Chapter Thirty-Five
Laurie
While I remembered very little about my frantic flight to the giant mountain, I did remember apologizing profusely as I spilled what little I had in my stomach down the scales of the dragon carrying me.
Was it Gisele? I didn’t know. Someone had ridden behind me, holding me in place. Perhaps that was Gisele.
Whoever it was, they carried me through the Rift, where they started bellowing for Eb.
I tried to tell them he would be downtown, but apparently, I was wrong.
The long-haired shifter appeared, taking me from whoever was carrying me.
He barked some questions, asking what was wrong and where I was hurt.
“My stomach,” I whispered. “Something’s wrong with my stomach.”
My baby. Oh, god, please, not my baby.
That was all I could think about as a bucket was shoved under my face and they strapped me into the backseat of the giant SUV.
Eb, with Gisele in the passenger seat, got in and started driving us toward town.
I continued to dry heave—though nothing was left for me to bring up.
The twisting of my stomach, however, never ceased.
The pains were sharp, and my muscles ached from the constant attempts to expunge something that wasn’t there.
“Just hang on,” Gisele said from the front seat as we drove through snow-covered roads at breakneck speed.
“Too fast,” I whispered. “We’ll crash.”
Gisele shook her head. “Snow is water, my dear. You don’t have to worry about traction with Eb at the wheel.”
So that’s how he did it.
It was my last coherent thought before I blacked out. I vaguely recalled lights and faces peering down at me. A bright light shining in my eyes. A painful prick in my forearm.
Then more darkness.
My stomach hurt.
That was the first thing I noticed as I swam my way back to consciousness through a sea of disorientation.
“Ow,” I said through a throat mangled from projectile vomiting for hours on end.
A frantic-looking Gisele appeared in my vision. “Laurie? Laurie, are you okay?”
“No,” I said. “My stomach hurts. Water?”
“Here,” the elderly shifter said, lifting a plastic cup to my lips. “Drink.”
I didn’t have the energy to hold it, so I let her dribble the liquid into my mouth bit by bit. Most of the water just trickled down my throat on its own. I was too scared to swallow; it hurt.
“Am I okay?” I asked eventually.
Gisele looked over at Eb, who was leaning calmly on the wall. He was right next to the door, I noticed, allowing him to intercept anyone who came through. My guard.
“I’ll get the doctor,” he said.
That sent a stab of worry deep into me.
“The baby,” I whispered fearfully to Gisele. “My baby, oh, god.”
Gisele held my hand but didn’t say anything, which sent my anxiety skyrocketing.
An older woman came in, her demeanor stern but not hostile.
“You’re awake, good,” she said. “I’m Dr. Beaner.”
“Hiya, Doc,” I said, trying to be cheerful. “What’s the word?”
She came to the bedside, looking me over briefly. Then she turned to the others. “A moment of privacy, please.”
“It’s okay,” I said before either of the two dragons could protest. “They know everything.”
“Everything?” she asked, her eyes dropping to my stomach. With her back to the others, neither of them saw it.
“Yes,” I said.
“So you know you’re pregnant, then,” Dr. Beaner said, relaxing.
I nodded nervously. “Am I … the baby?”
“Fine,” the doctor said. “It’s still early. In fact, it’s extremely early for you to be suffering like this. But your body was so low on fluids, even before the vomiting.”
“How can you tell?” I asked, curious.
“From what your friends said, only a few hours had passed since the nausea started. Some of the signs we saw typically take days to develop. You weren’t drinking enough.”
I frowned. I’d been drinking normal amounts of water, though. Maybe even a bit more because I was thirstier.
My eyes flicked to Gisele, then Eb, who cocked a head at the former in question.
“More water needed,” Gisele confirmed. “Lots more.”
“Oops,” I said wryly.
Dr. Beaner looked at us oddly but continued. “So we’ve got you set up with an IV drip. You’ve been diagnosed with HG.”
I stared at him. “Huh?”
“Hyperemesis gravidarum,” she said. “Extreme nausea, basically, to the point you end up here.”
“Oh,” I said softly enough not to aggravate my injured throat. “Will I be okay?”
“Most likely,” she said with a smile. “We’ll see how you do in the next two days. We’ll probably be tube-feeding you, which isn’t pleasant, but if you keep things down and do better, then I’ll be highly encouraged.”
I nodded, lying back as the doctor prattled on about a few other things, but I was still out of it and eventually fell back asleep.
When I woke, a new face was sitting in the chair next to me.
“Sis?” I called, noting my throat was, once again, dry.
“Heyyy,” Mel said, leaning over with water instantly at the ready. “You’re awake.”
“You’re here.”
Mel smiled. “The old guy with the hair had the hospital call me, I guess. Said it would be appropriate for family to be with you.”
I smiled. “Sounds like him. Where are they?”
“Went home to shower, get some rest. I had to push hard to get them out of here,” Mel said, shaking her head. “They did not want to leave.”
“Yeah, they can be like that,” I said wryly.
“So, what’s wrong with you?”
I explained everything slowly, over many sips of water.
“How are you feeling?”
“Good,” I said. “I’m drinking more water now. Apparently, I wasn’t drinking enough.”
I neglected to tell her the why. Telling my sister I had a baby sea dragon growing in my belly was … not on my list of conversations to have just yet.
“Where is he?” she asked when I finished explaining.
“Rip?”
“If you want to give him a name,” she said hotly. “He should be here.”
“It’s a long story,” I said.
My sister looked around the room, then at the IV, all rather pointedly. “I think we have time,” she drawled.
“I’m not mad at him,” I told her, declining to explain. “He wasn’t able to drop what he was doing. Even if he’d tried, I would have told him not to.”
I frowned internally as I explained. I’d only intended to get her off the scent, but as I spoke, it rang with a truth I hadn’t understood. I didn’t blame him. His people needed him, and there was nothing he could do being here instead of there.
But did that mean I was ready to accept what he’d told me about “fate” and how he and I were basically preordained to be together?
Maybe not yet.
“You okay?” Mel asked. “You’re awfully quiet.”
“I feel much better,” I said truthfully. “Sore throat, but even that’s going down. Everything has faded since they hooked me up to fluids and I’ve been drinking water.”
“Good. I’m going to go run to the bathroom really quick, okay?”
“Of course,” I said, reaching for the cup. “Just leave me that.”
Mel smiled and stood up, heading for the door.
She stopped halfway as it opened, and a large nurse entered, face covered in a mask.
“Who are you?” I asked, not recognizing him.
Another nurse entered after that. And another.
“What’s all this for?” Mel asked, turning to look at me.
As she did, one of the nurses lunged forward, grabbing her up and stuffing a cloth over her face.
I inhaled to shout, but the hulking nurse shook his head.
“Not a peep,” he said as I stared down the barrel of the pistol he’d pulled from somewhere