Always

More than a few scratches

• sorry for the short chapters lately I've just been really busy. Pls vote if you like it so far ad let me know what you think •

Stana woke up in a cold hospital bed. It was blurry when she opened her eyes but she rubbed them and focused her vision on the two doctors standing at the other end the room. She listened into their conversation.

"Dr. Lanum," one of them said "she's stable for now but we don't have a doctor on duty that can see if the baby is ok."

"Yes", said the other, "dr. Rigner from DC if flying over in a helicopter now, the crash was pretty severe, I'll be surprised if the baby makes it."

The doctor shook his head disappointedly as they split, one of them walking over to stanas bed.

"Hello, how are you feeling ma'am?"

She ignored his question "where's nathan!"

"Oh, he got out with a few scratches, you on the other hand were not wanting to stablise." Said the doctor. "Ma'am, do you feel any pain in your stomach?"

"No." She said as she tried to lift her head but felt a sharp pain in her temple. "Will my baby be ok?"

"We're not sure yet, but the doctor should be here very soon." He said "now just relax and I'll go check on some tests we ran."

She closed her eyes and started to cry. She felt an even sharper pain in her neck as she heard a fimiliar voice speak to her from aside the hospital bed. Without opening her eyes she smiled and said, "nathan."

"Stana," he said, "I'm glad your okay."

He took her hand. "What'd they say about the baby?" He asked.

"A doctor for that sort of thing should be here soon." She said opening her eyes.

She could feel the cold sheets at the edge of her chin. She wondered why if she was fine, why wasn't the baby ok also. She felt her heart race as she thought about the fact that the baby could be dead. Tears started rolling down her face. Nathan grabbed her hand tighter. "It's going to be okay"

"You don't know that." She said looking up at him, her eyes full of fear.

She heard footsteps coming in from the hallway. It was Jon, tamala, Seamus, and Molly. "Hey guys" she said as they all gave nathan a hug.

"Hey," said Jon. "I called Andrew but he didn't answer, I left him a message."

She smiled and tried to stop crying. Stana and Nathan explained what happened and told them what the doctor said. Stana foud herself zone out from time to time thinking about what all she remembered. She ad nathan were driving home an we're talking about baby names. Everything after that was a blur. She wished the doctor would get her already. Just then a tall man about 6'5 walked through the doorway.

"Hello everyone," he said. "I'm going to have to ask you all to wait in the waiting room except for nathan and stana."

They all left the room as the doctor set up his equipment. "Hello ma'am, sir. I am dr. Rigner from the DC medical center."

"Hello doctor." Said nathan with a sigh of relief.

"How are you feeling miss stana?" He asked.

"I'm okay. Can you please find out if the baby is ok?"

"Of course" he said as h rubbed the ultrasound cream on her stomach. He placed the detector on her. She jumped as the cold metal ball at the end of a plastic handle touched her. The doctor moved it around until he found the baby's location in the womb.

He looked at the black and white image on the screen next to the bed.

"Where is it?" Asked nathan

"Right here." Said the doctor as he punted to a little circle in the corner of the screen.

The doctor saved the image as e told them he had to run some tests on the ultrasound and that he would be back in few minutes.

--

When the doctor returned about 15 minutes later. Stana and Nathan look at him with the same question in their eyes, 'Is the baby okay?'.

"Well," said dr. Rigner. "The baby is alive."

Stana and Nathan smiled at each other with joy.

"But" said the doctor.

"But?" Asked stana with worry dripping of her cheeks.

"But," said the doctor again "there is a 25% chance he could be born deaf."

Nathan's eyes filled with tears. Before either stana or Nathan could say anything the doctor continued.

"There is a surgery we can perform to give the baby a lusteran shot, a very small shot that will possibly be able to heal it. Would you like to try the surgery?"

"Yes!" Stana and Nathan said in unison.