Work Text:
When Rebecca woke up, she felt floaty. She didn’t remember falling asleep. She didn’t remember much of anything.
It took her a few seconds of swimming through the fog to remember that she was in the hospital. Her water had broken early—again—and Sparrow had rushed her to the hospital. She’d been really insistent that she have a natural birth after her emergency C-section with Hero, and Normal had been born the next morning. It had gone smoothly, all things considered, but he’d been taken to the NICU. That had been a few days ago, hadn’t it…? Why did she feel so foggy now?
She finally registered the hand in her hair, petting her while she slept, and she knew it was Sparrow without having to open her eyes. She could tell by the way his fingers carded through her hair, his nails scratching against her scalp just the way she liked. Humming contentedly, she leaned her head into his touch.
“Rebecca?” Sparrow’s voice came, wavering and scared, from right by her ear, and she felt everything shift as he moved. He must’ve been leaning against the bed, his head beside hers. When he spoke again, his voice was above her now. “You’re awake?”
Rebecca nodded, and finally cracked her eyes open. She wanted to see her husband’s face, and Sparrow was looking down at her, relieved. His face was wet, like he’d been crying. He quickly wiped at his face, sniffling.
“What happened?” she asked, reaching a hand out to him. She felt a tug under her skin, and realized she still had an IV in. Hadn’t they taken it out? She’d had it out by the time she woke up last time, and that had been a major surgery.
Sparrow took her hand, holding it in both of his. “You don’t remember?”
Rebecca shook her head.
He let out a shaky breath and slowly eased himself back down into the chair at her bedside. “You just… started bleeding, out of nowhere,” he said slowly. “It was so much blood, Becca. I’d never seen….” he trailed off and blinked hard like he was trying to clear the afterimage from his eyes. “They were asking me your blood type and I realized I didn’t know. I had to call your dad.”
She didn’t know her blood type, either. She was honestly shocked her dad knew. “What’s my blood type?”
Sparrow snorted a tired little laugh. “AB-Positive. Universal recipient.”
Something in her chest tightened, but she was still too foggy to register the emotion. She squeezed Sparrow’s hand, and he squeezed it back three times. I love you.
“I’m sorry,” she said. She felt warmth on her cheek, but didn’t realize she was crying until Sparrow reached to wipe away her tears.
“I thought I was gonna lose you,” he whispered, his hand lingering on her face so his thumb could stroke her cheek. “They wanted to do a complete hysterectomy but you refused. The surgeon said I could override that, as your husband, and you threatened to divorce me.” He laughed again, but she could see on his face that he was just trying not to scare her.
“I’m really sorry,” she repeated, a miserable little whimper.
“It’s okay. You were scared, and I know–” Sparrow’s voice died in his throat and he had to take a deep breath and start again. “Being a mother is important to you. I get it.”
“I didn’t mean to… to scare you,” she said slowly. “I don’t wanna leave you.” She sort of meant leave like divorce, but mostly she meant it like die.
“I know,” Sparrow assured her. “The doctor told me we’re lucky this happened before they discharged you. If we’d been home…” He swallowed, Rebecca watching his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. “I scheduled the consultation for my vasectomy while you were in surgery.”
The severity of the ordeal clicked into place with his words, and she crashed back down to Earth. She hiccuped, feeling stupid for crying over that, of all things, and nodded. He had told her years ago, when they first started dating, that he’d get a vasectomy after they had a kid. She’d known this would happen eventually, but he’d put it off after Hero had been born, and then two years later they’d had a condom break and had left things up to fate, and now they were here. They had Normal, but at what cost?
She felt so guilty, and stupid, and sad. “Hold me?”
“You just had surgery, baby,” Sparrow murmured, pulling her hand up to hold it against his chest.
“We’ll be careful. I need you,” she insisted, her voice thick from tears.
Sparrow sighed, but he stood up from his chair and, carefully, helped her scoot against the far side of her hospital bed, making room for him to slot himself in beside her.
He kicked off his shoes and glanced up at the closed door before he climbed into her bed, sliding one arm behind her head and hooking his knee over her legs, fitting himself into the space beside her. He nosed against her neck, breathing her in. His hand found hers again, and he held it up to his mouth, kissing her knuckles.
“I love you, Rebecca. You know that, right? I can’t– I can’t lose you.”
“I know,” she whispered, sniffling. “I love you, too.”
“Promise me that you’ll never scare me like that again,” Sparrow insisted, squeezing her hand.
“I promise,” she whimpered, tilting her head against his.
“You have to live forever, okay? I need you.”
A giggle bubbled up from her chest despite her tears, and she nodded. “You promise, too,” she said, shrugging her shoulder to jostle him playfully.
Sparrow didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smile, just pushed her hair out of her face and said, “I promise.”