“Did you at least talk to him?” Corbin asked me for the millionth time.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I called him and told him good luck.”

“I can’t believe you’re not going.”

“I can’t,” I said softly. “If I see him, I’ll cave and forgive him, and he’ll think he can get away with doing anything he wants. It’s not healthy.”

“Neither is this! You miss him so much I can barely get you to eat anything. If you weren’t pregnant, I’m sure you wouldn’t be eating at all. You know how hard it is to be away from a mate.”

“I do, but I’m still not going to budge. If he wants me back, he’ll show it.”

Corbin sighed. “Life is too short for this stubborn shit.”

I ignored him. I knew on the one hand that he was right. He understood I wanted nothing more than to be back with John, but I also knew I couldn’t just go running back to him every time things got screwed up. If I did that, he’d never learn, and I wasn’t even sure where we stood right now.

“Why are you frowning?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m just worried. Do you think John will make a good dad? I want to believe he will, but I’m so worried he’s going to up and disappear again and I’m going to be stuck raising our kid all by myself.”

“Do you really think he’d do that to you?

“I don’t know! These pregnancy hormones have me all over the place, and this stupid fight isn’t helping.”

Corbin sighed. “It’s going to be okay, I know it will. John can be a bit rough around the edges, but getting to know him, I can say that he has a lot of good qualities too. Besides, if he wanted to leave, wouldn’t he have already done it? He has the money, the opportunity, but he hasn’t gone, not this time at least. Instead, he brought a house for you to live in and enjoy. He’s trying to settle down and make a life with you. If he wanted to run, I don’t think he’d have done any of that.”

I nodded slowly. He was right about one thing, John wasn’t acting like he wanted to leave again. He’d gotten offers to do a few fights in other cities, but he’d turned them down. I heard him say no and my heart soared each time he did. He’d already told me that the money, the fame, the recognition, none of it was important. He just wanted a life doing what he loved and taking care of me and the baby.

“You’re right. I guess I did overreact a little bit.”

“Do you want to go and see him tonight?”

I shook my head quickly. “No, I’m sure it’s already started, and he needs to focus. Besides, he’ll be so sore tonight he’ll fall straight asleep and probably still be a bit cranky tomorrow. I’ll still go over though.”

“Good! You two are driving me insane not talking to each other.”

I smiled and gave Corbin a hug. “Thanks for putting up with our crap.”

“Of course. I think you two are actually pretty cute together.”

A big weight lifted off my shoulders, and I went and made something light to eat. I carried it into the living room with me and sat on the couch before turning on the TV. I settled on a rerun of a sitcom I’d seen several times and let my mind drift away. Things would be better tomorrow.

I set my plate on the coffee table and curled up with a big blanket starting to fall asleep. Being pregnant, it felt like all I did was sleep, but I knew that wouldn’t be forever. Pregnancy only lasted so long and then I’d have a small baby to take care of day and night. I figured I might as well catch up on my sleep as much as possible.

I woke up with a start and Corbin hovering over me. “You have to wake up. We gotta go!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, still groggy and cranky from being woken so suddenly.

“Niko just called me,” Corbin said as he tugged on his shoes. “Something happened at John’s fight and he’s unconscious. They had to take him to the hospital.”

My body was in motion before my brain could fully comprehend what I was doing. I shoved my feet into my shoes and didn’t ask any more questions. My stomach churned the whole ride to the hospital. All I could do was hope John was okay. I just needed to see him, right now.

* * *

I stared at him, afraid that if I took my eyes off him he would somehow disappear. He looked so frail in a hospital bed, his eyes closed, the monitors beeping slowly. My eyes teared up all over again. I plucked one of the tissues from the box given to me by one of the kind nurses. I dabbed my cheeks and blew my nose quietly before I got up to wash my hands and busy myself in any way I could. When I sat back down, I rubbed my belly anxiously.

“It’s okay, he’ll be alright,” I assured our child. “Just relax.”

There was a flutter and I knew he was kicking. Was he worried about John too? I read that babies could feel their parent’s emotions and hear them when they spoke. Maybe he knew we were both being morons and now John was stuck in a hospital bed.

I moved my seat closer to the side of the bed and ran my fingers through his messy hair. He hadn’t moved since they’d brought him in, but the doctor assured me he was doing alright. He was breathing fine, his injury was a slight fracture of his skull, but other than that he seemed to be okay.

