Brandon nodded.
“I can't tell you what to do, but it would be wise for you to consider retiring from your fighting. Hits like the one you received tonight, can easily cause much more severe damage. Permanent damage. You were extremely lucky tonight, but since you suffered from a hit like the one tonight, even a minor one can cause damage if received the wrong way.” He looked over a couple papers, and stayed looking at them as he spoke again, “We'll monitor you for the next four hours, and if you seem to be recovering fine, you can go home. Any questions?”
Brandon looked at me, and spoke softly. “No. Thank you Doctor.” After he shut the door Brandon continued to watch me silently cry and hold my stomach for a few minutes, “Harper –”
I shook my head and moved farther from his reaching hand.
“Hey guys,” Jeremy said as he walked in, “sis, you mind if I talk to him for a bit?”
I didn't say anything, I just stood up and walked out. Brandon called my name twice but I kept walking. When I got back to Konrad, Breanna and Kevin, I relayed what the Doctor said, and how Brandon planned to keep fighting. Konrad went to the bathroom and Bree held me while we waited for Jeremy to come back. Thankfully guys don't talk long, and he was walking back into the room in no time.
“He wants to talk to you.”
I nodded and walked back down the halls, the door was cracked and I heard Brandon's rich voice filling the room.
“I’m sure it looked bad, but I really am fine.”
“You don't get it man. You weren't there that night with Chase.” I realized it was Konrad and stepped closer.
“I know that, but this is the first time something like this has happened, and it wasn't even during the fight. I make really good money, more than enough to support her and our family. I can't just stop because of one hit.”
“You won't be supporting them if you take another hit like that and it paralyzes you.”
“I won't.” Brandon groaned.
“Look you can do whatever you want. Despite what Harper says tonight, she loves you enough that she would never actually stop you from doing something you wanted to do. But your girl wasn't the only one who thought you were gone. It was like a complete flash back of that night for all of us. People normally wake up from smelling salts, you didn't. You didn't even move.”
“I didn't know they used them.”
“Well they did, three different times. She has every right to be terrified that she's going to lose you like she lost Chase. Only this time, I don't know if she would be able to move on. I understand that you didn't see her side of things after you broke up, but we did. Everyone knew she was still madly in love with you, even Chase knew it but he never brought it up. We all knew he would never hold her heart the way you did. But you did see her the morning before he died, and you saw what that, and his death did to her.”
“It was like she wasn't even there anymore.” Brandon whispered.
“Exactly. I had to watch two police officers hold her down and she still escaped them to get to Chase. I watched her scream for him to wake up even though she knew he wouldn't. But tonight? Random guys standing near us even helped in trying to keep her away from the ring. She got away from four grown men tonight. Four! And she's about to have a baby. The fear in her eyes and voice, was like nothing I've ever seen before. It was as if her reason for existing was lying motionless on the floor. Losing you would kill her, I have no doubt about that. So do what you want, but consider her and your baby before you go out there again.”
“I do consider them, I'm doing this to support them!”
“You can find another way to support them. Do you want her to always be worried that you won't come home one night from this?”
“No.” Brandon took a few deep breaths in and out, “Seeing her like that tonight, I felt like someone stabbed me and kept turning the knife. I hate that I put her through that.”
“Yet you still told her you weren't going to stop fighting?” Konrad challenged, “If you love her like you say you do, you'll take care of yourself so you can take care of them.”
“I love her more than my own life.” Brandon growled.
Konrad sighed, “I know you do man, I shouldn’t have said that. You both mean a lot to me, I love you like family. I don't want to see either of you hurt.” He took a couple steps toward the door and stopped. “Listen, she messed up with you once, and she's paying for it. She'll pay for it every day for the rest of her life. But she would never do anything again to hurt you. Think about that.” Konrad stepped through the door and shut it behind him, he jerked back when he saw me. “Hey Kid.”
I hugged him tight and cried on his shoulder.
“Did you uh, did you hear that?”
“Most of it.”
“Aw hell. I'm sorry Kid, I didn't mean for you to hear that.”
I wiped my cheeks and stood up straight, “It's fine. Thanks for talking to him, I really appreciate it.” I traced some of the scars and his body started shaking when he looked down at them as well, “I appreciate everything you’ve ever done. And I love you too Konrad.” I smiled and after another quick hug from him, waited until he rounded the corner before knocking and walking in.
“Hey sweetheart.” Brandon's voice was thick with emotion, he could barely tilt his lips up in a smile.
“You feel okay?”
He shook his head slightly, “Not really, no.”
“No?” I asked alarmed and rushed to his side. “What's wrong?”
“No, no. Nothing like that, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you,” he sighed heavily, “again.”
