I Won't Give Up (25 page)

“Kurt this is my mom Gabby Prescott.” They shook hands.

“I’m so sorry to hear about Cooper. He’s a strong boy
. H
e’ll be up and at it before any of us know it, I’m sure of it.
Please if there is anything we can do for either of you do not hesitate to ask. Consider it done.
”

“Thank you.”

I relieved to notice that there wasn’t overwhelming friction between my parents.

Carl came in.
He and Luke shook hands.

“Fiona
I
just wanted pop in to say I’m glad you’re okay. Glad Cooper’s going to be okay.
”

“Thank you Carl, for everything. The clothes, keeping me safe, calling Luke, just everything.”

“No need to thank me. Listen I gotta go t
hey’re waiting for me outside the door.”

“Who’s they?”

“They Fed’s.”
He said grimly.
He saved us there was no way I’d let him go down without a fight. Maybe they could put him in some sort of witness protection or something.

“Dad.” He walked over. “I need you to call in some favors.”

“For him?” He looked at Carl with disgust.

“Dad chances are we wouldn’t be alive without Carl. He kept us safe while we were there plus he’s the one that arranged everything with Luke so we could get out of there.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”
He seemed reluctant at first but pulled
his phone
from his pocket
and walked out the door. He was well connected plus money could erase a lot of things. I owed Carl big time.

“Fiona you don’t have to do that. What I’ve been doing for Giovanni it wasn’t exactly on the up and up.” He said ashamed.

“I don’t think you were given
much of a say until now. I’ve given
my statement
but I need to talk to them again after I see Cooper
. I’ll make sure they know you were a hero through this.”
He nodded and left the room.
Shelly came back and said
that we could go see Cooper, she pulled me to the side and said
the doctor wanted to
discuss
my blood test when we were done visiting
making me nervous
.

Kurt and I
took the elevator up to the
ICU on the fourth floor where we
were escorted to a corner room.
Kurt pushed back the curtain and what I saw broke my heart.
Cooper
was
lying in the bed
with
a breathing tube
in his nose
attached to his face by what looked like something you would use to tie an oven-stuffers legs together. He had an oversized gauze bandage covering his surgical wound.
C
himes
were
going off and the hea
rt monitor was beeping steadily,
I found the sound
surprisingly comforting. I walked up to him and took his hand in mine. Kurt stood next to me putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Cooper I’m here. So is your dad. You’re going to be fine. I love you so much.” I felt silent tears streaming down my face. I wanted nothing more than to climb into bed with him and stay there but I knew it would hurt him and they would probably throw me out. We stayed until Dr. Glatt said visiting hours were over.

“I need to talk Dr. Glatt about my blood work
.
I’ll be down in a couple minutes.” He hit the elevator button and I followed the doctor to the nurse’s station.

“Well it looks like your blood work showed a couple things
. First it looks like whatever was used to knock you out is not in your system and doesn’t have seemed to
have caused
harm anything else. Secondly I know this is a really stressful time for you
but your levels of hCG are high.”

“hCG levels?”

“hCG is the pregnancy hormone,
the blood results say
you’re pregnant.” Wait. What?

“Pregnant?
I’m on the pill.
” Figures Cooper and I have been together for all of five minutes and now they tell me I’m pregnant.

“
Only
abstinence
is one-hundred percent effective.
We can do an ultrasound but I would guess you’re no more than 6-8 weeks.” I just nodded too shocked to say anything else. “Very well we can schedule one for tomorrow if you’d like. You should probably try and get some rest. I’m going to write you a prescription for prenatal vitamins but you should check with your regular OB/GYN within the next couple weeks.”

“Thanks.” I walked and hit the elevator button. I already decided I wouldn’t say anything to anyone
.
Cooper deserved to be the first to know, if he even wanted it. The thought filled me with dread. I was totally pro-choice but in this case I already loved this baby so much because it was part of both of us, we made it on our magical night, the best night of my life.

When I arrived back to the waiting room my mom informed me that she’d arranged a hotel room across the street for the night and she’d sent my dad out to get me shower supplies and clothes.
I looked down and realized that I was still wearing Cooper’s clothes.
She’d also gotten Kurt a room.
We walked across the street and I headed up to my room and ordered room service. Buffalo wings and a piece of apple pie.
I needed to make sure that I took care of myself now, for the baby.

My dad brought me a bunch of bags. One with all my shower supplies
, a pre-paid phone,
a comfy pair of sweats, a pair of yoga pant
s
, a couple t-shirts, some matching bra and panty sets (awkward), and socks and sneakers, another with all my favorite snacks, gummy worms, white cheddar cheese doodles, Kit-Kat bars, Diet Coke and Vitamin Water. He also stopped at Chevy’s and got me a cheeseburger, waffle fries and a chocolate shake. This was the dad that I knew.

