"Tom!"
"Andy!?" Tom exclaimed as he was tackle-hugged by his best friend. "Uh, not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?"
"Dude, I hightailed it out here as soon as I got off the phone with you," Andy said, recalling how distraught his friend sounded in their phone conversation. "Holy shit, are you okay? Is she okay?"
Tom gave him a weary smile. "Y-yeah. She's doing better now." Before Harper had woken up, Tom called Andy and frantically recounted the events of the past night to him. Andy left for Pine Springs as fast as he could so he could be there for them. That was his best friend and his family! Andy gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder, and Tom led him to the room Harper was in, where she was currently resting. She turned her head and gave Andy a weak smile upon seeing him.
"Hey, Andy," she said as she wrapped her arms softly around his neck when he leaned in to hug her. "It's good to see you again. Although I wish it was under better circumstances."
"Same," he replied. "Tom told me what happened, and I came here because I was worried about you guys. I'm glad the baby's okay. How are you feeling?"
"I'm better now, but still kinda weak," Harper said. "They want me to stay here for a while in case something happens again. How's school going?"
Andy's face broke into a huge grin and he glanced over at Tom. "Oh man, we have some catching up to do."
The three of them spent the rest of the day talking, laughing, and exchanging stories, and debated on the baby's gender and who they will look like. Having their friend around for the day eased much of the young couple's stress.
"Good luck, and keep me updated, man," Andy told Tom as he was about to head back to Westchester. "I seriously can't wait to hold Mini Tom."
"Will do," Tom said, chuckling.
"Bro hug?"
"Bro hug."
Harper spent the rest of the week at the hospital, slowly gaining back her lost blood supply and strengthening her body again. Tom virtually didn't leave her side, only leaving to go home and clean up before returning. At one point, one of the nurses got annoyed with his constant presence, although Harper didn't mind it one bit, and so the nurse shooed him off, telling him to go get at least one night of proper rest. Harper, although enjoying his company, agreed he should - he had been sleeping in broken periods upon constantly staying with her, and by the fifth day there, he looked as rugged and broken down as she once had.
Tom left reluctantly, but not without a verbal fight and having to be escorted out by Arthur. Arthur assured him that everything would be okay, but couldn't blame his apprehension. There was nothing preventing the same accident from happening again, but if it did, the consequences would surely be graver than the first time. And so Danni, Imogen, Parker, Arthur, and Elliot all took turns checking on Harper, allowing Tom a much-deserved night of full, undisturbed slumber.
The next week, Harper returned home, never happier to see the sun directly. Tom became more protective of her, insisting that he do things around the house that she normally could do herself. She acted annoyed by this, but she secretly loved it. Although the fact that he no longer let her come with him on calls bummed her out.
At one point that Harper couldn't point out directly, Tom started to act oddly, avoiding her or making up lame excuses to leave her be, acting flustered and concealed when in her presence. Harper's unrealistic emotions caused for her to get angry at his leaving her, but he could easily cease her yelling with a simple touch and kiss, calming the young pregnant woman.
His blocked off, awkward behavior continued on when he asked her to go out with him one evening. While she was annoyed by it, as the evening continued on, it lessened and he relaxed (but he still remained a little tense) and she began to find it adorable and endearing. Eventually, they branched off from the restaurant they had been having dinner at and found themselves walking along Lakeview Boulevard.
Harper wanted to hold hands with him, but every time she reached for one, he would pull away and place the hand in his pants pocket. After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to grasp at his fingers, Harper stopped and turned to him, emotions and hormones flaring.
"What's your problem?" she asked him in a harsh tone.
Tom turned to her, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants for the umpteenth time that night nervously. Surprised by her words, he opened his mouth to answer, but she didn't allow him to as her emotions flew out of control and she started to rant.
"I don't get you, Tom!" she went on and on, and he stepped back. After dealing with quite a few of these hysterical emotional fits over the past few months, he knew it was better to just let her run her mouth off and tire herself out or let her own body get its chemicals back in balance before speaking to her. She carried on and on about things not relevant to the situation at hand, and after several minutes of bombing him with barrages of words, did Tom pull her down on of the many piers overlooking the lake.
"Harper," he squeezed her hands, which were resting in his. Harper looked up at him with questioning, still slightly annoyed irises, quirking her eyebrow up. He looked around - anywhere but her - before taking one of his hands and brushing it through his hair nervously. Next, his hand traveled to his pocket, where a little box sat.
Harper watched, getting over her childish anger and beginning to become worried about his current, overly quiet demeanor. "Tom?" she brought her hand up to his cheek and touched at it gently. "What's wrong?"
Fumbling with the object in his pocket, Tom started at the sound of her soft voice in his ear, turning his distracted thoughts back to the woman in front of him. Breathing in deeply, he caught her confused gaze and gathered all the courage he could, beginning his extremely practiced speech, but finding himself forgetting phrases and words left, right, and center.
"Harper," he began, wrapping one arm around her and pulling her close to him - as close as possible, considering her protruding stomach. "We've been together for a while now - we've loved each other for a while. And now - soon - we'll be starting a family together - we'll be parents. I, uh-h-" He forgot his words, then remembered them to the best of his ability and continued, "And every day, I think to myself how lucky I am to have you in my life. What did I do to earn you, Harper? I honestly don't know, but I won't argue with whatever brought you to me because now that we're here, together, I plan on protecting and doing everything I can to keep you by my side."
"Harper...that night...i-it made me realize how much you mean to me, and I know I should have done this sooner, but I was just so scared that you'd say no, and I-"
Tom was rambling, Harper knew, but she didn't interrupt him. She could see something glowing in his eyes that signified that all this talk could culminate in something staggering. As he continued to speak, she became nervous for some reason and to distract herself, she put her hands on her stomach and played with the fabric splayed over it, but still held eye contact.
"B-basically, Harper, I-I love you, you know that, an-and-" He took one of his hands and dug into his pocket, and Harper's heart stopped. Kneeling down slowly, he revealed the gorgeous, silver, glittering band to the pregnant woman, and indescribable emotions swept over her. "Harper, will you marry me?"
For a few minutes, no words were exchanged, no movements made. The moment was suspended in air, and Tom waited eagerly, impatiently for her response, unfaltering, unmoving, damn near not breathing.
Swallowing to wet her suddenly dry throat, her mind and heart racing a mile a minute, Harper regained her wits and nodded, slowly at first, then quickly as the question sunk in and a smile extended over her face, her cheeks flushed rosily.
A wide, bright smile like none other spread across Tom's face, and he shot up quickly, slipping the ring on her finger and wrapping his arms around her. Placing a sweet kiss on her lips before she could say anything, such elation had flooded through him that he thought he was floating for a second, before coming back to reality.
When he pulled back to study Harper's expression, with a jolt, he noticed she was crying.
"H-Harper," he started, placing a hand on her cheek to wipe away the tears. She brought her hand to rest atop his.
Sniffling, she raised her head and peered at him, eyes half-lidded. With a smile, she said, "How did I end up with a guy like you?"
"I could ask you the same thing - how the hell did I manage to snag you, Harper?" At that, he repeated his question from earlier, now that their minds were clearer. "So, you'll marry me?"
"Yes, Tom! Come here, you cheeseball!" she laughed, planting a firm kiss on his lips.
Tom had never loved another word in the English language more then, and feeling it surge through his veins once again, he wrapped his arms around her to the best of his ability, kissing her passionately. Harper easily fell into the kiss, having not been in a lip lock like it for a while.
Tom jumped in surprise when he felt a strong kick in his abdomen, sending him back. He blinked at his new fiancee's stomach, and they exchanged grins and laughed.