The Path to Love

Chapter 31

Once I pulled into the hospital, I pulled right up to the doors. I will probably get towed, but my emergency lights were on. Right now, I didn't care. I rushed in to the emergency room holding Sam bridal style, again. I bet I looked like a fucking idiot, walking on my broken foot. No fucks were given.

"Help her please!" I screamed. A nurse came rushing out. "She's in premature labour, it's all my fault. Help her, please."

"I need a gurney!" The nurse yelled.

Sam continued to whimper in pain. The gurney came, and I placed her on it. "Sir, you can't come back right now as we are going to do everything, we can to stop the pregnancy. How far along is she?"

"Almost 5 months," I replied.

"Anything else we should know?"

"We were having an argument. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Bring her in! Call the OB-GYN doctor on call please! I will update you when I have something for you, sir."

The nurse rushed in to the back with Sam and I sat down in the waiting room, shocked and defeated. I didn't mean for this to happen. I really didn't.

I waited for what felt like days in that waiting room. I was glancing repeatedly at my phone for the time, I sat down and started messing with my hands in nervousness, I was a mess.

"Are you here to get the cast off your leg?" I turned to the sound of the voice. An older lady was looking at me with concern evident on her face.

"I wish," I replied. If only I were here to get my cast off, instead of worrying if my kid was going to make it through this or not.

"What brings you here?" She asked me.

"My, um, friend is pregnant. She started going into premature labour. She's not even five months along yet and we might lose this baby. It's all my fault." Just the thought of losing our daughter made me tear up.

I started to silently cry as I thought about everything, I said some awful things to Sam for this to happen. I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't know this would happen.

"Young man, her going into premature labour isn't your fault."

"I've been causing her so much stress the last couple of days. It is my fault."

"For stress to induce pregnancy, a person needs to be under a significant high level of stress for a significant amount of time. Your friend was probably already extremely stressed out before you added to her stress level. I'm sure you played a factor, but you didn't cause this."

"I don't want her to lose the baby," I admitted softly.

"She won't. Medicine has come a long way and they have their ways to stop early pregnancy."

"I feel so bad I did this to her."

"Ah, young love."

"Excuse me?" I asked, turning to look at her.

"It's obvious how you feel about this girl. I don't know why you two were fighting, it's none of my business. But, if you love this woman, which I think you do; fight for her. Don't stress the both of you out over fights that won't matter in the future. She is having a baby, which is a gift of life. She is already under a lot of pressure with taking care of the thing that is growing inside of her, don't add to her stress. There will be times to figure out what is going on between the two of you, care now and fight later. She needs your help, don't push her away because you're scared for what the future will hold. She's just as scared as you. Don't let the fear hold you back. You both will figure it out as you go along. Having a baby is a miracle, don't spend this time fighting, you should be celebrating."

"You're right." I admitted. "Thank-you." I replied, turning to look at her.

"Sometimes a person just needs an old woman's wisdom." She chuckled.

"Will you be okay?" I asked her.

"Oh yes dear, do not worry about me. You already have enough on your plate to worry about."

"Hunter Thomas," I looked up to a doctor calling my name.

"Thank-you for talking to me. I have to go see her now." I turned to look at the doctor. "That's me," I replied.

I walked over to him. "Samantha is doing okay," the doctor said. I breathed a sigh of relief I didn't know I was holding in.

"And the baby?" I asked him.

"We have managed to stop the contractions for now. However, the baby is not out of the woods yet. Samantha has been under significant amounts of stress and she needs to limit some of those stressors in her life to keep her baby inside of her for as long as possible. If she goes into premature labour again, we will not be able to stop it."

I absorbed what he said as I walked beside him to Sam's room. "But the baby is alive and okay?" I asked him.

"Yes," the doctor confirmed. I released a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Thank-you," I told him.

"Help her manage her stress intake, son. It'll help for her future."

"Will do," I replied.

I walked into Sam's room. She was hooked up to an IV drip. She turned to look at the door as it opened. "Hey," she said.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," she admitted.

"I'm so sorry," I said.

"It's okay Hunt. You had to get it off your chest."

"I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I know."

"We have got to figure our shit out, Sam. You scared me half to death today."

"I know. I'm sorry I scared you."

"I'm just glad you and the baby are okay," I replied. I leaned in and tucked a strand of lose hair behind her ear. "I don't want to lose you." I whispered.

"You won't." She replied, placing her hand over my hand that was cupping her cheek.

"Don't scare me like that again," I whispered.

"I'll try not to."

"I love you Sam, and I know I said I didn't know what I felt for you. But I do love you. I realized that a long time ago. Us fighting just kept getting in the way. I never want to lose you or feel this fear again."

"I love you too, Hunt. You know that."

"But this is different. We know there is more going on here, there always has been. We hid it behind friendship for years, but now we can't hide it anymore. I know we're both scared of what might happen, but Sam I'm more scared of losing you than not having you around. I don't want us to lose whatever this is before it even started."

"Hunt," Sam whispered.

"I'm not saying anything else because I don't want to put you under anymore stress because you need to relax. Once you're allowed out, I'm going to bring you home and take your phone. You'll miss school for a few days but that's fine. You need to detach for a while to lower your stress levels. Have baths, read, apply face masks, whatever you have to do to destress." I replied.

"That sounds like a good plan," she replied smiling up at me.

I smiled back down at her. "And you need to know, I will be with you every step of the way, from here on out."

"I like the sound of that," she admitted.

I like the thought of not losing you. I didn't say that to her, but I did sit with her for a long time. It felt like how it used to be. We talked about everything and nothing and we laughed together. It took almost losing our baby to wake us the hell up, but we're on speaking terms again and that's all that matters.