Page 27 of Only for Tonight (Only For #1)

twenty-one

Ariella

“W e’re going to get some fluids into you,” the nurse says, wheeling me away from Jaxon. If I had any energy left in my body, I would stop them and tell Jaxon to come with me. The tears now roll down my face and I have never been more scared in my life.

They wheel me into a room and then I close my eyes. I don’t even know if I’m sleeping or if I’m passing out. I hear everything around me and then I feel like I’m being lifted and then placed on a bed.

“We are going to have to take off your sweatshirt,” the nurse states.

I feel myself being put in a sitting position and then the cool air hits my arms when the sweatshirt is away from me.

I reach out my hand, or at least I think I’m reaching out my hand to bring the shirt back to me so I can feel him near me.

“Jaxon,” I mumble his name and then I’m laid back down. “Jaxon,” I call for him again.

“We’ll get him in a minute,” someone says as there is movement all around me. “We need an OB to get down here.” Then I hear the voice next to my ear, “Ariella, we are going to have to get you undressed.”

“Okay,” I mumble, trying to lift myself up, but I’m just lying here like a fish out of water. I couldn’t move even if I tried.

“We’ve got you,” the nurse assures me as she peels the pants off of my legs and then they’re replaced with a nice warm blanket. “We are going to get some fluids into you.”

“Jaxon,” I say his name. “Can you get him?” I don’t know how much of that they even understand.

“Let’s take care of you first and then we’ll get him.”

“I think I’m going to be sick again,” I announce, trying to get up but my whole body feels like it has shut down.

“We’ll get you a bowl,” the nurse states from beside me, walking out as another one hooks me up to an IV.

“Jaxon,” I say his name weakly. “Where is he?” The sob rips through me, the fear that I’m all alone is too much for me right now.

“He’s in the waiting room,” she says. “Now, this will pinch a bit.” I hiss out in pain as she sticks a needle in my arm. “We’re going to get you hooked to an IV. Then we’ll get him, I promise. We just need you to relax a bit, okay?”

“Okay,” I answer her softly. “Is the baby okay?”

“Have you had any cramping?” she asks me, and I shake my head, the lone tear running down the side of my head and into my hair. “Bleeding?”

“No, nothing like that.” I lift my arm to wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “I just started throwing up and I haven’t been able to stop.”

“That’s good,” she says.

“Can you get Jaxon?” I ask for him and she smiles at me.

“I’ll get him right away,” she confirms, walking out of the room. I turn on my side, my hand going to my stomach. I can’t help the tears that run out of my eyes and down over my nose.

She comes back in with Jaxon behind her. My eyes find his and I see that his are red also. “Hey.” I try to pretend I’m okay as he comes over to the bed.

“Hey, baby.” He bends and kisses my temple. His hand goes into mine and I feel so safe. “How are you doing?”

“Amazing.” I smile at him. “I haven’t been sick in about two minutes.” He looks in my eyes and I can see he’s been crying. My hand comes up to cup his cheek. “It’s going to be okay,” I reassure him.

His hand comes up to my face. “It’ll be okay,” he tells me softly before coming and kissing my forehead.

“She’ll start to feel a lot better once we get some liquids into her,” the nurse explains, “and we have given her something for the nausea.”

I move over so he can sit beside me on the bed and he shakes his head. “Rest,” he urges. Standing up, he turns to ask the nurse something. I want to listen to them, but my eyes feel so heavy. I close them for just a second and the next thing you know I’m drifting off to sleep.

My eyes flutter open and I see the room is almost dark.

I hear the sound of people talking in the distance, and I look to the side to see Jaxon stretched out in the chair in the corner.

His feet are in front of him, folded on top of themselves.

His hands on top of each other on his stomach and his eyes closed.

I close my eyes again, feeling so much better as I look up at the clock over the door, seeing it’s been three hours since I’ve been here.

As if on cue, his eyes open and he sits up when he sees me awake. “You’re up.” he says nervously, “How are you feeling?”

“Oddly enough”—I smile—“like a million bucks.”

He smiles as he gets up and groans, “I’m going to go and get the nurse.”

I watch him walk out of the room, closing my eyes again for just a second. “How are we doing in here?” the nurse asks me, walking in with Jaxon trailing behind her.

“Feeling like a million bucks.” I smile at her. “You must have given me the magic potion.” I point up to the IV bag.

