NEW YORK CITY, NY – HOSPITAL – MAR. 16TH, 2002 – SATURDAY

     Ashley frowned. He still had his eyes closed. He was sleeping. Wasn’t he? He felt someone putting pressure on his hands. Was that a dream? He slowly opened his eyes.

     “You’re awake!” Ashley sat up.

     “Hey…” Kirstin didn’t sound too happy.

     “Hey, baby.” Ashley got closer to her and pecked her lips “How are you? Are you feeling ok?”

     “No.” Kirstin answered and started to cry.

     “Sh… don’t cry, honey. Everything is fine!”

     “Ash… the… baby… the baby. Is it…” Kirstin squeezed Ashley’s hand.

     “The baby is great, baby.” a small smiled appeared on Kirstin’s face “See that monitor right there?” Ashley pointed to the monitor and Kirstin turned to look t it “The first line shows your heart beat. The one below it shows the baby’s heart beat.”

     “Really?” Kirstin couldn’t stop staring at the monitor “Is that really our baby’s heart?” Kirstin had said ‘our baby’. Ashley couldn’t help but smile.

     “Yes, sweetie. That’s our big boy’s heart.” Kirstin abruptly turned to face Ashley.

     “It’s… a… boy?” she stuttered.

     “Yeah…” Ashley caressed her face “It’s a baby boy.” Kirstin smiled and tears fell from both her eyes.

     “I can’t believe it…” Kirstin held Ashley’s hand even tighter.

     “I know. I know you’ve always wanted a boy first.” Ashley smiled into her eyes.

     “You… How do… how do you know?” Kirstin frowned.

     “You told me once when we were in high school. You told me that when you had your family, you wanted a boy first so when you had a girl, she’d always have a big brother to look after her, take care of her.”

     “I…” Kirstin was speechless. She said that once to Ashley. She didn’t even remember telling him that. But he held on to that memory “Wow, Ash. I can’t believe you remember stuff like that.”

     “I already told you once that everything you do or say, I always pay double attention.”

     “Yeah, but… well… I thought that was just… I don’t know… a pick up line or something.” Ashley chuckled. ‘God, how can she make me chuckled even in a situation like this?’

     “Well, it probably was.” now it was Kirstin that was giggling “But it didn’t mean it wasn’t true.”

     “Thank you.” Kirstin said after an awkward silence.

     “For what, baby?” Ashley asked her.

     “For everything. For sticking by me. For never giving up on me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Kirstin felt a tear fall.

     “Baby…” Ashley wiped the tear away “You don’t have to thank me. I did it all gladly.” Ashley pecked her on the lips again.

     “I love you.” Kirstin caressed his cheek.

     “I love you, too.”

     “Ash?”

     “Yeah?”

     “What… I mean… Why was I… bleeding? Did the doctor tell?”

     “Yes. He told it was because of your medicine. The salt in your medicine that caused that. It weakened the walls of your uterus and it caused it to bleed.”

     “What medicine? Lexol?” Kirstin frowned. Ashley nodded “I can’t believe it’s my own fault. I can’t believe I put my baby in danger.”

     “K, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

     “Well, that’s my fault for being so ignorant.”

     “How would you know that the medicine would cause that? K, it’s not your fault!”

     “Then it’s that stupid doctor’s we went to see fault! He knew I was taking Lexol and he knew I was pregnant and he didn’t tell me anything!” that remark made Ashley think. Kirstin was right.

     “Yeah…” Ashley frowned “He did. Why didn’t he tell us then?” Ashley’s frown was still on “Maybe he is not the best doctor as I was told. Then maybe it’s my fault. I brought you to that doctor. I forced you to go to that doctor. If we’ve gone to someone else, maybe that other one would have told us something.”

     “Ash, I don’t think it’s your fault. I think it’s totally mine or the doctor’s.”

     “K, you know what? Just forget it. It was no one’s fault. If we keep thinking about it, we’re gonna go insane. Just forget. It had to happen.”

     “Yeah… maybe it happened so… you and Tom could be friends.”

     “What?”

     “I heard you talking when he left.” Kirstin grinned.

     “You did?”

     “Yeah… I was too sedated. I couldn’t speak nor open my eyes, but I was listening. He did a pretty nice thing, didn’t he?”

     “Yeah… he was pretty cool. Don’t know what made him change so much.” Ashley sounded confused.

     “Maybe the baby.”

     “Probably the baby, yeah.” Ashley nodded his head.

     “Good. Then I won’t have to listen to you two fighting anymore.”

     “Hope not. Hope he doesn’t change when this is all gone.”

     “Yeah… And how’s Grace? Poor girl, she helped me so much. I don’t know what would have happened if she wasn’t with me in my apartment.”

     “Oh, don’t even go that way. Gladly, she was. She was like… an angel.”

     “She sure was. I can’t thank her enough.”

     “She suffered, K. She was crying so much all the time.”

     “Well, I can imagine. I’d do the same if something like this would happen to her.”

     “Yeah…” Ashley agreed.

     “Hello.” the doctor said as he got inside the room “Oh, I see you’re already awake, Miss Addams.”

     “Yes.” she smiled to the nice doctor.

     “Good. That’s good.” he checked the monitor and took some notes on Kirstin’s file “So… your baby seems to be doing fine.”

     “Oh, thank God.” Kirstin said relieved.

     “But I wanted to talk to you about something.” the doctor informed and Kirstin and Ashley both felt tense. Kirstin grabbed Ashley’s hand even tighter, if that was possible.

     “Yes.” Ashley said in a tense tone of voice.

     “I checked the ultrasound pictures and your uterus’ wall is indeed weak and we won’t be able to do anything about that for now. If you stop taking that medicine, only then, your wall will get thick again. But that will take some time. There’s still a lot of salt in your blood and will take a while for your system to get rid of it. And until then, I’m afraid there’s still the risk of the bleeding to come back. If the baby does any sudden moves, he will damage the wall and it might cause another bleeding.”

     “So… what are you saying is that there’s nothing we can do to prevent the bleeding?” Ashley asked, worried.

     “I’m afraid not. The only think is to keep the baby calm, so he won’t get agitated and start moving around too much. And for that to happen, Kirstin, you can’t go under any stress or anything that will cause a rush of emotions on your system, because the baby would feel that too.”

     “Ok, ok.” Ashley nodded “And how long will it take for her body to get rid of the salt?”

     “Probably a month, even two. Depends on how well her system works.”

     “Ok. I think we can do that, right, honey?” Ashley looked at Kirstin, who was clearly afraid. She just nodded, but didn’t seem too sure about that.

     “Good.” the doctor wrote something on her file again.

     “And doctor?” Ashley asked.

     “Yes.” the doctor answered.

     “How long will you keep her here?” Ashley asked again.

     “Well, her heart and the baby’s heart seem to be doing fine. But, Miss Addams, you did lose a lot of blood. So we’re gonna have to keep you here at least until tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning we’ll run a few more tests and depending on the results, you’ll be free to go. I’m pretty confident you’ll be fine by tomorrow night.” Ashley and Kirstin both smiled up to the doctor “Well, I have to go. If you need anything, call a nurse. If nothing happens, I’ll only be back tomorrow, alright?”

     “Ok. Thank you, doctor.” Ashley thanked him.

     “No problem.” the doctor smiled and shut the door behind him.