The Guard To My Sanctuary

Chapter 63

Calloway

Waking up everything felt so hazy and unfamiliar. The air around me was so sanitary that it bordered on being acrid. I resorted to breathing through my mouth not wanting to smell my surroundings anymore. Slowly I allowed my eyelids to part and I was plunged into the harsh glare of hospital lighting. I moved my head around carefully slightly fearful as to what was going on but knew that it was a good thing that I had woken up here. I could remember being really hot and saying that I was pregnant and then I woke up here.

"Hey Calloway," I heard my brother Maddox say. His voice emanated in the opposite direction from where I was looking so I turned my head to see him standing there wearing pajama pants. He looked tired and I knew that I was the one to cause him to wear his downtrodden expression.

"Maddox," I answered not knowing what to say to him. I was embarrassed...ashamed that I had put myself in the situation that I was in. Pregnant and strapped to a hospital bed before I could legally operate a vehicle without a legal adult being present.

"You're pregnant," he stated in a way that I could readily pick up on his emotions.

"Yes," I responded and looked down to my feet that were covered by the cheap white quilted blanket made out of mid-grade cotton.

"Do you know if you want to...keep it or not," he asked me still without any emotional indicators. I let the silence build in the room not knowing how to answer the question. From the moment I took the test, I was hit with a wave of depression and hadn't even thought about my options only the fact that I would forever remember being a pregnant teen.

"I don't know...I don't know what I want to do yet with it," I told him. He didn't react at all which somehow seemed to coax tears out of me.

"I think you should. I don't like who the other father is or even the danger you are in just carrying him/her to term, but I know you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you terminate the pregnancy. You could always give it away to a loving family and maybe one day you might develop a relationship with them or you could keep it. You have a big loving family who wouldn't think twice about helping, but either way it's your choice," he said and walked over to me. He placed his hand on top of mine which was lying limply over the covers.

"You can't stress us like this again, Mom was distraught and Dad was... I've never seen him that scared in my life. I'll go and tell everyone that you are awake, we should get you out of here a little bit later since they were just waiting for you to wake up," Maddox said before wiping the tears off of my face then walking away. I waited alone in the cold room waiting for my family to arrive but before they came in Dr. Farah walked into the room and began checking on me before dropping a lot of information about nutrition and wellness and setting up my first appointment. After she left I was left waiting for an even longer amount of time just preparing for the fountain of vitriol my family would throw at me. I was scared to face them to be confronted with how much disappointment I had caused them to endure. The first person to walk in was Mom who moved as quickly as he could over to me and embraced me. I could feel the tears soaking the collar of my hospital gown. I took my free arm and did my best to embrace him back.

"I'm sorry," I said knowing that my predicament could be solved with a simple apology. He pulled away from me and then smacked me across the face softly yet firm at the same time.

"You could have died," He said to me the pulled me back into a hug. I moved over a little as he was balancing half of his body over the bead and I didn't want him to fall with him being as pregnant as he was. I looked away from him and could see my dad at the threshold of the room looking at me. There was a hint of anger in his gaze but the foremost expression on his face was concern. He stepped into the room and before I could open my mouth.

"Don't apologize to me, don't let this happen again that's how you show me that you are sorry and have grown from this. You're making a child so you can't be one anymore. Parents protect their kids and I haven't done that as well as I should have but I'm working on that. Right now though I just need to know if you're okay."

"I'm okay," I responded back to him. I noted that he seemed to have already slated me for the parenting track. I didn't know what to think of that so I put a mental pin in the idea knowing that time wasn't on my side. He walked over to the other side of the bed in the empty space by my legs and placed his palm on my right calf showing that he was still there for me. Ozias walked into the room with Beo both of them looking concerned for me and like they had not slept.

"Who would have thought that you would be the first one to be having a baby out of the three of us? My how the tables have turned," Ozias said bringing some humor into the room. I reluctantly smirked at the irony of the situation. I had always teased that he would end up a teen parent and chastised him from his many conquests and here I was in a hospital bed with a month pregnant. Beo hit him on his arm and then came and gave me a hug being careful not to accidentally yank any wire or tube connected to me. During that time Maddox walked in on the phone probably with the rest of my family who couldn't be here.

"What do I do from here," I asked my parents.

"Well, we are going to get you back to your grandparent's home until everything is settled. You're in online school right now and you can stay on that until you've had the baby if you want. Then you apply to colleges and you'll get accepted to all of them because you are exceptional and well help you with the child while you make it through school and as long as you need, "Mommy said to me and I nodded. I didn't ask them what was going to happen to Germany or how I was going to make it as a single parent because I was scared of the answers and wasn't sure what I wanted to happen to Germany myself so we all just waited in silence for my discharge to be accepted.