Rebecca Hillary . net

The walls of the med centre were completely unlike any hospital or sick bay that you would normally see. Instead of surgical white, the walls were the color of lemon sorbet, and the linoleum-tiled floor was an icy blue. The logic of this, put simply, was that if you’re on holiday and you get sick, the last thing you want is to be recuperating in a place that looks like any old hospital back home.
Miro was laid on a bed in the centre of the main sick bay, his skin looking even paler against the crisp, cold colors of the room. The bright lights made every line on every face more prominent.
Abby looked across the room at Dan. Every speck or grey in his hair blazed with reflected light, and he looked exhausted. She wanted more than anything to go to him and comfort him, but she had to bide her time. When she forced Bailey to make her confession, she had no way of telling what his reaction would be, so it was only prudent to be as far away as possible in case the worst should happen. Donna stood beside her and squeezed her hand. Abby squeezed back, and turned to face her friend.
‘Are you sure you are going to go through with this?’ Donna’s eyes asked, and Abby answered with a barely noticeable nod of her head.
They watched and waited as the drip ran slowly into Miro’s arm. His eyelids fluttered and Donna made a move to rush forward. Abby grabbed her by the arm and held her back. “You can’t.” She whispered, “We need to make sure the drip is having an effect, and that’s impossible when you’re too close to him.”
“I can’t stand this.” Donna whispered back. “I need to know that he’s ok. Isn’t stress supposed to be bad for you when you’re pregnant?”
“Yes. That’s why you’ve got to be calm.”
“How can you stand it? I know you’ve got to be stressed too, but you aren’t showing a thing. You don’t seem human sometimes.”
“I have to be calm. If I let anything get to me then I can’t do what I have to do, and if I can’t do that then that evil conniving cow will have won, and we don’t want that, do we?”
“That is a very good point!” Donna grinned. It was hard to believe that just a few hours ago she had thought that she and Bailey could have been friends, but after seeing what she tried to do to Abby and Dan, there was no way in Hell or on Earth that she would make friends with someone so twisted and cruel.
Miro’s eyes opened slowly, and somebody gasped. Looking around, Abby noticed that it was Dan. She found it rather comforting to know that he was feeling her anguish, but also realized that it was probably because Miro was the best barman that the hotel employed, and they were friends after all.
Doctor Blake checked him over, and announced that the worst was passed. Slowly, Donna moved forward, but instead of trying to hold her back, Abby was at her side. They stationed themselves on either side of the bed, and Abby took Miro’s hand. This time when she wrapped her fingers around his, Miro gripped it right back. As he did so, the sleeve of his hospital gown slipped down and several deep gashes showed on his forearm. Abby winced, and Miro looked at her with an expression of the most sincere shame he could manage.
“I’m so sorry, babe.” He uttered, his voice dry and light. “I thought I had it under control, but then we were stuck here with no way of getting out, and it was like being in the psychiatric hospital all over again. Can you forgive me?”
“Of course I can. We’ll get you help. You have a good reason to stay alive now, don’t you?” Abby gestured with her head, and Miro looked across to Donna.
“Donna, I…”
“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. Just concentrate on getting better, ok.”
“You gave us quite a scare there, Miroslav.” Dan said from the end of the bed. It was strange to hear anyone using Miro’s full name, and it must have had an effect on Miro himself, because he twisted his head uncomfortably to look Dan in the face.
“Mr. Levine, I’m sorry. I’ve been a right royal prat. Give me a second chance, please. I’ll…”
“Whoa, hold on there. You haven’t used up your first chance yet.” Dan smiled, moving round the side of the bed to stand by Abby. “And I think it’s time that you started calling me Dan, seeing as we’re going to be family soon.” He took Abby’s hand and she smiled at him.
“What? You mean you’re getting married?” Miro laughed weakly. In all the confusion of the day, it had completely slipped Abby’s mind to even consider telling her brother and her best friend that she was actually engaged.
“What did I tell you about secrets?” Donna squealed. “Come on, let’s see the rock.”
Abby laughed, and Dan shuffled nervously as he admitted, “I haven’t actually got round to that bit yet. It was sort of surreal, actually, I kind of asked her over the phone.” He was so cute when he was embarrassed.
There was a sarcastic laugh from the corner of the room, and everybody turned to see Bailey standing there with a clipboard and a smug look on her face. “Well, isn’t that just like my uncle… what do you call yourself these days, ‘Dan’, isn’t it?”
“Was there something you wanted, Bailey?” Dan asked.
“Uh, yes, actually.” Bailey said, striding across the room, her long legs carrying her quicker than a human should move. “We have the results back of the blood tests.” She shot a knowing look at Abby, who responded by vacantly scratching the top of her ear.
“Well?” Dan demanded, obviously annoyed by her sudden arrogant streak.
“Well, Miroslav, as you know, has TSS. He is also slightly anemic, and there were traces of certain steroid drugs.” She looked down at the clipboard, “Next is Devon, who I see isn’t here. All tests came back negative, but we are running an HIV test to be on the safe side. Donna is pregnant and her lymphocyte count is slightly low.” She gave Abby another sly look and continued. “Abby, now hat can we say about Abby? She’s full of surprises, this one.”
“Get on with it, Bailey.” Dan warned. “If there’s anything wrong, I want to know.”
