Chapter 17 - Complications

Cassie - 

Jack and I spent the rest of the day together basking in the news of our impending arrivals. He had a few things he needed to take care of in his office, but he grabbed what he needed and we headed up to our suite. We spent the afternoon snuggled together on the sofa, Jack working his way through his paperwork and me watching some awful reality show, laughing at the idiocy of humans willing to put themselves through such torturous events for 5 measly minutes of fame. Now it is late evening and we are heading down to the main floor to join the pack members for dinner. Moving from the sofa I experienced a little headrush and had to take a second before everything settled back into place, Jack sensing my unease olds my shoulders until it passed, which it did quickly, thankfully. As we get to the top of the last flight of stairs a spasm wracks my body and sends me hurtling down the stairs, gravity ripping my hand from Jacks before either of us are aware of what is happening. I feel every stair on the way down, my head making contact with most of them and I hearJack shout out and thunder after me. About half way down the flight of stairs (if my calculations are correct) Jack manages to catch up to me, he wraps his hands around my waist and pulls me into his arms, cradling me to his chest and he begins to run. The pain in my head makes my vision blur, but I see our pack gathering around, worry clear on their faces, to see what the commotion is, I feel the head chef rushing to pass us (she smells of the kitchen, a smell I am all too familiar with having spent so much time on there recently) and then we are outside. She must have run ahead to hold the door open for us. I am vaguely aware, through the fog of pain, of the direction in which Jack is taking me and I know that he is heading towards the hospital.Everything drifts in and out of focus as we move quickly and I am grateful that I have such a caring mate. I pray to the moon goddess, hoping that everything is OK with our pups. My last thought as I see the lights of the hospital come into view is that I will never forgive myself if my clumsiness causes our babies harm.

I must have lost consciousness for a moment because the next thing I know I am opening my eyes and I am already settled in a room with a bunch of machines strapped to me. One of the machines is making a very rapid beating sound and as I follow the wires from the machine I find them attached to my stomach, the pups, their heart beats are strong and relief flows through me knowing that they are safe, that I haven't caused them harm.

"Luna," comes a voice from the other side of the room, the door bursts open as I open my mouth to respond.

"Jack," I sigh in relief seeing him, he is by my side in an instant, rubbing a hand through my hair and placing a kiss on my forehead gently, as though he is scared I might break. I turn to the other voice, the one that called me before Jack came in and see a young doctor with his head bowed in submission to the aura flowing from Jack as his worry begins to subside. I wrap my hand around his and bring his fingers to my lips for a soft kiss, and I feel his aura withdraw as he sags into the chair beside me.

"Let me get Dr. Thorne," the young doctor says, I nod and he dashes from the room.

"Cassie, oh goddess, I was so worried, Cassie, please don't scare me like that again, I don't think I can survive it," Jack is mumbling into my hair, his lips pressed to my scalp as he breathes me in.

"Jack, what's going on?" I can't comprehend his distress, or the doctor's reaction to my waking up, I've only been here a minute, it can't be that bad.

"Cassie, you, well, I don't know exactly, but it was like you fell unconscious, but you weren't, not really, you were, well, you were talking…" Jack trails off and my mind whirls, how can I have been talking if I was unconscious? What the heck?! First I'm seeing things now I'm talking to myself? What on earth is going on with me?

"What is happening to me?" I whisper, close to panicking, "I don't understand," tears fill my eyes as I try to wrap my head around this new strangeness. "Why is this happening to me? Haven't I been through enough? Shouldn't we be able to be happy?"

"Love, try not to panic, let's see what Felix has to say before we jump to conclusions, this is just a bump in the road honey and we will get our happily ever after, I promise." Jack places another kiss on my forehead then straightens as Felix walks into the room.

"Cassie," shaking his head he grins at me, "back so soon?" then he turns serious, seeing my watery eyes I imagine. "I had Max, the young doctor who was just here" he fills in the blank for me, "run a couple of tests to see what caused your fall, and the light headedness Jack says you experienced before, and everything seems to be fine, the pups are totally unharmed by the fall, my only concern is you, you have come so far in the last few months, but you are still slightly malnourished and I think that is what caused all of this, you need to eat more, being pregnant with twins means you need to eat even more than you have been."

"If I eat any more I will explode doc, I have already gained back most of the weight I lost from before," we try to never speak of my past, it hurts Jack so much knowing what I went through before I found him, but there are occasions when it can't be avoided, and now is one of those times. Jack knows everything. I have over the last few months opened up to him about every little thing that Ace and Maddie did to me, Dave and Daisy also know as does Jason, I have no secrets from them, they are my best friends and I trust them with my life, the good, the bad and the ugly.

The struggles of the last few months come crashing back down on my shoulders, the hurdles I have had to overcome, the constant feeling of failure as my weight refused to go up, the nightmares that plagued mine and Jack's nights, the constant feeling of being watched, of never knowing who it was that was watching me, the misery of losing people I came to love, mourning the loss of their lives and the sense of self hate at knowing that if it wasn't for me they would not be gone, especially Thomas, the brother of my heart. 

"I understand your frustrations Cassie, you have done so well, come so far in such a short amount of time, I have told you before, you expect too much from yourself, you would never expect others to have pushed forward as much as you have after all you faced. I promise you, we are almost there, just one last little push to get you over this last hurdle," Felix has been heaven sent these last few weeks, always having time for me, always ready to listen and advise and always supporting me, he has been almost as important to my recovery as Jack has.

"I know, I know," I say, putting my face in my hands, I know I am expecting too much, but I can't help it, I am a Luna, I need to be strong for my pack, I need to be strong for my mate, and I need to be strong for these pups growing inside of me and I am failing.

I give myself a rough shake, I can do this, I pull my shoulders back and turn back to Felix after giving Jack's hand another squeeze, his love and protection wrapping around me and lifting me up through the bond.

I open my mouth to tell them both that I am ready for this, that I am ready for the news I know I need to hear and the steps I still need to take. I am determined to be the best version of myself for these babies. But as I begin speaking the door to my hospital room is thrown open and Jason comes crashing in babbling incoherently, breathless and clearly terrified.