Chapter 11
"The BABY!" Zaneri screams out clutching her stomach. "We need to go to the hospital now!"
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" The panicked blonde asks, looking around quickly to get his keys. He frantically opens the door almost forgetting his taller friend on the other side. "Ban! Help me get Zaneri to the car!"
Ban stumbles to process for a moment before taking in the scene in front of him. Pregnant woman, on floor, help.
Helping Meliodas wrap his arm around the girl and lift her up, barely remembering to lock the door behind them they rush to the parking lot where Meliodas finds his truck parked in its usual spot. Laying Zaneri carefully down in the backseat, Meliodas jumps in the driver's seat with Ban in the passenger seat, and race out of the parking lot.
"Just hang on okay, Zaneri?" Meliodas pleads with the crying girl. "I'll get us there as fast as I can." The girl only groans in response.
Breaking nearly every traffic law possible, the blonde man finally screeches into the ER parking lot. Both men jump out quickly, Ban running inside to get a nurse to help, Meliodas running to help Zaneri get out of the truck.
"Oh, Meliodas! I'm in so much pain." Zaneri hollers dramatically, clutching her stomach.
"We're here they're going to help you." Meliodas helps her down to the ground just as Ban returns with a nurse and wheelchair. They help the girl sit as she screams out in more pain at the movement.
"I'll go park your truck you go with her," Ban tells his friend before running to the driver's seat without waiting for a response. The blonde nods more so to himself and rushes in after his pregnant fiancé and the nurse.
xxxxxxxxxx
"Oh, Ms. Liones. You look beautiful!" The seamstress at the store gushes to the bride to be. Elizabeth looks at herself in the mirror of the bridal shop. The white dress is stunning, it hugs her breasts but ruffles out a bit just under them, with a strategically placed diamond-studded belt covering her bump. "The alterations will be done by the wedding I assure you, and no one will be able to see…"
The woman gestures to the girl's stomach as if her pregnancy wasn't allowed to be spoken aloud. Which, to be fair, was more or less true, Elizabeth thought to herself. No one else involved besides her father, fiancé, and the seamstress knew she was pregnant. The seamstress only being included out of necessity.
Everything was coming together exactly as Mael promised. With the endless supply of money to throw around none of the vendors or venue staff had any issues moving things up. "It will be a perfect wedding with a perfect bride and groom. The wedding of the century I hear." Elizabeth barely hears the seamstress gossip about her impending nuptials.
The silver-headed beauty had been on autopilot since that night. Shaking her head quickly to block out the memories of that night from flooding back in she turns her attention to the still talking woman adjusting her train.
"I'm sorry but are we done? I have to attend another appointment." Elizabeth interrupts.
"Oh yes of course I apologize, ma'am." After carefully taking off the dress to be certain the alteration pins are not misplaced; Elizabeth is left alone to look at herself in her wedding lingerie Mael picked out to go under her dress. The bruising on her thighs is clearly visible and the way she looks in the provocative, white lace makes her feel sick.
Nearly ripping the seams from her body, she throws in on the floor and grabs her comfortable, basic panties and feels a bit better in her own clothes, but only so much.
Wrapped up in her cardigan, Elizabeth makes her way down the street as quickly as possible away from the bridal shop and towards the bus station. She had refused Mael's repeated offers to get her a vehicle, but she knew once the wedding was over her denials wouldn't mean much anymore.
The ride on the dirty city bus was calming for the girl. She leaned her head against the window and people watched as the bus made its way towards her OBGYN office. Elizabeth smiled at the driver as she exited the long vehicle.
Her mind continued on autopilot all the way through the check-in and wait for her doctor. She stared at the ceiling as the doctor spoke to her, barely hearing the words coming out of her own mouth.
"Elizabeth?" Dr. Faith asked again, trying to get the young girl's attention. "Elizabeth?"
The harsher words of her doctor broke through her trance and she looked down at the doctor. "Yes, Dr. Faith?"
"I've told you; you can call me Melascula, sweetheart." Dr. Faith gently scolds. "Can you tell me what happened down here Elizabeth?"
The doctor sees the girl freeze and tense up immediately. "I-I uhm, I…" Elizabeth stutters out. She had forgotten about her tearing and bruising from… from her encounter with Mael.
"Elizabeth?" Melascula prods further. "You can tell me if someone hur—"
"No, no. I fell."
Silence falls on the room quickly.
"You fell." The pink-haired woman repeats blandly.
"Yes. I fell."
