Chapter Four

'Mr. Bass, go home. Get some sleep and have a shower.' Dr Barton's voice woke Blair.

She opened her eyes. She'd hardly been out of the coma for a full day, but the doctor's visits interested her. Unlike her family, he wanted nothing from her. She looked from him to the husband she didn't know.

Chuck straightened in a metal - and - vinyl chair. 'I don't need sleep or a shower.'

She lifted her hand to him, but he shook his head, obviously aware she was going to second the doctor's suggestion. She continued anyway. 'You need your rest.' She shouldn't have buried her face in his manly chest. Her momentary weakness had apparently convinced him she needed a bodyguard. 'Nothing bad will happen to me if you leave my room.'

He shot a wary glance at the doctor, who nodded. Chuck stood, but tension built as he hesitated, air didn't know how to respond to him. His deep concern touched her. She found his stubbled chin attractive, his dark, brooding eyes appealing. She liked the way he smelled, but Chuck expected more than the gratitude and simple attraction she felt.

'Do you want me to come back/' he asked.

She like to remember why he seemed as uncomfortable with her as she was with him. Had their marriage been happy? 'After you rest, if you feel like coming back, I'll be here.'

He turned toward the doctor, but his gaze lingered on her as he spoke. 'You know where to reach me?'

The doctor moved to Blair's bed, an impresario, showing off his brightest talent. 'Blair is awake and healthy and on the mend. We won't need to dive into that pool of phone numbers you gave us.'

With a wry expression, Chuck trudged to the door, and most of the pressure left with him, Blair sank against her pillows. The gruff doctor shut her door and dragged a chair to her bed.

'let's talk,' he said.

His urgency alarmed her. 'Did you find something in the test?'

'No…well, nothing new, but I've been trying to get you alone since you woke up yesterday. I have to tell you something I don't believe you've told Mr. Bass.'

She attempted a smile. 'Another man come forward to claim me as his wife.'

He gave a slight, anxious grin that put her on edge.

'We only allow one family per amnesiac.' His gaze grew as intense as any of her family's. 'I wish I could prepare you for this news, but I must say it quickly before someone else comes in. You're pregnant, and I've been unethical.' He patted her good leg. 'What a relief to say that out loud at last.'

Bair grabbed the bed rails as the world seemed to open up beneath her. 'I'm pregnant?'

'Just over sixteen weeks.' He went on, as if they should both be ready to talk facts. 'You were spotting when you came in. By the time we could leave you to speak to Charles, he should have asked us about the baby. When he didn't, I began to worry you hadn't told him and that you had a reason for not telling him. I asked Mrs. Rose, your mother, for your gynecologist's name.'

Words escaped her at first. 'How old am I again?'

'Twenty three.'

Pregnant, twenty three, married, and she hadn't told anyone about the baby. Why?

She slid her hands over her stomach. It was round all right. She hadn't thought to ask why. An unexpected protectiveness caught her by surprise, and she accepted a new first priority. 'Is the baby all right?'

'Yes. Your bleeding was light, and you stopped within a few hours. I still would have told Mr. Bass if I hadn't tracked down your doctor.'

'My obstetrician?'

'Right. She said you'd decided not to tell Mr. Bass yet, so I followed your wishes. However your doctor needs to see you, so you have to decide how to tell your family. She'll never make it in here and out again without being ambushed, considering the way your family guards that door.'

Blair's large family overwhelmed her, too. She couldn't see their constant, well-meant surveillance as a joke. 'No one else asked about the baby? Not my mother or my sister in law?'

'I wish they had.'

'Did my doctor explain why I've kept the pregnancy a secret?'

'She doesn't know, and I can't promise your mother hasn't spoken to anyone else since I asked for your OB's name.' Dr. Batron patted her forearm. 'Try not to worry. I expect Mr. Bass would have exploded by now had your mother told him.'

'I need to talk to Chuck. What was wrong between us?'

'I'm not sure anything was wrong.'

Blair pushed her fingers through her hair. 'Doctor, please tell me the truth.' She pressed her palms together, trying to look self-possessed. She didn't want or need a gentle bedside manner. 'Will I ever know these people again?'

He hunched his shoulders beneath his wrinkled lab coat. 'All I ever say to you or Mr. Bass is 'I don't know,' And I don't know because shock, rather than a head injury, caused your amnesia, I'd day your memory will trickle back.' Grinning, he popped his glasses from the top of his head onto his face, where they magnified her weary eyes. 'Trickle. That's a technical term.'

Blair tried to smile, but his nonanswer made her head ache. She lifted her hand between them, turning it from side to side. 'I must have seen my fingers millions of times, but I don't recognize them. I scared myself to death when I looked in a mirror. My family make me feel anxious and I'm more comfortable talking to you then to my husband.'

'These are the facts. You can't balance them with what you feel, because all your emotions are tied up in your memory loss.' The doctor folded her fingers between his weathered hands. 'I don't know why you'd hide a child from Charles, but he cares about you. He stood a vigil at your bedside no matter how many times I begged him to go home. I thought we might end up having to treat him. That man didn't stay all this time because he felt it was his duty.'

Good. She didn't want a dutiful marriage. She wanted passion and commitment, a love that made a women want to tell her husband they were having their first child.

Might she have hidden her pregnancy from Chuck for a more obvious and insidious reason than a marriage that had wound down to duty? ' What if Chuck isn't the baby's father? Would you have heard rumors if I was having an affair?'

Dr. Barton sat back as if someone had tried to yank his chair out from under him. 'The Waldorf's have a bad habit of making destructive decisions, but not you, Blair.'

'Waldorf's?' She found no comfort in his vehement support.

'Your father's family. Your mother is re-married. I've know your family for a long time and I've seen you make healthier choices as you grew. Even beating your eating disordered.'

'Explain, please.'

'No. you speak to your mother or father.' At his nervous glance, she imagined the worse. 'You need to rebuild your relationships with your family, not with me.'

'You're not hurt because I can't remember you.'

He held up both hands. 'You have to jump off this cliff. Think of me as a parachute if you jump and you need help getting to the ground, but talk to your family.'

Outside her room, a women's voice paged another doctor over the PA system, and some sort of heavy equipment rolled down the hall on squeaky wheels.

Still, Dr. Barton waited for her to behave the way she always had.

Blair covered her face with her hands, but then flattened her palms at her side. 'I can't lie here and wait for my life to happen to me, can I?'

He slipped his hands in his pockets. 'I'll arrange for your OB to see you. Figure out what to tell Charles about the baby.'

Memory must shape a person's sense of self. When she tried to think how she should approach Chuck, she faced a mental blank. 'I think I'll try the truth.' She winced a little. 'The truth as we know it, anyway.'

END CHAPTER FOUR.

Another short update that hopefully answers more of your questions. It would be great to have some more information in the form of reviews.

Xoxo