Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Dallas

SMOKE INHALATION IS nothing to mess around with. The entire time we were rushing through the house, it's all I could smell. Even now it's still all I can smell. My lungs hurt, I can hardly talk because my throat feels as if it's on fire, and my head is pounding. It feels as if I've gone ten rounds with a boxer and they beat my ass without me defending myself at all. On top of feeling like shit from the smoke inhalation and the crazy ride from the safehouse, now I've got people waking me up every few hours to poke and prod me, a constant beeping from the machines I'm hooked up to, and the oxygen mask is digging into my face. I'll definitely have marks from it when they finally take it off. The blankets covering my body are thin and scratchy making me wish they weren't on me at all. But, I don't bother pushing them off because I'm cold. They're doing little to keep me warm and I want to reach out to find Adam. He always keeps me hot from his body heat.

Opening my eyes, I look around the room I'm in. There's a small TV mounted to the wall at the end of my bed that's currently on and playing the news with the volume so low I can barely hear it. The lights in the room have been turned down low and I'm grateful because of the pain in my head. I'm nauseous and know that it's just a matter of time before I get sick. There's a chair on either side of the bed I'm in but they're sitting empty. My eyes continue to move around the room where I finally land on my dad and Adam talking quietly over by the window. Adam's still in the clothes he left the house in and dirt and grime cover what I can see of his face. His cut is hanging over the back of a chair and he's running his fingers through his hair. My dad is dressed in a pair of jeans and sweatshirt like he wears when he's not at the office. His hair is all over the place as if he's also been running his fingers through it repeatedly. Whatever they're talking about is serious from the looks on their faces.

I push the button on the bed to sit myself up a little bit. The movement of the bed gets their attention as they race to my side. Both men's faces are filled with concern and relief.

"Sweet Girl, how are you feelin'?" Adam asks me, leaning down and pressing his lips against my forehead despite it being covered in the same dirt and grime covering him. I can feel it coating my skin.

"Like I lost a boxing fight," I rasp, my voice barely a whisper as my dad leans over to kiss the top of my head.

"I'll get the doctor to come in and talk to us now that you're awake, Sweet Girl," he tells me, pressing a button on the bed as a low beeping fills the room.

"Danger," I rasp out as Adam reaches for a glass of water and helps me take a small sip.

The cold liquid soothes my throat to a point as it slides down to my stomach. I want to sigh in relief, but I don't because I know it will hurt.

"Can I help you?" a woman's voice fills the room.

"Dallas is awake. We'd like the doctor to come in and talk to us now please," Adam says to the mysterious voice.

"I'll get him right away," she answers before the beeping stops and I relax against the pillows the best I can.

"Danger is with Tripp in the waitin' room. He fought to make them let him inside the hospital. The guys have been put in a waitin' room all alone so no one is scared of Danger. Tripp has been takin' care of him with Jay helpin' him. They're the only ones Danger will let near him at the moment. The rest of the club are on their way here now. At the very least they'll give us an escort home when you're released," he tells me, relief filling me that Danger is nearby and not alone in the van or something.

"Is anyone hurt? How did he find us?" I ask the questions that have been on my mind since I woke up in the smoke-filled room.

"We don't know yet. Eagle and I are the only ones who made calls when we were there and we used different burner phones each time. Once a day we'd call Reaper to check in and nothin' more. On the way up to the safehouse, we didn't have anyone followin' us either. We literally have no clue how he found us, but I'm certain he's the one who started the fire at the house. No one else would've done somethin' like that," he answers me as my dad sits down in the chair looking older than normal. "The other Prospect that was with us lost his life. He got into a gunfight with the asshole and was killed by him. Cash is takin' him home where we can bury him properly. This isn't on you, Dallas. I know you're gonna try to take this shit on your shoulders, but that's not the case. The blame lays solely on the asshole who made you a target because he felt you'd be easy to take out to get what he wants."

"Sweetheart, we're doing everything we can to make sure you're safe. He's proven that it doesn't matter if you're at a safehouse. Do you feel comfortable going back to the compound and staying in the clubhouse again?" my dad asks, finally saying something.

"Yes. I won't leave the compound at all," I whisper, knowing I want to be back there and not at some other safehouse.

"Okay, sweetheart. Reaper is putting plans in place to ensure no one gets close to the compound," he informs me, my eyes closing as exhaustion fills me.

