Nya and Skylor groaned as they both lay boneless over the couch. They had been up late last night going over Skylor's restaurant business until they realized how late it had gotten, but they were too tired to crawl back to bed. When Jay and Kai, the former limping slightly, walked into the living room they laughed at the sight of the two girls sprawled out on the couch, looking like a couple of wild humans. Jay had injured his ankle when he helped Cole and Zane carrying the rest of the baby things up the stairs.
It was swollen, but luckily it wasn't broken.
"I can't believe you two stayed up 'til four last night." Jay giggled as they snorted awake. Kai burst out laughing as if he had just heard the world's greatest joke as they tried to make themselves look decent.
"Piss off you pregnant bastard," Nya growled at her brother, but Kai knew she didn't mean it.
"You heading out?" Skylor yawned when she saw them both grabbing their coats.
"Yep, we thought we would head to the mall and look for something for Cole's birthday, then we're heading to the hospital so the doc can check Jay's ankle," Kai replied.
"How many times do I have to say it? I'll be fine in a few days." Jay whined, only to stop complaining when Kai shot him a glare. The brunette didn't have to accompany him, but he wanted to make sure Jay actually went to the hospital and he just wanted to spend some time with one of his boyfriends, even if it was on another trip to the hospital. When he was sure his boyfriend wasn't going to argue with him about it anymore, he smiled at the girls.
"Zane's probably got a list waiting, we just need to know what's on it."
"It'd be easier to know what's not on it." Jay sighed in frustration. "Apparently Lou called last night and he told Zane that he was giving Cole an electric car, so we need something that can top that."
"Bit over the top ain't it?" Nya asked.
"His dad likes to spoil him, Cole being his only child and all." Jay shrugged, only for his face to fall in sadness. "Even though they almost never see each other."...
Jay tried to stop himself from gagging as he watched Kai stuff his face with a chicken sandwich dunked in custard they had gotten from the hospital cafeteria. Jay didn't understand Kai's pregnancy cravings. One minute he was throwing up at the smell of meat, the next he almost had a meltdown if he didn't have meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The people working in the cafeteria had given the brunette odd looks when he placed his order.
But luckily they saw his bump and knew better than to say something.
Unfortunately, the people in the waiting room weren't so considerate. Out of the corner of his eyes, Jay could see them gesturing over to them and snickering or gagging. One entitled mother turned her nose up at them and was about to say something, but one sharp glare from Jay quickly shut her up. Thankfully Kai was too busy with his food to notice anything happening around him. As the minutes turned into an hour of waiting, Kai was starting to get impatient.
He was about to say something to a nurse when he noticed Misako walking past.
He called to get her attention and she approached the couple. Jay's eyes narrowed when he saw her, thinking she looked familiar but he couldn't remember from where.
"Oh hello again, this is starting to get ridiculous." She laughed lightly.
"Yeah." Kai agreed.
"I hope you are aware that there are more fun places to hang out?" She joked lightly. "Especially with your condition."
"I'll bear that in mind." Kai smiled and she nodded before saying goodbye and walking away.
"Who's that?" Jay asked as he watched her disappear.
"Just some woman I've been talking to for the last few weeks, I think she's got a sick friend here or something." He shrugged. "She seems nice and gave me her phone number in case I ever just wanted to talk about baby things."
"She looks familiar." He said out loud, more to himself than anything.
"You've probably seen her around here before, seems she a permanent fixture here." Kai laughed and Jay hummed in thought...
After another half hour of waiting, Jay was finally called in, but Kai wasn't allowed to go in with him. Jay thought he was going to cause a scene, but Kai just shrugged it off and said that he would go back down to the cafeteria and get some more food. Jay had to try and hide his shiver of disgust at the thought of whatever horrible, almost inedible combination Kai would come up with in the time it would take for him to get his ankle checked out.
Kai promised to come back to the waiting room after he got his food.
After a quick kiss, the couple parted ways and Kai all but ran to the cafeteria. He quickly ordered a pickle, egg, and chicken sandwich with ketchup and mayo. The lady making it looked as green as the pickles as she handed him the unique food. He paid and was about to head back when he saw Misako sat alone at a table with an apple. When she saw Kai, she smiled and offered him a seat, which he gratefully accepted.
"How's your friend?" She asked with a kind, yet concerned voice.
"He's my boyfriend and he's fine, just pulled something in his ankle."
"Is he the father?" She asked and Kai froze, not sure what to say.
"No... the father is... it's complicated."
"It's alright, you don't have to explain yourself to me." She assured him. "Is he supporting you through your pregnancy?"
"Yeah, so are Cole, Zane, my sister, and my best friend."
"That's nice to hear, it's important to have a good support circle around you." She smiled but it fell slightly. "I wish I had that when I had my son." "He lost his father when he was young and I only had one friend to help me, a woman who I met at the local daycare."
