“Oh thank god! You’re awake. Jesus Em, I’m so glad you are okay.”

He was speaking so fast. Or was I just that tired?

“Where am I?” My voice was hoarse.

“Are you thirsty? I can get you some water.” He stood up and moved to a rolling tray that had a pitcher and a glass next to it.

I nodded my head. My throat was very dry.

He came back to the bed and gave me the glass. I brought it to my lips and drank. The water was cold and stung the back of my throat, but after the initial shock subsided it felt good. I drank the whole glass down. He took it from me when I was done and sat down next to me. He took my hand again. I felt something on my finger. Looking at it, it was one of those pulse things they put on you in the hospital. What in the hell?

“Finn, where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital Em. Do you remember anything?”

“Hospital?” I tried to wrack my brain. “How did I get in the hospital?”

“Something’s happened Tiny Girl.” He shifted in his seat. “Damn it, I don’t even know how to tell you this.”

My heart kicked into high gear. “What the hell is going on Finley?” When I started to move a sharp pain hit me in my lower stomach and I winced.

“Please don’t move to much Em, you’ll hurt yourself.”

That’s when all of the memories began flooding through me. Furniture shopping, feeling content and happy, the sandwich shop, Val showing up… oh no! I flung the covers off the lower half of my body.

Flat. My stomach was flat.

My eyes were huge and I looked at Finn. “Why is my stomach flat? Where’s my baby?”

He didn’t say anything. He just sat there unable to tell me what I knew in my heart had happened.

Tears flowed down my face. “What happened to my baby Finley?”

He cleared his throat.

I felt my anger rising because he hadn’t responded, so I took a deep breath and calmed myself. Looking him straight in his deep blue eyes I used a tone that he couldn’t ignore.

“What the hell are you not telling me? I want to know where my baby is, and I swear to god, if you don’t tell me right now I’m going to call someone in here that can.”

“Stay calm honey, concentrate on your breathing… in and out… you’re okay… it’s all going to be okay.” He scooted his chair closer. “When you left the sandwich shop you went down the road. By the time I caught up with you, you were already bleeding and had fallen to the ground. I caught you just before your head hit the sidewalk.” He took a deep shaky breath. “And… oh god Em, I tried to get you here as fast as I possibly could. I really did. I didn’t know what was happening. You were passed out and there was so much blood everywhere! I thought I was going to lose you.”

“Something has happened to my baby, hasn’t it?”

He nodded. A strangled noise came from my mouth.

“Dr. Monroe was here with you. He came and told us that you lost it. I’m so sorry Em. The baby’s gone. He said that he was able to fix everything and you’ll still be able to have children. I know that doesn’t make this better, but he wanted you to know.”

There was no conceivable way to wrap my mind around it. This couldn’t be happening. I wasn’t pregnant?

“How?”

“It was something called a placental abruption. The placenta tore away from where it was attached. They tried to save the baby, but you were still too early and the baby was underdeveloped.”

It was as if a light went off in me.

“Did they tell you what it was? The sex?”

He nodded again. “Dr. Monroe said it was a boy.”

“No… no… no!” I started to say louder and louder.

How had this happened? I was fine, healthy even. A little boy? I’d never considered it could have been a boy. I was so certain it was a girl. My intuition was wrong. Just like my intuition about Finn telling me the truth had been wrong. What had I been thinking, letting him back in my life again?

He reached to touch my face, but I turned away.

“Don’t.” I said coldly.

He was confused. “Em, what’s the matter?”

When Finn left me that night, I had been broken. The feeling of losing my first love was devastating. Walking in on my husband fucking the interior decorator was bad. It hurt, but in a way that sealed the idea that I was clearly unable to hold on to something. Finding out that Finn lied to me and hidden things from me after we said we’d be honest with each other was crushing. But this… losing the last thing that I’d felt was mine? A high school break-up, divorce, starting over… none of it was as devastating as this. This shattered my heart in a way that I knew I was never going to be the same again.

This baby was something good that had come from something bad. It represented a new start for me. And now it was gone. My son was gone, and so was whatever had been left of my heart. I didn’t know what broken was until I felt this kind of pain.

“Get out.” I suddenly stopped crying and wiped away the stray tears left on my face.

Finn looked like I’d slapped him across the face.

“Emilyn please!”

I turned my face toward the door no longer able to look at him.

“I don’t want you here, get out please.”

“Not gonna happen Tiny Girl, we’re talking about this.”

“You either get out, or I’ll have you removed.”

Out of my peripheral vision I could see him stare at me, shocked. He didn’t know what to do.

“Em…” He tried pleading again.

“Now Finley! Get out!” I nearly screamed at him, grabbing the plastic cup I’d just drank from and throwing it at him.

He dodged it, then slowly stood up from his chair and moved towards the door. With his hand on the handle he turned to face me again. Trying to keep the emotion off of his face his eyes met mine. In a bold and certain voice he spoke to me before he left.

“This right here,” he pointed between himself and me, “This isn’t done. I’m leaving because you want me too. But I’ll be back tomorrow Emilyn. I’m sorry that this is happening and I’m here for you. I’m only a phone call away and I’ll be here in the blink of an eye. You’re not going to get rid of me. Remember that you’re mine, and we will get through this. I love you with every fiber in my soul, and if I have to love you enough for the both of us, for however long it takes, I will.”

He walked out the door and shut it behind him. I lay there, unmoving, in a state of total and utter shock. My life was over. I wanted my son back. I wanted to know why this was happening to me. I had no idea what I was going to do now, but at that very moment, a nurse walked in to check on me. She gave me a shot of something that made me sleepy, so I guess the ‘what I was going to do now’ question was answered, because minutes later I fell into a deep empty slumber.

I hadn’t lived my life with regrets. I picked myself up, moved forward and took each twist and turn as a learning experience. That hasn’t been the case with Em. With her I’d had moments of wanting to relive my time, just to feel her again. But reliving your past just to experience it again and regretting your past because of a shitty mistake you’d made were two very different things. If I could take back the last forty-eight hours of my life, I would. I didn’t know how I was going to fix this mess. I kept replaying what had happened at the hospital, and the look on her face as I told her the baby was gone wouldn’t leave my mind. It would forever be burned into my brain. The many emotions that flickered through those blue eyes said a hundred things before she was gone. And I don’t mean like picking up and just leaving me. I mean the life that was in those eyes—that spark—it was gone. I saw confusion, denial, sadness, anger, and then… nothing—all within a matter of seconds. It was like she wasn’t in there anymore. I would gladly hand over my own life if it meant she’d give me any one of those emotions. Shit, give me pissed off at the world, want to go blow something up, castrate me anger. Anything!