My eyes fluttered open, back in my body, back in the hospital. I blinked a few times, something was off. Colors seemed duller, my hearing was faded.
… Sage…
I heard the chair beside me move and I turned my head to see Benlyam. He looked tired and was obviously just sleeping. I became alarmed the moment he stood up to come near me.
“You’re up!” he exclaimed, the remains of his tired state evident in his voice.
My hand went around my stomach as I kept my eyes on him. I couldn’t afford to slack when Sage was weak, I didn’t have defenses. Benylam watched my hand shield our baby away from him, his eyes swirled with pain.
“Violet…” he whispered as he walked closer to the bed. I got so unnerved, I shot up in the bed, a headache accompanying me, and wrapped my other hand around my bump as I screamed.
I tried to scream.
My voice cracked and my throat felt like it snapped, it was burning. I screamed because I had no other defense mechanisms without Sage, but that wasn’t even working.
A storm was raging in his eyes at that. Pain, anger, regret, dread, and concern. He hated how I reacted to him, he knew why I did, and that agitated him even more.
“Shh, honey, don’t do that!” He put up his hands to show me he wouldn’t do anything to me and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Your vocal cords are strained or bruised. Reseda will explain it better,” he walked over to the counter and grabbed a glass of water. “Here. Drink. You hurt yourself because you were too dehydrated…”
He went to hand me the glass but I didn’t take it. I was mad at him, cautious. I didn’t want to touch it. He sighed, frowning.
“Honey, drink the water. It’s not going to hurt you,” he pleaded and when I didn’t grab it his eyes glanced down at my bump. “Don’t do it for me,” he looked back up at me, eyes softening, “please?”
I frowned. He was right, now wasn’t the time to be selfish, I had someone to care for. I carefully held my hand out for the glass but he was hesitant to give it to me. Why? He literally just begged me to take it.
He eyed my hand as he came closer to give it. He didn’t let go even when my hand wrapped around it. I furrowed my brows at him and he bit his lip as he let go, but hovered over my hand.
I realized why immediately. My hands were so weak, it immediately slipped, but he grabbed it quickly so it wouldn’t break, and hurt me some more. My eyes landed on my wrist, it was heavily wrapped in bandages and my eyes traveled. His name was wrapped.
I became so self-conscious in the matter of a second. I backed away from him and dropped my hand, hugging my stomach. I took a small breath, a panic attack nearing.
Where was he?
Benlyam eyed me.
“Violet,” he coaxed, “it’s okay. No one’s gonna hurt you, honey. I promise. Just come here and drink, okay?” He was searching my face for any signs, I had no clue what he was looking for.
When I made no attempt to move, he came closer, and I panicked. He hushed me and held out the cup.
“Just drink, Violet…” Benlyam pleaded again. He looked pained that I was holding back.
… Violet, woman up! You have a baby!…
I inched closer and relief flashed in his eyes. He held the cup to my lips and his other hand hovered over the back of my head. I flinched away and he apologized.
“I won’t hurt you, honey. I’m just being cautious…” He tipped the cup and made sure I had a good amount before he pulled away.
When Benlyam walked back over to put the glass down, the door opened. I winced and quickly looked over in fear. Reseda walked in. She smiled at me and respectfully nodded her head towards Benlyam.
“Good evening, Violet,” she spoke softly. I blinked at her, I didn’t feel like talking. “You’ve been asleep for a few hours, but we managed to clean you up! Your healing process might be slow due to everything, but we’re doing our best to help you!” she smiled and flipped through papers on her clipboard. “You managed to get up to one-twenty three last time I saw you. You lost a lot of weight due to past events, but we’ll get you back up! Congratulations, by the way,” she smiled.
It took a second to realize she was talking about my baby and I gave a small smile at her.
“C-can-” I winced, it hurt to talk, “is e-everything o-okay?”
Did Selene set me up? It hurt to talk and that was one of her requirements…
“I’ll be truthful with you, our biggest concern is your weight. It’s not near the recommended weight and it’s worrisome because we need you to produce estrogen.”
I saw Benlyam stiffen and he bit his lip, crossing his arms.
“We’ll get your weight up, everything should be fine. We’ll make sure everything is okay, that’s just the biggest problem. And proceeding that…” she read her clipboard, “your asthma problem might transfer to your pups, along with the slimness of your body, genetically. It could be an issue-”
Benlyam growled, cutting her off. I couldn’t help but flinch at it. “Nothing’s wrong with our pups!”
He was being harsher than usual, then again this was how he always acted. He was just warmer to me after some things.
She nodded. “Of course, Alpha. Pregnancy usually lasts about five and a half months. You’re about two or three weeks along. Tomorrow, depending on how you feel, we can do an ultrasound for you to see.”
“W-what’s that?” My vocal cords pulled.
“Oh! In simple terms, it’s a technique that uses sound waves, and it will produce an image of your fetus. A fetus is a baby. And it goes deeper than that medically and scientifically, but that’s the simple version.”
I felt so happy about those words. I instantly nodded.
“C-can we d-do it t-today?” It hurt so much to talk, but all I wanted to do was look. Make sure it was okay, see for myself because I’ve been blindly listening to everyone.
“Um…” Reseda glanced at Benlyam for approval and he looked at me, then back at her, then focused on me.
“Violet, do you feel okay?” he asked me. I didn’t look at him, just at Reseda, and nodded.
“P-please?” Reseda looked back at Benlyam and then nodded.
“Okay! I’ll go get the Ob/Gyn! I’ll be back shortly!” Reseda left the room and it was just Benlyam and me again.
It felt tense.
“Violet, listen, we can talk about it later, I don’t want you hurting your voice, but I didn’t hurt you, honey. You know I would never.”