flatline [m.s]

clxxxix.

- - -
there are some disasters you just don't see coming, no matter how carefully you plan. a little surprise that changes everything.
- - -

lia wakes up with a pounding headache, and opens her eyes slightly, but immediately screws them shut again to avoid the sun glaring through her window. it's only when she feels an arm resting on her waist, that she opens them fully, rolling over to find mark snoring on the pillow next to her.

"oh, my god," lia murmurs to herself as she slips out from underneath mark's arm and heads into the shower.

just as she finishes rinsing the conditioner out of her hair, she hears the shower door opening behind her, followed by a pair of hands on her hips.

"mark," lia exhales deeply as she turns around to face him.

"nothing says good morning like shower sex," mark smirks, leaning into her.

"i'm not having sex with you," lia shakes her head.

"well, you weren't saying that last night when you were screaming m-" mark begins, but is cut off by lia.

"shut up," lia presses her index finger to his lips. "we are still fighting. i'm still mad at you."

"oh, i know you are," mark nods, continuing to smirk.

and in that moment, lia was taken back to when they were first together. for a few moments she just looks at him, with her brow furrowed and her lips slightly pursed.

"what?" mark's brows knit together as he examines his wife's facial expressions, as the water cascades around them.

"i really, really, love you," lia sighs, stepping forward and swinging her arms around his neck, bringing her hands up to entangle in his wet hair, before pulling her head back, momentarily. "this does not mean that i'm any less mad."

"i know," mark chuckles, closing the gap between them.

■ ■ ■

"karin taylor. thirty years old. thirty seven weeks pregnant with active contract-" a paramedic announces as he wheels a pregnant woman into the e.r, on a gurney.

"nope!" april cuts him off. "very pregnant patients go to l&d."

"i'm not due for another three weeks," karin informs her. "i can't reach my husband, so i'm hoping that this is false labor, but dr. webber said that she would meet me here."

"dr. webber?" april raises her brow. "okay."

"mm-hmm," karin nods as april and the paramedics continue pushing her gurney towards a trauma room. "she's my maternal-fetal doc. my baby's got a- a teeny heart defect. ooh! ahh! here comes another one. hmm! motherhumper! this hurts!"

"ah. ah. okay," april laughs as karin squeezes her hand, painfully tight "alright. here you go. just breathe."

"i don't like to question god, but i have got to wonder about this particular design. i mean, the combination of the size of the baby's head and the female anatomy, it just feels like an odd act of cruelty, or, like, maybe a bit of a slip," karin rambles as they lift her from the gurney and move her over to the trauma room bed. "like, maybe he was tipsy when he came up with it. i mean, we know god likes to drink- the whole 'water to wine' of it all. it just doesn't seem like that far of a leap to think that- ohh! ooh! son of a fish! this hurts!"