She laughs. “That’s what they call it.

“Your color is back and everything.” She smiles. “Doctor is about to come in,” she mentions and right then a man walks in wearing beige slacks and a Burberry dress shirt with a white jacket.

“Ariella Weber,” he reads the chart in his hand.

“That’s me.” I sit up and laugh. “Obviously, I’m the one in the bed.”

He smiles at me and looks down. “You were sick for close to twenty-four hours?” he says and I look at Jaxon.

“Almost,” he confirms, coming to stand on the other side of the bed next to me.

“You are ten weeks pregnant?” he continues, and I automatically put my hands to my stomach.

“I am.”

“No cramping or bleeding—a good sign.”

“What does that mean?” Jaxon quickly asks. “Is the baby okay?”

“If she was cramping and or bleeding,” he starts to explain, “that would mean the fetus isn’t viable and she’d be starting to miscarry.”

“So it’s good, then?” Jaxon asks and he nods his head.

“We’ll be able to tell by doing an ultrasound,” he states and looks at the nurse, who just nods her head and walks out of the room.

She comes back wheeling in a machine as the doctor takes it from her.

“If you can pull up the hospital gown,” he instructs me and I move the cover down to pull up the blue robe.

Jaxon’s hands quickly move the blanket back up, covering my panties and I just look at him as the doctor tries not to laugh at him.

He grabs the white bottle of gel, squeezing some onto the bottom of my stomach, moving the blankets down a little.

“Can we get the lights?” he asks the nurse, who turns off the little lights that are in the room.

He puts the transducer on my stomach as he looks at the screen.

He pushes down as he moves it right and left.

“There it is,” he says, clicking on the screen and I look over to see our baby, “still there.” All I can do is look at the screen as the baby literally flips upside down.

“Arms are starting to form as well as legs.”

I feel Jaxon bend and kiss the top of my head. “Everything is okay, then?” he questions. The doctor presses a button, and we hear swishing at first followed by the sound of trotting.

“That’s your baby,” he announces and Jaxon’s eyes go big.

“Can I film this?” he asks, taking out his phone and the doctor smiles at him and nods his way.

“Not of my stomach,” I tell him and he side-eyes me before placing his camera on the screen.

“That’s the heartbeat,” he talks to himself, “and that’s you.” He stares at the screen and I can’t help but cry and smile at him at the same time.

The doctor moves the transducer off of me before grabbing a towel and wiping the gel off. “Everything is good,” he confirms and tears off a paper from the machine. “I suggest contacting your doctor in the next couple of weeks.”

“Why do you think she was throwing up?” Jaxon asks him.

“It’s hard to say. It could be the flu, it could be something she ate.

We’ll never know,” he says, then turns to the nurse.

“Keep her on the fluids until morning and then she can go as long as she doesn’t vomit.

” He turns back to us. “This is for you.” He hands us the pictures of our baby. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” I look down at the baby who is the size of a raspberry but looks like he’s huge in there.

The doctor walks out of the room, the nurse following him with the machine behind him. “Can I see?” Jaxon asks me, sitting down on the bed beside me.

“Yes.” I smile, handing it to him and putting my gown down. “Also, I can’t believe you did that.”

“Did what?” He doesn’t take his eyes off of the picture.

“Did what?” I gasp. “You know he’s a doctor, right?” I ask him and he rolls his eyes.

“He didn’t need to see that part of you.” He shakes his head and I literally have no words for him.

“You should go home and get some rest,” I tell him and he glares at me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m not fucking going anywhere,” he hisses to me, and I hold up my hands.

“Excuse me.” The nurse comes in. “I’m really sorry, but I have someone at the desk asking for Ariella.” She tries not to laugh. “I’m pretty sure he’s about to pull his hair out of his head.”

“Oh my God,” Jaxon says, “that must be my father.” He gets up to his feet.

“Your father!” I shriek. “You told your father?”

“Well, you were passing out and shit, Ari,” he defends himself. “I was scared out of my fucking mind.”

“So you called your father?” I question, pretty sure my blood pressure is spiking. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Does this mean I don’t let him in?” the nurse asks me.

“Is he with another man?” I ask the nurse. “Say about a head shorter than him with blondish hair.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “He came in alone.”

“Then I guess we should let him back here,” I reason. “At least he didn’t call my father.”

“How do you know?” Jaxon asks me.

