could just go back to sleep for a while? That seemed like a nice alternative.

The shuffling of someone making themselves more comfortable in the cheap, fake leather hospital chair brought her to attention. Surely that was one of her friends who would explain this all to her.

With great difficulty, she forced her heavy eyelids to open slowly.

When her eyes focused, she was not greeted by the sight she had expected. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She felt even more confused than before.

"Hey baby," Josh's soft voice whispered into the dimly lit room. His hand went gently into her hair. "How are you feeling?"

Grace felt a surge of panic rising in her chest. Why was he here?

He chuckled lightly when he saw her scrambling for words. "It's okay, you've had a bad few days. It's fine if you are confused."

She wanted to shove his hand off her head. She wanted yell at him and ask why in the hell was he in her hospital room. But she was so tired and so confused.

"How?" She finally managed to croak. Her throats felt impossibly dry.

He made her very nervous. Usually, Josh only acted this nice when he had a show to put on. She knew the outburst would be coming as soon as he got the opportunity.

He smiled at her, in the dim light, she could see it did not quite reach his eyes. No, they were practically seething with quiet anger.

"The hospital called me, babe." He told her gently. "I was in town speaking with a few lawyers about the paper work that you had filed earlier this month. Luckily I was able to get here quickly."

She should have known. Of course he had traced her here. All of the papers from Joan would have blatantly said Los Angeles on them. She really should have seen this coming.

"What happened?" She questioned, still very confused about what had got her in this current situation. She briefly wondered if he knew about the baby, of course he probably did. But, she still didn't want to mention it until he brought it up.

"Your appendix burst, babe." He told her gently. "By the time your friends were able to get you here, an infection had already begun to set up. They had to go in and get everything out. You'll be here for a few days at most, and probably will feel bad for a while."

She leaned back with a sigh of relief, so the baby hadn't been miscarried? A weight felt like it had been lifted off of her chest.

Josh ran his hand through her hair once again, his hand jerked lightly, pulling as he did. She hissed softly, sure not to make it very loud. She had learned well.

"Aren't you going to ask me about the baby?" He asked, his eyes bore into hers.

She gulped and nodded.

Josh leaned back against the chair. "Right now, its fine, you're twelve weeks along. They are going to keep you a bit longer to observe."

Tears welled up in her eyes, her baby was okay! She had forgotten all about her worry and confusion of her husband now sitting in front of her. The pain in her belly was forgotten. All that mattered was that the little life inside her was okay.

A noise from the other side of the room broke her thoughts, she looked over to see a happy Hannah running forward. Beside her, Josh made a disapproving noise, but she ignored it.

"Oh God! Grace! I'm so glad to see you awake!" The shorter blonde's hands wrapped around her as best they could with her lying down and squeezed her in a hug.

Grace relaxed into the comforting arms. She was so incredibly happy to see her here. Confusion and worry still gripped her at the fact that both Hannah and her husband were in the same room.

"Things got pretty nasty there for a little bit, but I think they got you all worked out with the surgery. I was so worried!" Hannah spoke quickly, her hand gripped Grace's tightly. "I was so worried about the baby, but they said with some antibiotics and rest you both should be fine."

"Aylie?" Grace croaked. Hannah noticed the scratchiness in her voice and quickly poured her cup of water from the pitcher beside the bed.

"Mames has her." Grace didn't miss the nervous look that Hannah shot Josh. "It's about midnight now. You were out most of the day. They don't really like kids in here so she took her home."

Grace drank deeply from the small glass in her hand, then handed it back to Hannah for more. The woman filled it without question and handed it back.

She wished that Josh would leave the room so she could figure out why the heck here was here. Why the hospital called him. She couldn't remember if he had been her emergency contact before she had moved to New York.

"Maybe you should go on home, Hannah, so Grace can rest?" Josh suggested.

Before Hannah could respond, Grace piped up. "No, Han, I want you to stay, if you will? Josh, why don't you go get some rest?"

He snorted angrily, but when he looked up, his face seemed passive. Josh was smart enough not to start a fight.

"I'm fine, dear."

Grace shook her head. "I'm sure you need to get up early for work, even if you are in LA, I'm sure you have a million phone calls to deal with." Grace tried to keep the desperation and edge out of her voice. She just wanted him to leave.

With a sigh, Josh stood. "As you wish." 

Once he left the room, Grace fell back against the bed, Hannah let out a long, relieved sigh.

"Thank god! I thought we would never get rid of him!"