Chapter Text
“Marry me.”
Leanne lifted her head from Ethan’s bare chest. Her hazel eyes catching the slight grin on his face before settling on his oceanic blues. Leaning away from him slightly, she pulled the sheet that was covering them both close to cover her her bare chest.
She looked down at the white sheets, running her palm over the mellowed wrinkles beneath her hand. “Ethan, we’ve talked about this.” She mumbled quietly.
Ethan dropped his head and shook it a little, “I know, I know we did. I’m sorry.” He went to continue but stopped short and reached his hand out slipping it down the side of her face. “I just love you so much and...” he trailed off.
“And you shouldn’t need to see a ring on my finger to know that I am yours.” She tilted her head and raised her brow, her lips parted with a smile. She had thrown her tousled hair to one side and her makeup was still in tact from earlier in the day. She was gorgeous, glowing almost, and he didn’t understand how someone could possess such beauty every second of every day.
Ethan pursed his lips and bit the inside of his right cheek. He decided not to take the conversation any further, it was a mistake to have even brought it up in the first place. He didn’t want the conversation to manifest into the same outcome it had so many times before -- in an argument. He just wondered, silently of course, if Leanne would ever say yes.
Leanne grabbed the side of his face. “Hey--” she said almost at a whisper.
He looked up at her and smiled with one side of his mouth.
Leanne moved to closer to him, lifting her leg before climbing on top of him and letting herself once again sink down into his embrace. The warmth of his body was both inviting and comforting. She tucked her head under his chin and rested one of her arms at his side and the other by her face on his chest. She could hear his heart beating, it was slow and calm. Ethan’s arms wrapped her small frame, his hands resting in the hollow of her back - his fingertips dancing with the dips of her spine. Leanne’s fingers ran the rise and fall of his pectoral muscle, circling around the area of his nipple, her eyes contently settled in the same area.
“I am yours, and you…” She trailed off. “You are mine. Okay?” She picked up her head to look at him. Her hazels reflecting nothing but love for him. “There is no other place I would rather be.”
He paused for a moment before he teased her chin towards his, indicating that he wanted to kiss her. Holding her close, he pushed her bottom lip slightly above his own before she separated their connection with her tongue, running it slowly across his upper lip. Ethan hummed at this and brought his hands up her back and to the soft sides of her face. He held her back for a moment, taking the time to look into her calm mellow eyes. The two of them sat there, noses touching, looking into each other’s eyes. They took turns switching from one eye to the other before Ethan set their lips on a collision course once again. His hands moved from the side of her face back to her rib cage, where Ethan took the opportunity to cup one of her breasts. Gasping at his touch, she tilted her head to the side as Ethan moved from her mouth to the skin just below her earlobe. The act was short lived before Ethan leaned forward, placed a hand just above Leanne’s bottom, and flipped her onto her back. Starting back at her neck, Ethan’s lips traveled down her chest before settling in between her breasts. Trailing his lips to the side, he slipped one of her nipples into his mouth, sucking it softly and exploring it’s natural ridges. Leanne arched her back and parted her mouth letting out a seductive huff - Ethan smiled as he had realized that this happened every time he did this. Switching to the other breast he ran his hand down the side of her body where he grasped her thigh, squeezing a little as she drove her fingers down his back. Leanne brought her hand to the side of his rough whiskery face and brought him back up to her mouth. Settling her hands on his bottom, Ethan pressed his lower half against her causing her to emit a low husky moan. The two of them teased each other like this for a while before Ethan slowly and gently slipped himself inside of her. The two of them rocked and whispered to each other breathlessly as they made love the way they had so many times before, relishing in the physical rhythms of their bodies.
--
Leanne was rummaging around the break room grabbing herself a cup of coffee before her shift started. Things had been in such a rush this morning that she hadn’t even gotten the chance to make a pot of coffee before leaving the house. Leanne went to reach for the milk in the fridge when a slight dizzy spell cause her to stop what she was doing. Placing a hand on the side of her temple, she furrowed her brow and closed her eyes. Ethan had walked in right at that very moment seeing Leanne’s body sway.
