~Chapter 3~

Kaz woke up a few hours later to the sound of violent vomiting. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. It was Breana that was throwing up. He frowned, going over and holding her hair. "Are you alright?" He asked softly, rubbing her back. Breana shook her head, leaning forward as she threw up again. Kaz frowned deeper then gasped as he saw blood in her vomit. "Horace!" He yelled, torn between actually going to find Horace or staying by Breana. Breana whimpered in pain, holding her stomach. "The babies..." She mumbled, almost blacking out from the pain because of her super senses. "Oliver!" Kaz yelled, freaking out at this point.

Oliver ran over. "Yes Kaz?" Kaz glanced at Oliver. "Breana's throwing up blood!" He panted. Oliver gasped. "That's gross." He stated bluntly. "Oliver, this isn't the time for your germaphobe-ness!" Kaz snapped. "Right, right." Oliver said as Breana fainted. As Breana fainted, Kaz started panicking even more. "Oh god, oh god..." Kaz started pacing. "Oliver..." He said nervously, looking at Breana's unconscious form before looking at Oliver. "Do you think she'll be ok?" Oliver shrugged slightly, not wanting to worry Kaz. Kaz glanced at Oliver again. "I think... I think I love her." Oliver blinked. "Do you mean... love-love?" He asked tentatively. "What about her babies? She's pregnant with triplets, Kaz!" Oliver reminded Kaz. "And she was scared of us, especially Horace, when we rescued her and her twin brother."

Kaz suddenly threw the blood pressure gauge he was holding down to the ground, breaking the glass in the face of the meter. "God Oliver, you think I don't know that?!" He bellowed. Oliver flinched, never having heard Kaz yell like that. "Please don't hurt me... or my babies." Breana mumbled as she was unconscious. Oliver sighed. "We need to get Dr. Bridges or someone else to preform a gynecological exam on her." Kaz nodded. "Even though Horace hates Dr. Bridges, she wouldn;t be comfortable with a man touching her privates or anything right now." Oliver nodded. "Yeah." Kaz sighed again.

Suddenly Horace came in. "What's wrong?" Oliver looks at Kaz. "Breana's throwing up blood!" Kaz yelled at Horace. "What?!" Horace asked. "I said she's throwing up blood!" Kaz snapped. Horace took a deep breath. "Ok, we need to administer anti-emetics now and then perform an Esophagogastroduodenoscopy." Horace instructed. "Huh?" Kaz asked while Oliver just, going to get another bag of normal saline and then go get a bag of intravenous Ondansetron (Zofran). Horace face- palmed. "Anti-emetics make it so that you don't vomit or throw up, and an Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is when you use a camera attached to a flexible tube to look at a patient's esophagus and upper stomach." He explained. "Cool!" Kaz said.

Within five minutes, Oliver came back with the bag of saline and the bag of iv Ondansetron. He replaced Breana's iv PICC line with one for at least semi-permanent usage before setting up the bags through a forked tube because the solutions were to be administered at different rates. The saline for a constant drip, and the Odansetron was to be delivered quickly. "I'll have Dr. Levine and Benny Prep OR 2 just in case." Horace said. Kaz gulped. "Wi-will she be o-ok?" He stuttered. "She should, but we need to be careful here. Any procedure is risky when the person is pregnant or carrying eggs." Kaz nodded. "Eggs?" Horace shuddered. "Don't ask." * Kaz nodded again. "But what about Breana?" Horace sighed. "This is usually a common, routine procedure. We are always extremely careful when we do anything." He stated. "Alright..." Kaz trailed off.

After the iv bag with the Ondansetron was half empty, Kaz put the numbing gel in the back of Breana's throat and on the back of her tongue. He then sat down next to her, holding her cold hand. Horace came back in, administering a sedative to Breana. He injected it into the tube the Ondansetron was going through. "We usually do this procedure while the patient is awake, but in her case, that would increase the chance of her vomiting and thus choking during the procedure." Horace explained. Kaz nodded. "And if that happened, there would be a chance that you wouldn't be able to get the camera out of her throat fast enough?" Horace nodded. "Precisely. And the babies are nowhere near the age of viability." Kaz nodded once more. "Are you ready to start?" He asked. "Yes, but I will have Oliver help me. You can go tend to other patients, or you could watch if you like." Horace said. "I would like to stay here and watch." Kaz told Horace.

