Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
D axton
“Harper!”
Am I seeing things? Or is that Harper Hall laid out on a bed being wheeled into my hospital by a paramedic and looking paler than the moon itself?
I can’t help it, my damn feet have me rushing to her side.
“What the f–? Are you okay?” I peer up at the paramedic. “Is she okay?”
“I am absolutely fine,” Harper says, “this is all a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” That makes no sense at all.
“She fainted,” the paramedic says, “on an aircraft.”
“It hadn’t taken off,” Harper clarifies, “and this is all a big fuss over nothing.”
“Thank you,” I tell the paramedic, coming around to the head of the bed. “I’ll take things from here.”
“I need that bed back,” he calls after me. I ignore him, bypassing all the waiting people, barking at my members of staff as I wheel Harper straight into a private room and lift her from the ambulance bed onto the hospital one.
“Dax!” she screeches as my arms fix around her. “I do not need to be here. There’s nothing wrong with me.”
“You fainted,” I state. My pulse is racing; my heart too. Fainting. Does she have any idea how many serious – life-threatening – diseases could cause that? Diseases we need to start treating immediately to give her the best chance. Because this world cannot lose Harper Hall. Fuck, no.
“I probably just stood up too quickly. Plus it was hot in there.”
“Have you fainted before?” I say, unhooking the stethoscope from around my neck and placing the bell against her sternum, listening to her heartbeat. Solid, steady. Thank god.
I’m just taking her wrist in my hand to feel for her pulse when two nurses come strolling in – one who’s been at the hospital since the start of time, the other who only qualified about an hour ago.
“Where have you been?” I say. “Didn’t you hear me calling?”
“We came as quickly as we could, Dr. Stanton,” the older nurse says, already unwinding the blood pressure monitor. She’s one of those nurses who doesn’t take any bullshit from doctors. Usually, I like that about her. Not today.
“I think she’s dehydrated. We need to hook her up to fluid.” The younger nurse nods and then hurries off to find the necessary equipment. “Check the rest of her vitals,” I tell the other nurse. “I’m going to go and order some tests.” I go to turn away but this time my feet refuse to move. I don’t want to leave her side. Not when she’s sick. “I’ll be right back, Harper. You’re going to be just fine.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I’m not dying, Dax. I only fainted.”
“And vomited,” I say.
“You’re not pregnant, are you, dear?” the nurse says as she wraps the blood pressure pads around Harper’s arm.
“Pr-pr-pr-pregnant?” Harper stutters, meeting my eyes, hers wide with shock.
“Pr-pr-pr-pregnant?” I repeat, staring back at Harper with just as much shock.
“Yes, pregnant,” the nurse says, “happens all the time.”
“You don’t faint from pregnancy,” I say.
“You do,” the nurse says sternly, “if you haven’t eaten.”
We both turn to Harper. “I felt too queasy to eat breakfast this morning,” she confesses.
“You skipped breakfast?” I ask with a scowl.
“How long have you been feeling sick?” the nurse asks as I bristle beside her. Harper is my patient.
“The last few days.”
“Worse in the morning?”
“Uh huh.”
“I think you’d better add a pregnancy test to that list you’re ordering, doctor. In fact, it may be best to rule that out first.”
“But I can’t be pregnant!” Harper says.
“Because you’re on birth control,” I state.
“Erm … well …” She chews the inside of her cheek. “But the dates don’t add up.”
“When did you last have sexual intercourse?” the nurse asks her matter-of-factly. Harper and I both cringe in sync.
I go to answer for her, stopping just in the nick of time.
“Two and a half weeks ago.”
“Well, in that case, the timing fits,” the nurse says.
“But I thought most people didn’t feel sick until five or six weeks’ pregnant.”
“Most, yes, but some feel sick much earlier – especially omegas. I think it must be something to do with your sensitive sense of smell. Also, the whole weeks’ pregnant thing is a bit of an anomaly. We start counting from the day of your last period – which was …”
I watch Harper do the math in her head. “Coming up five weeks ago.”
“So you’d be five weeks pregnant,” the nurse says with a smile.
“ If she’s pregnant,” I mumble.
“How about I go get that test,” the nurse says, “and we can find out either way.”
Harper and I stare at each other in disbelief as the nurse leaves. As soon as the door clicks behind her, I blurt out, “You weren’t on birth control?”
Her cheeks burn hot – which actually makes me feel relieved. She was looking so damn pale.
