Until The End

The car hit a bump, and I felt my stomach do a somersault. I groaned and smacked my forehead on the window. Johnny took my hand. I looked up at him and grimaced. He was driving me to the emergency clinic after I fainted on the way to our room. I told him it was nothing to worry about, but he wouldn't let me go anywhere unless we went to the emergency clinic. I hate hospitals.

I closed my eyes, my mind spinning in circles. I felt Johnny pull into the clinic parking lot, and I was half grateful. Whatever was wrong with me had to change, or I wouldn't be able to make it through this pregnancy.

Johnny opened my door for me, and he helped me out of the car. I gently punched his arm, but he ignored me.

"Johnny, I'm barely two months along," I said. "I'm not going to suddenly burst. I'm fine."

"That's what they all say," Johnny said. "I like helping you, Liss."

"Yeah, but there's helping, and then there's being obsessive."

"Call it what you will, but I want to. I love you."

I shook my head and followed him into the clinic. He tapped the counter of the receptionist repeatedly until she looked up from her paperwork.

"Can I help you?" she said.

"Hi, uh, my fiancée fainted, and she's pregnant," Johnny explained. "I don't know if that means anything, but I wanna make sure she's okay."

I rolled my eyes. Johnny was way overdramatizing this. I stepped in front of him and said to the receptionist, "Don't you just have some sort of pill you can give me and send me on my way?"

"You can't have medication when you're pregnant, dear," said the receptionist.

"What?" I said. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I'm sorry. It's just a safety thing for the baby."

"Fuck...I have no purpose here then. Johnny, let's just go."

"No, Lissa," Johnny said. "I need to know you're gonna be okay."

"I'll be fine," I replied. "Can we please just go home?"

He shook his head, but I wasn't going to give up. So what if I'd been feeling a bit less settled than before? My stomach had only been doing flips for...a couple days. And so what if I'd fainted for no reason at all? It was no reason to fret. Alright, so I guess it sounded worse the more I thought about it. I reluctantly followed Johnny to a pair of chairs in the waiting room. I sighed loud enough for him to hear, but he smiled at me.

After awhile, they called my name. We stood up and walked to the nurse waiting by another door. She looked evil. Waiting to stab me with needles or scalpals. This was why I hated hospitals. They were too cheerful. I squeezed Johnny's hand, and he smiled at me. The creepiness of the nurse never went away as we sat in a small room and she asked me questions.
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"High risk pregnancy?" said Mom. "Honey, I'm so sorry."

"I'm not dying," I said. "I just have to go into the doctor's office every couple weeks. It's no big deal."

"Oh, I still can worry," Mom replied. "What does this mean for the baby?"

"It'll be fine, according to the nurse. I'll just end up having a C-Section. Which is what I was hoping to avoid. You know how I am around needles."

"Yes, yes I do. You'll call me if anything changes, won't you?"

"I called you for this, didn't I?"

"Ah, you are my daughter. I'll let your father know. Give my love to the boys. I've got to actually do work today."

"Love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, Lissa." And she hung up.

I sighed and looked at the blanket Johnny had left me. He, Brian, Jimmy, Matt, and Zacky had gone out with Jacoby for a guys night, and Naomi had left momentarily to rent a couple movies. I was here alone. The house was eerily silent, so I flicked on the tv. A marathon of CSI was playing, a show I used to watch all the time before moving to California. I left it there and leaned back on the couch. I began to drift in and out of sleep, and eventually I fell asleep. When I woke up, Naomi was halfway through The Notebook after she'd already watched The Lake House.

I smiled at her. "Sorry," I said.

"You need sleep," Naomi replied. She lay her head down on my shoulder. "I haven't had a girl's night in for awhile. Even if you were asleep."