“We’ll just keep an eye on his vitals for a while and wait until he wakes up to see if there are any issues.”

I frowned. Any issues? Like what? I knew though. A head injury like the one he’d suffered could mean any number of problems from loss of speech or vision, to paralysis. At least the swelling had stopped, he was stable, but I was still terrified.

“Please, wake up.”

I leaned down and pressed my lips to his hand. What if he never woke up? I shuddered as the thought slipped into my brain. I couldn’t stand the thought of not having him around, of him not knowing or raising our child. The thought was too much to take and I found myself crying for the hundredth time since I’d arrived a few hours ago. I leaned my head on his bed, my hand squeezing his leg. I felt something brush my hair and I quickly shot up. John smiled at me, his fingers moving softly over my hair.

“Hey Mattie.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but I began to cry even harder. Just those two words, I might never have heard those two words again. I stood up and wrapped my arms around him as best I could as he groaned and soothed me. His voice was light and sweet as he asked me to calm down, but it still took a while for me to be able to form a coherent sentence without stuttering and hiccupping.

“I’ll go get the doctor.”

He grabbed my hand before I could leave. “I wanna say something to you first.”

“I’m sure it can wait until after the doctor checks on you. You were out for a while, John. He needs to examine you.”

John waved a hand. “In a minute. Now, listen to me,” he reached up and brushed my cheek. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I knew it years ago and I know it now. You’re going to be an amazing dad and I’m going to be here to support you through all of it. I shouldn’t have pushed you to stop doing what you love, I was just so worried about you. Thinking about it now though, I know you’re just as worried about what I do, and you’ve never pushed me to quit. That wasn’t fair.”

I shook my head quickly. “I know you were just worried about me.”

“Always, but that’s not the point. I should have been more mature about it. Instead of demanding and yelling, I should have just talked to you and tried to figure out what we could do about the situation. There’s no excuse for the way I behaved.”

“John…”

“And I want you to know that I am never going to leave you. After all this time, you have to get it out of your head that I’m going to up and disappear again. I love you and I love this baby,” he said with his hand on my belly. “The only thing I want out of life from this point forward is to make you and this little one happy. That’s my priority. No more running away, no more bullshit. I love you and I want to be better for you.”

I found myself wiping my eyes. Leaning over, I plucked another tissue and wiped my face to dry the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. His words hit deeper than he would ever know. Everything he’d just said was all I’d ever wanted him to say to me. Hearing it from his lips was overwhelming and I loved it. John loved me and that was all I could ask for.

“So, I’m sorry for being a jerk. And I miss you. And can you please come home? I hate it there without you, it’s so quiet and empty and I keep looking for you. I even miss your annoying whistling.”

I burst out laughing. “Asshole. You love my whistling.”

“I do. I really do.”

I nodded slowly. “Of course, I’ll come back home. I love Corbin, but I missed being around you. It’s not the same as having you hold me,” I leaned down and kissed his head gently. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. I should have taken your words into consideration. You’re right, this child is both of ours and you should get a say when it’s something that could affect his or her life.”

John smiled. “I’m glad we see eye to eye.”

“Me too,” I grinned. “Oh! Let me go and get the doctor now! I was supposed to do that forever ago.”

He smiled. “Go on, I’ll still be here.”

I leaned down and kissed him gently. “I love you too, you know.”

“I know you do.”

I smiled and turned on my heels, heading out of the room. I quickly retrieved his doctor and let the man examine him while I sat back out of the way, waiting quietly and anxiously. After a while, he seemed satisfied.

“You seem to be doing well. Get some rest, we’ll run some more tests later, but I think we can have you out of here soon. You’re having a little motor movement trouble, but we have great therapists to help with that. Otherwise, you’re doing well.”

John seemed excited about that as he thanked the doctor. I could finally let out a sigh of relief too. When the doctor left, John patted the bed and called me over. I quickly slipped into bed with him and laid my head on his chest.

He reached up, his fingers pushing through my hair as I hummed and closed my eyes. I’d been so on edge all day and now that all the tension was fizzling out, my body was exhausted. I traced his side and arms with my fingertips, happy to be back near him, to take in his scent. I hadn’t felt so calm since the night he’d marked me, and I knew I couldn’t stand being away from him that long again. This was where I wanted to be.