“Well, no. I broke up with Laurent. I wasn’t sleeping with anyone. I didn’t need birth control.”
I take a step closer to the bed. “You slept with us!”
“In heat!” she points out. “My senses were just a tad scrambled. Besides, you could have used protection yourself.”
“My senses were pretty scrambled too,” I say.
We stare at each other.
“Is there any point in taking this test?” she whispers. “I mean, we had a lot of sex – a lot of sex! And I was in heat. And you are alphas.”
I nod. I’m 100 percent certain Harper Hall is pregnant. Pregnant with our baby.
For a brief moment, I very nearly faint myself, all the blood rushing to my head and my ears ringing with noise.
“Daxton?” Harper says. “Daxton, are you all right?”
I blink ten times in a row, trying to make my brain work again.
Harper Hall is pregnant with our baby.
I want to race to the fire escape, charge up the staircase and yell that from the rooftop so everyone knows.
But Harper Hall is not our omega – she doesn’t want to be. She’s made that clear. Even if she is now carrying our baby.
Harper flops back against the pillow. She’s still wearing the arm cuff, but I don’t need the blood pressure monitor to know her blood pressure is rising.
“I’m pregnant!” She stares at the wall ahead of her. “Shit, I’m going to have a baby.”
“Doctor?” the younger nurse says from the doorway. “I have the drip.”
“Get the fuck out!” I bark at him, strolling his way and slamming the door in his face.
I spend a few seconds focused on breathing, and then, when I’m a little calmer, I turn back around to Harper.
I try and read her expression. Is she pleased about this turn of events? Happy? Upset? Scared?
Harper has always been focused on doing well at school, then work and then in her career. Hell, she’s been prepared to throw away this thing between us to propel her career. A baby? How does that fit with her plans?
“What do you want to do, Harp?” I ask her.
“I … I …” Her eyes flick from side to side, then stop. She narrows them. “Why – are you going to try and convince me to–?”
“We’ll support whatever choice you want to make. And if you want to keep the baby, we’ll help you. We’d want to be involved.”
“You would?” she says, sounding surprised, relieved and almost – am I reading that right? – pleased.
“Of course. It’s our baby.” I hesitate. “I mean, it is, isn’t it? There’s no chance …”
“No chance!” Harper scowls at me. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Please do,” I say. I swallow. I’m fucking this up. I wish Owen was here. He’d know what to say. In fact, he’d probably drop down on one knee and ask her to marry him.
Yes, yes, that’s what I should do. That’s what you’re meant to do if you knock a girl up, right?
I scratch my head and swing my gaze around. It’s not exactly the most romantic of settings but fuck it.
I take a step towards Harper and bend down on one knee.
“Daxton,” Harper says with a note of caution in her voice, “what … what are you doing?”
“Harper Hall, will you do the honor of marrying me?”
“What?!” she cries, nearly leaping off the bed, just as the door swings open and the older nurse comes marching back in, pregnancy test in one hand. She doesn’t see me kneeling on the floor and walks right into me. I have to reach up a hand to stop her from tumbling right over me.
“Doctor?” she says. “What on God’s green earth are you doing down there?”
“I … erm … I …” I look up to Harper in desperation.
“He dropped a contact.”
“I thought you alphas had 20/20 vision,” the nurse says.
“I … erm … wear them for cosmetic purposes.”
“Ahhh,” she says nodding. “I always thought those dark eyes of yours were too good to be true. Have you noticed how brown they are?” she asks Harper. “Very distinct. Very–”
“Piercing,” Harper says.
“Anyway doctor, even if you did find that lens, we both know you shouldn’t be putting it back in your eye.” She leans into Harper. “The number of patients who don’t take care of their lenses and end up in here with such bad eye infections we have to remove–”
“Yes, thank you, nurse,” I say, seeing how green Harper is turning. “Is that the test?”
“It is. Do you know how it works, love?” she asks Harper. “Ever done one before?” Harper nods and now it’s my turn to narrow my eyes. “Well, they’re all the same. Pee on the stick and wait two minutes. There’s a bathroom through there. We’ll leave you in peace.” She places her hand on my back in a bid to usher me out in the way that all good nurses do.
“I think I should wait and check what the result is,” I say, eyes locked on Harper.
“I think our patient will want a little privacy.” She leans and whispers, “She doesn’t need you listening to her pee.”
“Even still–”
“Doctor, you have other patients waiting.”
Harper smiles at me.
“I think we all know what the result is going to be, doctor.”