Page 81 of Forced Knocked-Up Mate

“What happened?” I demand.

Sarah shakes her head. “I don’t know! She was just stacking the window. I heard her make a little noise like she hurt herself, so I turned around to check on her… and she was on the ground!”

“Lucy,” I say, tapping her cheek gently. “Lucy, wake up!”

She doesn’t stir, even slightly. Her eyelids don’t flicker. The way her chest rises and falls rapidly frightens me just as much as the wild pulse I can feel in her wrist.

The sounds of the ambulance get louder outside, and paramedics flood the room seconds later. They shout questions at us that we try to answer as they quickly get Lucy onto a stretcher.

“Are you coming with her?” one of them asks, watching me grab the stretcher as if I’m daring him to take it from me.

“I’m not leaving her,” I insist.

“Okay, he says, pushing it towards the ambulance. “Are you her boyfriend, or—”

“I’m her husband.”

“That’s fine. Jump in.”

I wave to Sarah as I get in the back of the ambulance, trying to hold Lucy’s hand. The paramedics keep asking me questions, but none of it helps, and Lucy stays unconscious the whole time.

“I was hoping she just fainted,” I say. “But she’s not waking up.”

“That might mean many things,” one of the paramedics says. “It’s no use getting yourself wound up until the doctor sees her.”

“Easy for you to say,” I mumble.

“No,” the medic answers, shaking his head. “It’s not easy to say at all. This is my job, and I see it every day. It’s the best advice I can give you. Don’t kill yourself worrying about what it could be—not yet. Just focus on being with her.”

His words hit me with the force of a fighter jet hitting the ground at top speed. My head swims, and I can barely breathe as I realize just how serious this could be.

“She’s going to be okay, isn’t she?” I ask.

“Just wait for the doctor, son,” the guy says. “No one can even guess at what’s going on at this stage, but it’s not good that she hasn’t woken up.”

Panic like I’ve never known sings through my blood, completely destroying my calm. The peace I’ve found over the last couple of weeks shatters, plunging my heart into a wild blizzard of despair that feels like it’s shredding my flesh from my bones.

The urge to run, to get as far away from here as possible and kill these feelings with alcohol and petty violence, is overpowering. I can see myself doing it so clearly that my current reality fades away, and a future of hopelessness and solitude beckons to me with a sense of unavoidable destiny.

If I run now, I won’t have to lose her. I can go back to feeling nothing and loving no one. If anything happens to her, it won’t affect me at all.

I look down at Lucy, the dark shadows across her closed eyes, the terrifyingly pale skin, and how fragile she looks after losing so much weight. Emotion wells up in me, engulfing my heart, and I take her hand in both of mine.

“I’m not leaving you,” I swear, squeezing her hand. “I am going to stay right here, by your side, no matter what happens. I will not let you leave me, Lucy.”

Her eyelids flicker, but she still doesn’t wake. When the ambulance stops, I’m shoved out of the way while they pull out the stretcher and roll her away from me.

“Where are you going?” I bark, trying to chase them. “I’m not leaving her!”

“It’s okay, sir,” a nurse says soothingly. “She has to go straight in for evaluation by the doctor. You’ll be allowed in soon. Just wait here, okay?”

She gestures to a room lined with plastic seats. I frown at her, but she just points again, so I go inside and sit down. I can’t even stay still for a few seconds. When the doctor returns, I’m pacing back and forth.

“Peter?” the doctor asks.

“Yes! Lucy—Lucy’s husband. Is she—”

“She’s okay,” the doctor says, smiling. “It would have been much better if she came in earlier. This really didn’t have to happen, and she’ll need a few days here to recover, but she’s going to be fine.”

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