“Hey, babe. You okay?” He rested a hand on the small of her back.
She had been feeling lightheaded all morning but refused to call in sick knowing that the feeling would pass. Her body had been sending her clues that menopause was moving in. She hadn’t had her period in months and her mother struggled with these same dizzy spells when she too was going through the change.
Shaking the feeling off, she nodded to Ethan and walked back to her cup of coffee. She seemed fine so he shrugged it off and followed closely behind. “Hey, so I brought you a banana. I know your stomach has been a little squirrely lately and that you didn’t get the chance to grab a bite before we left this morning…I hope this is okay.” He opened up her hand and placed the yellow fruit in her palm.
She turned to him and smiled, “It’s perfect and you’re sweet. Thank you.” Leanne rolled onto the balls of her feet and leaned in to kiss him. Peeling the fruit, Leanne began to eat it when Ethan’s pager began going off.
“Ah, that’s Carly.” He shoved the beeper back in his pocket before looking up at puzzled Leanne.
“Carly with the inflamed appendix?”
“Yeah that’s the one. They won’t quit paging me, something must be going on.” He looked back down at the beeper. “Gotta run, babe.” He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek before turning towards the door.
Leanne tilted her head in sympathy, “Poor girl. I’ll talk to you later.” She mumbled covering her mouth, half chewing and half talking.
Ethan turned back and smiled before he ran down the hall to centre stage. Leanne swallowed the last of her banana, throwing out the peel before she picked up her coffee and began moving in the same direction as Ethan had just left. Forgetting her key card, she turned around to go retrieve it but within seconds, the back of her head tightened and the room began to spin again. Dropping her coffee on her feet she jumped back as the scalding hot liquid leaked into her shoes.
“Shit.”
She backed into the countertop and waited there until the dizziness ceased. Frowning, she grabbed the mop out of the far corner and brought it over to the brown puddle on the ground. Jesse walked in halfway through her mop job and raised a brow.
“Trust me when I say you look hotter as a doctor than you do as a hospital janitor. Stick with your day job.”
Leanne rolled her eyes and shook her head before swaying to the side again. Jesse lurched over to her as fast as he could and grabbed her elbow.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You okay?” He looked her up and down. “Daddy?”
Leanne’s eyes were closed and she had subconsciously grabbed onto Jesse’s arm for balance. “Yeah I just…” She swallowed. “I just spilt some coffee.”
“No, I meant what happened just now? I know you’re clumsy. You spilling coffee? Yeah, it happens like every day.”
Leanne winced as another wave came and went. When she came to she realized she had been clenching onto Jesse’s sleeve to the point where her knuckles were white. She turned to him for brief moment before he dropped his chin and raised a brow almost as if he were attempting to diagnose her.
“Are you okay? I need to know if you’re stroking out or something.” Jesse groused.
She blinked a couple times before responding, “I’m fine. I just uh…” She shook her head a little. “I’ve just been having these weird dizzy spells lately. It’s gotta be menopause, my mom had the same thing… then again I could have the flu or something because my stomach hasn’t been 100% either.”
“I don’t like the sounds of that. Maybe you should take the day off?”
Leanne frowned at him, letting go of his sleeve. “Don’t be ridiculous Jesse.” She handed him the mop and walked out of the room completely avoiding the conversation. She knew he wouldn’t let up.
Jesse walked out into the hall after her. “Oh I see, so now I’m the new janitor...” He shouted after her. “Jokes on you! I like cleaning up other people’s messes! Hence why I became a nurse!” She lifted up her hand and waved without turning around. He shook his head and made his way back into the break room to finish cleaning up Leanne’s spill.
--
“Leanne!”
She spun around to see Jesse waving her over to a critical patient who was just brought to centre stage. She closed the chart she was writing in and ran over and took a quick look at his condition. Glancing at the patient’s monitor, she worked as fast as she could to get her rubber gloves on. Suddenly, blood began bubbling out of the patient’s mouth. Leanne pressed her stethoscope into the right side of the patient’s chest listening for any form of oxygen getting through to his lungs. Nothing.
