Chapter 3
Notes: Bear with me here, because it's about to get pretty AU. Also, sorry for the wait, RL got super busy for a while, there.
Nancy came to surrounded by darkness, she strained, trying to see through it, she wasn't alone, she could feel someone else there.
"Neil?"
"You're little boyfriend can't help you now, Nancy." A chillingly familiar voice said from somewhere in the darkness.
"Kruger! At least have the balls to show yourself!" Nancy cried into the darkness, her words didn't come out as confident as she would have liked.
Kruger appeared about three feet from her, he flashed her a gruesome smile as he tipped his hat to her.
"How'd you get to them, Kruger, tell me!" Nancy demanded.
"Oh you know ... like the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat." Freddy growled as slowly began to close the distance between them.
"Spill it, you son of a bitch!" Nancy demanded.
Then, suddenly she felt a pulling sensation, and a light appeared at the end of the dark place they were in.
"You'll find out soon enough." Freddy chuckled as Nancy found herself being yanked towards the bright light, as if by unseen hands.
"Miss Thompson, we are glad to have you back with us; everything is going to be okay. My name is Doctor Hammon, and you are in the hospital." An unfamiliar voice said.
Nancy immediately tried to sit up.
"Easy, there Miss Thompson, we don't want you fainting again." Doctor Hammon said as he and Neil helped her slowly swing her legs over the side of the hospital bed.
"What … what happened?" Nancy asked, her head still swimming.
"You passed out; not to worry my dear, feeling faint is quite common, you just need to be careful about moving, or standing too quickly. I am however, happy to inform you that everything seems to be normal so far, but I just want to run a few more tests just to be sure. Congratulations to you both." Doctor Hammon said with a warm smile.
"Congratulations ... ?" Nancy said as she and Neil shared a look of confusion.
"Why, yes, Miss Thompson, you're pregnant." Doctor Hammon said cheerfully, as though it should be the best news they had ever heard.
An uncomfortable silence fell between the three of them.
"Well, I will leave you for now, as it seems that you have some things to discuss." Doctor Hammon said as he excused himself.
"Pregnant?! Oh god!" Nancy said as she buried her face in her hands.
"Are you kidding?! That's great!" Neil said excitedly.
"Oh god how am I supposed to protect an innocent child when I can barely even protect myself!" Nancy said, her eyes shining with tears as she ran her hands through her long, thick hair.
"You're coming home with me, Nancy while we figure out what to do." Neil said, his expression told her this was not up for negation.
Nancy blew out a sigh. "Alright, let's go." She said flatly, she was too tired and stressed to argue about it, anyway.
Neil pulled into his driveway, his car's tires crunching softly on the gravel. He got out and hurried around to her side and helped her out.
"Neil, I'm pregnant, it's not like I have a terminal disease or anything." Nancy said dryly, attempting humor but she instantly regretted it when she saw the hurt flash across Neil's face.
"I'm sorry, Neil, I didn't mean it like that." She said as she put her hand in his and allowed him to help her out of his car and into the house.
"You just sit back and relax, I'll get dinner started." Neil said as he escorted her to the couch and made sure she sat down; as he turned back toward the kitchen Nancy grabbed ahold of his jacket and pulled him into a passionate kiss.
"God, Nancy … you're killing me here." he said as he sank down on the couch next to her and kissed her with equal passion, they only parted when the need for air finally became impossible to ignore.
"Nancy … we shouldn't be doing this." He said, his voice wavering as he barely held onto his resolve in wake of his desire for her … but as he reminded himself, it was desire that had gotten them into this mess to begin with.
Nancy smiled wryly at him as she put her hand on her stomach. "It's a little late for that, isn't it?"
"Well … I meant that we shouldn't … because of your … condition. Experts say that a woman should abstain from sex in the first few weeks of pregnancy." He said, blushing as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"You've been reading." Nancy said, smiling as a warm fuzzy feeling swelled inside of her; he was trying so hard to do the right thing.
"Neil, we aren't married or anything, you don't have any obligations to this." Nancy said, an indiscernible look crossed Neil's face for a split second before his expression hardened as he took her hands in his.
"I'm not sticking around simply because of obligation to this baby, although that is part of it, I'm staying because I want to. I have always put everything I had into my career, and the patients in my care. That didn't leave much time for a relationship so I guess I just … put the hope that I would ever have a family out of my mind. Then this happened … sure … it didn't happen in the conventional way, but that doesn't mean I regret it." He said, tears pricked the edges of Nancy's eyes as leaned forward and kissed him again, surprising him.
A growl rumbled deep within Neil's throat as his surprise quickly turned to desire and passion, he pulled her against him and returned her kiss with a passionate one of his own. He couldn't help himself, her love had been the lightning strike that had set his soul on fire, and now there was no putting it out.
"You are making me crazy, you know that?" He whispered, his voice husky with desire.
"Not any more than you do me." She replied as she kissed him again.
Neil could feel it again, the fire in his soul threatening to become an inferno again and he forced himself out of Nancy's embrace.
