Her Bundles Of Joy

“She’s in a hospital on the Upper West Side. Maybe you should stop by.” Brandi hung up before he could answer. Maybe now he’d realize the mistake he’d made, maybe he’d apologize and accept the truth, accept that she was expecting his children. She hoped things would work out for her friends in the end. Being close to both of them gave Brandi an insight on how both parties were feeling. She saw how devastated Nicole was after she’d left Evan’s apartment that day. She saw how broken and regretful Evan was after that day. She saw how badly he wanted to turn back time and take back all his hurtful actions towards Nicole. It hurt her a lot to see her friends hurting, especially seeing how in love they were with each other, even though they never told each other, but Brandi decided to step back and let Nicole and Evan be two adults for once and fix things between them without any external help. Brandi was a hopeless romantic, and she figured that if they were meant to be together, they’d get there someday without needing a helping hand.

Back at the hospital, Leon stood up as he saw Dr. Ali walking towards the waiting room. He’d been waiting for almost an hour now, and the wait was slowly driving him nuts. The Asian woman recognized his face as he’d accompanied Nicole to an appointment once. He was there for the ultrasound, and he got really emotional when he first heard the babies’ heartbeats, so the doctor figured he was probably the father. She gave him a reassuring smile.

“Hello, Mr…”

“Murray. How is she?”

“Mr. Murray,” Dr. Ali smiled, “Ms. Carter is sleeping now. There weren’t any major injuries, just a few bruises from the fall and the wound in her forehead, but another doctor has already stitched the injury.”

Leon exhaled in relief. “What about the babies? Is everything okay with them?”

“As for the babies, I would like to talk to you about them. We stopped the bleeding, and I’ve done all exams to make sure that they’re fine. Their little hearts are still beating as hard as they were that time we did the ultrasound.” Leon smiled as he recalled the feeling he got during that occasion. “However, she did bleed quite a lot and, despite being in perfect condition to go home, I recommend that Nicole stay here for a few more days, just to make sure she’s 100% fine. The fall might have had effects that aren’t visible for now, and going home might put Nicole and the babies at risk.”

“Risk? What happened?”

Leon and the doctor turned around to see who had spoken to them. The ebony-skinned man rolled his eyes as he saw it was Evan. He’d briefly met him once, and he didn’t like the way this guy stared at Nicole. Leon chose to turn a blind eye to the fact that Nicole stared at Evan in the exact same way. What was he doing here? From what Leon had gathered, Evan and Nicole had a huge fight and hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while now.

“Are you a relative of Nicole’s?”

“No. I mean, I guess you could say so?”

“Sorry, sir. I can only disclose this information to family members,” the doctor said.

Evan glared at the other man. “This guy isn’t part of her family.”

“He’s the father of her children,” Dr. Ali turned to face Leon. “aren’t you?”

Leon wanted so badly to say yes, to lie to the doctor and to Evan, but he couldn’t. Before he could reply, however, Evan scoffed loudly.

“I’m the father, not him.”

Brandi arrived a second later than Evan. She informed the nurses at the reception that she wanted to see Nicole and ignored the fact that the women were taking photos of her without her permission. Disadvantages of being famous. The singer saw Evan and Leon speaking to Nicole’s doctor as she got closer to the waiting room. She barged into the room and stared at the doctor expectantly.

“What is going on? Where’s Nicole?”

“Uh, good evening, Ms. Harris,” the doctor greeted the two of them politely. “Look, I shouldn’t disclose this information to any of you, in reality, as you guys aren’t her blood family. But as I was telling Mr. Murray, Nicole is fine, there haven’t been any major injuries, only a wound on her forehead that has already been stitched up. The babies are fine, too, but I recommended that Nicole stay in the hospital for a few more days until we can be completely sure that the fall didn’t affect the babies.”

“Hold up, Nicole fell down?” Brandi asked.

“Yeah, we were at a colleague’s house and she fell down the stairs.”

“And you left her alone to walk up a set of stairs? Wow, really responsible.” Evan rolled his eyes.

“Oh, as if you’re one to talk about responsibility. You said you’re the father of her kids? You literally abandoned her,” Leon growled.

“Yes, I know, and I regret it immensely. I’m here to beg for her forgiveness.”

“It took Nicole almost having a miscarriage to make you want to apologize?”

“Okay, who the hell do you think you are?”

“I’m the one who has stood by her side all these months, I’m the one putting a roof over her head, taking her to appointments, buying the vitamins for the children you abandoned!” Leon exclaimed. Evan knew he was the bad guy in the story, however, he was here to try and change that. The last thing he wanted was for Leon, of all people, to rub his mistakes in his face. The blond man saw red as he lunged forward to push Leon. Brandi jumped into action as she held her friend in place.

Dr. Ali stood between the two men, who looked about ready to jump in each other’s throats. She glared at Evan. “Sir, if you resort to violence, I’ll be obliged to call security and have them take you out of this hospital. You claim to be the father, so I don’t think you want to be kicked out. Nicole will be awake in a few minutes, and I can only allow one person to see her for now.”