“Oh. My. God.”

Dahlia clutched at her chest, breathing hard, as she leaned against the door of her bedroom. She still couldn’t believe that Camille had found her going at it with Jared. Well, they weren’t going at it, but still! With her legs around him and his hands up her shirt.

“Oh my god, I really am going crazy. I can’t do this anymore.” She threw herself on her bed. “I'm ridiculous. This is all fake!” What would her parents say about all of this? A marriage is a marriage, Dad would say. Why did you sleep with him? Mom would ask. They’d be so mad that she hadn’t told them yet about this.

“And no one is going to know ever…” she told herself. She realized, despite her cold approach to the situation the whole series of events had really affected her. She felt broken, used, and confused. Why should she feel used, though? She was the one that had seduced Jared. It was also in a way to make him feel better about himself. She blamed Camille for all the insecurities. Moaning about it now wouldn’t change the fact that it’d happened.

She felt a hot tear slide down her face as she hugged the pillow to her chest. She was lonely. She had slept with Jared because she was lonely, trying to prove some type of worth, and because she wanted to help him… did that make her easy like he had commented? Well, it wouldn’t happen again! The whole situation was emotionally draining.

After about an hour she finally cried herself to sleep.

...

A month passed by and everything was still the same. She didn’t get why Jared wouldn't tell his mother to leave. She’d been there for over a month now.

Things between herself and Jared had changed, and how would they not? They had already talked about it that one night his mother had walked in on them making out like teenagers. Things had been strained since then, and for some insane reason, she felt like everything would break down at any second. One day he’d wake up and decide he didn’t want her in his house anymore. It felt like walking around on fragile glass with a grenade in her hand about to explode.

Jared hadn’t really sat down to speak to her like they used to before. They hadn’t spent any time alone at home watching TV, or simply being in the same room, even if just in silence. At work, there were times he seemed a little moody, but to the other nurses it wasn’t anything different as he had a record of being so most of the time. He didn’t scream at her but did seem indifferent towards her. Where he would normally stop by her office, or make a dumb joke at her, now he remained in his office unless he was needed. There definitely was no joking around anymore, and the other nurses noticed this difference, though they didn’t mention it.

They figured he was having family problems that made him be even grumpier than usual, even to his “favorite” nurse. Nobody asked her about it, and she never commented on it either. She didn’t bother to tell them that they were right on the dot, it was family problems, and she would never let them hear out of her mouth that she had been the reason for his mood change.

She felt a little sad and lonely.

….

“Hey, doctor, you have a minute?”

“Huh?”

“A minute.”

Jared looked up from his computer screen to Mary Anne standing in the doorway.

“What’s going on?”

“Can you go see a wound on a patient that’s being triaged? I wanted to say we could help him, but it seems bad. He might need more than just some stitches.”

“Sure, let’s do this.”

He followed Mary Anne down the hallway to one of the rooms. He could hear people inside, all talking at once. He knocked twice before a female voice told him to go in.

He found Dahlia squatting in front of a man who was sitting on the exam table, pant leg rolled up. A woman was sitting on the chair next to him, watching as Dahlia dabbed at the man’s leg with a wet gauze as she poured some saline over it.

“Hello everyone, I’m Doctor Dale. What’s going on?” he asked as he watched her clean out the man’s wound. She didn’t look up  at Jared, and it was the man that answered in a strained voice. The man introduced himself as Thomas.

“I dropped a carving knife off the counter as I was pulling some dishes off the rack. I don’t even know how I managed to stab myself on the shin, but all I know is that it was a lot of stinging pain, a lot of bleeding, and now it just hurts.” He winced when Dahlia dabbed a particularly sore looking area. Putting some gloves on and squatting next to Dahlia, Jared poked at the area surrounding the wound.

“It looks pretty inflamed and feels warm, too. It looks like it might be very infected.” He discarded his gloves in the trashcan. “I think it might need more than just stitches. There’s a foul smell and nasty discharge coming out. The cut is deep, I’m surprised you still seem very calm about this whole deal. You might need some IV antibiotics. I need for you to go over to the ER.”

“Great…” Thomas sighed, looking over at the woman who glared at him.

“Didn’t I tell you that it looked bad? You never listen to me.”

“Well, I didn’t think that it was this bad,” he grumbled, and Jared chuckled. He shook the woman’s hand and she introduced herself as the wife.

“Well, Thomas my man, my advice to you would be always listen to your wife. But yeah, it would be best if you head to the ER now, okay?”

“Yeah, I will.” Thomas sat patiently as Dahlia finished wrapping his leg up and then rolled down his pants leg. “Thank you, guys.”

“No worries,” Dahlia replied. They both waved the couple off at the exit.

.

Jared watched as Dahlia washed her hands at the sink, his hands inside his pockets. She was wearing maroon color scrubs today, her glossy Danskos making her seem about two inches taller than usual. Her hair was tied up in a tall messy bun that left her neck bare and looking more slender than usual.

His hands itched to touch it.

“I’m on the third season of ‘America’s Worst Cooks’ already,” he started, and she nodded. “I didn’t want to go on without you, but we haven’t gotten much time to hang out lately.”

“Yeah, we’ve both been very busy,” she said as she dried her hands, “Go on without me. I’ve seen the show twice over. It’s awesome.”

He washed his hands and followed her out the room.

