Chapter 29: 28

'Answer' - ATEEZ

Unedited

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The waiting was the worst. Absolute torture. Sitting in the lobby waiting for some news about Syra. He had just been told to sit here and then the nurse ran off. No idea where she was. Couldn't even wait outside.

They hadn't even told Shahzad what injuries she had. They had reached her and checked a few things before abruptly clamming their lips shut and whisking her away in the ambulance and straight to the operation theatre. Shahzad could not chase them up as they had to patch him up, even though he insisted it was nothing major and that he needed news on Syra. But they refused to budge.

In the eyes of the law, he was nothing to her. They only had an Islamic marriage contract signed - they were not registered yet. As much as he hated the label, he said he was her boyfriend. That they were going to meet up, and that he had sent her with his cousin. And that they were not aware they were being followed by a lunatic who would crash into them.

It was around seven yet there was no sign of the sky darkening. As it always is in Britain summers, it was humid and suffocating as the air conditioning was faulty. All the windows were open wide and fans on full blast, people making constant trips to the refrigerated drinks.

He had sent Shahzad to Syra's house to inform them of what was going on. In his haste to get to the hospital, he had jumped of the railing, not bothering to run down the remaining stairs and consequently broke his phone. Oh well.

He leaned back and closed his eyes. He was drained. He had already kicked up a huge scene at the front desk when they refused to provide any news on her, other that she was still being operated on. He had even run through the corridors in search only to be unsuccessful. Some doors required a code or card for entry. In the end he dejectedly returned to the lobby to wait.

He was determined to make everything the past now. Cutting off any connections. No fights whatsoever. He had by now, accumulated roughly close to £100k, which he was safeguarding with his life.

Even better than you did with Syra.

He had let small obstacles get in between them. And in the end she got hurt. Because of him. If she wanted to, he would leave her. He was considering it. Yes, the time they had together was beautiful. But he had brought so much harm to her. He was so invested in his greed for money that he took her for granted.

"Mr Ahmed," came a soft motherly voice.

Zayn snapped his eyes open to see a short nurse standing in front of him, the bumps of her cornrows visible through the disposable mob cap. Her obsidian eyes greeted Zayn with warmth. A first. Most NHS workers were overworked and underpaid which made them grumpy. He stood up. (NHS is the national health services for my non-brits)

"We would like you to come along with us," she said. It was then Zayn noticed two other NHS staff behind her.

She begun to turn around before she noticed Zayn had made no move to follow her.

"I'm sorry, all your questions will be answered when we reach there. There was uncertainty over many things as to why we chose not inform anyone anything until those we cleared up. We're sorry for the inconvenience and grateful for you patience and cooperation," this time she had pulled her mask down to show her sincerity.

He had not been very cooperative in his opinion. He glanced down at her name tag which read Tamara Kone. But at least this woman was trying her best, so he nodded and followed after her. He was in no mood to talk.

He was lost in his thoughts on the way. No one engaged in any conversation, seeing how he hadn't spoken earlier. Soon they came to a stop infront of a door with a code. Tamara typed it in and pushed it open, holding it so the rest could enter.

The room was large, but curtains had been drawn. One of the other two staff nodded to Tamara, who went behind the curtain.

The blue eyes blonde spoke up,

"Nurse Kone should be back shortly. I'm Nurse Johnson and this is Nurse Kelly," she gestured to the ginger next to her.

He saw some chairs so he took a seat after nodding at the two. He didn't need answers from them. He just needed to see Syra.

Nurse Kone returned from behind the curtains. With something cradled in her arms.

A baby.

Eh?  Was this the deceased drivers child or something?

Nurse Kone looked at Nurse Johnson and Nurse Kelly before addressing Zayn,

"Congratulations Mr Ahmed,"

Zayn's brain stopped working. Had Syra had a successful surgery? Why the baby?

"Pardon?" he asked tentatively, still baffled.

Nurse Kelly huffed a little before clamming her lips shut after one stern look from Nurse Johnson.

"Well congrats on becoming a father. Meet your son,"

Zayn legit stopped breathing. Son? His son? He was a father? Syra had been pregnant after all? And they didn't know?

So many questions whirred through his mind as he shakily stood up, Nurse Kone walking over to him. He reached for the baby, his head resting the crook fo Zayn's arm while the other supported the baby from below. Plenty of practice from having a whole hoard of nephews and nieces and hound cousins.

Holding him felt like the most natural thing in the world. Zayn studied his face, still in the process of comprehending that this was his son. His eyes were closed as he shifted a little.

That face. He knew it anywhere. He had seen it in his own baby pictures. It was like copy and paste. And once he opened his eyes, there no denying that this was his own very son. One eye was a steely silver-grey just like his own, while the other was that familiar flash of emerald.

