Ever After (Heart of Stone #3.5)

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“Mr. Stone, it’s good to see you,” Dr. Michaelson said in his bedside manner voice. “Let’s talk.”

I looked past him through the hospital room doorway and saw Nina sitting up in bed. Relief washed over me as she smiled and waved. “Can I see my wife first?”

“I’d like us to talk before we go in and see her,” he said in a tone that told me something was wrong.

I turned to face him and studied his expression. A middle aged man with salt and pepper hair and faded green eyes, his forced smile didn’t reach up to those eyes, a telltale sign he was putting on a good face in front of Nina. Nodding, I followed him to a lounge down the hall and sat down across the table from him.

“Today’s episode wasn’t a major event. Nina’s blood pressure fell, causing her to pass out. Her blood pressure is routinely low, but I’ve monitored it since she arrived here, and it’s not in a range I’d like.”

“What are we talking about, Doctor?”

“I’m going to order her to stay home for the remainder of the pregnancy, assuming the ultrasound we do tonight is okay. She’s going to fight this, but I want you to be vigilant about it. I’d feel much better about this if we could get those babies to at least seven months, but I’m worried that won’t happen without her staying put.”

“And if the ultrasound isn’t okay?” I asked with a lump in my throat, terrified at what he’d say next.

“Then I’m going to admit her.”

“Okay. Assuming she’s on bed rest, I’m going to move us to the penthouse at the hotel. I want her close in the city to me at work and the hospital here.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Now let’s go deal with Nina, who I’m pretty sure is going to put that pout of hers on when I tell her the good news.”

“Don’t worry, Doctor. I’ll figure out some way to make her happy with the arrangement.”

Dr. Michaelson was more correct than he could have imagined. While Nina only showed him a little of her disappointment at his news, it wasn’t long after he was gone from her room that her typical Nina pout was out in full force.

“He’s going to make me stay in bed for weeks, or even worse, stay here,” she said sadly. “I should be at home, not in the hospital.”

Jordan took a seat next to her on the opposite side of the bed and leaned in to kiss the top of her head. “It’s okay. It’s just for a few weeks, Nina. My nieces are homebodies. They just don’t want to go out anymore.”

Nina wasn’t buying any of her friend’s attempts to make the situation lighter. Frowning, she mumbled, “Staying at home all day will be like being in prison.”

“If you’re on bed rest, we’ll move to the penthouse. That way, you’re closer to me at work and the hospital when it’s time,” I said, hoping she’d see we could make the best of a less than perfect situation.

Her eyes flashed her unhappiness as she turned to face me. “The penthouse? That’s not home. I’ve never spent more than a few days at a time there.” As she began to cry, she buried her face in her hands. “Now I don’t even get to go home if they let me out of here.”

I softly stroked her cheek, but she just shook her head. “It’ll be okay, Nina. It doesn’t matter where we are as long as we’re together, right?”

She just continued to shake her head and slunk down under the covers. “I guess.”

Jordan signaled she wanted to speak to me, so I kissed Nina and followed her friend outside into the hallway. She looked almost as sad as Nina standing there with her arms folded and a frown on her face.

“Nina seems really depressed, Tristan. What can I do? Tell me what to do. I hate seeing her like this.”

I wasn’t sure what to do. Nina was always the one whose bright outlook kept me positive. Seeing her so down unnerved me. “Whenever you can come by the penthouse, you’re always welcome, Jordan. She needs you now more than ever to be the person you’ve always been. She needs to hear that good things happen to good people.”

Silently, I admitted to myself I needed to hear it too. I’d thought nearly dying in that plane crash had been the most frightening thing I’d ever have to face, but the news that something had happened to Nina and the babies made my blood run cold as I stood there in that hotel room thousands of miles away. I never wanted to feel that helpless again. I needed to believe we’d all come out of this okay.

Jordan lightly squeezed my arm, bringing me out of my thoughts. “It’s okay, Tristan. She’s going to be fine, and soon there will be four in the Stone family out there in the country. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks. I hope you’re right.”

