All's Fair In Love & War

Chapter 28

"CALLIE!" I choked as her hands pinned my neck against the wall. She was staring deep into me as the life was being sucked out of me. Blood dripped from my eyes like tears and a smile came across her face. She squeezed tighter as everything around me started to fade out.

"CALLIE!" I woke up screaming gripping my neck.

I was breathing heavily and my heart was pounding. I rested my sweaty head on my arms as I tried to calm myself down. I lifted my head again to find vases upon vases of white lilies. I slowly got myself out of the bed. It took me a minute to adjust to being on my feet and standing up straight from how sore I was. I picked the card off the flowers on the night stand and it read the words I'm sorry. I moved to the next one and it read I love you. There were about 10 of them and they each had their own special little message. I finally reached the last one and smiled. Unlike the others it wasn't a note, it was a ticket to Australia from December 20th to December 30th.

"Oh shit when did these get here?" Ariana asked walking back into the room

"I don't know" I laughed at her appearance. She was obviously still tired, her hair was up in a messy bun and she had her onesie unbuttoned and hanging on the outside of her sweatpants with unzipped boots on.

"Where'd you go?" I asked as I rested the tickets on the nightstand along with the other notes.

"I had to take Jacob to the airport at 5 AM, then I stopped by your house to get you some underwear and clothes. I'm so tired." She tossed the bag full of clothes on the floor, walked right past me, and crawled up into the hospital bed stretching herself out.

"By all means make yourself comfortable." I smiled. I went to use the bathroom and when I was finished peeing I took off my robe and looked at my body for the first time. It really was bad. I could barely stand to look at it myself. I looked like a Dalmatian. I turned on the shower and climbed in. I winced and groaned as the water hit my skin. I covered my mouth to stifle the noise, after about 5 minutes I got used to it. I started to rub the bruises I could reach for as long as I could stand to circulate the blood and make them go away faster. I looked down to my protruding belly and smiled before turning off the water. I brushed my teeth and gently dried my skin. I dug through the bag for underwear and went into the cabinet to get another hospital gown to put on.

"Pass me my phone." Ariana felt around on the stand with her eyes still closed until she found it, almost knocking everything down in the process. I unlocked it to find a bunch of texts from friends wishing me and the babies well. I thanked them and all and sent my love back. Ariana scooted over so I could lay back down in the bed as I flipped through the channels on the TV. After about five minutes of looking for something to watch, I gave up. I laid back in the bed until a nurse knocked and came in.

"Good morning" she smiled.

"Good morning."

"How are you feeling? My name is Andrea McKinley." She also wrote her name on the board, erasing the one that was there previously.

"I'm feeling better. A little sore still but better."

"That's good." She proceeded to take my temperature and check all my vital signs before checking the babies' heart beats. I woke Ariana up when she started to set up the monitor so she could see her nieces. She groaned at first not wanting to get up but when she finally did she was so excited.

"Aww look at my babies" she smiled.

"Your babies?" I said looking at her smiling.

"Yeah they look just like me can't you tell."

"Okay Ariana" I laughed.

"The babies are doing fine. They're a little underweight but I'm not too worried about that. Have you ate anything for today?"