I pulled the chair back up towards his bed so I could still touch him. “I heard you and Konrad.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” I breathed.
“Harper, I hope you know how much I love you.”
“I do, trust me I do.”
“I'm so sorry for putting you through this tonight. I didn't know how bad it had been. I didn't know how it all had gone down for everyone that was still awake.”
I smiled and ran my hand over his buzzed hair, “You scared me. I thought I was going to lose my best friend and the love of my life.”
“I know Harper, and I'm so sorry. I can't say that enough, you can't imagine how sorry I am. I shouldn't have gone tonight, and I won't go anymore. No amount of money is worth putting you through that.”
“You and I, we've had too much loss in our lives already. Do you think we could attempt to not add to that?”
He nodded and pulled me to him, “I'm not going anywhere. I promised you forever, didn't I?”
“Forever.” I agreed.
“Come here,” He scooted to the far right side of the bed and rolled onto his left side, “you're still on bedrest, and I haven't been taking care of you tonight.”
I lay down on my back and sighed at having Brandon's warm body pressed against mine and finally relaxing. Dr. Lowdry may have a point to this whole bedrest thing, my entire body had been aching to lay down.
Brandon kissed me softly and placed a hand on my belly. “Are you two doing okay? Physically?”
“Yeah, he went to sleep right before I came in here the first time.”
“Good, I want you to sleep too. I'll wake you up when we're going to go home.”
I couldn't even protest, it had been a long day anyway, and what happened tonight had exhausted me to the point where I thought I could fall asleep standing. I felt Brandon's lips on my forehead and heard his whispers of his love for me, but I was out before I could respond.
17
“How are you feeling sweetheart?” Brandon asked popping his head into the bathroom where I was finishing my make-up.
“I feel great! I’m so excited to get out of the house again, you have no idea.” Not that it had been long since we were out, we were just out Thursday night, the night of the fight, and it was only Monday. But I’d had so much energy the last two days, Brandon promised if I took a shower, got ready and was still feeling fine, he would take me out to dinner, then to see Mom and Dad.
He wrapped his arms around me and brushed his lips lightly against my neck, I almost groaned from the heated pleasure that instantly zinged through my body. “You look incredible.”
“Not so bad yourself.” I said a little breathless, remembering our first date and he laughed against my throat.
“Are you about ready to go? Because if we don’t leave soon, I’m not sure we ever will.” He pressed his body closer to mine and tightened his arms.
“I kind of hate Dr. Lowdry right now.”
Brandon laughed and released me, “We’ve made it this long, we can wait a few more weeks. Go get changed, I’ll be in the living room.”
I pouted but left the bathroom and walked to the closet. I chose one of the shirts Bree had gotten me for my Birthday. Those things had definitely lasted the entire pregnancy. I plucked the dark blue one and a flowy knee-length white cotton skirt from their hangers and walked back out of the closet. Hooking my thumbs into the waist band of my sweats, I started to pull them down when I felt something pop and my legs instantly got warm and wet. Oh my God I just peed myself! You have got to be kidding me, I’ve made it this far in the pregnancy without having an accident, and I get all cute for a date and I freaking pee on myself? I didn’t even have to go. Frustrated, I threw my sweats into the hamper, walked back to the bathroom and hopped into the shower, being careful to keep my hair and face away from the water. I reached out to turn the water back off and froze. Oh. My. Word.
“BRANDON!” I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me, “Brandon!”
He came bursting through the door less than a second later, “What’s wrong?!” His eyes were wide and panicked. “Are you okay?”
I laughed and nodded, “My water just broke!”
“Are you serious?” His face fell for a few beats then broke out into a wide grin. Closing the distance between us he kissed me until my knees were weak. When he pulled back, he cupped my cheeks tenderly and smiled. “So he’s coming?”
“Guess so, you ready for this?”
Brandon suddenly gasped, “Wait, we have to go! That means we have to go!” He turned around and took off into the bedroom. By the time I dried myself off, I could hear him on the phone with either my family or his.
I felt strangely calm as I pulled on the dark blue shirt, and searched around for a clean pair of sweats. Brandon rushed out of the room with the hospital bag, I heard the front door open, close, open and close again before he came running back to me. I was sitting on the bed smiling at his behavior.
“Harper, we have to go. Come on sweetheart, is there anything else you can think of?”
“Phone chargers.” I watched as he yanked both ours from the wall. “Headphones, can you grab me one of your sweatshirts?” I didn’t care if it was September, the nights were cool, and when we’d been in that hospital last week, it was freezing.
“What else?”
“I need you to kiss me, then calm down and drive us to the hospital.” I smiled against his eager lips as he gently pulled me to my feet and led me out of our house.