Supernatural Fic: Bump (1/1)
Title: Bump (1/1)
Author: Supesfan88
Summary: “I guess they knew something we didn’t, huh?”
Word count: 2,955
Warning: SPN RL HET, deals with a couple quite touchy subjects for many, edited but not betaed.
Disclaimer: Supernatural and all things associated with it are property of the wonderfully evil Eric Kripke. I’m just playing with them for a bit.
Bump
They had been going out for close to four months when Jenna came charging from the house and right over to the truck and cornered Jared against the left front quarter panel. She fumed for a couple seconds before shoving a folded paper in his face and ordering him to read it. His lips quirked ever so slightly as he realize that what he held in his head was a weathered copy of a tabloid’s “Bump Watch”. And featured quite prominently on the front page of said article was a picture of them holding hands as they strolled around China Town, and in a circle just off centre of the picture was a blown up shot of her stomach and damned if he could even see a small bump.
“They think I’m pregnant!”
Jared laughed as he raised his eyes to hers. “So? ‘snot like you’re the first person they’ve thought was knocked up. ‘sides, since when have you cared what the Rags have said?”
“Our parents, Jared.” Jenna answered without missing a beat. “Our parents will see this! We just told them we’re dating five months ago,”
Recognition flared in his eyes and he whistled. “Oh yeah,” his eyes lowered again to the article. “an’ when they see this they’ll think you really are.”
“Yes!” Jenna exclaimed indignantly, and, as if on queue Jenna’s phone started ringing to the tune of “We are Family,” and she sighed and then whined a bit as she put the phone to her ear and closed her eyes. “Hi Momma.”
Jared stayed glued to the spot as he watched Jenna being yelled at by her mom. Hell if it wasn’t the funniest shit he’d ever seen.
“No, momma, I’m not. I promise… I’m not!...of course we would have told you first…Yeah? What? No, not-I mean I want to. I just don’t think being preg-I’m not momma! They just think I am- I-“
Jared hadn’t been able to stay for the duration of the call because at that exact moment his phone rang to the tune of “San Antonio Rose” and he swallowed hard and then squeezed his eyes shut and put the phone to his ear. “Hi Momma.” He slowly walked in the opposite direction of the truck all the while holding the phone away from his ear as his mother berated him from more than 3 thousand miles away about keeping secrets.
“But she’s not, momma, I promise…yes. No. ’m not lyin’ to you…Momma! She’s not. They just think she is-…Yeah, I do realize they are sometimes right, just not this time…I promise…I’m not Jeff, momma.” His fingers came up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, momma, yeah mom…ok…ok…ok. Love you too.” He quickly pulled the phone away and snapped it shut before she spoke again and spun around, only to come face to face with Jenna, standing not even 8 feet away from him. In spite of himself, and not that he’d really admit it, but he was startled. “Hi!”
“Hi,” she greeted as the beginnings of a smirk starting appearing around the corners of her mouth. “Not so funny when it’s you, is it?”
“Oh,” he looked down at the phone in his hand and then back up to Jenna. “Momma says hey.”
An easy smile came to her face as she fluttered away. “Uh huh.”
He coughed to cover up his obvious embarrassment then headed in the direction she had disappeared in. Once inside the house, Jared causally slipped off his shoes and threw his keys on the table, and then turned and headed towards the kitchen. He had just entered when he noticed Jenna grasp the counter tightly and bend slightly as a grimace began to contort her face. But, before he was able to move even a step towards her, she exhaled slowly and straightened back up.
He crossed the kitchen in 5 large steps and placed a gentle hand on the small of her back. Jenna looked up at him and smiled. “I’m fine. jist a little worse off this month. I don’t know why.”
“Oh,” he nodded and back away carefully. Slightly put off by the quiver in her voice.
He’d just opened his mouth to speak when the phone in the hall went off. Their eyes met for a split second before Jared jumped and turned back around. “I’ll get it.”
-|3u/\/\|o-
For the second time that day Jared ended up being berated by telephone, but this time instead of it being his mother, it turned out to Kripke. “Hey, man…no, she’s not, don’t worry. They jist think she is, man. No, I didn’t see the picture-…I didn’t know you could-“ a dish followed by a couple glasses and then an innumerable amount of cutlery suddenly crashed to the floor in the kitchen and Jared dropped the receiver and ran.
The sight that greeted him upon entering the kitchen made his blood run cold. Jenna was kneeling on floor in front of the sink, with one hand wrapped tightly around her stomach and the other gripping the edge of the counter with all she had. Her freckle now created a stark contrast with her deathly pale face and emanated pain much worse than it had a couple minutes ago.
“Jenna!” He completely ignored the broken ceramic around her and slid to the floor beside her. He ghosted a hand over her back, almost exactly like he had before. “Baby, what’s-“
Jenna answered without even missing a beat. “This ain’t PMS,” she cried as she forced her forehead into the crook of the arm gripping the counter and grunted. The obvious pain in her voice made every hair on Jared’s body stand on end. “I don’t know what, but this ain’t it-“ Her hand slipped from the counter and slammed palm first against the linoleum as another round of pain hit with such force she could no longer stay upright. She bowed her head without even thinking and nearly hit the cupboard doorknob, but just before she hit it, Jared wrapped his arm around her neck and as gently as he could, forced her towards him.
