𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘, 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐓

TWELVE: LOSS

"tyler, i've been feeling so wrong," scarlet mentioned again in the last week. she was slightly dizzy as she sat up on the couch in the studio, blinking profusely. she rubbed her growing stomach. she was three months pregnant and tyler was stressed out over being a father.

tyler sighed as he moved the chords over the track and cursed under his breath and he heard his voice. he turned in the spinning chair and looked at scarlet. "what's wrong?"
he sounded annoyed, so scarlet pursed her lips and just stared at him, feeling intimidated. "what?" he sounded more pissed off than before.

"i-i don't feel good. i feel like there's something wrong with the baby," she says. she was on the verge of tears. this was happening a lot. being pregnant started making her more emotional than usual.

"do you want to go to doctor?" tyler asked her. he rolled the chair over to her and rubbed her thighs.

she shook her head. "it's a feeling, i don't think they could do anything about it even if they tried." tyler started to understand.

he sighed and lifted her leg up so that it was in his lap and he caressed it. "well, it's only natural that you feel these things. you're going to be a mother."

"and you're about to be a father. why don't you ever feel like there's something wrong?" she questioned, cocking her head to the side.

"i do, but i'm good at pushing things to the back of my head. i worry a lot but there's no one i can really tell," he explained to her. "besides my mom." scarlet smiled a little as she looked at him. "i don't think there's anything to worry about."

-

the worry went away temporarily. up until they were close to their due date. it was two weeks earlier than the due date when scarlet was laying in bed in the middle of the night and started to experience contractions.

"tyler..." scarlet winced and started to tear up and frantically grabbed onto tyler's arm. "tyler!" her water suddenly broke.

he woke up groaning and sitting up and felt the bed soaked underneath him. "what the fuck...?"

"tyler!" she shrieked this time.

he blinked and rubbed his eyes as he got off the bed, cautiously, standing up. "what's wrong? what's going on?" he yawned and let his eyes adjust to the dark.

"i think my water broke, t-" she was cut off by a loud cry, a sharp pain in her lower abdomen striking her. "fuck!" tyler's heart started to race and rushed over to her side of the bed. he grasped onto her arm, squeezing it as he lifted her up on her feet. she started to cry harder, wincing and closing her eyes. "it hurts so bad..."

"it's alright..." he tried his best to comfort her as she finally was standing, but bent over, a wet stain on her grey sweatpants. "come on, in the bathroom like we practiced with the nurse." the plan was to have a home-birth because tyler needed as much privacy as possible. none of his fans knew that he was having a kid. he needed it to be that way.

in small steps, scarlet slowly made her way to the bathroom, holding onto tyler's hand as he walked with her. he was still trying to process anything and his mind was clouded. "stand here, for a minute." tyler let go of her hand and put multiple towels into the tub.

scarlet started to wheeze. "tyler.." she took a deep breath. "it's too early, isn't it?" tyler stopped for a moment to look at her. "he's five weeks early." he turned back around and didn't acknowledge what she said and kept putting the towels in the tub just as he was told to by the nurse he was working with.

"i'm gonna call hayden," tyler says as he started helping her into the tub. she started to cry out in pain as she sat down. "deep breaths." he went to the room, picking up his phone. he called the nurse, travis, and jasper.

after almost half an hour of scarlet crying and sweating in the bathtub and tyler pacing back and forth, everyone had arrived. scarlet's hair was stringy and sticking to her face and tyler stayed out of the bathroom.

scarlet was crying harder. "another contraction?" hayden asked, putting a hand on scarlet's back.

"no..." scarlet shook her head. "i want tyler in here. where's tyler?!" she shrieked.

tyler heard her from outside the bathroom. his hands were clammy. he felt something wrong but didn't know what it was. his stomach hurt. jasper came out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him, seeing tyler propped up against the wall with a long face. "why you not in there dude? she need you."

"i can't..." was all tyler could say.

jasper sighed and went back into the bathroom. tyler listened and heard that it was time to push. tears started to form in his eyes and he closed them as he heard scarlet screaming, panting and crying for almost two hours.

there was an awkward moment of silence. soon, jasper and taco came and walked out of the bathroom and avoided eye contact with tyler. they sat on his bed. "what's going on?" the boys didn't answer. after twenty minutes, scarlet let out a cry. not a cry of physical pain. it was emotional pain. tyler gave jasper and taco a confused look. "what's going on?!" he gave up and tried to go into the bathroom, but the doorknob just jiggled. it was locked. "scarlet! what's wrong..." his voice crack. he already had a bad feeling that he knew what was wrong. scarlet didn't respond and screamed with pure agony and heartbreak.

suddenly the door opened and hayden came out, holding the baby. it wasn't crying, moving, or even alive. it was wrapped a blanket, hayden holding it close to her chest and she gave tyler a sad look with tears in her eyes. "it's stillborn."

tyler was frozen as he watched hayden walk away with the baby, making phone calls. he looked into the bathroom that was now open. he could see scarlet crying in the tub. there was bloods in the tub, sweat, water. tyler couldn't bring himself to say anything. he walked out of the house, got in his car and left.