I lay down on the couch, still feeling lightheaded, not sure why I still feel like this, but I hope the feeling will be gone soon. Johnny kneels next to the couch. He takes my hand and watches my face with deep worry. I turn my head a little and look at him with a little smile.
"You're worried."
"I am, I want you to feel good, and you're not feeling good."
"I'll be okay."
I lay my hand on his cheek, my thumb caressing his lower lip a little. He gives me his special smile. I never could imagine that in such a short time I became so attached to my boyfriend that I cannot live without him anymore. He leans in to give me a kiss. Dad lays his hand on my belly. I groan from an instant pain I feel in my belly. It feels like a knife is stabbed right there.
"That's not good."
I am getting scared. Is it my baby? I do hope not, I am finally used to the idea of becoming a mother, I do not want to lose it already. Then it feels like I am peeing. I start to cry, I do not want to get a miscarriage now. Please, God, please do not let it be a miscarriage.
"No, no, please, let this not be happening."
"You're bleeding, pumpkin, we need to get you to the hospital."
He moves his hand a little and I groan from pain again while I cry harder. Johnny tries to shush me while he starts to cry as well.
"Call an ambulance!"
Pops quickly calls 911, Max came inside right after Ron and Jamie. Everyone is getting worried about me now.
"I don't want to lose my baby."
"Shhh. Shhh. It's gonna be alright."
"I don't want to lose it."
Johnny grabs me in a hug while dad is making sure the bleeding stops. I press my face against the pit of his throat while I keep crying. I am not sure if I will be able to get over this if we lose our baby.
"They're on their way."
"Thanks, dad, could you guide the rest outside, let us give them some space."
Pops nods, and starts to guide everyone outside. Only mom, dad, and nana are staying inside. Nana stands at the door to look out for the ambulance. Dad sighs deeply as he watches us.
"Did something happen?"
"Only the situation with Penny."
"Baby?"
I look at dad and see his concern. I inhale deeply and think about what happened.
"Johnny saw Robbie attacking Penny, he quicky ran to the situation, making me twirl a little. It felt like motion sickness and started to throw up. After that I went to Penny and brought her in safety."
"Did you throw up again?"
"I few times, does that mean something, dad?"
I see dad standing up with a grunt and inhaling deeply, it is bad news, I am pretty sure of that because I can see it on his face.
"I think the stress caused this, there was a lot a stress going on in a very short period of time."
"It's a miscarriage, isn't it?"
"I can't say that for sure, but it looks like it. I need to do an echo."
More tears are flowing down my cheeks as I look at Johnny. I can see the tears in his eyes. He looks at me and I lay my hand on his cheek.
"Please, don't cry, sweetie, you need to be strong for me."
"It's hard, Baby, I don't want to lose our baby."
"Me neither."
"It's my fault, I wasn't careful enough."
"No, please, don't blame yourself, I don't want you to go down that road."
He looks down and sniffs, he rubs his nose. I grab him into a hug, and he starts to sob. The ambulance arrives, the nurses came inside and see me laying down. Then they see dad.
"Dr. Houseman, what's the status?"
"My daughter is bleeding, she's pregnant, I'm afraid she's having a miscarriage, I need to do an echo."
"Let's take her quickly to the hospital."
As I am laying on the hospital bed, watching dad turning on the echo machine. The bleeding has finally stopped when I got into the ambulance, but I do think it is too late now. Though, I still feel pregnant. Johnny is holding my hand as he sits next to the bed. He has not let go of it since we departed from Kellerman's.
"You think Lisa will be alright?"
I whispered it as I look at his face. He squeezes my have and inhales deeply.
"I hope so, I'm not sure what mom will do to her."
Dad turns to us, and I look at him. I see his face, he is worried, not only about me. It must be horrible for him, and for mom, one child is kidnapped and the other one lays in the hospital.
"Dad, are you okay?"
"I try to be, I want you to be alright, I want Lissy to be back with us."
"She will be back with us very soon."
Dad inhales deeply, then he gives Johnny a glance and pushes my shirt up. I helped him. I watch how he puts some lube on the censor, and lays it on my belly. The machine turns on, I watch dad looking at the screen as he moves the censor. I want to see the screen as well. It is turned so I just cannot see it.
"Dad?"
I ask after some minutes because he has been focusing on the screen while he moves the censor. Johnny moves a little and looks at the screen as well. I really want to see the screen too.