“Well, for one”—I look around—“everyone looks calm and no one is wondering why they are getting calls from all over the place from different people.” I hold up my finger.

“My father would have called Evan, who would have called Max, who then would have called Matthew.” He puts his hands on his hips.

“Who then would have called, I don’t even know who, maybe the president of the hospital if they have one. ”

“Fair point.” He smirks. “So I’ll go get my dad.”

“I thought we were waiting to tell our parents.”

“Well, the next time you are fainting on me after throwing up for five days, I’ll rethink my decision,” he retorts, starting to storm out of the room.

“He’s very dramatic.” I look over at the nurse and he stops mid-storm.

“You guys are a cute couple.”

“We’re not a couple,” I correct her and now Jaxon is full-on staring at me, his eyes like daggers.

“No, we’re just friends,” he snarls.

“You were the one who said it.” I point to him and he shakes his head.

“Oh no, Ariella.” He looks at the nurse. “That was all her. And then she got sick. Maybe the baby didn’t like that answer.”

“Don’t you have to go and get your father?” I snap and then I gasp. “Oh my God!” I shriek, putting my hand to my stomach as the blood drains from his face. “He’s going to know we had sex.”

“Oh my,” the nurse says.

“Oh my God.” I put my hand to my forehead. “How can I look him in the face?” I close my eyes. “They’re going to know we had sex,” I groan and put my head back. “I don’t think I can face him.” A shadow comes over my face and I open my eyes.

“Are you done freaking out?”

“Absolutely,” I say, “not.” Which makes him laugh.

“It’ll be fine,” he soothes softly. “It’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, it’s not you who slept with his son,” I mumble and his eyebrows rise. “Go get him. He’s probably freaking out.”

“Okay, baby,” he says and kisses me before he walks out of the room.

“He likes you,” the nurse notes.

“It’s probably because he left his DNA inside of me,” I try to make a joke about it, but my heart gets tighter as she just shakes her head and walks out.

It feels like forever before Jaxon walks in with Manning behind him. The nurses at the station all watch with their mouths hanging open. “Here she is.”

I take a deep inhale. “Hi.” I hold up my hand, and he comes over to the bed.

“Ariella,” he says, his voice cracking, “how are you doing?” He holds my face. “You look pale.”

“She looks better now,” Jaxon reports. “She was translucent when I brought her in.”

“Jaxon,” Manning hisses at him, “that’s not making her feel better.”

“Yeah, Jaxon, that’s not making me feel better.” I raise my eyebrows at him and he rolls his eyes.

“Want to see something cool?” He walks over to his father with his phone in his hand. “Listen to this,” he says and then the sound of the baby’s heartbeat comes out of his phone. “That’s the baby.” His face is filled with awe. “In there.” He points at me.

Manning smiles at him and slaps his shoulder. “My baby is having a baby”—he turns to look at me—“and with Ariella.”

“I’m assuming you didn’t call my father.”

“Of course not,” Manning assures me. “I figured we’d set up a game plan before, you know, we shock him with the news that his baby is having a baby. Plus, I don’t know how Ralph is going to take this.” He shakes his head.

“He’ll be fine,” Jaxon says.

“You’re having a baby,” Manning says to him and Jaxon’s smile goes big, which makes Manning smile.

“Now picture that baby is a girl.” Jaxon rolls his eyes.

“Then let’s say your best friend’s son gets her pregnant and they weren’t even fucking dating,” he explains the last part with his teeth together. “How happy would you be?”

“We need a game plan,” Jaxon immediately declares. “We tell him in a couple of weeks. Once she’s over the twelve-week mark.” He looks at me. “Two weeks and we’ll break the news to him.”

“Good, I have two weeks to talk you up,” Manning plans. “I mean, not that there's anything wrong with you, but you know, drop some hints about you doing good stuff.”

“He’s known me almost my whole life,” Jaxon reminds him. “He knows what kind of man I am.”

“And he’s known her forever.” Manning points to me. “It’s going to be fine.” He slaps Jaxon’s shoulder and squeezes. “I told you it was going to be fine. It’s going to be fine.” He then turns to me. “Right?”

I look at both of them, father and son, and wonder if the baby will be another generation of them. “Absolutely.” I nod. “Maybe,” I offer. Manning’s face tries not to laugh while Jaxon’s eyes go big. “Probably not,” I admit, “but it is what it is.”