Aimee wasn't remotely bothered by the odd looks she was receiving from the other patients in the surrounding beds, and took no notice of them; in fact, she didn't take much notice of anything until Jared walked onto the ward, and then all she could see was him. He looked wrecked, like he'd had no sleep for about a week, and it was obvious he'd been crying. She pushed herself up on the pillows, fumbling with the thin duvet and even thinner blanket, trying to get them to sit comfortably around her as Jared reached her bed, brushed her hair out of her eyes and sat down in the chair beside her. She tried to allow his words to comfort her, but her heart rate sped up in reaction to the look on his face when two doctors approached them.
"Jared," she murmured, pulling the duvet closer to herself almost protectively; the flimsy hospital gown she was wearing didn't leave much to the imagination, and even with the knowledge that these doctors had probably seen her in much less, she still felt the need to protect her dignity. "What's going on? What's happened? Why am I in here?"
"You had an accident, Miss Fields," the first, closest doctor said softly. He was the older of the two, and had a pleasant sort of face. "I'm afraid you've been unconscious for three days."
"An accident?" Aimee looked confused. Looking down at herself, she saw an IV attached to the back of her hand, and other wires and tubes sticking out from various places under the duvet. One of them was hooked up to a heart-monitoring machine. What had she done to get herself into such a state?
Casting her mind back, she could remember Joe turning up at Jared's place and kicking off. There'd been a fight, Joe had elbowed her in the stomach, and then nothing.
"I fell," she whispered; and then again, a little louder. "I fell. There was a fight - I got hit, and I fell. Was that the accident?" Her gaze darted to Jared's for reassurance, but his eyes were on the floor.
"Yes," the younger doctor confirmed for her.
This only confused Aimee more. "But that's not enough to land me in hospital - I landed on the floor, hit my head maybe, but I can't have done that much damage." A thought suddenly occurred to her, her eyes widening, and when she spoke again her voice was shrill and scared. "Wait. I'm pregnant!" She turned to Jared, desperate for information - “You told them I was pregnant, didn't you?" - and then back to the doctors. "I'm pregnant!"
"No you're not," the younger doctor muttered, with an almost mocking tone to his voice. "You can't have a fall like that and expect to wake up pregnant."
"Keith!" the older doctor hissed, before turning back to the young couple with a saddened expression. This was the second time he'd had to break this news.
"I'm sorry, Miss Fields, but your boyfriend called the ambulance because of complications with the baby."
Aimee stared at the older doctor like he had two heads. "Complications with the baby?" she eventually managed to squeak. "But that-- that means..."
"I'm afraid you miscarried in the ambulance. There was nothing we could do to save your daughter."
Aimee's hands flew to her stomach, ridiculously trying to feel her unborn child, wanting any sort of confirmation that what the doctors were telling her was utter nonsense. But whatever she was looking for, she didn't find it.
"Jared," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "Jared, my baby. My baby. Our baby."
A wave of sadness crashed over her, crushed her, and she doubled over to sob without restraint, overwhelmed by the gut-wrenching heartbreak of losing her child. Patients in nearby beds averted their gaze, wanting to give the grieving mother what privacy they could. In response to a short nod from the older doctor, the man apparently named Keith advanced on her and slid the tip of a needle into her arm. Aimee didn't resist; she welcomed the sedative, and after a few moments slipped into the seductive blackness, grateful for the opportunity to escape reality and the agonising knowledge that she had lost her baby, and nothing could ever be the same again.