“Condition? Is it a concussion?”
“Mr. St. James asked me to be as thorough as possible. So I ran a full blood panel. To be honest, it was probably more extensive than the situation warranted, but he insisted I spare no expense. I wasn’t sure if you knew, so I wanted to let you know your hGC levels indicated you’re pregnant.”
My eyes glazed over. I’d missed my period three times now, but with my wacky body, that wasn’t entirely unheard of. But I was already worrying about the possibility weeks ago. I just hadn’t worked up the nerve to take a test yet. I swallowed hard. “Oh.”
6
Kenzie
The only sound was my heart thumping in my suddenly clogged ears. The pace kept increasing until it felt like some miniature Viking was in my chest, urging his oarsmen for more speed.
Pregnant?
I didn’t speak for a few seconds while my brain did its best attempt at playing dead. I’d always loved the movie Inside Out, where everyone’s brain was made of a team of little emotionally charged creatures. At that moment, I imagined all of mine at the control panel in my head, slumped over and unconscious. Or maybe on fire and running around the room, screaming.
I flinched when the doctor’s voice came again
“Oh,” she said, smiling. “That blood pressure is pretty high.” She pulled the cuff off my arm. “Maybe I shouldn’t share that sort of news while I’m reading your vitals. Sorry.”
“Does that test tell you if the baby is half devil spawn, by chance?”
She smiled. “In my experience, babies are all very sweet. I wouldn’t worry about that.”
“Wait,” I said. “Did you tell Sebastian? About the pregnancy, I mean.”
The woman shook her head quickly. “No, of course not. That’s private information. I may be friends with Sebastian, but I’m still a licensed medical professional. Your information is safe with me, Kenzie.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
“Actually,” she said after a moment’s pause. “I’ve known Sebastian since he was a teenager. I was a few years older than him and used to tutor him in math, and I would house sit for his family until…” she trailed off and gave a little shake of her head. “The point is I’ve known him a very long time, and one thing has always been true. Sebastian doesn’t get attached to people. Sometimes they pass through his life, but there’s always a distance there. When he brought you in last night, well…” she stopped speaking again and frowned. She smiled suddenly, as if deciding she didn’t need to finish that thought. “He wouldn’t say how you two met, actually.”
I decided not to press her for more about what she had been saying. An idiotic part of me had felt a pang of jealousy when I realized they were probably some kind of romantic partners. It would make sense. The pretty doctor he’d known since he was a kid who was on call for personal favors. And a babysitter? It was like a porn script that wrote itself. But I quickly reminded myself he could have a harem of supermodels using his dick like a flute every night for all I cared. Sebastian was just a memory to me. Nothing more.
“I wish I could say it’s a long story,” I said. “But it’s actually not. It’s a stupid story.”
“That might explain his obsession with your condition, I suppose. After what you did at his book signing, it surprised me when he wanted to help you, to be honest.”
“Maybe I do have a little amnesia,” I said. “His book signing? Why would I go to his book signing?” Except even as I asked, I could feel the memories leaking back to me. I had a vague vision of myself holding a steaming cup of coffee while I fast walked past a line of people. Then there was… My head pulsed with pain again, and I stopped trying to remember.
She put her hand to her mouth, covering a small smile. “You know how you wished middle school got knocked out of your head? You might want to avoid asking about last night and be glad you can’t remember.”
I folded my arms. That was encouraging. “Where’s Sebastian now?”
“He’s right outside. Usually, nothing peels him away from his office. But it’s like I was saying. Ever since he brought you to me last night, I keep catching him looming around this room. I don’t think he has even gone to his office yet.”
I tried to picture that and couldn’t, so I chose not to believe her. “Can I leave?” I asked.
“You’re free to go when you like, but I wouldn’t advise it right now. I’ll need to do a little more testing now that you’re awake to be sure, but you probably suffered a concussion last night. The symptoms vary, but until we know more, it’d be best to keep you put. Do you have a job I could write you a note for?”
“No official job at the moment,” I said. A little more of last night was coming back to me then. I’d lost my latest dead-end job, which had partly motivated the brief but intense emotional spiral that had inspired me to… It was still fuzzy, but I thought I remembered seeing that Sebastian St. James would be attending a book signing a few blocks from my place. I also thought I remembered Trinity desperately trying to talk me out of “doing something stupid. Again.”
Well, the joke was on Trinity. I didn’t even really remember what I did, so it was going to be hard for her to scold me.
“Should I go to a real hospital, maybe?”
The woman—I finally noticed she had a name tag that read Dr. Willows—gave a sympathetic shrug. “We had you at my hospital last night. We did brain scans and everything else imaginable at the request of Mr. St. James. It really wasn’t that big of a fall,” she added when she saw the look on my face. “He insisted we bring you here to recover. I suggest you take him up on the offer since he’s covering all the expenses. But I do feel obligated to say that under normal circumstances, we’d probably send you home after a simple concussion test and schedule you for a checkup in a day or two. Sebastian’s being over-cautious with you.”
“Wait, I fell?”
“Sort of?” The doctor looked like she was holding back a smile. “I’m sure it’ll all come back to you soon.”
I thanked Dr. Willows as she left the room and then sank into the comfortable bed, simmering on my situation. I had no job, no family to look after, and apparently, I was pregnant, too.
I wasn’t sure if my brain could’ve coped with that last fact on a normal day. Today, though, it didn’t feel like it was registering. The baby was his. That much was certain, based on the roughly zero penises I’d let inside me since I was with him. And nobody needed to go into details about how long it’d been before I was with him, either. The condom had clearly been faulty. I’d seen him put it on and take it off and there was no visible damage—not that I’d paid that much attention, but still.
Somehow, it had happened. That fact was staring me in the face, whether I liked it or not. It appeared when the universe screwed you, there were no orgasms involved. Just babies. Evil half-devil babies, at that.
I let out a low groan and covered my face with my hands. I had no idea how to handle this.
So I did what was natural and had a full-blown, silent panic attack. I took short, halting breaths, felt like my chest was going to cave in, and then even gave laughing hysterically a try for a little while. Nothing really helped, and I was still just as pregnant with that bastard’s baby when I was done.