I gave her some time with Nina, hoping that she knew something to bring her out of her funk. I hated seeing my wife like that and not having a goddamned idea how to make her happy. I couldn’t go against her doctor’s orders, no matter how much I wanted to whisk her away to Venice or even London and hole up in one of our hotel rooms, pushing the world and all its troubles away as we lay in bed in each other’s arms.

As I stood in the doorway watching Jordan try everything to bring a smile to Nina’s face, the nurses came to take her downstairs for an ultrasound. I followed, praying to God we’d find out everything was okay with the babies, not only for their sake but for Nina’s. Bed rest in our penthouse would be hard enough. Bed rest in a hospital would be torture for her.

Either way, I’d be there right next to the woman I loved. If it was in a hospital, then Lenox Hill would have to get used to me sleeping in the chair next to her bed.

While the ultrasound technician readied herself for Nina’s examination, I took her hand in mine and brought it to my lips in a kiss. Bending down, I whispered in her ear, “No matter what, I’ll be by your side. If you have to stay here, so do I.”

She looked up at me and her face looked so sad. “You know you can’t do that, Tristan. You need to be at work.”

With the pad of my thumb, I wiped a tear from her cheek. “I need to work, but this is the twenty-first century, Mrs. Stone. They call it telecommuting. As long as I have a laptop and Michelle helping me at the office, I can handle everything I need to. But even if I can’t work here, if you’re here, I’m here.”

Nina closed her eyes and whispered, “Oh, Tristan. What if something’s wrong with the babies? What if they make me stay here for weeks? I hate being in the hospital. The hospital is for sick people.”

I cradled her face in my hands and placed a kiss on her forehead. “We can’t do anything but what we have to, Nina. We can handle this. The four of us will be together, no matter what.”

Sniffling, she opened her eyes and nodded. “Okay. Together, no matter what.”

The technician tapped Nina on the shoulder. “You ready? Let’s see what these two are up to these days.”

Just like before, she squirted the ultrasound jelly across Nina’s very pregnant belly and began running the tool across her skin. Quickly, we saw our two children, perfect and content on the screen, but something was wrong. I saw it in the technician’s expression. She continued to do the test, concentrating on the left side of Nina’s stomach with a back and forth movement as the sound of the baby’s heartbeat seemed to grow faster and faster.

Nina sensed something was wrong too. “What is it? Is there something wrong with her?”

“You already found out the sex?” the ultrasound technician asked, clearly trying to calm us as she moved her tool to the other side of Nina’s belly.

“No. We’re going to let it be a surprise,” Nina said with a tiny smile.

“What color are you making the nursery if you don’t know the sex?”

Nina looked up at me. “It’s a jungle theme with monkeys and hippos and giraffes. Lots of green grass and blue skies, perfect for a boy or a girl.”

“I think if I could do it all over again, I’d wait until my son was born to find out he wasn’t a she,” the technician said as she slowly guided her tool back to Nina’s left side. “In the end, it doesn’t matter anyway when you look at your baby for the first time and realize there’s a little version of you right there in your arms. Boy or girl, they’re the light of your life.”

As she spoke, the sound of the left baby’s heartbeat grew faster as once again she ran her exam tool over that part of Nina’s stomach. I knew even though she was trying to keep Nina distracted, she was concerned about something.

Suddenly, she stopped and turned off the machine. “All done. Your doctor will have the report in a little while. Let me get the nurse to take you back to your room.”

And with that, she left.

“I think the one on the left is a little jumpy,” Nina said with a nervous chuckle as she eased herself off the exam table and into the wheelchair. “Not much for being on the small screen.”

“That one is more like me then,” I said with a wink.

We waited for another hour to see Dr. Michaelson, but in the end, he saw no reason to keep Nina in the hospital. The heartbeat of the left baby was a little fast for his preference, but with regular doctor visits, he believed if there was a problem, we could handle it.