Before I can fall into a deep sleep, the door of my room opens. My eyes pop open as panic fills me and I search for Adam. He's standing right by my bed and grabs my hand to let me know silently that I'm okay and he's not going anywhere. Turning to face the door, I see an older man wearing a white lab coat. A younger woman follows him in and her eyes go directly to Adam and stay there. Not gonna happen.

"You can leave," I rasp out as Adam holds the cup of water up for me again.

"Excuse me?" the doctor asks, confusion filling his voice.

"The nurse can leave. She's not gonna come in here and not do her job for the patient while staring at my man. In case you didn't know, I'm the one in the hospital bed, not him. He's clearly holding my hand and yet you can't take your eyes off of him. I don't want to see you in here again," I state, not looking at the doctor as the nurse's face turns a deep shade of red because I'm calling her out on her bullshit.

"You've been warned about this before, Miranda. Go to the nurse's station and I'll be there soon to talk to you," the doctor says, his voice full of authority as I watch her turn and leave the room. "I'm sorry about that, Miss Parker. I'm Dr. Long and I've been overseeing your care since you were brought in early this morning. Am I okay to talk in front of them?"

"Of course," I whisper, pain still shooting through my throat.

"Your throat will be sore for a few days. Drink plenty of fluids and don't eat anything too rough. Your eyes might start to bother you and your lungs will also take a few days before you'll stop feeling pain and having difficulty breathing. You can suck on some hard candy or cough drops to help soothe your throat if you'd like. There's also ice chips we can get you. While I won't put you on a liquid diet, I'm going to ask that you're only given soft foods while you're in here. I'd like to keep you until tomorrow at least," the doctor informs me and it makes me wonder why Adam is out of a hospital bed and standing next to me. "There is one thing we found when you were brought in. A pregnancy test was performed and it came back positive. I'm unsure if you knew you were pregnant or not before now."

"What?" I ask him, not sure I just heard him right. "I'm on birth control. How can I be pregnant?"

"No form of birth control is fail proof. There's always a slim chance you can get pregnant. We can perform an ultrasound if you'd like to check on the baby and get a determination of how far along you are," the doctor says as he looks at the machine beeping away next to me while jotting notes down on the paper in front of him.

"Please," I say, fear filling me as I look up at Adam.

Adam's face is covered in shock for a minute before the largest smile takes its place. He looks down at me and I can see the happiness and excitement flashing in his eyes. Adam lowers his head down to press a soft kiss against my cheek. He can't get to my lips with the oxygen mask on. It's a pain in the ass to remove every time I want to take a sip of water.

"Can she remove the oxygen mask when she eats and drinks?" my dad asks the doctor as if he's reading my mind.

"Yes. I'll see about getting you switched to a nasal cannula now that you're awake. I'd like to keep you on oxygen for the remainder of your stay here. With you pregnant, I want to make sure we get a good start on helping your oxygen levels come back up. The smoke inhalation could have been worse, but any at all can cause damage. Once we get you switched, if you have any difficulty breathing, I need you to let someone know immediately. You'll have to be put back on the mask because that's been effective in helping you so far. I'm going to go put the orders for the ultrasound in. They'll come right to the room. I'd prefer them to do an internal one because we don't know how far along you are," the doctor says, looking between the three of us to make sure we have no further questions before telling me he'll be back after lunch to talk to us again.

"Get some rest, Sweet Girl. That's the best thing you can do right now," Adam says, covering me up more before taking a seat next to my dad and grabbing my hand again.

I close my eyes and let sleep take me. It feels as if only seconds pass before I'm sucked back down into nothing and I can forget all the shit going on around us.

The technician has been in and performed the ultrasound. She didn't say much as she was doing her job despite Adam asking a million questions. We did get to hear the baby's heartbeat and it sounded strong and steady. Tears filled my eyes as Adam and I sat and listened to it for a minute. I'm pretty sure he recorded the sound on his phone so we have it. When the screen switched over to show the baby, I have no clue what the hell we were looking at. I've only ever seen images for animals and I never understood them either. I actually plan to hire someone for the clinic who will be able to read them. Emmie is honestly better at that shit than I am. She handed us some pictures when she was done and then left us alone in the room.

It took several hours for the doctor to make his way back in. He assured us the baby was fine and he didn't foresee any problems happening through the pregnancy. Dr. Long also told us I'm a little over seven weeks pregnant. For now, Adam and I are going to keep this a secret between us and my dad. He knows I don't want anyone to know about the baby just yet. It's not because I don't want to celebrate with the members and ol' ladies of the club. My decision for this is simply because I don't want this stupid fucker after me to find out since we have no clue how he found the safehouse.

