Chapter 153 Bloodwork

Chapter 153 Bloodwork
Cassie
When the doctor and nurses finally left, leaving us alone again, I pulled the oxygen mask down just enough to speak.
“Hey,” I croaked, my voice barely above a whisper, my throat raw.
Greyson’s face transformed. He laughed, the sound watery and relieved, and pressed his lips to my forehead.
“Hey yourself,” he whispered back. “God, I missed your voice.”
“How... long?” Each word was an effort.
“Thirty-six hours since the surgery. You’ve been in and out, but this is the first time you’ve really been awake.”
Thirty-six hours. I’d lost a day and a half of my life. “The shooting... who?”
His expression darkened. “We don’t know yet. The police are investigating. But Cassie, I’m so sorry. This never should have happened. You never should have been anywhere near me”
“Not... your fault,” I managed, then had to stop to breathe.
“It is, though.” His hand tightened on mine. “You came to my house. They followed you, or they were already watching me. Either way, it’s because of me that you—”
“Stop.” The word came out firmer than I expected. “Not... your fault.”
We stared at each other, and I saw the guilt eating at him, the self-recrimination. We’d have to deal with that later, work through it together. But not now. Not when just breathing was taking all my energy.c
“You said... something important,” I whispered. “Something... life-changing.”
He went very still. The fear and wonder returned to his face, warring with each other.
“Yes,” he said finally. “But first, I need you to know something. I need you to know that I meant what I said before... before all of this. I love you, Cassie. I’ve always loved you, and I will spend the rest of my life proving that to you, making up for my mistakes, being the man you deserve.”
My throat tightened with emotion. “I love you too,” I whispered. “Always have.”
He kissed my hand, his lips lingering against my skin. Then he looked up at me, and I saw tears in his eyes.
“When they were operating on you,” he began, his voice careful, “they ran bloodwork. Standard procedure, they found something.”
My heart rate picked up, the monitor betraying my anxiety.
“Cassie, you’re pregnant.”
The words didn’t make sense at first. They were just sounds, syllables, nothing meaningful. Then they rearranged themselves into meaning, and the world tilted on its axis.
Pregnant.
“What?” I breathed.
“About six weeks along. From... from before everything fell apart. That last night we were together.” His hand moved to rest gently on my stomach, over the blankets and bandages. “The baby is okay. Somehow, miraculously, the baby is fine. ou’re going to need a lot of monitoring, a lot of care. The pregnancy complicates your recovery.”
Six weeks. I did the math backwards, remembering. That night we’d stayed up until dawn, making love and making plans, believing we had all the time in the world. Neither of us had been thinking about consequences, about possibilities beyond the immediate future.
A baby. Our baby.
I pressed my free hand to my stomach, trying to feel something, anything,but there was only the pain from the surgery, the bandages and tubes and monitors.
“I’m pregnant,” I repeated, testing the words.
“Yes.” Greyson’s thumb stroked my stomach in small, reverent circles. “I know this isn’t how we would have planned it. I know the timing is terrible, and your recovery is going to be complicated, but Cassie...” His voice broke. “We made a life. You and me. And I’m going to protect both of you if it’s the last thing I do.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks again, but these were different. These were tears of overwhelming, terrifying, beautiful emotion. A baby. In the middle of all this chaos and pain and fear, there was new life growing inside of me again .
“We’re going to be parents,” I whispered.
“Yeah.” He laughed, the sound shaky. “Yeah, we are again.”
I wanted to say more, wanted to process this enormous revelation properly, but exhaustion was pulling at me. The brief conversation had drained what little energy I had.
“Rest,” Greyson said, seeing my eyelids droop. “We have time now. All the time in the world to figure this out. Just rest.”
I wanted to argue, wanted to stay awake and talk about this impossible, miraculous thing. But my body had other ideas. My eyes slid closed.
“Love you,” I managed.
“I love you too,” he whispered. “Both of you. So much.”
I was drifting off when I felt him lean close, his lips near my ear.
“I’m going to marry you again , Cassie Hunter,” he murmured. “As soon as you’re well enough. I’m going to make you my wife for real this time,and we’re going to raise this baby together, and build a life together, and I’m never letting you go again. Never.”
I wanted to respond, wanted to say yes, wanted to tell him that was all I’d ever wanted, but sleep was claiming me, pulling me down into darkness that was warm this time, safe.
As consciousness faded, I heard him talking to someone else, Aiden maybe, their voices low and urgent. I caught fragments.
“...the bloodwork showed something else...”
“...need to tell her when she’s stronger...”
“...might explain why...”
But the words slipped away before I could grasp their meaning, and I fell into dreams of cerulean eyes and tiny heartbeats and futures I hadn’t dared imagine.