Woah. Zayn was captivated. Complete heterochromia.

He was so lost in marvelling at his son that he didn't notice all the nurses leaving, not before pulling back the blue curtains.

To reveal Syra.

She was sitting up in the hospital bed supported by pillows in a hospital gown, her straight brown-black hair scattered across the them. There was a drip inserted in her arm, her complexion a little pale and drained otherwise she looked happy. She was smiling at him.

Zayn smiled back, walking over to her. What he was feeling right now, it was indescribable. He never expected to be a father for a couple of years, but now that his son was in his arms, he would never change anything.

Yes, his son was unplanned. But not unwanted or unloved. A gift, rather.

"Zayn," Syra said as he sat down.

They held each other's gaze for a few moments, so many unspoken words exchanging between them.

"Lay him down for a moment, we need to talk," she said.

Zayn did so, stroking his son's cheek before turning his attention to Syra.

"Syra, I'm so sorry. What you went through because of me, it's unacceptable. I understand if you're angry or don't want to deal with me right now. Tell me, are you alright? What exactly happened to you-"

Syra laughed, reaching forward to place her hand over his mouth, shushing him.

"Just let me explain. Firstly, I'm the furthest thing from mad. Today has been a rollercoaster. So I'll tell you from the start. I was being grumpy because I thought I was PMSing but it was infact preanancy hormones. So I ignored your call. As I was waiting for you in the garden, I was drugged and taken away. I didn't regain consciousness until they were dragging me into the lift to go up to Vinnie's floor. Then, as you saw, I was chained to the wall and subsequently drugged again. It was empty then. When I regained consciousness, Vinnie was there. Decided to do that so he could 'turn me on' so I would come to him, 'like a bitch in heat' in his words. That's when you came. Then as I was running down the corridor to the lift, I felt my stomach squeeze so painfully. It was a contraction, but I didn't know at that time. I just thought it was a very painful period cramp.

Anyways they were still far apart at that time, but I was in labour. Which was strange because I had not yet reached the full term of nine months. I was still six months at that time. So I met Shahzad and we left the building unnoticed. Got in the Über and all. Thought it was all over and that. That was when another contraction hit me, and it was painful as fu- hell, so I screamed so loud. That was when the driver noticed the car tailing us. Which is why he thought I screamed. Shahzad thought I must have put pressure on some injury I had.

And that's when the car sped up and swerved around and zoomed into us from the drivers side. I blacked out after that. The guy in the car and the driver were killed instantly. I was brought here as I was in labour but I was unconscious. I myself wasn't injured majorly, but they were worried about the impact it had on the baby so they did a scan which was when I regained consciousness. And then the hard part came. The actual pushing. It wasn't as bad as the contractions. They gave me an epidural - I was a teen mum having her first kid. I also had no idea I was pregnant so I didn't know much on what to do. It took actually only twenty minutes to give birth to him, but with all that pain, it felt like 20 years.

Midway I was screaming for you, cursing at you, which lead them to a crazy conclusion: I was raped. I had told them I had a partner and was sexually active and they possibility of pregnancy wasn't unknown to me but all my tests came negative. They couldn't find out the reason why to that. As for why I didn't look pregnant, that just depended on the position of my uterus, so the baby grew in a way that my belly didn't protrude. They've had cases like that. And that he was born premature because I did have a few complications - the bleeding, which can cause miscarriages.

Yeah so that's why they weren't letting you in. Strange. Then they managed to contact our families and confirm everything. They're on the way - the accident has caused a lot of traffic. So, yeah," she finished with, smiling at him.

Zayn smiled back. He scooted forwards and reached for her, holding her jaw as he brought his lips down to meet hers. A soft, sweet kiss. Sharing words between them, expressing his relief and his happiness over the child. He held back from deepening it - she had just pushed a whole human out from her nether regions.

He pulled back and stared into her eyes, smiling, tearing up a little. He stroked her cheek softly as she ran her hands through his hair.

A sharp cry disturbed their little moment. Both turned to see their son awake, eyes wide open, crying. They looked at each other and laughed. This was one of the many things they were going to be getting used to.

Zayn stood up and reached for his son, rocking him in his arms before passing him to Syra. He was hungry or maybe just wanted his mother. Syra took him and kissed his little nose, cooing at him. Then she shrugged on her breastfeeding cover and begun nursing him. She looked back up at Zayn.

"When our families come, they're bringing some baby supplies with them. But once we get home you and I are going to have to go for some shopping," she said, grinning at him.

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Posting a lot as imma be out most of the day

I was smiling SO MUCH while writing this. I have baby fever. Esp after my sis had a kid. She got married at 18, had a kid at 19 now she's 20 with a 5 month old. I wanna be that one day. ;)

2100 words.