CHAPTER SEVEN: I DREAMED A DREAM

Sasuke was a little taken aback. No, that was an understatement. Sasuke was terrified. He watched as his normally graceful wife stomped about the house, tossing items every which way. Everytime she passed him, she would send him the dirtiest glare she could muster before huffing and turning her head away. At first, he thought it would last only a few minutes. But then it lasted the entire morning. It began when he woke up, stretching himself out like he normally did, and found that she wasn't in bed when he reached over to wrap her up in his arms. He cracked an eye open, looking to her side to find that she was indeed gone, then groaned when his innate protective instinct forced him to get up and investigate. Clad only in his pajama bottoms, he stalked around the house only to find her in the kitchen where she was making her morning tea. As if sensing him approaching behind her, she jutted her elbow out rather forcefully and grunted in discontent when it didn't make contact. Backing up a few paces, Sasuke subconsciously rubbed his ribs, where her elbow would have made contact. That was close, he thought warily.

"Was that necessary," he asked monotonously as if he didn't care when, on the inside, he was rather hurt that his advances were rejected. Did she not know what sporting only his t-shirt did to him? She had to know that he'd at least want to occupy her lips for a few seconds. When Sakura turned around, it was as if Satan had sent the worst demon he had to offer. Her eyes were screaming of exhaustion while her eyes were brimmed red from crying excessively. If he wasn't mistaken, she might have been shaking as well. It wasn't until that she turned back around with a huff that she was absolutely upset with him.

As any man would do, he went through the list of that he did that could potentially upset her. What it when I… No. He shook his head, she was completely fine after that. Or maybe when I… He shook his head again. That couldn't have been it because, that night, they… well, you know. And she wasn't complaining at that time so it had to be something else. But Sasuke, by then, had already run out of things he could possibly do wrong. Sasuke eventually sighed and worked up the courage to ask, "What did I do, Sakura?"

"Nothing," she bit out. "You did absolutely nothing." She turned on her heel and stormed out of the kitchen, forgetting all about her tea. Sasuke turned off the stove and went chasing after her like an abandoned puppy. He followed her into their bedroom where she was quickly getting dressed for a day at the hospital. Sasuke attempted to coax her out of the reason behind her anger yet she completely dismissed his presence and went storming from the room. Sasuke didn't chase after her this time, figuring that it was too exhausting to make an attempt when he was just going to be ignored, so he got back in bed a little bit more bitter than when he got up. All while Sakura continued to spread her wrath about the house, Sasuke couldn't help but fear the thoughts that were flashing across her mind: murder, torture, or worst of all no sex.

When Sasuke heard her footsteps headed towards the door, he acted on a whim and dashed after her, catching her by the wrist before she could even open the door. She didn't bother turning around to face him which, at this point, was the least of his worries. "How am I supposed to know what I did if you don't talk to me," he demanded, using anger to mask his absolute fear of her extremely dangerous fists. "I'll visit you at the hospital and you will talk to me." He left it at that, allowing Sakura to snatch her hand away and leave from their home.

Even though Sasuke promised her this, he didn't quite know what to say to her. He could apologize but he didn't even know what he was apologizing for. He could bring her flowers, but then that would call for telling Yamanaka what he did wrong and, again, he had no clue. There came a point in his solitary day (surrounded by paperwork of course) when he found himself pacing before Naruto in his office within the Hokage Tower. What more could he do besides ramble off his troubles to his one true friend? And Naruto, being the great friend he was (and Hokage that hated signing papers), listened intently. He offered a few words here and there, and nodded whenever he deemed it necessary. Finally, when Sasuke stopped his retelling of events, Naruto thoughtfully said, "Wow, your in deep shit, teme."

Sasuke glared, "Tell me something I don't know, dobe." Eventually he sighed and said, "I told her I'd go see her at the hospital to talk."

Naruto responded with a low whistle and said, "I lied. You'll be in deep shit later. Look, Hinata-chan gets upset with me all the time and I learned to let her cool off before I talk to her. It's either that or I get castrated." Sasuke looked to Naruto incredulously. "She is a demon when she's angry. Rule number one: never talk to a girl when she's angry."

Sasuke frowned, "So what do I do?"

"What do you mean 'what do you do?'," Naruto leaned back in his chair, "You go talk to her."

"You just said–"

"Rule number two," Naruto interrupted. "If you say you're going to do something, especially if it involves her, you do it. It doesn't matter if you die, at least you die a man."

So going to Naruto was no help at all. At this point, Sasuke was pretty darn sure that his end had come. It was the first time he had ever been put on his toes, questioning his every move, looking quickly around every corner. Sakura had successfully backed him up against a wall and because he was so keen on protecting her feelings, it was inevitable that he was going to end up the losing party in this one. With Sakura, he was always the losing party. But, to an extent, Naruto was right. A man never goes back on his word and, if Sasuke told Sakura he would go to see her, he was going. It wasn't until he found himself standing before the hospital doors did he realize that maybe waiting for her at home wasn't such a bad idea. Sure he'd die a coward, but at least it wouldn't be in public.

