I Believe in You

Nightmares

I woke up very early Halloween morning to Conrad talking in his sleep.
"No. No." He muttered tossing his head back and forth.
He was dripping with sweat and his face looked panicked.
Gently I touched his shoulder. He gasped and looked at me.
"Hey, it's okay. You had a bad dream." I soothed him running my fingers through his hair.
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. I moved closer to him allowing him to press his forehead against my shoulder.
"She fell down the stairs. She had a drink in her hand. I ran to her but he made me leave. Did he push her? Meghan!" He cried my name.
"Shhhhh. It's just a dream, baby. It's okay."
"No. No. Meghan. What if I'm not a good father?" He asked sitting up on his elbow and looking at me.
"Give me your hand." I said softly reaching for his hand which he gave me.
I laid our hands on my stomach where our child enthusiastically kicked him.
"That's our baby. I watched you with Henry and Jasper Barnett last month. You are going to be an amazing father. You have always treated me with love and respect." I assured him to which our child kicked him again.
"We have the gender reveal at eleven then work at four. We need to try to get more sleep." I kissed his forehead and pulled his arm around me so we were spooning as we drifted back to sleep.
My dad, Elena, Logan, Devon, Nic, Mina, and AJ joined us at our home for our Halloween Gender Reveal. It was a small intimate event with minimal effort. Even in my second trimester I was so tired. My body was growing a child, I was working twelve to twenty four hour shifts.
I promised Conrad I'd cut back on the length of my shifts once I hit thirty weeks just before Christmas.
We bought a small cake frosted in an orange buttercream with black accent around the bottom, bat decorations, white spiderwebs, and a black witch's hat with an orange strap and black buckle. Written on the top was, 'Witch will it be? He or she? Cut the cake to see.'
Conrad and I cut the first slice and pulled it up showing that the cake interior was the color pink.

We spent most of the early afternoon talking with our friends enjoying cake.
"You're coming to my Halloween party tonight?" Mina asked.
"Conrad and I have to work." I sighed.
"Nic?"
"Yeah, Jessie and I will be there." She answered.
"I'm working the emergency room tonight." Devon huffed.
"Good luck with that." I laughed.
"Conrad and I had our Independence Day on Halloween barely six weeks after we started working for Chastain."
"I can't imagine that." Mina sighed.
"Go on and get ready for your party." I urged.
"What time do you guys start?" Devon asked.
"Four." I answered with a yawn.
"Are you pulling a twenty four?"
"No. Just a twelve."
"You need to start thinking about pulling back." Conrad reminded me.
"I know, love. I promised I'd start reducing my hours around thirty weeks." I answered.
"I'll pull it back to max eighteen hours for week thirty then twelve for weeks thirty one and two. Eight for weeks thirty three and four, six for weeks thirty five and six, and finally four until she comes."
Conrad nodded.
"I just want you healthy for our daughter."
"I know, babe. Don't worry. Alex said she's perfectly healthy." I reminded him.
"I can't believe he didn't show up to the gender reveal." Conrad complained as we walked into the hospital.
"I'm sure he just got busy. We'll tell him when we see him." I assured him.
"He never misses an appointment." He sighed.
"I know."
"Laurie?" He said as we walked into a room where a woman in her early thirties laid in the bed.
"I'm Dr. Conrad Hawkins and this is Dr. Meghan Hawkins. We're going to be taking care of you tonight. Can you tell us what's going on?" He said softly.
"I keep having these terrifying dreams. I don't know what's going on. I'm not on drugs. I nanny for a rich family in Atlanta. My parents don't approve. We haven't spoken in years." She rambled.
"We're going to start you on a very low dose of antianxiety medication while we run some tests to give us a better picture of what's going on, okay?" I said gently.
She nodded.
"How are you feeling?" Conrad asked as we walked through the hallway.
"I'm okay. Hungry." I sighed.
"That's normal. Go get something to eat. I'll page you when I figure something out." He kissed me gently.
"Love you, Conrad."
"Love you too, baby."
I sat in the cafeteria eating cheese pizza that I ordered in for when Conrad found me.
"Are you gonna share?" He asked sitting across from me.
"Ask your daughter." I sighed.
"I can't believe how hungry I am."
"You're creating a life." He reminded me.
I nodded.
"I think Laurie has Capgra Syndrome." He told me.
"Why do you think that?"
"I saw her in the hallway and she had no idea who I was." He said stealing a piece of pizza.
"We can start her on low dose antipsychotics." I suggested.
"My father called. He's sorry for missing the party." He sighed looking away from me.
"I'm sure he is. Babe, people get busy."
"I'm his son. The only family he has. You're carrying his granddaughter which he'd know if he bothered to show up." He exclaimed.
"I know I need to do better." Marshall said from the doorway.
Conrad turned to face him.
"We should go away for a weekend. Just some time to get to know each other again."
"What's going on?" Conrad asked.
"I'm serious. You, me, Meghan. Just getting to know one another before your daughter comes." He insisted.
"Conrad! Laurie's disappeared." A nurse whose name I don't know called rushing passed the room.
"Go. I'm okay." I urged.
He got up and ran passed his father who walked over and took his place.
"Will you talk to him about the trip?" He asked me.
"I can try. He's distrustful and I don't blame him." I answered.
"I was a terrible father to him. He has every reason to not trust me but he's right. Him, you, the baby. You're the only family I have left. I'm getting older and it puts things into perspective." He looked at me.
I looked into his eyes and saw his honesty.
"I'll talk to him but ultimately it's up to him." I sighed.
"Thank you, Meghan."
After talking to Marshall I walk through the hospital looking for my husband. I see Laurie running through a hallway before crashing through a plate glass window. I rushed over to her to try to calm her down as she bleeds onto the floor from her severed femoral artery.
She thrashed around on the floor while I attempting to hold pressure on her thigh without allowing her to hit me.
"Conrad!" I took a chance and called his name.
Suddenly he was beside me and managed to hold her down while I kept pressure on her leg and Bell, who I hadn't seen before that moment, injected her with a sedative.
"Are you okay? Meghan, are you okay?" Conrad asked me after they wheeled her away.
"I'm fine. Don't worry. I'm fine." I answered touching him.
We found a teratoma or a tumor on one of her ovaries which explained her hallucinations by causing fluctuations in her hormone levels.
The surgeon working on her artery also removed the tumor.