Trading Heartbeats
Chapter 26 - Misread
Amelia had woken up on a cold tiled floor in a long but narrow hallway that was lined with doors, wearing nothing but a white sheet that had been wrapped around her. She looked up at the ceiling that had been lit with fluorescent lights. If she was not mistaken, it looked as if it were some sort of hospital. "Hello," she called out in a panicky voice. Suddenly, she heard yelling from down the hallway. Amelia staggered to her feet and raced down toward the end of the hallway. This time, she'd heard screaming. "Hello," she cried once more. She stopped at the end of the hallway looking to her right and to her left thinking of where she should turn. Once more, she listened for any sign of life. She heard the screaming once more coming from a door directly to her left. Rushing into the door holding her sheet close to her, she stopped in the doorway.
What she had seen next had left her in utter shock and fright. In front of her, on the bed had been … herself wrapped in the exact same sheet she was wearing at the moment. Around herself, were doctors rushing and scribbling down on clipboards. She looked as if she were in great pain. Her face had been red and tear stained. She clutched onto the sheet she had been wrapped in as she watched the doctors huddle around herself. Craning her neck to see what they had been doing, she noticed that her legs had been spread open. "Okay, now, push, Amelia," a doctor said calmly. The Amelia on the bed did as the doctor instructed grabbing onto the sheets. "Keep pushing, Amelia," the doctors egged on. The Amelia on the bed complied once more and let out a slight groan as she did so. "One last time," the doctors spoke again. Then suddenly, in a few more moments of groaning, a doctor standing in front of the Amelia who had been watching made a movement and a crying so loud had erupted from the doctor's arms.
The Amelia who had been watching collapsed to the floor screaming. Pregnant? Delivery? A baby? No! She couldn't be! She absolutely couldn't be! No!
Suddenly two hands had gripped onto her arms and shook her a bit. "Amelia," the owner to the pair of hands said forcefully. Amelia opened her eyes to a confused and worried Cody. Her breathing was still heavy and her throat felt sore as if she were actually screaming. Tears flooded down onto her cheeks as she buried her face in Cody's bare chest. Cody stroked her back soothingly. "Amelia," he asked her in a hushed voice, "what's wrong?" Amelia's body was now trembling with the fear of being pregnant and the graphicness of her recent dream. Cody kicked the stopper off from the drain, allowing all the water in the tub to be sucked down. Reaching up, he managed to grab a towel off of the towel rack. Throwing it on her back, Cody wrapped his arms around her once more. Little did he know the cold hadn't been the source of Amelia's trembling. "Amelia," he whispered to her once more. "What's wrong," he asked again.
Amelia's crying hadn't ceased. The realness of the dream had borderline traumatized her. Cody rested his head on top of hers rubbing her back soothingly. After a few seconds, Amelia's crying hadn't stopped, but had calmed down. Now, able to at least utter a few words to him, she looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot. Cody used his thumb to wipe away any tears left on her cheeks. Amelia took a deep breath, or tried to at least, and finally spoke, "I-It was … m'dream." She buried her face in Cody's chest once more, her face now going red due to her inability to form proper sentences. Cody gave her a tight squeeze.
"Amelia," he whispered to her, "it's alright. Just calm down, love." He continued to rub her back. "You can tell me about the dream later if you want to, ok," he asked realizing Amelia was in no state to talk. Whatever her dream was, it sure had a way of affecting her greatly, Cody thought as he held Amelia in his arms. Minutes later, Amelia's breathing had stopped its franticness and had gone back to normal. Cody continued rubbing her back soothingly as he looked down at her, "Are you okay now?" Amelia looked back up at him and gave him a slight nod. With a sigh, she continued.
"I had a dream last night that … I was pregnant, and I was in labour," her eyes had begun to get watery once more. Her statement had left Cody in nothing more than what he had been feeling before - confusion. Pregnant, he thought to himself. It couldn't … would she know, he asked himself once more.
"Um, well … it-it was just a dream, wasn't it," he asked her, hoping he'd said the right thing. Amelia's gaze left his and focused themselves on the bathroom floor. She'd thought back to her constant dreams about Punk. She remembered telling herself that it was all just a dream, until … it had actually happened. She heaved a sigh. Perhaps Cody was right, maybe this dream was actually just a dream. Amelia looked up at him once more and gave one very unsure nod. Cody, sensing her uncertainty, suggested something else, "If you really think this dream is the real deal, then I could go get you those home pregnancy test things." Amelia withheld her breath. She'd already bought one for herself, two months ago after randomly suffering from what seemed like a severe case of nausea. Also, her menstrual cycles were off, and even though, Amelia knew she had irregular menstrual cycles, she'd only gone four months without her period one time before.