"Elizabeth…" The woman sighs. "I know your situation has changed since you first started with your pregnancy, what happened with the baby's father if you don't mind me asking?"
"He's not involved in this anymore." Elizabeth whispers, she sits up forcing Melascula to lean back and look up to the tall girl. "I have somewhere else I have to be, are we done here?"
Melascula looks at Elizabeth in the eye, in an almost challenging way. "You can leave we're done for today. Schedule your next appointment for three weeks out with the receptionist alright?"
Elizabeth nods and climbs off the bed to begin getting dressed.
Dr. Faith leaves the room and pauses just outside of the door thinking to herself. With determination, she turns towards the nurse's station and asks one of them for Elizabeth Liones' file.
Skimming through the chart she finds what she's looking for, the original new patient paperwork.
Emergency Contact Information
Seeing the phone number she was searching for she picks up the phone, preparing to make a dangerous call that could have her medical license revoked for violating patient confidentiality. Taking a deep breath, she makes her decision and types in the numbers.
xxxxxxxxxx
"Ma'am we're not seeing anything wrong with you." Dr. Grayroad repeats himself to the hysterical woman in the hospital bed.
"But, but I felt so much pain. Check again!" Zaneri insists.
With a roll of his eyes, the doctor looks over her chart again. They had been there for hours, Meliodas stayed by her side the entire time with his best friend Ban joining them soon after they got into a private room.
Every time Ban had tried to talk to Meliodas, Zaneri's pain levels would skyrocket forcing the blonde to stay and console the pregnant woman.
"The ultrasound was fine, baby's heartbeat is fine," Dr. Grayroad reads off the chart and sees something hasn't been addressed yet. "Have you been getting your Rh immunoglobin shots?"
"Yes of course I have! Do you think I wouldn't?" The woman bites out at the doctor, focusing her attention on the doctor so much she doesn't notice the blonde man next to her stand up confused.
"I'm sorry, she's been getting what?" Meliodas interrupts the conversation between the two with a tense stature. "Can you repeat that again?"
"Of course, sir." Dr. Grayroad sets the chart down and begins to explain. "When the mother has a negative blood type, and the baby has a positive blood type the body can sometimes reject the fetus. So, we have the mother take preventative measures. It's nothing to be too concerned about as long as she keeps up with it."
"No, I know what it is, my mother had to do it for my brother." Meliodas is shaking with anger that causes his body to shake. He turns his head to look at Zaneri with a cold look. "But not for me, because we had the same blood type. It's quite rare. O negative."
Zaneri's eyes shoot open as she realizes what these words mean. "I-I, Meliodas please just listen I—"
"Hey Doc, can you answer a quick question for me?" Meliodas interrupts with a causal look towards the doctor.
"I can do my best."
"What is the likelihood of two negative blood types producing a positive blood typed baby?" The blonde questions.
The doctor fights the smirk from slipping across his face. "Almost zero, sir."
"Thanks, Dr. Grayroad, you can go, I think we're done here." Turning his attention back to the trembling girl on the bed he doesn't acknowledge the doctor's silence exit. "I think I'm owed an explanation, Zaneri."
xxxxxxxxxx
Elizabeth sits on the park bench at Heaven's Theatre City Park watching the fish dance in the pond in front of her. Ever since Meliodas had brought her here that day it had become a guilty pleasure of hers to come back and pretend her life was the same as it was that day.
Happy. Carefree. In love.
With a dark chuckle, "Love." She whispers to herself. "Nobody will ever truly love me."
Mael said he loves you.
Just as the thought of that man crosses her mind nausea clenches her stomach. She wraps her arms around her stomach and lets the tears she hides in public fall freely down her cheeks. A shuttered breath breaks through her lips as she lets her mind zone out, enjoying the fish and the fresh air.
Unsure of how much time has passed before she looks up to see the sun has gone down, she sees her phone has multiple missed calls she hadn't heard in its silenced state.
Most of them from Mael she realizes with a shutter, but a few of them from her friends Diane and Elaine. No one left her any messages but Mael did send her a few texts wondering where she was.
Not ready to hear his voice again she sends a quick message to him that she's on her way home.
Home. That's what that place was to her now. Standing up from the quiet bench, in the peaceful park, she resonates with herself to never return here. It's too painful. It's too hard. It's too much.
Meliodas is gone from my life. I must accept that. She lets a hand caress her stomach slowly and looks down. "But I'll always have you, and you're a piece of us both little one."