“Thanks Daddy.” He smiled
at me with tears in his eyes
.

“You know I’d walk through hell and back for you sweet-pea.”
He said earnestly.

“I know. I also want you to know I forgive you for leaving. I think you should have done it differently and I wished you hadn’t done it at all but you deserve to be happy too.”
“I’m sorry too.
I was selfish and what I did was wrong.
”

“I still don’t want to see Gigi.” I said firmly.

“Deal but I don’t think
she’s going to be around
much longer
anyways.”

“Regardless I don’t want to see her.”
He nodded.

“I love you sweet-pea.”

“Love you too
. I’m going to shower quick so I can get to bed. I want to
be there for first visiting hours tomorrow.
”

“Goodnight. Oh, I’m working on helping your friend I think they might be able to cut him a deal.”

“Thanks.”

I ate my cheeseburger and fries from Chevy’s, then my buffalo wings and washed it down with my chocolate shake. I showered quickly, got dressed and climbed into bed
setting the alarm. I placed
my hand o
ver my stomach, our little bean. I fell
asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

When I woke I was feeling much more optimistic.
I’d made up with my dad, he was trying to help Carl and hopefully Cooper had a good night.
I grabbed a bagel from the lobby and headed over to the hospital. I got there at 7:55 and visiting hours started at 8:00. I hit the elevator button and made my way up to the fourth floor. I checked in at the nurse’s station before going to Cooper’s room. They said he did really well last night
,
he was breathing on his own and t
hey were already in the process of lowering the sedative. They said he could be up within a few hours!
They said Dr. Glatt arranged my
appointment
for 8:15.
I walked in and took his hand.

“Hey baby
, I’m here.
I don’t know if you can hear me or not but you’re lucky you’re in here right
now because when you wake up I
have some news to tell
you.
I hope you think it’s happy news, I’m really happy about but
if you weren’t already shot
I think
my dad
might be tempted to
shoot
you
himself
.” I giggled. I felt
his fingers try to move
, my heart swelled. “I have to go downstairs quick. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I love you.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek before going down to my ultra sound appointment.
I was a ball of emotions.
I filled out the paperwork and waited to be called.

“Hi I’m Ivy. I’ll be your ultrasound tech today. Have you ever had one done before?”

“No.” I was
excited
and scared as hell
.

“Well since you’re just pregnant we have to do the
internal
one so if you could take your bottoms off and drape the sheet over you I’ll be back in a minute and we’ll get started.” I quickly did as she asked and when she came back she prepared the wand. She pushed it up until we saw a little bean on the screen.
I felt tears prick my eyes, it was amazing.

“Looks like you’re about 6 weeks and 4 days. That puts your due-date in June.”

“Well looks like he or she will come right after graduation.” I laughed. If I was the pariah before this was going to be a gossip shit storm. She printed out a couple pictures
and I put them in my back pocket
. I got dressed and headed back to Cooper’s room.

When I got there Kurt was there sitting in a chair next to the bed.

“He moved his
hand before.” I smiled brightly at him.
“They said he had a good night and he should be up within a couple hours.”
We sat in peaceful silence until Cooper started
making some groaning noises. I
tightened my grip on his hand.

“Cooper. It’s okay. You’re okay.” I cooed.
As soon as his vision adjusted to his surroundings h
e smiled his dazzling, panty-busting smile. It was the best sight I’d ever seen.

“Knock knock.” He mumbled.
Leave it to him to try and make me laugh when he’s the one in pain.

“Who’s there?” I teased.

“Mary.”

“Mary who?”

“Marry me.”

“What?” I asked confused. Was he proposing?

“Marry me Fiona. Be my wife.
I know we’re still in high school, I know we’re young,
I know you’ve only been my girlfriend for less than twenty-four hours but there will never be anyone else.”

“Okay tough guy we’ll talk about it when you’re off the juice.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Well that wasn’t the most romantic proposal and you’ve also just been shot but I can’t see myself ever loving anyone but you so
if you’re serious then
yes I will marry you.”

Kurt was laughing like a schoolgirl. Like father, like son.

“Kurt can you go tell the nurse he’s awake. I need to talk to him for a minute.”
He
nodded
and closed the curtain behind him.

“You scared me.”

“Sorry
baby
but it’s going to take a lot more than a bullet to keep me from you.”

“
That’s what Luke said and
that’s a
lso a
good thing because I have some news that might make you have to take another one.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“You’re
gonna be
my baby daddy.” I said pulling out the sonogram
out of my back pocket and handing it to him
.

CHAPTER TEN

Ask The Magic 8 Ball