Anna stirred in the bed. She was awake, but she kept her eyes closed for the moment. She felt sheets over here, and knew she was in a bed. She felt as if she'd been hit by a bus. The skin around her stomach felt tight and sore, and as she moved her right arm slightly, she felt something pulling against it. She risked opening her eyes, almost regretting it. She squinted against the lights that shone down on her and it took a moment for her vision to clear up. She was definitely in a hospital bed, though she didn't know where or how she had gotten there. She examined herself, seeing exactly what had been pulling against her arm was an IV. She groaned, rubbing the left side of her head and felt a knot right above her left eye.
"Anna?" she whipped her head around seeing Wildwing was sitting there. She sat up a little better and gasped in pain as her arms encircled around her ribs. At the same time, a pain had shot up her right leg. She was a mess.
Wildwing stood up from his chair, scooting it closer to her.
"Wildwing? What happened? Where are we? Did we get Dragaunus?" she had so many questions.
"Slow down, Anna. Let me explain." he said, sitting back down. She contained herself, motioning for him to explain.
"You've been out for a few days," he started, "we were all pretty worried. Tanya was working with the doctors for days to bring you back and keep you stable."
"Bring me back?" she asked.
"We almost didn't get to the hospital in time. You lost a lot of blood. They didn't know your blood type, or even if they'd find a blood type to match yours. They had to draw some blood to test it; to find a match to get you a transfusion. When they drew that little bit of blood, Tanya said you went into shock and they lost you for a minute."
"I died?" Anna said uncertainly. Wildwing nodded.
"Yeah, I- we thought we lost you too." his voice cracked and she absorbed what he was saying.
He wouldn't look at her, and she knew he felt guilty for letting her brother go. She was hurt, but not so much because Wildwing let go. She was more hurt that her brother had opted to leave her. She reached for her neck but didn't feel the dog tags that Canard had made her take. She frantically glanced around before Wildwing reached out, grabbing her hand.
"Don't worry, Anna. All of your stuff is safe." he could sense she was looking for something.
"Where are we, Wing?" she asked, knowing something wasn't right.
"They call it Earth. It's some planet in the dimension Dragaunus opened the portal in. The uh... the natives here look really weird so, you know, brace yourself if and when the doctor comes in to check on you." he warned.
"What of Dragaunus? Any sign of him?" she asked.
"Er, no. We lost him when we came through the gateway." he muttered, looking down. She reached forward, tilting his chin up to look at her.
"Hey, stop that. None of this is your fault." she tried, sensing the guilt rolling off of him, "my brother had no right to place any of this on your shoulders, but guess what? You're doing a pretty good job from where I'm sitting. I'm assuming the whole team made it..." she waited for his confirming nod, "and you got me to a hospital in time. Everyone is alive and well and we are in the same dimension as Dragaunus. We'll find him." she promised and he gave her a smile.
"Thanks Annie." he said. She returned his smile and he cleared his throat, holding up his comm.
"I better let the others know you're awake. They'll probably want to see you." he said.
"Hey Wing?" he stopped what he was doing, glancing at her.
"Did the doctor like, you know, tell you anything about... like what my injuries are or, you know, possibly anything else going on with my body?" she asked. She was trying to find out how the baby was, but didn't want to mention it if he didn't already know. He nodded slowly and she bit her lip.
"Could you maybe enlighten me? What you were told?" Once again, she was beating around the bush. Trying to find out what he knew before she told him anything.
"Well, uh, they said you lost a lot of blood. You had a pretty good sized gash in your right leg, so they stitched that up. They redid the stitches in your stomach, although I heard them mention that Canard basically saved your life by stitching up what he could. You have three broken ribs, so you're going to need to be careful. And you had a pretty good cut above your left eye that they stitched up. Other than that, some minor cuts and bruises. The doctor warned us that you'll probably be pretty sore for the next couple of days, but said that once you woke up you'd only need to stay over night one more time just so they could monitor you and make sure you were fit to leave the hospital." Wildwing explained. Anna frowned.
"Anything else?" she asked, probing. He gave her a weird look and she sighed.
"Well I guess you'll find out sooner or later." she muttered and he leaned closer, wondering what exactly she was getting at.
"Wildwing, back on Puckworld before I found out Trent was cheating, I-, well, I had some suspicions about... um..." she was stumbling, trying to find the best way to put it.