“Ok, uh, he needs a chest tube right now!” Leanne voiced rather aggressively. “Let’s go people! This man doesn’t have tim--” A wave of nausea came and hit her like a freight train. Pausing in the middle of the chaos, she swallowed hard and brought a hand up to her mouth.
“Leanne, you okay?”
Leanne turned around and met Ethan’s concerned gaze. He was assisting Mario on a patient at the next bed behind Jesse, who’s face was also written with concern. She frowned a little at him before returning to the patient. Grabbing a scalpel from the tray beside her, she leaned in towards Jesse indicating for him to help her put on her glasses. Right as Jesse grabbed the glasses from her neck and slipped them onto the brim of her nose, she felt another swell of nausea tease her throat. Squeezing her eyes shut as hard as she could, she struggled hold down whatever was threatening to come out.
Leanne shook her head and dropped the scalpel back on the sanitized tray. “I’m sorry, I need someone else to take care of this.” She ripped off her scrub cover, throwing her rubber gloves on the floor before she began to walk hastily down the hall. Jesse was quick on her heels - for a small woman with short legs, she was speedy.
“Leanne?”
Hearing him behind her she shook her head, “Jesse, unless you want me to vomit on your shoes, let me go please.” She had a hand over her mouth and she didn’t dare take her focus from the bathroom at the end of the hallway. With her stomach contents beginning to threaten her once again, she quickened her pace to a jog, pushing herself into the single toileted bathroom where the door slammed behind her. Without hesitation, Jesse followed her in and ran to her side where he grabbed her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. He cringed at her heaving, rubbing her back as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the bowl below her.
“Annnnd courtesy flush.” Jesse said as he pressed the cold metal handle down once Leanne was finished. Wiping the moisture from her mouth, Leanne pushed herself up from the porcelain bowl and sat down against the wall. Jesse grabbed her a wet paper towel and dabbed the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead. Sliding down the wall, he sat himself beside her silently worrying.
Leanne leaned her head back into the wall and slowly turned towards Jesse, raising a brow.
“I need you to give me a blood test.”
Jesse tilted his head in curiosity.
“This doesn’t feel like a pesky little flu. Something’s up.” She cleared her throat. “I’ve been nauseous and dizzy on and off for a month now and it’s starting to affect my job. I told you earlier that I thought it was menopause but ones doesn’t barf their guts out with menopause.”
She sighed and looked back at the ceiling. Jesse looked down and grabbed her hand, shaking it a little. “Okay.”
--
Jesse walked into Leanne’s office to find her giving herself a shot of gravol - something to ease the nausea she was feeling. He could see that she had been attempting to clear a tall stack of charts but hadn’t gotten far. Putting the syringe down, she looked up when she heard the door close.
“Hi Mama. Are those my results?” She smiled looking up over her glasses.
Jesse nodded.
“You did run them as a Jane Doe right? I don’t need people knowing my business.”
“Of course, Daddy.”
She reached out her hand but paused midway when she noticed the expression on the squatty Puerto Rican’s face. Obviously he didn’t wait until she was around to look at her results. They were supposed to be confidential but she knew he looked out of love. Despite this, she couldn’t ignore the solemn expression on his face. The smile that was once pushing at the corners of her mouth just moments ago faded immediately. “Jesse?”
He slowly placed the chart into her open hand.
“Quit it, you’re scaring me.” she said as she found it hard to tear her eyes from his face. Licking her bottom lip, she looked down and hummed a little as she opened the chart. Dragging her finger calmly down the page, she paused when it came into contact with the irregularity - the reason why she had been feeling so sick. “My hCG levels…they’re high.” Leanne’s voice trailed off.
Jesse saw her freeze and nodded solemnly in response.
Slowly meeting his gaze once again, she raised her brow and parted her lips in disbelief. “I’m pregnant.”