Now that I know the baby's okay, I can start to process the information. I don't know how to feel about this because Adam and I really haven't talked about kids. Yeah, he said he wanted to have a family with me. We just never talked about when we'd take that step. There's just been so much going on and we still haven't gotten this Norbert fucker out of the pictures. I won't truly be safe until he's gone and has been dealt with once and for all. So, I'm not sure if now is the right time to add a baby to our family. This is a conversation Adam and I need to have once we're alone and can truly talk through everything.

As soon as the doctor left once again, my dad went out to get Emmie. I love the girl, but she'd tell everyone about the baby if she had been in here and heard the news. Emmie's actually really good at keeping secrets until she's excited about something. Then, all bets are off and she'll spill the news before you're ready for her to do so. Tripp would be the first one told followed by the rest of the club. Like Adam says, the men gossip worse than the women. Before a half hour was up, everyone in the hospital would know I'm pregnant. It's the simple truth and one of the many reasons why I love Emmie. She lets her excitement be known to everyone around her.

"Bitch! I haven't seen you for weeks and then I get woken up out of a dead sleep with your cats and rabbit on my body to be told that you're being rushed to the hospital and something about a fire," Emmie says, rushing into my hospital room with tears sliding down her pale face.

"I'm sorry," I rasp out as a different nurse makes her way in the room.

She takes the oxygen mask off of me and switches it out for one of those nasal cannula things. I hate this worse than the mask, but it means I can drink and eat without having to take the damn mask off and on. So, in a way I guess it's better even if I hate it all. But, knowing I have to heal and get as much oxygen in my body as possible, I won't fight anything they do. Now I have to think about the baby I carry and I refuse to do anything to harm him or her.

"Are you okay?" Emmie asks me, taking the seat that's been empty since I woke up.

"I'm okay. They're gonna keep me until tomorrow and then I should be able to go home. I'm not going back to the safehouse, obviously. I'll be coming back to the clubhouse. Did everything get installed at the clinic?" I ask Emmie, wanting the attention off of me and onto something else.

"Everything has been taken care of. Hawk made sure the men not only delivered it, but installed the equipment like they were supposed to. When they thought I was the only one at the clinic, the fuckers were gonna drop it all in the waiting room and leave it there for me to move on my own somehow. The second Hawk walked out of the back from doing a walkthrough of the clinic, they changed their tune immediately," she tells me, laughter filling her voice as she goes into detail about how Hawk threatened them and made one of the guys almost piss his pants. I wish I would've been there to see it.

As the day goes on, I'm visited by all the members and ol' ladies who made the trip here. They all mainly just want to check on us before they head to the hotel just down the road for the night. Reaper even convinced my dad to go get a room and get some rest before the ride home tomorrow. Adam and I will be riding in my dad's car with him instead of the van this time so we're not laying on the hard floor despite the blankets and pillows they added to it for me. Danger will ride home with Jay in the van. Between the club members and my dad's security team, we'll be completely surrounded and safe for the trip back to Clinton City.

Emmie promises me she'll get me a clean change of clothes to have tomorrow when I get discharged so that's one less thing I have to worry about. I don't want to put the clothes back on from last night and be even more covered in the smell of smoke than I already am. Tripp says the same to Adam before they leave. My dad, Emmie, and Tripp are the last to leave. Jay and Savage remain at the hospital outside my door to make sure no one gets inside who shouldn't be here. When the nurses come in at all hours, Adam remains awake and vigilant, asking questions if they give me medicine or anything like that. Nothing will be done to me without his knowledge.

Adam climbs into the small hospital bed with me once everyone has gone. I really haven't been able to rest today because of all the visitors. I'm not complaining though. It's nice of them to want to check up on us. Though, I did get upset when Adam told me he made Dr. Long discharge him against orders so that he could be in my room with me. If he'd been admitted like me, he'd have been in his own room and that's not something Adam was willing to do. So, he got discharged and has been in my room with me ever since. Dr. Long was checking on him the entire time, I just didn't realize it before because I was sleeping.

With Adam's large body wrapped around mine, it doesn't take long for sleep to once again claim me. I dream of our baby and the life we're going to build together. Of the animals I want to get and how successful my clinic will be once we open the doors again. For now, I'm going to take some time off and try not to worry about anything regarding the clinic because there's so many other things I have to focus on.