There were several long, terrifying, seconds where Vi thought the bright lights above her hospital bed were the headlights from the car. Not that she was coherent enough to even recognize she was in a hospital bed at all, honestly. If it hadn’t been for Tay’s soft voice, she likely would have sent herself into a frenzy immediately. As it was, her heart picked up speed a little during the brief moments she had thought the car was still in front of her, though it settled as soon as she heard her love’s voice. The pain was mercifully at bay thanks to whatever they had given her, but the more aware she became the more she began to register the various places that were soon going to be a problem.
“The hospital?” she repeated, though if she had been in a better state of mind she would have rolled her eyes at anyone who repeated such a simple statement as if it were a complicated equation. Shifting, Vi gasped as a sharp pain rolled through her hips and pelvic area, and she immediately went to jerk her arm over it as a cold fear spread through her. The arm she’d tried to shift was in a sling and a cast, however, which drew another gasp from her as she unknowingly tried to pull it from a place it could not be moved. Sucking in a breath, she whimpered softly, moving her other arm instead. The monitors picked up speed as she felt the padding that would come with bandages, and the pain, but not the pronounced bump she’d gotten quite used to running her hands over during the last three months.
“Tay,” she managed, her voice tight with pain and shaky with more emotion than her still-groggy mind could come to terms with. “I don’t-“ Vi paused, drawing in a ragged breath. “I don’t feel the baby.” Her voice sounded impossibly small, gut-wrenchingly desperate, and she tried to swallow so she could speak more clearly. “There must be too many bandages blocking it, right?” Her eyes shifted to Tay, begging him to confirm that sliver of hope, but the impossible sadness in his eyes made her stomach drop as she started to shake her head.