"Is that the friend who you're seeing here?"
"Yes, she was my only friend back then, people weren't exactly supportive of single mothers no matter the circumstances."
"If you don't mind me asking... how did your kid lose his dad?" He asked, but instantly regretted it, thinking he had overstepped the mark.
"He contracted a terrible disease and died." She sighed sadly.
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, it wasn't your fault and even though we weren't together when he passed, I knew he loved our son and his death had a large impact."
"I know the feeling, we lost our parents a few years ago," Kai replied and her eyes widened in shock. "We might have been teenagers, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt." He added as he felt his eyes burned with tears. He tried to stop them, but he started sobbing as the rivers of tears flowed from his amber orbs. Before Kai knew what was happening, Misako suddenly wrapped her arms around him, pressing his face into her shoulder.
"Just let it all out dear, crying is a healthy thing, not something that you should be ashamed of." She soothed as she rubbed circles into his back. They sat like that for a few minutes until Kai gathered his bearings and pulled out of the hug, wiping his red eyes. After quickly blowing his nose, he looked at the time and winced when he realized how long he had been with her.
"Thanks, I-I should be getting back." He smiled and they said goodbyes as Kai left. He sighed happily as he rubbed his belly and thought about the future with his family and his baby, his little girl. Just as he was about to turn the corner that would take him back to the waiting room, he noticed some nurses and doctors franticly running along a hospital bed as they talked about the patient. Kai stepped out of the way to let them past, but his eyes widened when he saw the familiar black hair with a faded green streak.
As they passed him, Kai gasped when he saw that Morro was having a small seizure.
Wendy was by her son's side, but she was some focused on Morro she didn't notice Kai as she pushed past the brunette.
"His GCS is three, we have intubated him, and he needs an urgent CT scan!" One of the doctors shouted to her colleagues as they vanished down the hallway. Kai stood there in shock for a second before his legs started to move on their own. They weren't taking him back to the waiting room, however. They were making him follow the doctors down the hall until he found Wendy anxiously pacing around outside one of the surgery rooms. She looked more scared than anyone Kai had ever seen.
He stayed just around the corner, close enough to hear what was going on but out of Wendy's sight.
Almost an hour later, one of the doctors walked out to talk to Wendy about Morro's condition.
"What's happening?" Wendy asked desperately.
"I'm afraid Morro suffered a very traumatic bleed to his brain." The doctor replied, her face turning grim as she thought about her next words carefully. "Despite our best efforts to help him... I'm very sorry to have to tell you your son died before we could get him into surgery." She explained and it was like a switch was flipped inside Kai and Wendy.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Wendy howled and shrieked, sounding more like a dying animal than any human sound, as she sank to the cold floor and wailed so loud the entire hospital might have heard her. Despite being so close to her, Kai couldn't hear her cries for her dead son. Everything turned grey and numb and all sounds faded into a dull ringing as the news registered in his mind. Morro, his rapist, the father of his daughter, was now dead...
"He's got brown hair and amber eyes, and he six months pregnant! How hard is it to find him?!" Nya shouted into the phone to the police about missing brother. Everything had been going alright until she suddenly got a call from Jay, crying that he had lost Kai somewhere in the hospital. He said that he had searched everywhere for Kai and called his phone, but there was no answer. He called the apartment, hoping Kai had gotten bored and had gone home.
Everyone descended into a blind panic when they realized Kai was missing.
Cole and Zane said they would start driving around the city, Jay would search the area around the hospital, and the girls would stay at the apartment in case Kai came back. Skylor nervously chewed on her nails as she thought about all the places Kai could be. She was about to get up and search his usual hangouts when the front door suddenly opened. She looked up and gasped when she saw Kai walked into the apartment. Despite having a blank expression, the tear tracks on his cheeks showed her that he had been crying.
Skylor looked over at her girlfriend but saw she was still screaming at some poor 911 operator, her back towards them.
"Nya!" She shouted and the noirette jumped slightly, turning around to see her brother hanging his coat up like nothing was wrong.
"Where the fuck have you been you son of a bitch?! Jay said you disappeared, we've been going crazy here!" He screeched at her big brother, only to freeze when she saw the distressed look on the brunette's face. "Hey, are you alright?" She asked in a much gentler tone.
"Um, not really no." He muttered, a thick lump in his throat as he looked ready to cry again.
"Well, what's wrong?" Skylor asked.
"It's Morro, he died." He sniffed as tears started rolling down his face. "I saw him at the hospital and he was having this seizure and I heard one of the doctors say that... about a bleed on his brain." He sobbed as he suddenly leaned forward and sobbed as Nya instinctively hugged him, sharing a worried look with Skylor over his shoulder...