You're an Uchiha, Sasuke scolded himself. Uchiha's aren't afraid of anything. However pathetic his thoughts may have been, it was enough to get him to walk mechanically into the building. He asked the front desk to call for Sakura, to tell her that he was there, and he felt his heart nearly leap out of his chest when the lady at the desk said, "She is waiting for you in her office." In her office. A secluded area with no witnesses to see what goes on inside, Sasuke felt like he was walking into a trap. He nonetheless went up the elevator and down the hall to her office. He stopped just before her door, hearing her move about inside, and looked toward the ceiling. It was the first time in a long time that this Uchiha prayed. Finally, he took a deep breath and pushed his way in, surprising her to the point of jumping.

She looked… okay. Her exhaustion from that morning was ten times worse and her eyes seemed redder as well. Subconsciously he stepped toward her and cupped her cheek, running his thumb along the bottom of her eye. Before he was demanding but now he truly wanted to know: what did he do? "Sakura–"

"Sasuke I'm sorry," she blurted, immediately tearing up again. "I was upset over something really stupid."

"What did I do," he repeated for the upteenth time that day. Really, this was getting old.

"You cheated on me," she told him, swiping away her tears.

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows, "No, I– what?"

"Yes, you did!"

"No I–"

"–In my dream you did!"

And there it was. Sasuke's hand dropped to his side while his other came up to pinch the bridge of his nose. It took him a moment to fully process what she had said but, once he got it, it seemed like all the tension in his body left the room. But then it was replaced with frustration. This girl made a huge scene that morning, made him go and spill everything to Naruto, made him worry about his very life over a dream. Sasuke didn't even acknowledge the female population if it wasn't Sakura and here she was accusing him of cheating on her in her dream. They had been married for a year, wasn't trust supposed to be established by now?

"I was mad at you, but not anymore," she confessed.

Sasuke looked at her skeptically as she continued to wipe away tears. He leaned passed her to take a tissue from her tissue box on her desk to hand it to her. She took it gratefully. "Then why are you crying."

"Because," she said, as if that explained it all.

He narrowed his eyes at her, "I'm not a mindreader, Sakura."

She cried even harder. "You're making me feel worse!"

What was with this woman? "I'm making you feel worse?!"

She took another tissue because the one she already had was a lost cause. "All day I've alternated from mad to sad then back to mad again and I expected you to know all this and I'm so sorry because you've done nothing wrong and you had to tolerate my anger this morning when all I really wanted was for you to tell me that you loved me because I love you and if that dream were to come true my world would just–" Until this point, Sasuke had completely lost his drive to react. His mind was exhausted from the excessive worrying he had done that day. But when she stopped talking suddenly, he was brought back to reality to see her literally slightly swaying. He held his arms out to her with a "Sakura?" as she gripped onto him to keep from falling. Just as he was about to speak, she shoved him backward and lurched into her trash can beside her desk. She did so repeatedly, so much that Sasuke bolted for her door and called for help. Ironically, the first one to come was Sakura's close co-worker Shizune.

"What's wrong," she demanded, dashing forward toward Sakura who was still heaving into the plastic bin.

Sasuke followed suit, crouching on Sakura's other side, placing a comforting hand on her back. "I don't know," he said, his face tinged with worry. "One minute she was yelling then the next…" He trailed, motioning toward Sakura who had now calmed down to breathing heavily. Shizune insisted that they sit her upright so she could get a better look at Sakura so Sasuke took her into his protective hold to keep her from falling over. She looked extremely weak and pale. She was fine a few seconds ago.

"We don't want to move her too quickly," Shizune advised as she inspected Sakura with her hands that were now enveloped in her own chakra. "She may vomit again." Sakura vomiting was the least of Sasuke's worries as he stared down at Sakura's drooping eyes. Was this because she was stressed over the dream she had? Was this because she was sitting here worrying over him? She looked exhausted, he should have made her stay home, he should have made her– "Uchiha-san." Shizune's wide eyes made Sasuke completely alert. "Depleted, vomiting, high fever. There are several things that can cause this and I was attempting to rule it out but–"

"But what," Sasuke demanded as he noticed Shizune's hand hovering over Sakura's stomach. What was it? Stomach ulcer? Tumor? Flu? What?!

Shizune looked up with a small smile, drawing confusion from the Uchiha until she proudly announced, "Sakura's pregnant."

So hopefully this wasn't to brief for y'all. I literally have been working on this for hours and I'm so glad its out of the way now. Thank you all for your wonderful support. I can't express how grateful I am to you all!