Chapter 11

When I woke up, it was because Amber had rolled out of bed and was running into the bathroom. I could hear her vomiting. I walked in after her. She flushed the toilet as I walked in and turned to look up at me, her body going limp against the bathtub. I knelt down behind her.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so…" she said. Her voice was unintentionally quiet. I looked at the little row of silver staples peeking out through her hair and thought about concussions, ones that I'd suffered before. One of the symptoms was vomiting.

"Is your head okay?"

Her hand reached up and gingerly touched one of the staples. She winced. "It hurts. And I'm feeling a little dizzy."

I kissed her forehead. "You worry me. C'mon, come to the hospital. I want to make sure you're okay."

"But Kane-" she protested.

I interrupted her. "It's better safe than sorry, Amber. And I really care about you. So c'mon."

She started pushing herself off the floor as I walked into the other room to get some clothes for her and for myself. I heard her vomiting again and walked into the bathroom. I rubbed her back, feeling pain of seeing her that way. I wished that I were the one in pain. When her heaving had stopped I placed my hands on her shoulders and willed her to stand. "I'm okay, I really am," she kept saying to me.

"But I'm not going to take any chances," was my reply. I pulled on some jeans and a shirt and didn't bother with a mask as I brought her out, in the same rumpled clothes that she'd worn the day before and slept in.

We took the elevator downstairs, and I told her to wait in the front as I got the car for her. I saw Ron in the garage and told him that if we were late to tell Vince that I had brought Amber to the hospital.

When I picked up Amber at the front she laughed and told me that I was too sweet. I brought her to the hospital, into the emergency room where their memories were enough to remember us from the night before. They brought her into an examination room, where they looked at her eyes and did all the same tests that they'd done the night before. I waited patiently as all of this went on, and after about two hours they assured us that nothing was wrong, that the vomiting may have been something that she'd eaten or a strange effect to the drugs they'd given her. So we went back to the hotel. Mark was waiting outside our room, sitting in one of the little decorative chairs that were around little tables that they'd put in hallways. A brown paper bag was in his lap, and he grabbed it and stood.

Amber looked at him, slightly drowsy.

He smiled. "You guys went through all that trouble for no reason," he said. He handed Amber the bag. "This is the only test you need to take."

As I opened the door to the room she looked down into the bag and then up to Mark with a confused frown. She shrugged and pushed past me into the bathroom. I invited Mark in and started packing our clothes, which the hotel cleaning service had folded and left on the made beds. Mark sat down on one of them and looked at me. He was grinning. I rolled my eyes.

"Why are you staring at me?" I asked him. He looked away for moment and then back at me, his grin widening into a smile.

"A few things actually," he pushed a hand through his hair. "Overall I'm just really happy for you."

I heard a scream from the bathroom. She ran into the room, jumping up and down. "Kane, Kane!" she screeched. She threw her arms around me. I saw the little home pregnancy test in her hand. "We're gonna have a baby!"