LEAH:

Dez looked at his watch.

"Leah, as much as I hate to leave you right now, I have to go to work at the apple store."

I said,

"OK. I'll see you later, Dez."

He gently kissed my forehead.

"You poor thing."

He shook my dad's hand and hugged my mom. My dad picked me up like a bride and carried me down to the pharmacy so they could pick up my doses of Hydralazine pills. I was required to take it every three hours and then to wash it down with water. On the way to the parking lot, I asked my dad,

"Dad, will my medicine kill my baby?"

He looked at me sympathetically.

"Not if you take it in the right doses."

"Good. I want her to survive."

My mom looked at me from the passenger seat, leaned over and smoothed my hair.

"Sorry, princess."

I said,

"It's fine, Mom."

She turned to my dad.

"What did the doctor prescribe for her?"

My dad said,

"She gave her Hydralazine pills and she has to take them every three hours and wash them down with water. She also suggested five to eight glasses of water a day for her, and that she needs lots of rest."

My mom said,

"Sounds good. When I was pregnant with Austin, I had toxemia, too. Remember?"

I said,

"Mom, you got preeaclampsia, too?"

My mom said to me,

"Yes, Leah. I did. I had the same symptoms you did, and Nana had to fly over here from Chicago to help me. Thank god he survived."

I asked,

"Did you have it with me?"

My mom said,

"No. Nana said women typically got it during their first pregnancy."

When we came home, I got in my bed, and snuggled up in my blankets. My mom walked in with a small brown bag and handed me my old glass with Anna and Elsa from Frozen on it. Frozen was another one of my favorite Disney movies. She sat on my bed and I sat up. She opened the pill bottle and handed me two of the pills.

I took them together and I washed them down with water in my Frozen cup.

"Sweetie, do you need anything else before I go downstairs?"

I said,

"Well, an extra blanket would be nice."

She went over to my closet and grabbed my black throw blanket with white polka dots.

"Thanks, mom."

"You're welcome, princess."

She smiled.

"Where's your Disney Princess blanket?"

I said,

"I gave it to Lanessa."

My mom smoothed my hair.

"I remember when you were about three, four, five years old and you loved Disney Princess. You were totally preoccupied with it."

I smiled.

"Oh, my childhood."

She held my head in her hands.

"My personal favorite was you in princess costumes and how you would wear them to Moon's Mattress Kingdom all the time. Our customers would just coo at you all the time."

I smiled.

"I love you, mom."

She said,

"I love you too, Leah."

I discovered I was getting sleepy. I stretched and yawned and fell asleep. When I woke up three hours later, my mom was sitting on my bed, the exact same spot before I fell asleep.

"Sweetie, I just wanted to let you know that I called the hospital and they want you to come back next week for another test."

"OK, Mom."

"I should also probaby refill your glass of water. It's time to take your meds."

She refilled it. I sat up and took my pills and washed them down with water. I filled my glass again with water and drank it. A few hours later, my boyfriend came over.

"Hi, blondie. How you feeling?"

"A little better. Thanks, babe."

We kissed. Dez was the best boyfriend ever. If I had been pregnant with Kevin's baby, he would have left me. If I had made the decision to give the baby up for adoption, I would have given her to Austin and Ally. It would have been perfect- Lanessa would grow up with her uncle and aunt raising her. And Austin and Ally were both emotionally mature enough and they obviously had the money to take care of her.

And my mom and dad had promised to help me out with her. After all, she was their granddaughter.