"I can see the embryo, but I can't say if it has a beating heart already, it's still early, but everything seems looks fine after all. I want you to get an echo after you get home from Kellerman's, it's to see if everything is really alright, and maybe we might hear the heartbeat then."
I inhale deeply and nod at dad. At least it is not a miscarriage, my baby is still there. But why did I had a bleeding then? I am really relieved to know that I still have my baby that I start to smile while tears are forming in my eyes again. How fast does a woman gets attached to her baby normally? Johnny looks at me with a smile, I can see he feels relieved too. Dad is smiling as he is watching us. Johnny gives me a kiss. I grab him into a hug and look at dad again.
"So, dad, it was the stress that made me have a bleeding? Or why does a bleeding happen?"
"Yes, and I really thought is was a miscarriage, but I want you to be careful, okay? I don't want you to do anything that can cause you any stress. Bleedings can happen for all sorts of reasons. I want you to try to stop thinking about it, take some good rest, and you should try to avoid getting stressed."
"Does that mean I can't do my job?"
"Baby, I rather not have you doing your job if that's giving you too much stress."
"But Amanda is still learning."
"Listen to your boyfriend, pumpkin."
I let out a deep breath and look at Johnny again. He leans in to give me a kiss. I look back at dad and see him nodding as he looks at the screen again.
"Can I see the screen, please?"
Dad smiles and turns the screen a little. I look at it and see a little black dot, it is not big, but it is there, it is not bigger than a peanut. Johnny smiles as he looks at the screen as well.
"I thought it would be bigger."
"It has the right size, seeing you're only four weeks."
"Thanks, dad."
"I can see how much you both want this, and to be honest, I'm starting to like the idea of becoming a grandfather."
My smile has grown an inch when I heard dad saying that. I am so happy to hear he has accepted our wishes and they way we want to live our lives. Johnny gives me a kiss on my cheek. I give the screen one more look before dad takes the censor away. Johnny helps him with cleaning my belly. He is so caring, I do not think I can fall deeper in love with him as I already am. I look back at dad.
"I'm sure the baby will be spoiled with you as its grandfather."
Dad chuckles about it as he looks at me. Johnny helps me to sit straight. I inhale deeply and lay my hands on my belly.
"You're alright, pumpkin?"
I nod and smile. I do not feel dizzy anymore, and no more motion sickness or light-headedness either. It feels better, but I am tired, I guess it is from all the stress. I want to be with Penny as well, I want to know if she is doing fine.
"Yes, I'm alright, can we go back to the resort? I want to be there for Penny."
"Baby, you need to rest."
I look at Johnny, but he helps me getting off the bed. A nurse came to us, and dad told her that everything is alright. She congratulated us on the pregnancy, and then went to look at another patient. I see Johnny taking his phone, and hear him calling for a taxi.
"I'm going to get you some water, pumpkin, you need to drink and take some good rest, okay? Your body needs to strengthen up a little after the blood loss."
"Okay, dad."
"You're going back with us, Jake?"
"Of course, but give me a moment, I need to do something first."
We nod and watch him walking away.
Nana and mom are sitting on the couch while pops is drinking some scotch. Ron is pacing and Jamie is sitting in a corner, silently watching everyone. Penny is watching Jamie while Billy went to get them all something to eat. Max eventually came back inside, they all look at him.
"Heard anything from Jake?"
"No, not yet."
"Could anyone explain why Robbie got arrested?"
Penny starts to shake when hearing the name. Ron quickly went to her, she grabs him into a hug. Max is watching them and starts to frown about Penny's reaction.
"Pen, you want to tell Max?"
Penny looks at Ron's face and then at Max again. She inhales deeply as she thinks. Then she nods, deciding it might be good if she could tell the whole story.
"Max, Penny will tell you the whole story."
"Where's Lissy?"
"We don't know, she needed to do something."
It was nana who answered the question, she found it the most appropriate answer she could think of. For she thinks that Max does not have to know everything that is going on. Max nods with a grunt and looks at Penny again.
Penny tells everyone the whole story about how she and Robbie met, how he went to the company to get dance lessons from her, how their romance started, how she thought it was something special, and eventually how he became really possessive, and very jealous, especially jealous of Johnny, eventually he started to control her. When she broke up with him and fled to Johnny, he became really obsessed and started to stalk her. He wanted to hurt her in any way that was possible.