She looks up and lets one last tear slip from her eyelashes and whispers to the trees and fish. "Goodbye Meliodas."
xxxxxxxxxx
"I can explain, I swear." The dark hair girl quivers in the hospital bed, trying to escape the glares of not only her fiancé but his best friend.
"This better be fucking good, Zaneri." Meliodas bites out.
She flinches, but nods her head, accepting that the jig is up. "I saw you with Elizabeth that night, taking her home before you broke things off with me. I knew I was going to lose you to her. I saw… I saw the way you looked at her. You never looked at me like that…" Zaneri trails off a bit before shaking her head to return her mind to the present situation.
"I couldn't lose you, Meliodas. I love you! You mean everything to me; I swear I did this out of love! I-I… Arthur…"
"Arthur? What does he have to do with this?" Ban blurts out.
"I knew he wanted to be with Elizabeth! That he'd help me. I called him and told him I had a plan. It would give him the chance he wanted with her and would ensure you'd be with me." She explains.
"What exactly did you do, Zaneri?" Meliodas shakes his head lost.
"I told him that I would get you back however I could, I didn't tell him exactly how because I didn't want him to try and intervene. Once it was clear you would be with me, Arthur would go for Elizabeth. I'm not sure why he never ended up with her but that's his problem, not mine."
"Why would he intervene if he wanted Elizabeth for himself?" Ban questions, but in his gut, he feels he knows the answer.
"The baby. I convinced him to have sex with me. Not that it was that hard really, the boy isn't exactly swimming in options you know. I knew I wouldn't be able to convince you to sleep with me again, so I had to improvise."
"Improvise?" Meliodas shouts out. "Does he even know he's the father of your baby?!"
Zaneri is quiet for a moment before looking down at her hands. "No. All I told him was to tell anyone he could that Elizabeth was a gold digger. And once I found out she was pregnant too; I just had to change the story to fit. I had to wait until I had a positive test to be sure my plan would work and get you back." She looks up with teary eyes and a few drops slip down her cheeks. "Watching you two together while I waited was the hardest time of my life, Meliodas. You have no idea the agony I was in."
Meliodas just bursts out laughing at the ridiculousness of the girl's words. "Agony? What about Elizabeth's agony!?"
The blonde man froze. "Oh, my goddesses. Elizabeth!" His face dropped and his knees buckled. "You said you lied about everything; her baby is…"
"That's part of what I was coming over to talk to you about." Ban whispers, Meliodas turns to look at his friend in confusion. "While you were blackout drunk at Elaine's baby shower," Meliodas winces at the reminder of his bad behavior. "Elizabeth and I had a… bit of a fight. And apparently, the girl is rich as hell."
"Wait what?" The blonde sits down trying to process what his friend just said.
"Yeah, and when I heard that, her being a gold digger just didn't add up you know, and get this! She thinks you bailed because she didn't tell you she was Bartra Liones daughter, then stood her ground that you were the baby's father before that fiancé of hers dragged her out of there." Ban continues catching up with his friend on the events his drunkenness excluded him from. Zaneri keeps her head down the entire time, already knowing the truth that was slipping from Ban's lips.
Meliodas shakes and feels his eyes start to water. "Elizabeth…"
The blonde hears his phone start to ring from his pocket and quickly pulls it out, hoping it's somehow the silver hair girl of his dreams.
Confused for a moment he realizes it's an unknown number. Debating with himself if he should answer it, he moves to ignore the call but his gut shouts out to him no.
Swiping to answer he brings a shaky hand to his ear. "Hello?"
"Hello, sir is this Meliodas?" A semi-familiar voice asks him.
"Yes?"
"My name is Dr. Melascula Faith, we briefly met a few months ago. I was wanting to talk to you about Elizabeth Liones, is now a good time?"
ARTHUR? Really Zaneri? Just why? And sorry if you guys didn't follow the Rh factor stuff, my college education coming in to prove itself useful for once I suppose lol.
Sorry I haven't been as update happy as I was, classes are killing me, and my first round of exams are coming up. I'm procrastinating studying Biology for you guys, so I hope you're happy.
This fic is coming to end soon if you haven't already noticed. Couple more chapters and we'll be at the conclusion. I have two ideas for my next fanfic and I'm wondering which would you guys prefer to read.
A full canon fic of how Meliodas and Elizabeth met and fell in love 3,000 years ago.
OR
A semi-AU fic of pre–Holy War Britannia involving alliances between the four major races.
I don't want to give too much of either concept away, but which sounds more interesting?
Until next time!