Talk Is Cheap

Confusion swept over Nicole as she lay stationary with her eyes closed tight, her head was pounding, and she didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on. The last thing she remembered was talking to Niall, but everything else was blank. Slowly, she started to open her eyes, the florescent lights blinding her, forcing her to squint. Somehow, she’d ended up in a hospital bed, and her gaze darted around the room, noticing Niall first, and then Harry, and then a nurse scribbling notes on a clipboard. Niall was holding her hand, and Harry was standing in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You’re awake,” the nurse shrieked, causing Nicole to jump. Both Harry and Niall turned their attention towards her, their eyes laced with worry. “How’re you feeling?”

Everyone watched her, waiting anxiously for her reply. She swallowed hard before replying, “Fine, a bit confused.”

“That’s expected,” the small nurse replied, tossing the clipboard on the end of the bed. “You fainted and hit your head pretty hard. We expect the cause is low blood sugar or stress, but we took a sample of your blood just to make sure it isn’t something serious. We’ll have the test results this later tonight.”

Nicole nodded, taking in the information. Stress was more than likely the cause, Sage had practically given her a heart-attack earlier. Niall squeezed her hand, and she turned her attention towards him and offered a smile.

“She’s good, yeah?” Harry’s voice sounded from the corner, and the nurse turned on her heel to face him. She nodded quickly, responding without words. Harry made a noise similar to a grunt, and shoved his hands in his pockets before exiting the room, not offering a ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you later’ to anyone.

Nicole brushed off his odd behavior, knowing he was probably just upset over her and Niall. Nicole waited for the nurse to leave the room as well before pulling on Niall’s arm, dragging him from the chair beside her and onto the bed. His lips swept over her forehead before he settled in his spot, making himself comfy.

“I love you,” Nicole muttered and smiled sheepishly. A wide smile spread across his face, revealing a mouth of braces. He kissed her again, this time wrapping his hand behind her head and bringing her in for a passionate kiss that lasted not nearly long enough. Her body melted, a warm sensation coursing through her veins, assuring her once more she’d made the right decision.

“I love you, too.”

“Have you heard any more about Sage?” Nicole didn’t want to ruin the moment, but Sage was all she could really think about at the moment. Her best mate had almost died. It was a lot to take in.

Niall tensed momentarily, but quickly regained his composure before shrugging his shoulders. “No, but I’ll go find out for you.”

He jumped up from his seat before stepping out into the corridor to get the latest status on Sage. Nicole rested her hands on her stomach and intertwined her fingers as she waited for his return. She chewed on her bottom lip, wishing more than anything her mate was fine. She couldn’t believe Sage had snorted cocaine again. After everything , this was the last thing she’d expected. Nothing ever seemed to go right for Nicole. As soon as things started to work themselves out, something would always go wrong.

It wasn’t long before Niall appeared in the room again, his demeanor was calm and at ease. Nicole sucked in a sharp breath and waited anxiously for him to tell her whatever news he’d discovered. He walked over to the bed as she sat up and crossed her legs Indian-style; he reached for her hand before brushing his lips across her knuckles.

“You can go and see her now.” Niall said, and Nicole sighed with relief. She flung her legs over the side of the bed before he helped her up. He seemed overly conscious that she might faint again, making Nicole smile in amusement; she loved being worried about, it was cute.

“I feel like ripping every piece of her hair out,” Nicole announced as they walked through the corridor, making their way to Sage’s room. Niall looked at her with wide eyes, unable to believe she’d ever said such a thing. Nicole was not a violent person. “Well, not really, but still. This whole thing really upsets me.”

Niall nodded, beginning to understand what she meant. He didn’t know much about her mother’s death other than it was drug-related, so to see her best mate almost overdose on cocaine had to be difficult for her.

As they neared her door, Nicole reached to grab Niall’s hand and she squeezed it tightly, hoping to settle the nerves in her stomach before knocking twice and entering the room. Luckily, Sage’s parents weren’t there. They were probably off at the cafeteria or something. Or maybe, just maybe, they’d been so upset with Sage they hadn’t even come. Nicole wouldn’t be surprised by either outcome.

Sage looked like death, literally. Her face was pale and the bags under her eyes made her look like a skeleton. Her lips curled into a half smile when she noticed Nicole and Niall, but she couldn’t shake the guilty feelings taking-over. She’d promised never to do drugs again, and she’d broken the promise not two months later. Not to mention, she’d almost killed herself. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how angry Nicole was. How furious she would be if she knew the whole truth.

