incomplete

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tw/mentions of blood

A scream echoed through the house, one so loud and terrifying that it could have woken up the neighbors and sent them into panic.

Tris reached blindly for Tobias's arm, squeezing her hand around his forearm once she found it. The cramp in her back had spread from the small pain of just two hours ago. Now, it was as if she was experiencing contractions, really bad ones at that. The pain was in her hips and along the bottom of her stomach and it felt as though there were ten million knives stuck in her body. Tris couldn't move except to roll into a fetal position, the hand that wasn't wrapped around her stomach shaking her fiancé.

Earlier that night, when she had saw the tiniest bit of discharge, Tris thought that her monthly cycle was just starting. There was a little pain, as she usually got when her period was about to start, but she had never woken up in the night and had this happen.

Not a lot of things scared her. Her friends were always laughing at both her and her fiancé because the number of their fears were less than ten. Tris was afraid of her family dying, and the loss of control, being trapped. But nothing related back to being scared about the unknown.

"Tris?" Tobias woke up quickly at the sound of her pain, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. His dark blue ones widened when they saw the state she was in. His voice was raspy and heavy with sleep. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I-I don't know." She could barely speak. Her body was engulfed with chills caused from the pain not a second later. Tobias touched a hand to her cheek, turning her face so he could search it for any sign of what was happening, but the contact felt numb.

"Do you feel like you're going to get sick? Should we go to the bathroom?"

But his voice sounded as if Tris was underwater and she couldn't give him a proper response. A groan slipped past her lips and she stayed curled up on their bed.

"Fuck," Tobias spat, throwing the covers back. He got up and walked around to the other side of the bed. Reaching to pick up Tris's body, Tobias stopped last minute realizing the pink liquid that covered the sheets. "Fuck," he repeated.

Instead of picking her up, Tobias walked back over to their dresser. He quickly dressed himself in a t-shirt and jeans, sliding his phone into his back pocket. He got the blanket that sat at the end of their bed and threw it over Tris's body before taking her into his arms.

"W-where are we g-going?" Tris asked, turning toward Tobias's chest.

"Hospital," Tobias replied, exiting their room and walking fast, but with care, down the stairs. "You were bleeding badly."

Not even a full second after the words left his mouth was Tris crying. Right before they walked out the door, Tobias grabbed a stray hair tie and slid it onto his wrist. He took the keys that were hanging by the door and walked out to the garage, unlocking the car.

Tris was quieter now, crying more than screaming. But every five minutes or so, her face would squeeze in pain, and she would let out a low cry before biting her bottom lip hard, as if she was in pain but restraining herself from crying out. Tobias put her in the passenger's seat of their car, pulling her hair back out of her face and tying it with the band he had around his wrist. Quickly, he wiped the tears from her face and kissed her forehead, reclining the seat backwards with his free hand. Tobias stretched the seatbelt across her chest and then closed the door, walking to the driver's side of the car and getting inside.

+++

"Miss Prior--"

"Mrs. Eaton. Tris Eaton."

They had taken her to a private room of her own for the night. Tris was glad for the fact that the other bed in the room was empty, and hoped it would be for the remainder of their stay.

Her and Tobias weren't married yet, but Tris felt that the news the doctor was about to deliver, whatever it was, needed to be said with the last name she would have for the rest of her life, once Tobias and her tied the knot next month.

The doctor, who looked like she was over the age of forty and had experience, nodded with understanding. "Mrs. Eaton." She paused, and Tris's head ran a million miles per minute as she waited for the doctor to continue speaking. "I am afraid that right now you are experiencing a miscarriage."

Tris's cries stop. The tears that were running down her face moments before have dried as she stares at the doctor and says one word.

"What?"

Tobias's hand has gone slack in hers. His expression is unreadable when she looks up to him, but he stares at the doctor as if she just told him that his life was ending soon.

And maybe that's what this felt like.

"Th-that's impossible. I wasn't even pregnant."

Her fiancé was silent.

"Some women don't know it. It's not uncommon that it happens before the mother is aware." The doctor speaks slowly, and that is good because Tris's breaths are increasing, and she is feeling panic rise fast in her chest.

"W-what does that mean? What's h-happening to m-me?"

The doctor looked unsure to keep going on about overwhelming information, but went on because Tris had asked the question. "You are having an incomplete miscarriage. The blood is from it, as well as the cramping."

"Wha-what can we do?"

"I usually have my patients consider the options; surgery, waiting it out and letting it pass naturally, or taking the medications. Right now, I recommend you and your husband agree to the surgery."

"And what's that?" They are the first words Tobias has said ever since the doctor had told them the news. "The surgery. What will happen?"

"It's called the D&C, dilation and curettage. I will go in myself and," the doctor's eyes were shining with unshed tears. "I will go into the uterus myself and remove the things I need to."

Remove her baby. What was supposed to be her and Tobias's baby.

They were the thoughts that caused Tris to begin crying again. Except this time, they were heavier and the pain in her chest from the agony of the new information outweighed the cramps in her stomach and back. Tobias moved an arm around her, holding her head tight to his chest and letting her wrap her hands around his arm. He hid his face in her hair, using her as a comfort as much as she was using him.

A month. One month to their wedding, and she had just lost their baby.

The pain was something Tris had never experienced in her whole life. It spread over her whole body like the plague, weakening her until she depended on Tobias to keep her body upright.

Placing a box of tissues on the hospital bed side table, the doctor rolled up a chair and waited until she had Tris's eyes on her own. "This is not your fault, Tris. You did not know, therefore you couldn't have done anything to impact it negatively. Miscarriages are never our fault. I need you to remember that, okay?"

No matter the small speech, no matter how much logic was on her side and telling her the same thing, Tris still didn't believe her. The baby was in her stomach. There must be something, must have been something, she did to cause them to die.

She was pregnant. But because of her, the baby was dead.

"Try to get some sleep." The doctor said, settling a hand on Tris's leg softly. "We can talk about the surgery tomorrow, even see if it has went through the process it needs to go through in order to be cleared out naturally. Tap the call button if you need anything."

And she left them alone. The doctor left Tris alone with a breaking fiancé, who lifted his head and buried his face into her neck, tears falling endlessly from his eyes, and with a broken heart.



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