Chapter Six
“I’m Mr. Littrell. Is my wife alright? Is my baby okay?” He asked softly. No one in the room could read the
doctor’s face. He looked pale, sorrowful, yet relieved. His facial expression told nothing of what had happened.
“I am Dr. Philips, I worked on your wife in surgery moments ago. Your wife and baby are fine,” the doctor
began as Brian let out a deep breath, “Your baby was moving around quite a bit and somehow managed to get the
umbilical cord wrapped around it’s neck, the cause of the reduced heartbeat. We rushed your wife into surgery and
performed a cesarean section on her. Your baby made it just in time, few more seconds and it may not have survived.” he
finished as Brian broke out into a smile.
“Is it a boy or a girl?!” Brian asked excitedly.
“I’m sorry sir, your wife is still resting from the surgery. She was numbed from the stomach down for the
surgery and she gave me direct orders to let her tell you what it was once she was out.” Brian nodded and asked when he
could see Leighanne.
“You may go into see her now. There are quite a few of you I see, but I think it’s safe to let you all go in at once,
just as long as a few of you leave once the sex of the baby is announced.” Dr. Philips stated as he walked away.
The group hurriedly walked to Leighanne’s hospital room where she had been replaced. She smiled as her
husband entered the room, he raced to her bedside and kissed her.
“Hey sweetie how are you feeling?”
“Like shit, but that’s okay. We have a baby” She spoke softly, her face glowing.
“I heard, what is it?”
“A little girl.” Leighanne said smiling even more. Brian laughed and kissed her again before turning to the
group.
“Guys! I have a daughter!!” He said jumping up and down. The large group laughed and began congratulating
the new parents. Gretchen and Nick stood in the back watching the happy faces of the friends and family around them.
Relief overtook everyone’s body, but they were all still shaken up by the scare. Leighanne and Brian almost lost their baby.
A life was almost lost, in a split second things had gone from wonderful and anticipating to frightening and worrisome.
While everyone tried to talk to the new parents, Nick held back in deep thought. Even though the baby hadn’t been born, it
had almost lost it’s life. The doctors had said that it had only a few more seconds of life left before it was saved. That
scared Nick to no end. There were a lot of people in his life that he loved, old friends, family, some new loves just
discovered. what if any of them were seconds away from the end? He gripped Gretchen’s hand tighter, making her pry her
attention from the others to look up at Nick. She saw how shaken up he was and her heart melted. He looked back at her,
his eyes brimming with unshed tears. She smiled at him comfortingly and gently led him out of the room. The two
re-entered the waiting room and sat on a vacant couch. Gretchen automatically pulled Nick into her arms, he fell into
them with no complaints. A few tears fell from his eyes, which he quickly wiped away with the back of his hand over
Gretchen’s shoulder. Finally letting go, he sat back and looked at Gretchen. Her eyes were soft and that made him feel
better. She cared, and right now he just needed someone he was close to, to be there for him.
“Wow.” He said in a soft shaky voice.
“Yeah.”
“They almost lost her.” he stated more to himself than to her.
“I know. They must have been so scared.” Nick just nodded his head. Gretchen took his hand in hers again and
the two of them just sat. In her mind Gretchen again thought about her relationship with Nick. For a few hours she had
managed to get her mind off of her forbidden feelings and act normal around her best friend again. What should she do?
The baby just barely escaping death had jump-started her brain and her heart. Life could come and go so quickly, with no
reason or explanation. Did she want to tell Nick about her feelings before it was too late? What would happen if he knew?
What would happen if he NEVER knew? Now thinking about it, Gretchen realized that her feelings were way more than a
high school crush. She needed him, wanted him, and no matter how ‘romance novelish’ it sounded, she ached for him.
When she was with him, it was as if she was complete, whole. When away, she felt an emptiness that only he could fill. It
was scary for someone her age to feel that for a person. It was even more scary that she couldn’t admit it to anyone. She
was in this alone, afraid of judgment. Kelsie would probably tease her, call it puppy love, obsess over asking Gretchen
about every detail of every conversion with Nick she would have after. It was not puppy love, it was more, much more, and
no one would understand it. She was only fifteen. She didn’t even have her permit yet, and she expected everyone to
understand that she was truly in love with her 20 year old best friend? Impossible. The only person she could possibly talk
to about it would be Leighanne. Why? Leighanne suffered through the insults surrounding a 30 year old marrying a 25
year old. She being the older of the two, had been mocked, people stating that she was too old for Brian, racing the clock
on child-birth, was settling for Brian because “time was running out”. Surely Leighanne had her doubts as well.
Right?
Nick was stuck on what he was feeling. What exactly was it? Love? Extreme like? What?? All signs pointed to the
lighter of the two. It had to be love. A different kind of love than he had ever been in, but love nonetheless. Now the
question was what to do about it. The only two choices surfaced in his mind; Tell her or ignore the feeling and go on as if
nothing happened. How could he ignore these feelings when all they were doing now was holding all of his attention.
There was no way he could forget about them, much less act normal around Gretchen. He was sure that she had already
noticed him acting strange since the elevator incident. She would have to be blind or blond not to realize that he wasn’t
himself. How could he tell her? Just blurt it out?
“Nick, what are you thinking?” Gretchen asked breaking his thoughts of her. He blushed before looking at
her.
“Nothing, well everything, but nothing important.” he answered her nervously. She eyed him suspiciously but
accepted his answers, no further questions asked. “When are you leaving?” he asked her. Her eyes shot up at him in a
surprised manner.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“NO.” Nick replied immediately, possibly a little louder than he wanted. She moved away from him but he placed
his hand softly on her shoulder to stop her. “I mean, no.” he said in a normal tone.
“Sorry.”
“For what?”
“Just whatever I did to make you like this. Something is up, I can tell Nick. I know you way to well to have your
personality change go over my head.” Just as he thought. She did notice. What’s worse, she actually spoke of it, that meant
that she was worried about the change.
“You didn’t do anything,” Nick said, telling himself that not telling her she was the cause of the change would be
the best thing, “I just have a lot on my mind right now. I’ve had a really long day.” The excuse seemed reasonable enough.
Gretchen accepted it and moved back next to him, calming him immediately. How did she do that? Have that affect on
him? It was remarkable. His mind floating back to his previous thoughts, he decided that he HAD to tell Gretchen what
was going on. Otherwise she would make false assumptions as she had just done, and in the end Nick would lose her. That
was the one thing that he was sure he did not want to happen. Losing her would be like getting his heart ripped out. The
only thing that was left to question now was how to tell Gretchen that someway, somehow, he had managed to fall in love
with her.
Chapter Seven
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