Song:  I'd Come For You by Nickelback

"I finally know just what it means to let someone in...
To see the side of me that no one does, or ever will."

My entire body froze. Time stopped. The world came to a complete standstill as I tried to hold a grasp of the situation. But I was slipping.

This can't be happening.  What was happening? Why was I bleeding so much?

I looked down at the floor. With a trembling hand, I laid it across my stomach.  My breath stopped as I saw the blood on my legs underneath my dress. 

"Nancy, what's going on with me?" I muttered under my breath, my voice shaking.

"Just breathe, okay? It'll be okay. Stay right where you are.  I'll be right back," she said quickly.  Nancy ran out the door as fast as she could.  I tried to pace my breaths as I laid the other palm on the wall to steady my balance.

Several seconds later, Henry bolted through the door followed by Nancy.

He was still here?

His green eyes widened in shock. Within a blink of an eye, he was already at my side, gently holding either side of my face between his quivering hands. 

"Henry," I breathed. My lids were suddenly growing heavier and heavier as each second ridded me of blood.  "Please help me.  Please help my baby."

"Ally, stay with me, baby. Stay with me," Henry's voice echoed in the distance as I succumbed to the shadows.

.....

"Everything looks good...She could've been under too much stress...There's bleeding caused by extra blood flow...All tests were negative...Bleeding is sometimes normal...But it's a good thing you got her here, Mr. Cavill...Stay at the hospital overnight...A couple days off work."

Dr. Carol Stevens?

"Thank you, Doctor," I heard another familiar voice say. 

"I'll leave you two now to get some paperwork done." 

It was most definitely Dr. Stevens' voice. What was she doing at Nancy's house?

As I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar white ceiling greeted me.  A blurred figure in the corner rushed towards me as I struggled to sit up.

"Ally, don't get up." The blurred person tenderly pushed me back down to lay on the bed. "How are you feeling?"

With each blink, the image of his face grew clearer and clearer. The sharp jaw, the prominent cheekbones, the intense stare of those intimidating, green eyes.  It was unmistakable for anyone else's.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"We're at the hospital."

"I need to get home."  I made an attempt to get up again only to be nudged back down.

"No, not yet. Dr. Stevens demanded that you stay here for the night."

"But I have work."

"There's no excuse," Henry asserted.  He looked almost regretful as he noticed the fervency of his tone. "Dr. Stevens said you needed to get some rest," he spoke more softly this time.  "Ally, if you're not going to do it for me, do it for our baby.  Think of our baby."

He dared to use my own baby against me. This was all too familiar.  I wanted to argue with him on that.  I didn't like that he called it 'our' baby even when it was, technically.  But now was not the time to be stubborn. I couldn't put my baby through that trauma again. 

"Alright, fine," I said.  Though his assistance was unwanted, I desperately needed it to get up from the bed.  I tried to lift up the IV bag but stumbled back on the bed as Henry caught me in his arms.

"Where are you going?" Henry asked as our eyes met for a mere second before I turned to look away.

"I'm not going to run away. I just need to use the bathroom," I explained, feeling my cheeks ablaze.

"Here let me help you." He unhooked the IV bag off the pole and placed an arm behind me, raising me gently off the bed.  I watched him from the edge of my sight as he carefully guided me towards the restroom.  I repressed the flutters in my heart and the ridiculous thoughts that he might actually, could possibly, care about me.

After I was finished, Henry was patiently waiting by the door, ready to help me back onto the bed.  I laid down immediately, rested on my side and faced towards the wall, turning down any chance of conversation.

"Ally..." Henry called out my name.

"I'm really tired. It's been a long day, and I just want to be alone," I told him. I waited for his reply, but he didn't say a word. Instead, I heard the sound of a door closing, disappointment settling in quickly after.  Why must I feel this way?  I should be glad.  I should be happy, over the moon that he's gone.  But I wasn't.

Unable to fight the urge, I turned around to look at the direction of the door, but to my surprise, he was still standing there.

"I don't think you want me to leave," he said, walking towards me. "If you did, you wouldn't have looked."

"You...you tricked me. Why would you do that?"

"Because I needed to know the truth.  I needed to know if you still feel towards me, and now it's confirmed. You still feel something for me. Right?"  He asked, his voice filled with nothing but that unfamiliar sincerity. "I'm not really disgusting to you, am I, Ally?"

No.  Even after everything you've put me through, I never once, not once, found you disgusting. 

Those words remained unspoken as I was too timid to speak the truth.

"Ally-"

"If you think I'm going to forgive you because you saved me, you're wrong," I cut him off.

"I know," he replied calmly.  "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. I'm not expecting you to forgive me.  At least, not yet. Ally," he covered my hands in his with a nuance of urgency.  "I'm trying to change. You still don't believe me?"

Don't be fooled, Ally.  Don't let yourself be deluded by a conniving, deceiving man like him again.

"No, I don't.  From now on, whatever you do, I won't let myself be fooled by you again. You are barbaric, self-centered, and violent, and you can't change that. I won't ask you to change yourself because people can't change. I thought I could change you, but I was wrong.  I was very wrong."

I retracted my hands from underneath his and laid on the bed, letting my back face him again to hide my tears.  All of a sudden, I felt his fingers lace through mine.  I wanted to pull away, but I couldn't find the strength in me to.

Using my other hand, I covered my mouth to muffle the quiet sobs from my mouth.  I so desperately wanted to believe him.  My heart called out to him, screamed at him to look at me and only me, but my mind knew better.  It knew that once I let my guard down again, he would only hurt me.

