Charlie, Alan, and Larry sat in the hospital waiting room. Oddly enough, Charlie was the only one that had been cleared as not-injured from the encounter.
Early on, to prevent his father's panicking, Charlie had told his father that Don had only been shot in the shoulders, nowhere vital to life.
With Larry, his news was less promising. The older professor had been silent for half an hour when Charlie had confessed that Megan was suffering crushed legs and hadn't regained consciousness during the entire end of the fight.
Himself, he didn't know if he had any concerns. In the ambulance, he'd noticed two disturbing gashes on Amita's arm.
Alan sat there, twirling his thumbs and observing the two professors. Charlie had resorted to something very old. He had pulled out a pad of paper and began to work on various math problems. A few times, Alan had seen something resembling P vs. NP, and had taken the equations away for a minute. This had set Charlie pacing and Alan relinquished the paper.
An extremely young woman came out from the restricted area doors, "Dr. Eppes? Mr. Eppes?"
They looked at her in shock, "You're the doctor?"
She shook each of their hands, "Yes, I'm Dr. Matthews, a prodigy, not unlike yourself, Dr. Eppes. I'm working on all the FBI agents and Dr. Ramanujan."
"All of them?"
"Because of the circumstances and the FBI priority lists, yes."
"So, you're that good?" Alan asked.
She smiled, "I guess, but I do have some information for you regarding Don Eppes."
Both men leaned in, "Agent Eppes has had to undergo some minor surgery to remove the bullets, but everything went smoothly. The bullets didn't hit any bones, and we expect him to make a full recovery and return to work as soon as he's healed."
There was a pause while she flipped through her files, "Dr. Fleinhardt?"
"Yes?" Larry stood up and walked over to Dr. Matthews.
"Agent Reeves has listed you as one of her primary contacts, were you aware of that?"
"Yes."
"Agent Reeves is still in surgery at this point. She sustained multiple fractures in both legs and has a concussion. Now, we do expect her legs to fully heal, most the breaks were clean, but she's going to need to stay here for a few days for recovery and monitoring for her concussion. It will be quite some time before she can return to active duty, but I believe she can work in the office after she's in her cast and stabilized."
"So, she's okay?"
"Yes, brain waves are good, we expect no permanent damage. Are you able to help care for her when she leaves the hospital?"
"I'll do anything." Larry sighed in relief, and pressed his palms together, touching the tips of his fingers to his forehead. A characteristic sign of his joy.
"What about Amita?" Charlie asked, his look was desperate.
"Dr. Ramanujan appears to be physically fine. She is receiving stitches for the two cuts in her arm. Are you aware that she's pregnant?"
"Yes, I'm the father."
"That's what she told us, I just wanted to confirm that. Right now, we're running a bunch of tests to determine the health of the unborn child."
"Do you think everything's okay?"
"Well," Dr. Matthews rubbed the back of her neck, "About ten minutes after she was admitted, there was cause for concern when we noticed some bleeding."
"You think she might – "
"I don't have the latest results with me, but I fear that the stress of the encounter may have brought on a miscarriage."
Charlie looked down at the ground and rubbed his brow. He'd lost the ability to speak.
"Dr. Eppes, I have my two best doctors working to prevent it. Her care will be handled by me after she's stabilized and the bleeding stops."
Alan placed his hand on his son's shoulder, "I'm sure it'll be alright, Charlie."
"Would you like to come see your brother? Maybe it'll take your mind off things for awhile."
Charlie nodded dumbly and allowed himself to be led out of the room and down the hallway. Dr. Matthews led them to a recovery room, "I'm going to go check on the progress of Agent Reeves' surgery and Dr. Ramanujan."
"Hey dad!" Don was sitting up in bed; Colby and David were standing next to his hospital bed.
"Donnie, how are you?" Asked his father, walking over and patting his son on the knee. Alan would have normally patted the shoulder, but under the circumstances, it was not a good option.
"I've been better."
"Well, if this is the worst that happened, I'm glad."
"So am I."
Alan gestured to the two other agents, "What about you two? Didn't you guys get hurt?"
David grinned, "We're lucky, just got whacked on the back of the head."
"We have to stay with another agent tonight, just to make sure there are no lasting effects, and we're not supposed to work for a week."
"Have you guys heard anything about Amita and Megan?"
Larry actually took the reigns, "Megan's legs are broke, she's in surgery and they're going to keep her for a couple of days. The doctor said she should be okay though."
"What about Amita?" Don's questions continued.
"The doctor said that she started bleeding after she was admitted, and she might miscarry the baby." Charlie just looked off to the side.
Colby looked down, "I'm sorry."