He laid her head against his shoulder and began to run his hand over her back as he coaxed her gently, “just breath, baby, it’ll be fi-“ but before he could finish Jenna inhaled again, whimpered a bit, and forced her head into the centre of Jared’s chest and burrowed into him as best she could.
“Please,” she begged suddenly breathless. “Please. Please, J’red. Please help.” She exhaled and then gasped a couple times before continuing, “Please help me.” Then the tears began. “Please.”
Jared blinked a few times to free his eyes of the tears that had accumulated as he bit the side of his lip and stroked her back one last time. “I can’t, baby,” he looked towards the ceiling and blinked again as he swallowed hard and then buried his face in her hair and inhaled. “I don’t know how to.”
-|3u/\/\|o-
He didn’t know how long he had been there with Jenna. It could have been hours and it could have been minutes or even seconds. All he knew was that he didn’t care. But, when he a car skid into their driveway he looked towards the door, when someone started hammering the door he exhaled the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, and when Kripke’s voice sounded behind the door, he began to cry in earnest and held Jenna closer.
“It’s open, Eric! It’s open! Help. Please help! It’s open-Help her.”
Seconds later the sound of a several hurried footsteps entered the kitchen. He looked to see Eric surrounded by a bunch of paramedics. “Eric,” Jared tried, but just couldn’t bite back on the sob that ripped from his throat. He turned back to Jenna to tell her help had come, but noticed she wasn’t conscious and shook her shoulder almost violently while he screamed. “Oh god! Oh god! Eric! No, no, no! Jen, please.” He pulled her form closer and began to rock. “Jen, please. Please don’t- oh god.”
He nearly smacked Eric’s hand away when he felt him squeeze his shoulder, but just managed to understand “Paramedics” “Help” and “Jenna” before he did and immediately gave Jenna’s slack body over to the paramedics without so much as a fight.
After relinquishing Jenna to the paramedics he drifted off, but hadn’t realized he had done so until Eric yanked at his ear a little too hard and set him off balance.
“C’mon, Jared, we gotta go.” Eric said. “C’mon, man.”
He blinked once and looked around to notice Jenna was nowhere to be seen and jumped to his feet without so much as a hand up. “Jenna!”
Eric’s hand appeared on his shoulder again. “It’s ok, man, the Meds have her. We have to follow- c’mon.” he didn’t resist when the shorter man turned him. The pale palour of the mans’ skin and the haunted look in his eyes set Jared on high alert again. “Eric, what’s-”
Eric shook his head and swallowed hard as he grabbed Jared’s hand and started to forcefully pull him towards the hall. “C’mon, Jared! Just c’mon. No time.”
Against his better judgement, Jared took one quick look at the floor at his feet and gagged violently. The only thing keeping him from emptying the contents of his stomach on Eric’s shoes was his hand, which he had shoved in his mouth as soon as his eyes took in the sight of the large, sticky, black pool of blood. Of which he stood right in the middle of and had discoloured the knees of his jeans to a sickening wine colour.
“I know, man,” Eric’s voice held such a sharp tinge of remorse Jared’s stomach physically shuddered. “But we gotta go.”
The 15-minute car ride took less than 7, but to Jared felt more like 7 hours then 7 short minutes as he waited with his hand poised on the door handle of Eric’s car, ready to dive as soon as they go to the hospital.
The car hadn’t even come to a complete stop before Jared was out of the car and running towards the doors of Emergency.
-|3u/\/\|o-
When Eric found him 3 minutes later, he was curled into a ball in the corner of the empty waiting room and rocking back and fourth. When he moved to stand in front of him, he knelt slowly and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder as a show of support. However, before he could blink, he found his hand being squeezed so tightly he was sure his knuckles were popping and both arms full of a 6’5” sobbing wreck of a man. Jared had reached out and wrapped his arms around his neck so quick Eric hadn’t really realized what had happened until he felt Jared’s tears begin to wet the shoulder of his shirt.
He swallowed hard against the sudden lump of emotion in his throat and stroked Jared’s back a couple times. “Hey, man, it’ll be alright. Just watch.”
Jared’s cries grew suddenly louder as he squeezed Eric tighter.
“It’s alright, man. Let it out. It’s alright.” Eric adjusted Jared’s hold ever so slightly and moved closer in an attempt to take his mind off just how useless he felt at that moment in time.
-|3u/\/\|o-
Jared was shaken awake some hours later, and all he had to do was blink twice, notice a man in a white lab coat standing beside a haggard looking Kripke, and he shot up like an arrow.
“The doctor wants ta talk to you.” Kripke said.
Jared advanced on the doctor as Eric stepped back. “Is she alright? What happened? Where is she? Can I go see her?”