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong, per se. She’s anemic, but I believe that was in her records when she was employed here. You already knew that I would imagine. Oh, and there’s the little fact of her being pregnant that you should probably be aware of.”
Dan took a second to let the words filter into his brain, and he turned to Abby, who just looked at him with a plain expression. There was something in that expression that made Dan take extra notice. There was no panic, no jubilation; none of the emotions that one would normally find in a woman whose fiancé has just found out that she is pregnant. It was a look of unadulterated level-headedness. That was how she always looked, now that he came to think about it. Except for those moments just after their most passionate encounters, she always held that same totally rational gaze, and it suddenly hit him. That was what he loved about her the most. It wasn’t the sex, although that was always spectacular. It wasn’t the conversation that, while always deep and extremely meaningful, was usually followed by more mind-blowing sex. It was that simple, focused determination to have everything perfect . That was what gave her the edge over any other woman he’d ever known. She was always the one to take charge when things got out of hand. It was she who led their conversations into uncharted territory, and she was always the first to make the first move in anything they ever did.
“We’re having a baby?” He asked, realizing that he hadn’t spoken yet.
“Yeah, that’s right.” Came Miro’s voice from the bed. “You know, that thing where you take your hose and water her flowerbed, and about nine months later you get a screaming, smelly flower out of it.”
“Eloquent as always, Miro.” Abby shook her head in disbelief. “So what do you think?”
“I think I would love to be the father of your children.” Dan said, gripping her in a steadfast embrace. “We’ll have as many as you like. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want our children to grow up with a loving family. I’ll buy us a house wherever you want, and I’ll buy the house next-door for Miro and Donna.”
“Hold on there, Tiger.” Abby laughed. “We haven’t even had this baby yet. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, huh?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Speaking of kids, though.” Now it was Abby’s turn to shoot sly looks at Bailey. Bailey’s look said ‘if you dare I’ll kill you’, though now she didn’t mind. “Speaking of kids, you must have seen the twins while you were in Aruba.”
“Oh, uh, yeah.” Dan said, missing the sigh of relief breathed by Bailey. “They’re really well. They sent you all postcards. I’ll get them out of my bag later for you.”
“You know, it’s funny, I keep thinking about something.” Bailey said, dipping her head slightly to the left in a thoughtful manner. “I remember you telling me that you lost your virginity when you were fifteen. Wouldn’t it be weird if you had a kid from back then.”
“Yeah, I guess. Actually that would be weird, because they’d be about your age.”
“No, I don’t think that quite works out right. I’m too young. They’d be a few months older, I would imagine. I suppose they’d be closer to Bailey’s age.”
That was what would have been Bailey’s cue, if this had been a film instead of real life.
“You absolute bitch!” She screamed. “You had this planned all along. I thought you were just stupid, but it turns out you’re just as calculating as the rest of us.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Abby replied calmly. “I merely suggested that it would be weird if I ended up with a step-child who is older than I am. Surely there isn’t anything calculating about simply making an observation.”
“What’s going on?” Came a weak voice from the bed.
“Nothing, sweetie.” Donna answered him soothingly. “I think maybe Bailey has gone too long without sleep.”
“I don’t believe it. You’re all in on this together. Trying to make me come out and say it. Well fine, you win. You are my father, Deandre, you evil piece of slime. You left me without a father while I was growing up, so it’s only fair that I do the same for your new stupid baby.” She picked up a scalpel from the shelf next to where she was standing, and charged towards Dan with her arms outstretched. In her blind fury she seemed to completely forget that there were other people in the room, and as she ran past the bed, Donna tripped her and sent her sprawling to the floor. The blade flew out of her hand and for what seemed to be forever it was suspended in midair. Then time accelerated and seemed to surpass it’s normal speed. Before Abby could take stock of what was going on, Donna had Bailey pinned to the floor while Doctor Blake administered a sedative. Miro was trying to prop himself on his elbows to get a better look, and when Abby looked over at Dan she saw that his face had gone a white as the snow outside the window by which he was standing. Next moment he had collapsed, lying in a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood. The scalpel fell to the floor as it was knocked clear of his leg by the sudden impact as he hit the floor. Without thinking, Abby grabbed the top sheet off Miro’s bed and pressed it to Dan’s leg to staunch the flow of blood. Nobody moved. She was alone. Everything faded from around her, and for the first time in her life, she lost control.
“Help me!” She screamed. “Somebody, please help me.”
She vaguely felt herself being dragged backward away from Dan, but she wouldn’t let him go. Doctor Blake was beside her, trying to get to a position where he could work freely on the wound. Abby allowed herself to be led away from the scene of what may be her lover’s last moments. She didn’t care any more. The rage was pulsing though her, and she stormed over to where Bailey had been strapped to a bed. The girl was sedated, but Abby knew that if she wanted it enough, she could make Bailey heat her words through her drug-induced sleep.
“Your own father. You must be really messed up in the head if you could even consider something so evil. He never did anything to you, and now you’re trying to take him away from me ad my child. I swear to all the Gods of all the religions, if he dies, then you will be next. I will hunt you down wherever you go, and you won’t be able to look over your shoulder without seeing me there. Nobody has the right to do this to him, and I will avenge him, so you had better hope and pray to Satan or whoever it is you worship that he pulls through.”
Then she was being taken from the side of the bed to where Dan lay, icy pale and still. She looked into his face, leaned down to kiss his forehead, and then everything was black. She never even felt herself hitting the floor.