She told Max about how he broke her leg and stabbed her, how Billy tried to protect her. Max is horrified as he listens to her story. Knowing he had hired such a man, and told him to romance girls at the resort, he cringes at his own thoughts, realizing that he had hired a predator, and unconsciously has brought many girls in danger while he thought that the son of the senator would be a good connection, it showed how bad his judgment about people truly is.
They all can see Max's expression.
"I'm so sorry for you, Penny."
"Don't be, Max."
She inhales deeply and gives him a nod.
"I'll do a better background check next time I hire waiters."
"And it would also be good not to tell them to romance girls at the resort, Max."
He looks at mom and sees her serious face. She sees his face changing. Mom needs to tell him this, if she did not had the chance now, she would have made a complaint at the main building about this, for they all find some of the waiters being very unprofessional.
"A few waiter and bust boys have been bothering Lissy and Amanda a lot, asking them for a threesome, or wanting them to have sex in front of them. It's disgusting, if you let these things happen, your resort will be closed down very soon, believe me. Your staff should not be mingling with the guests, just because you think it makes people to come back. It's very unprofessional, and it can lead to bad things happening."
Max did not like it that he got lectured, but he did not dare to go against mom, and also, he knows she is right. He remembers what I said to him when Johnny and I just had arrived. He starts to realize that Johnny has been a better employee than all the waiters he ever had. He looks at Penny and she can see his regret, and she knows exactly what got into his mind. Then she gives him a nod again, and he went away.
"I could tell he didn't liked your lecture, princess."
"I know, dad, but someone had to tell him."
"Baby told him too when they just arrived and had a meeting with him."
They look at Penny.
"Johnny told me about it, it made us chuckle because we know that Max doesn't really tolerate it when someone tells him the truth, or criticizes him, but he didn't dare to go against Baby either."
"He doesn't like it, I could see that, but I think he did listen, let's hope that he'll be thinking about this the next time he hires college boys as his waiters and bust boys."
The rest nods about what nana said who then looks at Jamie and starts to smile at him. He sees her and gives her a shy smile back.
"Jamie, boy, you haven't really said anything, are you okay?"
Jamie nods, but looks down. Ron went to him and laid his arm around Jamie's shoulder to take him closer to the rest. Jamie looks at him, Ron smiles at him. Nana grabs his face, making him to look at her, she sees his eyes.
"You've got the same eyes as your brother."
"T-Thanks."
Nana looks at pops and gives him a nod. Leo stands up and extends his hand, Jamie looks at it and then at Leo's smile. Ron nudges him a little, and Jamie carefully shakes hands with pops.
"Welcome to the family, boy."
"I'm sorta gonna adopt Jamie, even though he's officially an adult, I want him to live with me."
Jamie looks at Ron and his eyebrows went up in surprise. The rest is smiling about that. Even though Jamie is not from Ron's blood, Ron does feel like a father to him, and he does not want Jamie to be homeless again. Penny does start to frown as she thinks about something.
"Aren't you afraid he'll do something bad?"
"Jamie is not a bad person, Penny, he's just very easy to influence."
"You're going to get him some education?"
"We agreed that he's go to school, and he will move in, my house is huge and I'm alone there. His company would be good for me as it will be for him. Besides, Baby has offered him a job as janitor at her company, but he'll be working at my company as well."
Jamie turns and grabs Ron into a hug, who chuckles softly as he hugs him back.
"Baby made peace with me first."
Pops chuckles about it while he looks at his wife, and then at his daughter who are only smiling. He could have guess that I would be doing something like that.
"Typical Baby, but I'm happy to know you're on our side now, son."
Jamie looks at pops and gives him a smile. Billy came back with some food and they all start to eat.
About an hour later, I walk inside with dad and Johnny. Mom and nana quickly came to me, and I got crushed in their arms. I giggle softly as I hug them back.
"Is everything alright?"
Jake looks at pops and starts to smile. Johnny hugs his father and brother and then went to Penny and Billy for a hug. She smiles at him and sees how happy he is. He gives her a kiss on her cheek.
"Yes, dad thought it was a miscarriage, but he checked with an echo, and everything seems alright. When we get back home from Kellerman's we're going to get another echo, hopefully we will hear the heartbeat too."
"I'm glad to hear that, Baby."
I look at Penny and then at Billy, with a huge smile I went to them for a hug. I turn and went to pops to hug him as well.
"What about us?"
I look at Ron and Jamie, and giggle a little, I give them a hug and then went to Johnny, who takes me to the couch to sit down.