Author's Note: I'm writing several chapters ahead, I think y'all are gonna like this! –Amber
Augustus blinked at Hazel. Her eyes were welling up with tears, a smile spreading across her face.
''Augustus! That's wonderful news! Are you NEC?!" Hazel Grace wrapped her arms around Gus's waist. He rubbed her back through her denim jacket.
''No, not completely. But with some chemo and maybe a liver surgery, I can fight this bitch, Hazel Grace. I promised you I would!'' Gus squeezed her closer to him. ''Now, what's this about you being pregnant?" he took her hand and led her to the back yard. He sat down on the wooden railing that once surrounded her pedophilic swingset, his legs stretched out in front of him.
''I had been feeling queasy lately, and Mother Nature was supposed to visit me two weeks after we got back from Amsterdam. It never came. I waited and waited and I never got it,'' Hazel said. She stopped to gauge Gus's reaction. His eyes were as wide as the ocean, his lips slightly parted.
Hazel took a deep breath through her cannula and continued. ''I had read that when your body gets ready to shut down, things like that go first. I didn't want to worry you with everything you have going on, so I waited. I didn't seem to get any sicker, so I called Kaitlyn.'' Augustus had taken Hazel's hands in his.
''And?" he urged her to continue.
''She got me a test. I took it, and it was positive,'' Hazel finished, and she began to cry. She placed her head in her hands and allowed her shoulders to shake. She could not see the brilliant smile that was lighting up Augustus's face.
''Hazel Grace, why are you crying? This is amazing!'' Gus said, pulling her to him. She climbed into his lap and nuzzled her head into his shoulder.
''Amazing?! Gus, this is a disaster!" Hazel bawled. How could she say that? She was having a baby – his baby! Their baby.
''Hazel Grace Lancaster, you listen to me. This is not a disaster!"
''Augusuts Waters, I am dying. I don't know how much time I have left, and you're still sick!''
Augustus took Hazel's face in his hands and wiped away her tears with the soft padding of his thumbs. He lightly pressed his plump lips to her forehead. He just held her in his arms for the longest time. He didn't care that her parents were watching them, and he sure as hell didn't care about the dull pain in his hip, the that had the metal attached it, as he rocked her back and forth.
''Okay, Hazel Grace. This baby is a miracle. I've always wanted to be a father, and you are going to be a damn good mother. I know it's going to be hard, but if anyone knows how to cope with struggle, it's us. You more than me,'' his eyes shown with excitement as he spoke. He was nervous; God he was nervous, and he knew Hazel Grace was. He laid his hands on her stomach, and her fingers laced with his.
''I love you.''
''And I you, Augustus.'' He kissed this amazing girl in front of him as the Indiana stars sparkled overhead.
