A/N: Thanks for reading. Special thanks to ghost303 for reviewing the last chapter. Only the epilogue is left. Please review.
[continued]
Dr. Renner took a deep breath. "I've got some good news and some bad news," he said.
Randy braced himself; it had already passed midnight. "Give me the bad news first," he said. He didn't know what to expect. Was Liz dead? What would be the good news if she was dead? The baby couldn't have survived if Liz died. Randy's mind roamed until Dr. Renner spoke again.
"The bad news is that you won't be getting married today," he said.
Randy gasped tearfully. "What did you do?!" he asked angrily. He couldn't believe that he had lost his fiancé the day of their wedding.
"The good news is that both Liz and the fetus are fine," Dr. Renner said.
Randy looked up. "But you just said—"
"You won't be getting married today because Liz needs to rest; I don't think she'll be able to move around for at least a week," he said.
That was the best news Randy could have ever gotten; even though he wouldn't be getting married that day, Liz was okay and that's all that mattered. "Oh god. Thank you so much. What's the good news?" Randy asked.
Dr. Renner smiled. "The good news is that both she and the fetus are going to be fine," he said. "It took us a few hours, but they'll both be fine. I wish more of my patients had people who loved them as much as you love your family," he said.
Randy smiled. "They mean everything to me. When can I see her?" he asked.
The doctor paused to think. "She should be awake in about an hour; you can see her then," he said.
Randy nodded. "Thanks again, Doctor," he said as he shook the man's hand. The doctor nodded and walked off. Randy went back to Michael's room to see if he was awake yet. He smiled when he saw the first grader playing with some toys with Madison.
"Hey, buddy," he said with a smile.
Michael gasped. "Daddy!" he squealed. His sweet voice was even sweeter now that Randy knew that Michael was his biological son. He loved the small boy unconditionally, but the added fact that they shared DNA just made the relationship sweeter.
Randy joined Madison and Michael on the hospital bed. Madison smiled at the father. "I went to tell you that he was awake, but I saw you were asleep; I just assumed you'd be okay with me hanging out with this big boy for a while," she said.
Randy waved her off. "It's perfectly fine. Liz and the baby are doing good. The doctor said she'll be awake in an hour," Randy updated Liz's friend and OBGYN.
Madison smiled. "I'm so glad!" she said excitedly. "I'll leave you two alone," she said as she stood from the bed.
Randy smiled softly at her as a sign of thanks. When the OBGYN was gone, Randy took a deep breath and smiled at Michael. "How you feeling, buddy?" he asked the 6-year-old.
The child yawned. "I'm sleepy," he said.
The older Orton chuckled and removed the toys from the hospital bed. He tried to make Michael as comfortable as possible in the hospital sheets. "Okay. Mommy is sick like you, so I'm going to see her for a minute and then when you wake up, I'll be back," he said.
Michael nodded. "Good night, Daddy," he said.
Randy smiled. "Good night. I'll be back, okay?" he kissed Michael's forehead and left to find Liz's room.
When he made it to his destination, he sat in one of the recliners in the room. Since Liz was still sleeping, Randy tried to think of the easiest way to tell Liz that she couldn't get married in 10 hours like she had hoped.
In such deep thought, Randy fell asleep there, but he was awakened by Liz's voice.
"Randy…" she called out.
Randy yawned before he stood to stretch. Gingerly, he padded over to Liz's bed and kissed her forehead.
"What happened?" Liz asked her fiancé as she tried to sit up. The bandages and pain didn't allow her to move too much.
Randy took a deep breath. "We had a pretty bad car accident," he said.
Liz gasped. "Is everybody okay?" she asked anxiously.
He nodded. "The car is totaled, but no one was hurt too bad," Randy paused to collect the right words about Michael. "But um, Michael was a little hurt. Some metal from the car cut his leg and he bled pretty bad," he said as he sat on the edge of the hospital bed.
Liz was extremely worried. "Is he okay?!" she asked tearfully.
Randy nodded and stroked her hair to calm her down. "He's fine, babe. But he had to have a blood transfusion. The doctors took a sample from me and they said that I am an exact match to Michael; that I'm his biological father," he said.
Liz sighed and shook her head. To Randy, it was as if Liz had already known that fact.
He stood from the bed and shook his head; he tried not to be upset. "You knew, didn't you?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I didn't know for sure, but I sorta thought he could be yours. Bo brought it to my attention; I didn't see the reason to make a big deal about it," she said.
Randy frowned. "You didn't think to make a big deal about one of the 2 kids I know for a fact aren't mine?! The kid I thought was Wade's is really mine and you didn't think to share that tiny bit of information with me?!" he asked angrily.