“Hi,” Sage mumbled, it was hard to form words. She felt so weak, but she guessed that’s what almost dying does to a person. Nicole didn’t reply. Instead, she turned to Niall and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and kissed her cheek, making Sage feel sick to her stomach, before walking out of the room—he never even looked at her.

Once Niall’s footsteps were echoing down the hallway, Nicole turned all her attention to Sage, and her olive eyes narrowed into slits. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Sage opened her mouth to speak, but quickly clinched it shut. She pursed her lips and tried to think of an explanation. Nothing came to mind besides ‘I’m a stupid bitch’.

“Do you know you almost killed me?” Nicole screamed, and Sage cocked her head to the side. She was definitely confused.

“What?”

“You bloody stressed me out enough that I fainted. You best me happy I didn’t slam my head against a sharp corner or something!”

Sage was struggling to understand what her mate was going off about. Obviously she’d missed something when they were detoxing her body from all the drugs. Apparently, Nicole had passed out, and it was her fault. That logic just didn’t seem to add up.

“I’m sorry,” was all Sage could say. She truly was. She’d fucked up big time, in more ways than one.

Nicole sighed heavily and rested her hands on her hips. She blew a strand of hair out of her face before running her tongue through her teeth. She bit down hard, causing a few drops of blood. There were so many things she wanted to say—to scream, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. She wanted to be mad at Sage, but she was too thankful that her mate was alive to be angry. She had so many mixed emotions, and again she started to feel tears well up in her eyes. She’d never in her life been so emotional before; there must have been something in the New Zealand water to make her such a mental case.

“If you ever consume another illegal drug again, I swear I will kill you if you live to tell about it.”

“Deal,” Sage replied, and Nicole crossed the room before forcing her mate into a bone-crunching hug. “I love you Nick, and I’m sorry about everything.”

“Ditto,” Nicole replied simply, her tears falling in Sage’s silvery-purple hair. “If I’d lost you, I probably would’ve had to kill myself.”

“You lying bitch.”

Nicole pulled away from her mate harshly, a shocked expression on her face. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t have the guts to kill yourself. You’d be too worried about how everyone would react to go through with it.”

Nicole knitted her eyebrows, but slowly accepted defeat. Sage was right, and annoyingly she knew her better than anyone else. “I wouldn’t have killed myself, but I would’ve gone mental.”

“That I can believe because you’re already off your rocker.”

Nicole faked a laugh as a knock sounded at the door and an older, female doctor appeared suddenly in the doorway. “Nicole Wood?”

Nicole turned sharply on her heel, a questioning look on her face as her eyes met the doctors. The woman seemed calm, but her face was etched with just a bit too much seriousness, and there was possibly a hint of worry in her eyes.

“Yes?”

“I’d like to speak with you privately.”

Nicole’s head darted quickly to Sage who was looking at her mate with complete confusion. After taking a deep breath, Nicole nodded slowly before following the doctor out of the room.

“We’ve gotten your test results back, and I may have some surprising news.”

Nicole absorbed the information and shifted her weight between the balls and heels of her feet as her eyes grew wide—she’d begun overthinking every possible situation, hoping she was just anemic or maybe had an over-active thyroid. Obviously, her thoughts shifted to every horrible disease possible like cancer or something. Perhaps she had a brain tumor—she really couldn’t be sure what the doctor was going to say, but it couldn’t be too awful. She’d just passed-out for goodness sake.

“Okay,” she muttered softly, her mouth had become dry, making it hard to speak.

“You’re pregnant,” the doctor said bluntly, and Nicole couldn’t believe her ears. “When you passed out earlier, it was because of all the new changes in your body. There was a shift in your blood pressure-”

Nicole stopped listening. Her head was spinning and her mind was wandering. How could she be pregnant? Obviously, she knew the answer, but it was still so hard to believe. She’d heard myths about birth control not working correctly in different time zones, and neither Niall nor Harry had used a condom…

FUCK, Nicole thought, lifting a hand to her head as she tried to steady herself. Who was the father? Suddenly, Nicole’s knees gave away again, and as she collided with the hard, tiled floor her last thought was ‘will my baby be Irish or have curly hair?’