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.

As soon as we were driving, he was back on the phone calling the rest of our family. He was so excited, his smile stretched across his face farther than I’d ever seen it, and all I could do was sit there and stare at my favorite dimple. I reached out and ran my fingers over his buzzed hair and he looked over quickly before looking back to the road.

“Are you okay?” He asked as he set his phone down in one of the cup holders, “You’re really quiet.”

I shrugged, “I’m great. I was expecting it to hurt or something, or to freak out. But I’m just really happy. I feel peaceful. Is that weird or what?”

Yeah. That didn’t last long. Right before I was taken to my room the contractions started getting really painful, another two hours later and they were even worse and coming much too often for my liking. I gripped Brandon’s hand tight as another one started and he brushed a few loose strands of hair behind my ear before resting his forehead against mine.

“Good job Harper, it’s almost done. I love you so much.” His deep voice was slow and rhythmic, I’m pretty sure it was the only thing keeping me from screaming right now.

I blew out a deep breath when it was over and relaxed my hold on him. He kissed my lips softly and sat back in the chair, keeping his hand wrapped around mine. If there was ever a next time, I was definitely getting the epidural, I didn’t care what they had to stick in my back. I looked around at my family and smiled at them. They were all caught in conversations, reading books, or talking on their phones to extended family and friends. Jeremy walked back in with bags and boxes from In N Out.

“I hate you.” I grumbled as I caught a big whiff of the delicious food.

“Sorry sis,” he grinned and started passing out the food, “I got you a cup of ice.”

I narrowed my eyes and everyone but Brandon laughed. He shook his head when Jeremy passed him his food and I pulled my hand from his. “I know what you’re doing, if you don’t go eat, you’re not staying in here when it’s time.” We obviously hadn’t gone to dinner, so I was starving, and he hated that all he could do for me was get me more ice.

He looked at me for a moment, brow furrowed, then with a sigh walked to the side of the room where the food was. I put my headphones back in my ears and closed my eyes. When another contraction hit I gripped the side of the bed and tried not to inhale too deeply, I knew Brandon would come right back to my side if he knew what was going on. But since I couldn’t hear them, I’d forgotten about the monitors and within seconds his hand pried my fingers from the thin mattress and held it tight until it was over. When I relaxed, he kissed my hand and went back to his dinner.

Another hour went by and everyone was now curled up on the couches and chairs watching something on the muted TV. Brandon helped me onto my side, and when I was comfortable he brought his chair around the bed so he could be facing me and rested his head next to my chest. One hand acting as his pillow, the other holding mine loosely for when I would need it again. I was glad he was going to get some sleep. I knew when I rolled to the side, he would think I was going to sleep as well, and would do the same. But that hadn’t been my reasoning. I was now in so much pain, I couldn’t hide it anymore and I didn’t want the family to see. My face twisted when another one hit, but I kept my fingers from curling around Brandon’s large hands. A few tears escaped my eyes and I let out a sigh when it was over again. Brandon’s thumb started making slow circles against my palm and I opened my eyes to see him watching my face, his head still resting on his other hand. He looked like he was in as much pain as I was by just having to watch me.