You went to a professional about the nausea, Amelia, she reminded herself, they didn't seem to think you were pregnant. Amelia nodded to herself trying to aspire some sort of confidence in herself. "Amelia," Cody's voice sounded once more. Amelia looked up at him. "The test? Do you want me to get you one," he asked once more. Amelia took a deep breath before shaking her head.
"No, I-I've already got one, actually," she relayed to him. Cody raised one eyebrow and gave a slight nod.
"Oh … a … alright then," he said in utter confusion. Had she already tried it? Was she pregnant? Was this dream just a way of breaking the news to him? What if she was pregnant? Think of your career, Cody! You worked so hard, and you're finally climbing up that ladder. You're young. You'll be in the spotlight. Do you really want a kid on your arm while you're doing that, he asked himself. Suddenly, a thought had occurred to him … what if it wasn't his? What if she were pregnant for Punk? Could it happen? Nonetheless, he continued, "And um … ha-have you checked?" Amelia shook her head. Cody let out a slight exhale. So, nothing was certain yet, he told himself.
"I-I will … right now, if you'll give me the time," she asked him. Cody gave a slight nod. Amelia got to her feet, tying the towel around her and throwing Cody a towel of his own. Once tying it around his waist, he rose up out of the tub and picked up his clothes off the floor proceeding outside to the bedroom. Amelia shut the bathroom door and looked at the drawer she'd kept the pregnancy test in. Heaving a sigh, she opened the drawer and removed the pregnancy test from the contents of its box.
Cody, now fully-clothed, sat himself outside on the bed waiting for Amelia to return with the results. He drummed his fingers on his knees as he stared fixedly at the bathroom door. His mind ran rampant with the thoughts that he'd pushed aside once before. What if she was pregnant? What would he do? What could he do? What if it's not his? He could feel his entire body tense up as a picture of a smirking Punk played in his mind. His hands had curled into a fist unconsciously. Cody could feel his heart pounding against his chest as he thought of raising a son that hadn't belonged to him, but … he didn't have to. He could … leave, couldn't he? All this had come as a shock for him, anyway. Maybe he really should've forgotten about Amelia. Just then, his thoughts had been interrupted by the opening of the bathroom door. Cody sprang up to his feet. He hadn't realized a whole 10 minutes had passed.
Amelia, still wrapped in her towel, walked herself over to Cody, who instinctively wrapped his arms around her. Cody held her closer to him. Amelia looked down at the pregnancy test in her hand. Cody's eyes followed hers. Only one line had been seen. Amelia looked up at Cody with a small smile. "I'm not pregnant," she whispered to him. Cody returned the small smile and kissed her forehead.
"I told you it was only a dream, love," he whispered to her. Amelia gave a nod, still smiling in relief. With Cody's grip loosening from around her, Amelia retreated back into the bathroom and disposed of the pregnancy test in the garbage. As she did so, however, something in her had felt strange. How was it possible to have one dream that had been completely visual come true, while the other that was just as visual not be? Then again, what were the odds of dreams coming true at all?
It was noon by the time Kofi and Sonelle had woken up. Sonelle blinked several times before her eyes opened themselves lazily. Kofi's had done the same. Sonelle looked up at Kofi, who had had his arm around her, with a gentle smile. Kofi, returning the smile, planted a kiss on her lips. "Good morning," he bade to her. Sonelle smiled and hugged him even tighter.
"Morning," she bade in return, rolling over onto him. Kofi gave a slight chuckle as he stroked her hair slowly.
"What's on the agenda for today," he asked scooting himself back so that his head rested against the head board now. Sonelle smiled and shrugged. All she really wanted was to be alone with him today. Kofi, feeling her shrug, smiled in return and whispered to her, "Me too." And with that, the half-awake couple drifted off to sleep once more in each other's arms, enjoying the simplicity of the moment, and the physical presence of one another.
"Justin," Brittany's voice rang out through the suite as she completely dressed herself and gathered up her purse from the bedroom. Justin, dressed in jeans and a clean, dark brown T-shirt, stepped through the doorway. Brittany gave him a small smile. "Are you ready? We have reservations, you know," she reminded him, referencing the lunch date that Justin had agreed to take her to. Justin gave her a nod and approached her, his arms locking themselves around her waist tightly. His lips moved into their usual smirk as he placed a kiss on her lips. With a small smirk playing on her own lips, Brittany kissed back. Although the kiss was rather slow, the passion was grand.
In a few moments, Brittany's and Justin's lips had slowly pulled away from one another's. Looking up into each other's eyes with their foreheads pressed against one another's, they shared a smile, and in this moment, all reservations, all thoughts, everything had been pushed aside, for right now all that mattered to either of them was each other.