Horace nodded. He suspected Kaz having a crush on Breana, but he didn't say anything. He pushed a button on the controls for Breana's bed to make it so that she was sitting up. Oliver walked over and stood next to Horace. The first thing Horace did was use a dental bite block to hold Breana's mouth open. Oliver put more numbing gel in the back of Breana's throat just to be sure before Horace started threading the endoscope down her throat. Kaz stroked Breana's hair, more for his comfort than hers. "Oh God." Horace said as the camera got into Breana's esophagus. "What? What's wrong?" Kaz demanded, going into overdrive protective mode. "She's fine. There are several tears in the lining of her esophagus, probably because of the stomach acid dissolving it. Because of her excessive vomiting, the process wouldn't have taken as long."

"Oh." Kaz remarked, still slightly confused. "What does that mean?" He asked. "It means that the pregnancy symptoms are intensified because of her super senses and conflicting with her body." Horace explained. "Can you make her better while still keeping the babies healthy?" Kaz questioned, glaring at Horace. "It's much more complicated than that. The babies need nutrients but she hasn't been able to keep any food nor water down correct?" Horace asked Kaz. Kaz nodded. "Yeah. I feel really bad for her because I see how sick this pregnancy is making her, and she's barely seven weeks pregnant." He told Horace. "Precisely. The babies need nutrients and she needs to stop vomiting. Usually you see damage to that extent in girls or boys that are bulimic, not pregnant." Horace told Kaz.

Kaz stood up, kissing Breana's forehead. "So what are you going to do?" Horace sighed. "Well we have to find the right combination of anti-emetics and hope her morning sickness, which is hyperemesis gravidarum since it's so severe, lessens as her pregnancy progresses. She will also need to get at least most, if not all of her nutrition from an iv." He told Kaz. "So will she and the babies be ok?" Kaz asked again. "Most certainly, yes." Horace answered, drawing blood from Breana's arm. "I will test her blood to see what nutrients she needs more of so we can figure out the best iv therapy for her and the babies." He explained. "Along with the nutrients needed during pregnancy of course." Kaz nodded. sitting back next to Breana as Oliver removed the dental bite block from her mouth and fluffed her pillows.

"Despite the lies that you're making, your love is mine for the taking. My love is just waiting to turn your tears to roses. I will be the one that's gonna hold you, I will be the one that you run to. My love is a burning, consuming fire.**" Kaz cradled Breana in his arms, softly singing to her. He ran his fingers through her soft, brunette hair.

Oliver watched Kaz with Breana as he paused in the doorway of Breana's hospital room. He really loves her, doesn't he? Oliver was surprised, after all they had only known her for a week at most. He didn't know if love at first sight was real, but he did know how he felt about Skylar. He then left the room as he got paged by Dr. Levine that she needed his help with something. I hope she and babies will be ok.

Breana blinked as she woke up, groaning. "W-what happened?" She grasped as her throat. Kaz looked at her. "Don't talk, it'll hurt your throat more." He told her. Breana nodded, looking down at her stomach. "Don't worry about them. They're ok and they'll be ok. Just worry about you getting better." Kaz said, gently patting her arm that had a cast. She nodded softly, looking up at Kaz like a deer in headlights. Kaz understood why. She had been in a basement for at least nine, almost 10 years. A decade. While she had gotten comfortable with Kaz, Oliver, and Horace, she was still afraid of people, especially men. She still needed time to heal.

"I promise I won't anything happen to your or the babies." Kaz whispered to her. I love you. Breana smiled softly at Kaz, leaning into his chest as she fell back to sleep.

*Footnote #1- Totally a reference to Lizard Man laying eggs. Totally.

**Footnote #2- 'Whispers In The Dark' by Skillet is owned by them.

So yep, they're this chapter. It took so long but once I got into the groove, I just had to finish the ended since I was busy dealing with other shit. But hey, at least it's finally effin' done now. I hope you guys like the chapter.

Xoxo,

Breana