Unplanned

Eleanor looked up from the message she had just sent, not feeling a shred of guilt. 

Her tears fell on the screen as she read the message again.

~Oliver is his name. He is in Sullivan mansion, on the second floor, fourth room on the left.~

Blaine Tucker had to go take his son from Kan so that whatever this madness was that had seized him would go away.

This madness that made him prioritize another child over his own child. His own flesh and blood.

She felt pain rack her belly again, and she leaned over crying. 

It was bad enough the horror she had to go through to have her baby, but he was not even here now, making all her efforts useless.

Her mind went back to the day it all started, just a few days ago, when her life turned upside down. 

She had heard of cryptic pregnancies a few times and did not believe in the concept.

She did not pay much attention to it either, because how could a woman be pregnant and she would not know it?

Besides, all the women she had seen this happen to were young and dumb. At thirty-five, she knew her body enough to know when something was off. 

Or so she thought.

But she woke up on the morning a few days ago, rolling in bed at what she thought was the most painful of period cramps in history. 

She pulled herself out of bed, made hot tea, and placed a hot bottle against her belly.

But as hours passed, she found herself nauseous and bending over from the pain. 

She was sweating despite how cool her room was, and she felt the cramps everywhere. Under her belly, her thighs, her butt cheeks, up her crack and as she collapsed to the floor, she dialed 119. 

When the operator answered and asked what her emergency was, she could barely get the words out in a whisper, “I’m dying.” 

“We are getting your location now, ma’am. What do you feel? Can you explain what is happening to you?”

She screamed at this now. “It hurts. It hurts so much.” 

“I’m sorry. Where does it hurt?”

“My belly, my belly hurts.” She knew she was sounding stupid and incoherent, but this pain was turning her brain to mush.

She could not think, she could barely even breathe.

“An ambulance is on its way to your location now. Can you please call out the floor and number of your apartment.” 

She called it out.

“I am with you. Please can you tell me how you hurt your belly?”

“I did not hurt it.” Eleanor cried. 

She opened her eyes and everywhere seemed more blurry than it did when she did not have her glasses on. 

“I thought it was menstrual cramps but..” her voice stopped when the pain squeezed her like a vice again.

Just then she heard the sounds out at her front door. 

She could barely move even though she heard them. But she knew it might take them a long time to get past that door to her because of the way it was made.

So she literally crawled on her hands and knees till she opened the door. 

As soon as she did, she collapsed back to the floor, and the paramedics were around her, and as they felt around her belly, she was not too far gone to see the looks they gave each other.

They hurled her up onto a stretcher and as they half ran to the elevator, the paramedic asked,

“Are you pregnant ma’am?”

“No!” She almost yelled. 

“Please confirm the last time you got your period.”

“Two weeks ago.”

“Are you on any birth control plan?”

“Yes, IUD.”

And there were no more questions till they arrived at the hospital. Neither did they give her anything to relieve the pain, saying they could do nothing till they had run some tests at the hospital. 

She was wheeled into the ER, and the doctor who came in had kind eyes. 

He took her hand and said, “What's your name, ma’am?”

“Eleanor.” She said with a wince as she felt the pain waning a little.

The man nodded and told her they would take her to go have an imaging test to see what was wrong with her while they waited for the results of her blood tests to come back.

She nodded and as the nurses wheeled her out of the E. R, he asked if there was a family member they could call, perhaps a husband or lover.

She shook her head, because she had none. She did not know under what category to place Kan. 

She could barely lay still during the ultrasound where the doctor explained he was checking the vital organs in her abdomen to see if something was wrong. 

“Your liver looks fine.” He said, “Your gallbladder..” His voice trailed off.

“Eleanor.” The doctor called, and there was something in his voice, the way he called her name that made her turn to the screen. 

She did not need anyone to explain what she was seeing to her. 

Even with her blurry sight, and almost zero medical knowledge, she would recognize a fully developed fetus when she saw one.

“I’m afraid you are going into active labor, Eleanor,” she said, and her heart sank. 

Going into? This was not active labor? 

And labor! She had been out and about yesterday, and even went to Pilates. She had no idea she would be hearing that word today.

Apart from the occasional bloating she got during her periods, her stomach stayed flat. How the hell was she pregnant? And most importantly, what happened to her IUD?

The doctor had her wheeled into the labor and delivery ward, and gently explained that from examination he believed her IUD had long shifted out of position. And it was not uncommon for some women to bleed in pregnancy and that is what she must have mistaken for her regular periods.

And most importantly, she will be having a baby in a few hours.