The doctor held up his hand and exhaled slowly. “You’re wife is fine, Mr. Padalecki, but I’m afraid the baby didn’t make it.”
Jared’s eyes bulged from his head as his face paled considerably and his Adam’s apple bobbed feverishly in his throat. “Excuse me?”
“The baby didn’t make it, Mr. Padalecki. From what I could tell, it appeared to be caused because the fetus had a severe case of Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. A rather severe birth defect; Not a common, but not entirely unseen. It appears in-“
“Uh…wait! Wait!” he exclaimed and held his hand up.
The doctor paused.
“You knew-I mean you could tell that?”
The doctor nodded slowly. “Your wife was 14 weeks along, Mr. Padalecki.” He stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Therefore, when Jared’s legs gave out from under him, the doctor hadn’t have time to react; However, Eric had been watching the exchange diligently, and was there to guide Jared as gently to the floor as he possibly could.
The doctor dropped to one knee and cast the young man a concerned look. “Didn’t you know how far along she was, Mr. Padalecki?”
Jared, who since collapsing had stayed quiet, suddenly burst into tears; Large, wet tears that left his chest aching and him almost entirely breathless. He shook his head wildly and lowered his chin to his chest. He then brought his hands up and slapped them over his ears.
The doctor froze. Unsure of what to do. “Mr. Padalecki? Mr. Padalecki, are you alright? Mr. Pada-“
“No,” a strange voice said suddenly and the doctor looked up to the man who had been in the waiting room with Jared as he spoke again. “No, he didn’t know how far along she was.” He got to his feet as the balding man choked a bit before continuing. “He didn’t know she was pregnant. Neither of them did.”
“Oh my-“
“Yeah,” the man laughed mirthlessly as he stared wide-eyed at Jared on the ground. “Uh, you-you- this is the first time he’s heard about it.”
“Oh my-“ the doctor repeated.
“I’m sorry.” He said quickly, and then turned his attention to Jared on the floor, ghosted his hand across his shoulder and repeated his apology before hurrying out of the waiting room.
-|3u/\/\|o-
They finally let him in to see her an hour later; Jared went into the darkened room with dry eyes because he had cried all his tears out in the waiting room and now only had itchy red eyes and a fiercely upset stomach. For the most part, he was happy Jenna was turned on her side away from him because he didn’t think he’d be able to handle the heartache he felt broadcast tenfold on her face.
Jared walked carefully to her bed and was just about to place his hand on the curve below her ribs when Jenna spoke up. “I guess they knew something we didn’t, huh?” the small mirthless laugh she used to punctuate the sentence made his eyes burn, but no tears fell.
“Ba-“ he stopped and corrected his words quickly. “Jenna, I-“
“They said it had a defect.”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “Wolf-Hirschhorn, I’ve never heard about it before.”
Jenna’s silent for a while after that. Jared began to retreat to the chair beside her bed, thinking she was sleeping, when she spoke up again. “It’s a chromosomal Abnormality. I had a cousin that had it.” Her shoulders began to rise and fall erratically and even in Jared’s dazed state of mind, he could tell she was trying hard to hold on to her tears. Quite similar to the tears he had shed quite publically in the waiting room an hour ago. “He died just before his second birthday.”
Jared opened his mouth to speak, but quickly found he had nothing to say and snapped it shut again.
Jenna’s shoulders jumped as she inhaled sharply. The beginnings of a sob floated through the air for just a split second before it disappeared and Jenna spoke. “Jared?”
He swallowed hard a couple times before answering. “Yeah?”
“Do me a favour?”
He nodded and then realized she wouldn’t see it. “Anything.”
“Hold me.”
Without even thinking twice, Jared advanced to the bed again, and patted her hip gently. “Move over.”
Jenna did so slowly, sucking in pain filled breathes every couple seconds, but once she was settled again she curled her arms into herself and sighed.
Jared watched her silently and then asked, “ya good now?” and didn’t move a muscle until she nodded. As slowly as could be, Jared sat on the bed, then twisted and brought his left leg up and then his right. Shimmed a bit on to his side, slid his left arm up and tucked it under Jenna’s head, and then placed his right arm carefully on Jenna’s waist and settled his head against the free side of her pillow.
The two lay like that for a while before Jenna spoke up again. Her voice sounded raw and torn. “Is it weird that I wanted it?”
Jared, who had been quietly dozing on the pillow, startled awake suddenly. “What?”
“You were sleeping,” Jenna laughed lightly, but quickly sobered. “Is it weird that I wanted it? As soon as I heard about it I wanted it.”
“No, honey, no, it’s not.” Jared closed his eyes, leaned his forehead against her head, and breathed in the sweet scent of her strawberry shampoo. “It’s not.”
“Good,” Jenna swallowed hard. “’cause I did,” the tears she had been trying to fight ripped from her throat without warning. “I wanted it so bad.”
Not knowing what else to do, Jared settled back against the pillow and pulled his girlfriend closer.
Jared knew it would be hard, but he knew if he worked together, they’d get past this. They had to. No way would he allow anything different.
This. This was just a bump in the road.