Short planks of wood had been scattered all over the bedroom and there were paint stains on the carpet; a hammer and nails lay in the corner of the room next to an opened box which read 'Baby's First Crib'. Suddenly a shriek and a giggle erupted from outside of the bedroom door. Bustling through the door, Khaila ran inside, her cheeks with light pink stripes of paint across them. Khaila cowered into the corner of the room with a grin on her face, clutching a paintbrush with black paint on the tip of it. Just then, a man, with black stripes of paint painted across his shirt and face, clutching a paintbrush with light pink paint on the tip of it, had entered into the room, nearing Khaila with a devious grin. Khaila giggled and let out a slight shriek as he attempted to paint her face once more. Jabbing her paintbrush at him once more, she managed to catch his arm. The man chuckled a bit and swished the paintbrush at her once more. Khaila ducked it and sprung up out of the corner leaping onto the bed and then quickly into the bathroom closing the door and holding onto the handle. "Oh no, Khaila, you're not getting away," he said with a smirk on his lip-ringed lips. Khaila giggled as she crouched down and continued to hold onto the door handle.
Suddenly, she'd locked the door handle and quickly backed herself up against the bathtub, figuring Punk would find a way to get to her. As she had done so, however, a bag of toiletries had fallen out of one of the medicine cabinets that would open every now and again at even the slightest movement. The contents of the bag doubled out onto the floor. Khaila quickly picked them up one by one, until … she'd stumbled across an object that she hadn't seen since Punk had come back. It was her pregnancy test. She'd kept it all this time, and she'd planned on keeping it forever. It might've seemed a bit strange, but she saw it as something she could one day show her child … if she were having one. Looking closer at the pregnancy test, she'd only seen one line on the reader instead of the usual two.
Khaila double-checked the meanings of the number of lines on the back: two lines meant pregnant and one line … not pregnant. Khaila rose from her seat on the bathroom floor with the pregnancy test in her hand and her heart sinking. Opening the door, she stood in the doorway. Directly in front of her stood CM Punk who clutched his paintbrush readily in his hand; however, seeing the look on Khaila's face … he refrained. "What's wrong, Khaila," he asked dropping the paintbrush immediately and wrapping his arms around her. Khaila looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
"I'm not pregnant," she breathed, every word plummeting her heart even more. Although she'd never planned for a child so early in her life, she was finally getting used to the idea that Punk and herself would have some sort of life between them. Now, all that had gone.
Amelia had been doing her last minute chores around the apartment, cleaning up the kitchen, and arranging her closet and the living room. Busying herself around the bedroom, quiet not to wake a sleeping Cody, Amelia noiselessly pulled the drapes over the window giving the room a darkened sense once more. Having stacked up all the plates and organized the cupboards, she glanced around the apartment for anything else that might need her attention.
Finally, after realizing she might as well empty the garbage while she'd received this sudden and random burst of energy, she opened up a large garbage bag. After bundling up the garbage bags of the kitchen's and living room's, she tossed them into the large garbage bag. As she left the large garbage bag to sit on the kitchen floor, she proceeded back into the bedroom only to make her way into the bathroom. As she lifted up the bathroom's garbage bin, she noticed something strange about its only content. Reaching in, she grabbed hold of the pregnancy test she'd thrown in there earlier this morning. The only problem was that she didn't remember another line being on the reader.
Amelia's heartbeat quickened as she dropped the garbage bin that slammed harshly against the tiled bathroom floor. Her eyes fixed disbelievingly on the reading in front of her. Two lines? But there'd only been one this morning, she thought to herself frantically hoping it was all a dream. She could hear movement in the bedroom. Cody had woken up. Although she wanted to approach him and tell him to go back to bed, she couldn't move. She was frozen, almost petrified at the reading on the pregnancy test. "Amelia," Cody asked as he moved toward her frozen state. "Is everything alright-" he stopped himself, noticing she'd possessed the pregnancy test in her hands. Cody's heart had begun to beat faster.
Placing both hands on either sides of Amelia's arms, he looked at her face searching for some clue as to what had happened and why she'd held the pregnancy test. Amelia's eyes, which were now drowned in tears, looked up at his in utter shock. As she turned the pregnancy test around, showing him the results, Cody's eyes wandered down focusing on it, reading it for himself. Cody looked up at Amelia, whose cheeks had been wet with tears, subliminally asking if the reading meant what he'd thought it had. Amelia nodded slowly, having read the question right off of his face. Cody wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. Amelia's body trembled as her crying had gotten worse. Cody rubbed her back and rested his head on top of hers. The couple stayed there in the bathroom without a word coming from either of them. The only sound between them was the crying that had been brought on by Amelia.
Minutes passed, but neither of them moved - both too shocked to think of anything else but the reading on the once misread pregnancy test.