"Look … someone has to have some self-control here … and I guess that is going to have to be me." Neil said, a playful grin played about his mouth as he looked at his watch.
"It's getting late, I'd better start dinner anyway." He said as kissed her one final time, careful not to be ensnared by her spell again before excusing himself to the kitchen.
"Wow, Neil, this looks GREAT!" Nancy said as he pulled out her chair for her and they sat down to a wonderful dinner of spaghetti with homemade sauce and garlic bread.
"Well … when you've been a bachelor as long as I have, you pick up a few things; especially when you are a poor college student and you have to make food go further." He said with a dry laugh.
"Yeah, but poor didn't last very long for you before you wrote your first bestseller." Nancy pointed out as she took a bite of her spaghetti.
"Lucky first break." Neil said as he smiled bashfully.
"Neil I wish you could see what an asset your books have been to our field. " Nancy said as she put her hand over his.
"Enough shop talk, we haven't discussed names." He said.
"Names?" She echoed as she raised her eyebrow at him.
"Yes, names … for the baby." He said with a proud grin, Nancy laughed in spite of herself.
"We have nine months to think about that, you know." She said.
"True but nine months is going to go by faster than you realize." He replied.
"We don't even know if it's going to be a boy, or a girl yet, though." Nancy pointed out.
"We can make a list for both, then narrow it down as time goes." He replied as they finished up dinner.
"Here, let me help you wash the dishes." She said as she stood and gathered her plates.
"It's okay, I have a dishwasher." He said quickly.
"You still have to rinse them before you put them in, and it's the least I can do, you did everything else. Plus the pots you cooked the pasta and the sauce in are too big for the dishwasher, anyway, so I can wash those." She said as she stacked her plates and carried them to the kitchen.
"We're also going to have to make a list of what to buy, so we aren't scrambling for anything once the baby gets here." Neil was saying.
But Nancy wasn't listening; Neil's voice suddenly sounded like he was talking at her from the end of a long tunnel.
"What do you think?" he said as he turned to her just in time to catch her as she fainted, the plates she was holding slipped from her hands and shattered as they hit the kitchen's stone floor.
Nancy came to and sat bolt upright, her heart pounding in her ears. She found herself in a dark hospital room, wearing a gown.
The door to her room slowly opened and a small boy came in, he couldn't have been more than five years old.
"Hi." Nancy smiled at the boy, who smiled shyly in return.
"I'm Nancy, what's your name?"
"Atticus." The boys said.
"Atticus … I always liked that name." She said, a small silence fell between them.
"So, where's your mother?" The boy shrugged as his expression grew sad.
"I don't think my mother cares about me very much." He replied sadly.
"Oh, I'm sure that's not true." She said, suddenly, the lights in the hospital began to flicker, the boy looked all around him, his expression had turned to one of terror.
"We have to go!" He said as he darted out the door.
"No! wait!" She called after him, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and hopped off to follow him … but her feet didn't hit the floor, they kept going and she fell for what seemed like an eternity through an inky blackness before meeting rudely with a hard surface below.
She slowly stood on shaky legs and grimaced as rubbed her arm and shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the impact with the hard floor. She was once again clad in the clothes she had been wearing when she fainted.
She also had a feeling that she wasn't alone, but it wasn't a threatening presence. She smiled when the small boy appeared out of the shadows, still dressed in the same hospital gown he was wearing before.
"Where are we?" She asked him.
"In a place where he can't get us." He said, cold dread washed over Nancy, she knew the boy was talking about Kruger.
"What is this place?" She asked the boy.
"It's my safe place, but I won't be able to stay here much longer, soon I'll have to leave." He said.
"Why will you have to leave?" Nancy asked.
The boy shrugged. "I dunno, I just have to."
Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and the next thing Nancy knew, she was staring up at the ceiling of Neil's bedroom, she tried to sit up.
"Easy, Nancy, you don't want to faint again." he said as he helped her slowly sit up, she looked out the window and saw that it was dark outside.
"W … what time is it?" She said as she ran her hand through her hair.
"Just after midnight." Neil replied. Just then, the clouds moved off the full moon, bathing the entire room in eerie, pale light. Her heart broke as she saw the worry and the stress etched deep in Neil's face, making him look ten years older than he really was.
"I'm sorry Neil, I should've never brought you into this …"
"We already had this discussion, I'm here because want to be, remember?" He cut her off.
"No ... I meant ... I never should have gotten involved with you in the first place ... look at you, the stress, the worry, it's not good for you, and not you're stuck with me and this baby." She said as tears spilled down her cheeks.
"Hey, don't you worry about me, I'm tough, I can handle it." He said with a wink.
"Now, how about we try to get some shut eye?" He said, she snuggled against him and sighed in contentment as he wrapped his arms around her.
"I want you to know that despite everything that's happened, I don't regret this for a second. And I'm here for you and our baby, Nancy and I will protect both of you, with my life if it comes to that." He said as he kissed the top of her head and tightened his embrace around her.
Nancy didn't have to ask if he meant it, she knew he did … and that is what scared her.