His brother was similarly stunned, "Chuck, that's awful."
"Well, might, the doctor only said, might." Alan assured them all.
David and Colby looked at each other, "So, tell us what happened in there. No one's told us anything."
"What happened to Anderson and Davidson?"
Don and Charlie looked at each other, shocked, "No one told you?"
"We were out until the hospital, and the doctors didn't say anything."
With Alan and Larry listening in as well, Charlie and Don related the whole of the events in the warehouse.
Time passed rapidly, and two nurses wheeled a motionless form into the room. They went about the business of connecting machines and reattaching IV bags to the stands.
Larry perked up, "Megan!"
He went to her and held her hand. The nurse looked at him, "She won't wake up for at least forty five minutes, and it'll take a full hour before she's fully lucid enough to even know you're here."
Nodding, he tightened his grip on her hand, "I'll wait with her, if that's alright."
"Are you family?"
"She's my girlfriend."
Across the room, Alan raised his eyebrows. Larry and Megan had been dating informally for about a year, including their dedication over his space flight. Publicly though, neither had referred to the other in such terms. The sentiment was beyond endearing.
Fifteen more minutes passed, all of them with Charlie at the window, gazing out over L.A. Behind him, the door opened.
"Dr. Eppes?" There was no doubt that the voice belonged to Dr. Matthews.
"Yeah?"
"Can you take a walk with me?"
He turned finally, "Sure." As he passed by the agents and his father, he saw a serious look in all their eyes.
Out in the hallway, as he marched stoically alongside the young woman, he realized that she would have given him good news in front of everyone; especially as the potential uncle and grandfather were there.
"Where are we going?"
"I'm taking you to the maternity ward. Dr. Ramanujan was moved there after we stopped the bleeding for an ultrasound."
They jumped on an elevator with two nurses. Both of them seemed to know Dr. Matthews and they conversed happily for a few minutes.
Once the nurses jumped off, he turned to her, "How can you be so happy?"
"Your brother is an FBI agent; I assume he's detached emotionally? So are some doctors. I can't even drink yet, if I can't drown my sorrows in alcohol, I need to not be emotional."
"I wouldn't advise you to turn to alcohol. Can you please tell me something?"
The bell dinged, "Let's get to the room first."
They kept walking, down the hall. When they passed the large glass windows of the nursery, Charlie kept his eyes straight forward.
Stopping outside one of the doors, Matthews turned to him, "I have already informed Dr. Ramanujan of everything I'm about to tell you, so you don't need to feel like you need to break any news. Sometimes it's best if couples can grieve silently without having to say a word."
"Grieve?"
"It turns out that Dr. Ramanujan was pregnant with twins."
"Twins?"
"Yes," She paused, "The stress of the encounter, however, caused her to miscarry one of the twins."
"How could she have lost just one?"
"It has happened before, Dr. Eppes. In about half an hour, I'll come back to do another ultrasound to check on the remaining twin. So far though, it looks like the other baby is doing just fine."
"Is anyone else in there then?"
"I thought you two could use some time alone."
Charlie went inside faster than Matthews could take two steps away.
Amita was lying on the examination table. Her head was propped up with a hospital pillow, and her hands were placed protectively on her stomach.
"Hey." He said, walking toward her.
"Hey." She responded, holding out her closest hand to him.
Charlie sat down in the chair pulled up to the bed, gripping her hand.
"How do you feel?"
"I feel okay."
Tentatively, he raised his free hand toward her. She pulled her shirt back, revealing the bare skin, of her stomach. His palm fell square in the center, and lightly caressed the warm skin.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.
She sighed and leaned her head back, "What's there to say?"
"Amita, for what it's worth, I'm still really glad we have this one."
"So am I. I don't want to think about what would happen if we lost both of them."
"Let's not then."
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"Doctors?" Dr. Matthew walked back into the exam room, "How are you two?"
"I think we're good." Charlie smiled. His hand hadn't left Amita's stomach.
Grinning sympathetically, she walked over to the counter, "Okay, I'm going to do the follow up ultra sound."
She flipped on the equipment, placed the gel on Amita's abdomen, though Charlie's hand was loathe to leave it, and began to perform the ultrasound.
"Well, I believe that the baby must be three to four months along, appears to be doing well." She pointed to a small area on the screen. "There's your baby."
While Charlie and Amita admired the screen, another doctor walked in. Matthews nodded to her, "This is Dr. Wolfe, she's a specialist in OBGYN and a personal friend of mine. I've assigned her to take care of you."
Dr. Matthews left and Dr. Wolfe shook both their hands, "Have any ideas for names yet?"