"Please don't be mad at me, Randy. I didn't want to say anything and then turn out to be wrong. We were working so perfectly with you not knowing," she explained.
Randy groaned to release some of the anger that was building up inside. "You know what? I'm just going to go home and pack a bag for Michael. Do you need anything?" he asked.
She ignored his question. "Why are you so mad at me since you already knew before coming in here?" Liz asked
Randy scoffed in disbelieve. "You knew! You knew all of this before now and you didn't even tell me! So forgive me for being pissed off about it. We were supposed to be getting married today! You were willing to walk into a marriage with secrets and that kind of shit ain't okay!" he yelled at her.
"Don't scream at me, Randy," she said in a calm rage. "I haven't raised my voice at you; I don't need you screaming at me right now," she said.
He rolled his eyes. "So I'm just supposed to sit down and be calm after you kept this from me? Is that what you expect me to do?" he asked.
"I expect you to respect me enough to not yell at me in a hospital, Randy. I really expect you to treat me a lot better than this on the day we're getting married," she said.
Randy sighed. "You know what, Liz? I don't even think I'll be able to do marry you today. I came in here to tell you that the doctor thinks we should postpone the weeding for a few days so you can have time to rest, but after this bullshit, I don't think I'll marry you at all,"
With that, Randy left. Liz was left in shock; had Randy really broken up with her on her wedding day? The day she and he had planned to start the rest of their lives together had been ruined. Liz knew it was partially her fault, but she refused to accept all the blame; Randy's attitude may have played a part in the destruction, too.
With nothing better to do, Liz called up the few people who were invited to the wedding to tell them that it wasn't happening. Although the first few calls hurt, the more she repeated the developments, the more Liz hurt inside.
The elaborate wedding she had planned was going to waste; it wasn't the loss of money that upset Liz. It was the fact that she had looked forward to this day for almost a year and it was finally going to happen; but Randy had to go and take it all from her.
[later that day]
Liz eyed the clock; at around this time, she was supposed to be walking down the aisle towards the love of her life. She had started to cry when reality hit her: he was gone. Just an hour earlier, Randy brought her a few changes of clothes. They had a lengthy conversation about their future. Against Liz's opinion, they broke off the wedding and the relationship altogether.
Randy had also managed to tell Liz that she was pregnant again. Usually, Liz would have been devastated to learn the news, but she figured a new baby would give Randy incentive to stay; she was wrong.
Liz was all alone when there was a knock on the door; she was trying to sleep so she didn't respond. The door opened anyway.
"Liz?" Randy called out.
She sighed and rolled over to face him. "What?" she asked.
He took a deep breath and sat down in one of the chairs. "Michael's better. They're thinking about discharging him later this afternoon," he said.
Liz nodded. "Why are you doing this, Randy?" she asked quietly.
He sighed. "You lied to me, Liz," he said.
She shook her head. "I didn't lie to you, Randy. I didn't know for sure! I wasn't just going to tell you that sort of thing without knowing for sure," she said.
"It doesn't matter, Liz. You still could have told me that you were having second thoughts! It's like you didn't tell me because you wanted to keep it a secret. We can't go into a marriage with secrets like that," he explained.
Liz chuckled humorlessly. "Seriously, Randy? You want to talk about keeping secrets?! You didn't tell me about Nick! You didn't tell me that you were fucking Eva behind my back! You didn't even tell me how you felt about me until it was too late! I think I've earned the right to keep something to myself!" she said loudly.
He rolled his eyes. "Don't bring that shit up like that! You kept a child from me, Liz! The stuff I didn't tell you was to protect you! I don't even know why you didn't tell me about Michael. At least I had valid reasons for keeping you in the dark on some stuff," he said.
"You know what Randy? Fuck you. Fuck you and your hypocritical attitude. You kept more secrets from me that I would ever keep from you. If this petty little argument is your way of saying you never really wanted to marry me, I feel bad for you. You could just act like an adult and tell me the truth instead of blaming this on a six year old," she said tearfully.
He huffed and stood from the chair to leave. "I can't deal with you right now. We aren't getting married, Liz. I hate that it had to happen this way, but it's better now than later," with that, Randy stomped to the door.
Before he left, Randy turned to Liz who was still weeping softly. "Regardless of what happens between us, Liz, you'll always be my best friend," he said.
Liz didn't say anything; she just watched him walk out of the room and out of her life.
A/N: Well then… not all stories can have a happy ending. (I might post an alternate ending.) Up next is the epilogue.