The whole night Henry accompanied me. He didn't go anywhere.  He didn't move an inch from my bedside.  Throughout the night, unable to sleep, I woke up to find him sleeping peacefully with his head on the bed and his hand held firmly holding onto me.

.....

"Why don't you come back with me? You'll be closer to me, and I can take care of you," Henry asked me as we sat in the car. 

"I'd like to go back to Nancy's house," I said, avoiding his gaze. "It's where I can be myself."

"Okay. If that's what you want," he said defeatedly.

I thought he would be annoyed with me, angry at me even, but he was neither. During the car ride back to Nancy's house, we didn't exchange a word nor look at each other.

Once we arrived, before I could even unseatbelt myself, Henry opened my door.  He snaked an arm behind me and I tried to resist his help, but he refused to let me go.

An anxious Nancy waited for us at the front door. She closed the gap between us to give me a warm hug. "I was so worried about you, dear. I couldn't sleep at all last night thinking about you. I've done nothing but pray."

"Thank you, Nancy. I'm sorry I worried you," I said as we walked into the house.

"Henry, if you hadn't been here, I don't know what I would've done. Thank you," Nancy said to him.

"I'm glad I was still here as well. Maybe if I knew about the baby earlier," Henry's eyes glanced at me for a millisecond. "This wouldn't have happened."

I glared at him, thinking he was putting the blame on me for all of this.  I guess it was my fault, but I didn't like the fact that he recognized it too.

"You can leave now," I said flatly.  "You probably have more important things to attend to."

"Actually, Ally," Nancy began. "I ask that Henry stay awhile."

"What?"

"I wanted to thank him with a nice dinner."

"You don't have to, Nancy. He's a very busy person. He wouldn't -" 

"I'd want nothing more," Henry smiled with satisfaction at Nancy.

As Nancy gathered her keys and purse to Trader Joe's, she ordered Henry to keep a close eye on me. Her intentions were well, but they were impossible.  She probably thought Henry and I could make up and mend our differences with her gone.  If only she knew why he approached me in the first place.

"Why must you make me so miserable?" I said to him as I turned to leave the room.

"You're making me miserable too, Ally," he said, following me. I stopped in my tracks and whirled around for an explanation.  "Pushing me away like this. Don't you think you're being cruel to me? And to yourself?  I know you don't want me to leave."

"Don't act like you know me so well."

"That's not what I'm trying to do," he assured me.  "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be here for you, and I'm going to be here for our baby whether you like it or not.  Do you know how scared I was yesterday? I can't lose you."

"You can't lose me because you want to win over me, right?  That's what you really want."

"No, Ally. That's not -"

Not wanting to hear his explanation in fear that he might change my mind, I grabbed my purse on the counter and stormed out the door.

"Where are you going?" Henry called after me.

"What does it have to do with you."

"You're not supposed to be on your feet too much."

"I just need to get away."

"How? You sold your car. You can't take the bus. It's too dangerous."

"It's better than being with you," I said before spinning around.  His steps halted as I stared at him suspiciously. "How did you know I sold my car?"

He averted his gaze for a long moment before looking at me again.

"Have you been tracking me?" I asked.

"Yes," he admitted steadily before taking a deep breath. "I have been tracking your location."

"For how long?"

"Since before the Tulips Festival until now."

My mouth fell open at his words.  I didn't know how to feel about this.  Should I be angry?  Should I be scared for my life?  "You're more horrible than I thought. You haven't changed one bit," I said as I turned to leave.

"I know how it sounds, but I wanted to know if you were safe. Can I at least drive you there?" Henry asked with a hint of annoyance as I walked past his car.

"You can take your car. I'm going on the bus."

Halfway to the corner, I turned around to see Henry not too far behind.  He shuffled his feet against the pavement once he notices I had stopped.

"I'll go wherever you go."  He said those same words to me when he rode the bus with me for the first time.

"Even if I jump off a cliff? "

"Yes, even if you jump off a cliff."

He was crazy.  And maybe I was too for feeling relieved that he wasn't leaving me.

I picked an empty seat next to a woman, who couldn't be more than forty, just so Henry wouldn't be able to sit beside me. But after he paid the bus fare with a twenty dollar bill, he whispered something to the woman.  She smiled and nodded understandingly before giving up her seat. Henry smiled triumphantly at me once he sat down, and I merely rolled my eyes.

As we dismounted off the bus, Henry argued his right to help me walk.  He claimed that since there was still slush on the ground, I could easily slip at any moment. When I didn't allow him to,  he was clearly discontent with it but remained compliant with what I wanted. 

We stopped at an intersection waiting for the walking signal.  Once it turned Henry wittingly grabbed my hand and led me across the street through the crowd. I tried to shake my hand off his grip, but he didn't budge. 

Until we were inside the mall did he finally let me free. As I aimlessly looked around the stores, Henry kept close to me.  When I would buy something, he would, without a word, take the bag from the counter.  He would follow me patiently without complaining or moan in irritation. Every now and then, I would steal a glance at him to see if he was annoyed or bored, but there was no trace of it.  He looked rather uneasy.  Was there something on his mind?

While we were walking towards the revolving doors to leave, Henry's phone suddenly rang. I turned around to see him staring at his phone.  Something flashed in his eyes before he pressed the button to end the call.

"Go," I said.

"It's nothing," he said, putting the phone into his back pocket.

"You don't have to stay with me. I'll be fine. Work is more important to you anyway, isn't it?"

"No," he answered with the same solidity as before.  "It used to be. But now I've found something more important."

Was he really doing this?  Taking time out of his hectic schedule just to be with me.

No, it wasn't for me, I told myself. He would never do something like this for me.

He was doing this because of the baby.

Thank you so much for reading!
- A