Alpha’s Baby(85)

“I’m glad you’re finally coming to,” said a voice in the background. “You’ve been out for a while.”

I tried to look at whoever spoke, but I was still groggy and the room was just a blur. After several moments of rapid blinking, I could make out a few shapes. A chair there. A white-coated figure there, standing over me.

Where was I? What had happened to me? Why was I in what seemed to be a hospital room?

“We are so lucky to have you with us.”

I looked up into a white-haired man’s face and then down at the name tag on his white coat. Even with blurred vision, I could make out the words Dr. Warner.

A doctor.

Suddenly, everything came back to me and I remembered everything right before the accident.

“My baby,” I cried, not caring about what was going to happen to me. I clutched my stomach, feeling all over it, but I immediately pulled my hands back at the sharp pain that greeted me. For the first time since waking up, I felt something beyond the pain. Emptiness. I somehow felt empty inside.

Oh, no.

I was suddenly filled with overpowering dread that made me want to vomit at the doctor’s feet.

And what about Stefan?

I didn’t want to think about it. We’d been through so much, only to have everything ripped from us by a cruel, tragic twist of fate.

The doctor looked at me gravely, and I swear that I felt like I would die in the hospital bed at that exact moment.

“I am very sorry, Bella,” the doctor sad sadly. “But we had to perform emergency surgery. The accident caused you to go into premature labor.”

Unable to control myself any longer, I burst into tears.



Stefan



I came awake with a gasp. I felt like shit. My body was sore all over, but as a trained athlete, I was used to aches and pains. I shook off the effects of whatever drug I was under and sat up.

I was in a hospital bed, hooked up to a machine. I was naked, garbed in one of those shitty hospital gowns. There were several wires attached to my bare chest and an IV feed going through my arm.

At the foot of my bed, there was a nurse who had a guilty look on her face, and I realized that I’d been lying with my legs spread and I’d somehow kicked my sheet down. I can guess what she’d been looking at, and while I’d normally be flattered, I didn’t have time to worry about that.

“Where am I?” I asked her, shaking my head to try and get the rest of whatever they’d injected me with out of my damn head.

She blushed deeply and quickly said, “St George’s Hospital.”

“Where is Bella?”

The nurse lowered her eyes. “The woman you were in an accident with is fine, but . . .”

“But?” I demanded, feeling more agitated by the second, my abs clenching from anxiety.

“We had to do surgery.”

That was all I needed to hear.

“Sir, what are you doing?” the nursed demanded as I began ripping the wires from my body. The IV hurt like hell coming out, but I didn’t give a shit. “You’ve been in a horrible accident and need rest. I need you to lie back down—”

I shoved the nurse’s hands away and hopped out of the bed. I stumbled when I landed, off-balance, pain shooting up my side and dizziness threatening to overtake me.

With great effort, I shrugged it all off. Then, ignoring the nurse’s protests, I stumbled out of the room. I half-ran, half-stumbled down the hallway. I had no idea where I was going, but I was determined.

I had to find Bella.

I tried to round a corner and lost my balance, crashing into a food cart and groaning as my side was pierced with pain again, so blinding that I sagged to the tile floor, staring at the linoleum and trying to just breathe.

Someone knelt beside me, and I heard a calming, gentle voice. “Stefan, I’m Dr. Jackson. I’m your attending. Listen, you’ve got two cracked ribs. Running into food carts isn’t going to help you.”

“Don’t fucking care,” I whispered, the loudest sound I could make. “Where’s Bella?”

“You really should go back to bed,” Dr. Jackson started, but I pushed his hands away and tried to get to my feet.

“Fuck you, Doc. The woman I love, the mother of my child, just had surgery, and you’re telling me to go to bed? Fuck you.”

I staggered to my feet, but Dr. Jackson was with me, gesturing with a free hand to someone. “Fine, be that way. I’ll help you to her, just . . . sit down in the wheelchair, okay?”

I did, slumping into the chair that was being held by a nurse as Dr. Jackson talked with someone on a intercom phone, then whispered in the nurse’s ear. She pushed me to the elevator, taking us up to the ninth floor, which I noticed was listed as OB/GYN-NICU. I’d seen enough medical shows to know what NICU was. “What’s wrong with Bella?”