Jeannie had to stay in hospital for a total of five days, mostly because she had sustained a head injury. In that whole time, Tony only left her side to go grab a few quick showers at home, and a few things for Jeannie. When he was hungry he went to the hospital cafeteria to grab a bite to eat when he could stand to leave her side.
Every day Roger and Dr. and Mrs Bellows would come to visit Jeannie in her room to make sure she was healing fine and wanting to help keep her company.
No one but the medical staff at the hospital, and of course, Jeannie and Tony, knew of the miscarriage. That's the way Tony wanted it to stay for now, at least until he got Jeannie home.
When Jeannie had visitors, she put on her best fake smile, joined in on the conversation only when she was required, and when she wasn't actively joining in, she was nodding her head at the required times when someone was talking to her, though, only Tony noticed that she wasn't really listening to a single word that was being said. Only Tony noticed she was not herself, probably because he knew her the best. Only he noticed that she would unconsciously touch her stomach, as if she thought that would help reverse everything and bring their baby back.
Then when she didn't have any visitors, when it was just the two of them, she would say she was tired, and would roll onto her side, like she had when he had told her, away from him. He was really starting to worry about her. He had never seen her like this. Sure, he had seen her display many emotions since he had known her: happiness, anger, excitement and sadness, but never had he witnessed her express nothing at all. It was as if she had given up. Sure, he knew she was distraught, who wouldn't be, but she was bottling those feelings in, not talking to him, and that was so unlike her.
He also noticed that when she received her main meals from the hospital staff, she would mostly just pick at it, and only ate a few mouthfuls before pushing the plate aside.
He had tried, oh how he had tried, to talk to her, get her to open up. All she would say was that she was fine, and she would leave it at that. He hoped being in the comfort of their home would help.
The day had come when Jeannie could finally leave the hospital to come back home. Tony helped her into the car, and then started making his way back home. He had to use a replacement car while his own car was being fixed. Luckily, the whole car wasn't damaged; it was mostly only the drivers' side. While driving home, making sure to be extremely careful, Tony quietly observed his wife. She was trying not to show it, but he could tell she was scared of being back in a car again. She was clenching her fists together so tight they were starting to go deathly white.
Jeannie just wanted to get home. For the past five days she had been stuck in that small, stuffy hospital room, with nothing to do but pretend she was holding up fine. She was glad she had a husband who cared, and her three closest friends that only wanted to be there for her, but she honestly just wanted to be alone, away from everyone, including her own husband. She wanted to be back in the comfort of her own bottle. But more than anything she wanted to be able to change the past. She wanted to get her baby back.
She didn't even know that she was pregnant, she had just thought she had one of those bugs, or perhaps she had contracted the genie flu (and when a genie got that, boy were they sick).
She knew Tony meant well, as did everyone else, but she was starting to feel coddled. In no way did she blame Tony for anything that happened, how could she? He hadn't done anything wrong. On the contrary, she blamed herself. If only she had stayed at that party a little while longer, she was sure they would have left not long after she did anyway. If only she had payed more attention to the road, she might have seen that car come straight at her, and maybe she would have been able to swerve the car out of its path. Tony's car was off getting repaired. He had trusted her with that car, and she had let him down. Sure, he had told her himself that he didn't blame her for that, it was not her fault at all, and she knew he meant every word he said, but that didn't take away the guilt she was feeling.
She knew there was no way around this, especially because she had yet to get her powers back, but that didn't make it any easier. Getting back into a car after her accident was very difficult. She tried not to let it show to Tony, but she was absolutely petrified. She tried not to make it too obvious, but when they went through an intersection, she was on the lookout for cars that might suddenly collide with their car.
She was very relieved and grateful when Tony pulled up into their driveway.
Before she had even moved, he had grabbed her bag from the back seat, and was at her car door, helping her out and into the house.
She was still rather sore, her ribs wouldn't heal properly for another five weeks, and her cast was due to come off then as well, as long as her arm had properly healed, of course. But then there were not only the physical injuries, but the emotional scars the whole ordeal had left her with.
She had been having the most horrific nightmares every night since she had woken up in that hospital bed. Mostly it was flashbacks of her car accident. Having to relive that over and over again was starting to take its toll on her; she was not getting much sleep at all. Then there were also the nightmares of the baby. She hadn't told Tony any of this. In fact, when she often woke up gasping, sweating and her heart beating a mile a minute, he was thankfully still asleep in his chair, beside her bed. He hadn't even stirred, which tells her he must be exhausted too, after all, he was usually a very light sleeper. She didn't want him to know, it would only add to his plate on what he had to deal with.
In fact, she was going to keep herself busy by looking after her husband. This way she could try to stop thinking about things she just didn't want to think about and also because she had been lacking in her wifely duties. He had been taking such good care of her, even though she hadn't shown how particularly grateful she was.
As soon as they got through the door, Tony set her bag down by the door and took his wife in his arms.
'Welcome home, Jeannie darling.' He said, planting a loving kiss on her forehead.
Jeannie said nothing as she hugged him back as best as she could with the cast on her arm.
'Why don't you go sit down on the couch? I'll put away your things and then I'll make you some lunch.'
He picked up the bag by the door and disappeared off into the room. Jeannie did not listen to Tony's suggestion. Instead, she went into the kitchen and started making him his usual coffee and sandwich for lunch, she didn't bother making anything for herself, she just wasn't hungry. It was easier said than done, she had to do mostly everything with one arm.
One by one she took the sandwich and coffee out to the dining room, and was just placing the napkin on the table when Tony walked in.
'Jeannie, what are you doing? You're supposed to be resting! I told you I would take care of it.'
'I wanted to take care of you, Anthony.' She explained softly, not meeting his eyes.
'Well, darling, I wasn't the one who was in an accident. Let me take care of you for once.'
'I-I think I am going to do some dusting.' Jeannie said, getting a bit flustered at the mention of the accident. She started to walk away but Tony's next words stopped her.
'Jeannie, we are going to have to talk about this sometime. And the baby. It's not healthy for you to keep bottling your feelings inside like this.' Tony tried to reason with Jeannie as her walked over to her.
'There's nothing to talk about.'
'Nothing to talk about? Jeannie, you were in a car accident, and we also lost our baby. We need to talk about it!'
'She turned around to face him then. 'No! Maybe you need to talk about it, but I don't. I am fine.' She said angrily as she stormed off.
Shocked, Tony just stood there, and let his wife walk away.
'At least,' he thought, 'She is finally showing some sort of emotion.'