"Wildwing, at some point while Canard and I were out on patrol, before we found you and Dive, we came across a destroyed department store... while Canard wasn't looking, I- I grabbed a pregnancy test."
Wildwing's eyes went wide, but he stayed silent, allowing for her to continue, although he could tell what she was getting at.
"I took it back to base with us and, well, Wildwing, the test came back positive."
"You're-" he cut himself off, glancing down at her belly. She nodded, placing a hand gently over the three lines of stitches. He glanced away before looking back at her.
"With his..." he trailed off, anger showing through his eyes.
"Wildwing, it doesn't matter who the father is. Trent won't have anything to do with this baby. He didn't even know." she explained. He nodded, rubbing his chin.
"You want me to grab the doctor?" he asked.
"You can let the guys know. I really want to see them. But, after you contact the guys, if you could grab me a doctor, that'd be great." she said, giving him a smile. He returned her smile, leaning over and kissing her forehead.
"You won't be alone in this." he promised, hugging her gently. She hugged him back and knew he was already taking on the role of "big brother" that Canard had left behind.
Five ducks sat in the rec room, doing mundane things. It'd been a week, almost two, since the ducks had arrived on Earth. So far, they had met a man named Phil Palmfeather, who had now become their manager. They had also become the hockey team for the city, and in doing so they had already used their profits to start construction on an underground headquarters beneath "The pond". They had already set up their rooms, though, and Nosedive, Tanya and Mallory had even taken some time to start setting up Anna's room for her, anxious for when she'd be able to leave the hospital.
Duke sighed out loudly, standing up from his spot and beginning to pace.
"How long can it take someone to wake up?" he asked, not particularly directing the question at anyone.
"The doctors said they didn't know. So until then, we've gotta be patient. Wildwing said he'd alert us at the first sign of movement." Mallory tried.
"I know he did, I'm just worried." Duke admitted.
"We all are." Mallory tried.
"Mallory, you don't get it, she-" Duke cut himself off. He knew she hadn't told anyone besides him, but he was worried about not only Anna, but the baby as well.
"She what, Duke?" she looked him hard, knowing he knew something that she didn't. He sighed out, glancing away.
"She's pregnant." Tanya said from behind the group. Everyone turned to look at her with wide eyes while Duke just nodded from his spot.
"Wait, how'd you guys know?" Nosedive asked, feeling left out.
"Nosedive, I was in there with the doctors, remember?" Tanya tried. He nodded, a foolish look on his face. He then glanced at Duke suspiciously.
"And how'd you know?" he asked, pointing an accusing finger at the older drake. Duke opened his mouth, but nothing came out as Mallory's comm beeped. She answered it and the group gathered around her.
"Hey, Mal. Is the group in earshot?" came Wildwing's voice.
"We're all here, Wing. What's going on?" Duke said from his spot.
"Anna's awake. She'd really like to see you guys." came Wildwing's voice.
"And how's the baby?" Duke asked suddenly. Wildwing looked taken aback for a second, before answering.
"Uh, don't know how you know, but I'm gonna go grab a doctor here in a minute and we're gonna find out." Wildwing promised. Duke nodded from his spot, pleased with that answer.
"Alright, we'll see you soon Wing." Mallory finished off the conversation, shutting her comm. She looked at Duke, and for a moment it looked like she might interrogate him, but let it go. She ushered the team out the door and towards the hospital.
They had to walk, as the aerowing was just too big to haul just a couple of blocks. Tanya said she had been working on a vehicle. It was almost finished, but wasn't quite ready for a test drive. The group walked in silence for the most part, all just wanting to get to the hospital to see Anna.
author's note: I was so totally going to have this chapter follow Tanya while she helped Maria patch Anna up, but I didn't really like it. It didn't quite flow the way I wanted. Then I remembered it's my story, so then I decided I could start this chapter wherever I wanted, so I decided to start up right after Tanya and Maria got Anna patched up. Anyways, I hope you liked it and then next chapter will be up next Friday so definitely keep your eyes peeled and remember... R&R.
P.S. I'm thinking that if I don't get many reviews, I might start getting not so motivated, meaning some chapters could start not getting put up for weeks on end. Just, you know, food for thought. Anyways, have a good day and I'll see ya next week!