“We can start the fourth season tonight if you want,” he said as he followed her down the hall to her office and she looked over her shoulder with a shake of her head.

“I don’t think we should.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

She sat behind her desk and looked at him standing in her doorway. He looked a little scruffy, having not shaved that morning. His scrubs, however, were as impeccable as ever. He was taller, older, more experienced than her. His skin was pleasantly tan from all those trips he took every year. He was just… Jared.

And in that moment, he seemed like the most delicious object in the whole room. She looked away quickly before he realized what she was thinking about him.

“Aren’t you a little weirded out about what happened between us?” she whispered, scared someone would hear.

He sighed and took the empty seat in front of her desk. “I won’t lie, it hasn’t been the best timing for things to happen, but it’s done. We can’t go back. We have to act like adults and move on.” She fiddled with some papers on her desk. “And I’m sorry if I hurt you with what I said. I never meant to make you feel that way. I know that you're not, err, easy."

“It’s fine. I think I overreacted, too.”

“So how about that show then?”

She eyed him nervously. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay. As long as you really think about it.” He stood up and walked to the door, looking back one more time, he said, “Just make sure that you really, really, think about it.”

She grinned despite herself. “I will.”

Giving her thumbs up, he walked out.

Dahlia sighed, leaning back on her chair, and stared at the empty doorway. He made it seemed very casual. He made it seem like everything was fine. Yet, he had ignored her for most of the last three weeks. She didn’t know what else to feel, but she knew that she couldn’t ignore the obvious attraction she felt for him.

Come lunch time, she had lost all her nerves about spending time with him. It was just TV! She told herself, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to believe it. She knew that things could not go back to the way that they’d been before.

She stared at the food in front of her, not feeling hungry at all. She couldn’t tell if it was because she was giving herself anxiety or if the food was making her queasy. She wasn’t hungry, and she realized that she hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning either because she'd been nauseous since she'd woken up.

She frowned.

Actually, she felt rather nauseous now, too.

“Ugh,” she said as she pushed her plate away and pinched her nose. Someone was heating up something fishy in the microwave and the smell of it hit her like a ton of bricks. “Oh my god!” She gagged as she covered her mouth.

She ran to the bathroom and into the first empty stall she could find, emptying whatever food had been in her stomach. Eyes tearing up with the burning taste of gastric acid in her throat, she wiped her mouth with some toilet paper and stared at the wall behind the toilet.

What the heck?

Sitting down on the toilet, she thought back to the last week and a half and frowned. There had been several times where she had woken up dizzy and nauseous in the mornings. She had almost stopped drinking her morning coffee altogether because some days she just couldn’t stand the smell, though she had started craving weird things like cauliflower and pickles.

She stopped. When was the last time she had had her period? She had never really been regular, but she had never really felt this way either.

She quickly flushed the toilet, washed her hands, and went to grab her things from the break room, thanking her lucky stars that no one else was there at the moment. Taking the elevator to the main floor, she walked into the first lab she found. Grabbing a little pouch off the lab counter, she walked into the closest bathroom…

Five minutes later she gaped at the little stick in her hand.

“Oh my god.” She held her hands over her mouth, trying not to cry.

Two little parallel lines had never seen so daunting to her before.

When she was younger, she would often think to herself about how her life would be when she grew up. She'd marry a nice man who loved her, who would give her a big house, cute babies, and they would travel together. Her house would have enough space for family to come over and visit, and the backyard would be big enough to build her many dogs their own dog houses.

Now here she was, twenty-six years old, married to Jared and…

“Pregnant.” The word sounded foreign to her. She kept staring at the small stick in her hand as if hoping it suddenly would turn into just one line.

“Oh my god, what am I going to do?” she whispered and leaned against the counter, grabbing the counter with one hand and holding the stick to her chest with the other. “I'm not ready for this. Shit. What have I done? This is unexpected. I mean, I should have figured this could happen, but… He's going to kill me.” She threw the stick away and hurried down to her office.

How long ago was it that she’d been with him? About a month ago, now she was pregnant.

He was going to kill her. He was going to be so upset. He was going to think that she had done all this on purpose. Camille would have a field day! Freaking hell...

She paced around the small space in her office. What was he going to tell him?

She had made a mess out of all of this. If she hadn’t been so reckless, she wouldn’t be freaking out about this surprise. Why didn’t she think to use protection? She was a nurse who preached to teenagers and other patients about pregnancy and STDs, but she had made the first mistake she always told them not to do. She laughed to herself as she remembered her conversation with a sixteen year old this morning.

Jared didn’t even like like her. He obviously found her physically attractive enough to consummate the marriage, but now this? She felt her vision blur as hot tears filled her eyes. She thought about her father, the man who believed that she was smart enough to succeed in her field and become someone others could look up to… what would her father say now?

Her husband didn’t even love her. What would he say now about this child that was growing inside her, due to a situation she had initiated between them? Would he kick her out, or would he try to keep the child? 

“Are you okay?”

“Ah!” She jumped, wiping her face furiously and she turned her chair to face the wall. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine to me.” Alicia, one of the other nurses said. She had never seen Dahlia crying, and this caught her by surprise.

“I got a call. But everything is fine now. It has been resolved.”

“Okay… If you said so,” Alicia began. “We need you on the floor, if you have the time, okay?”

“Yeah, definitely. I’ll go right now.”

Alicia gave Dahlia one more look before turning and leaving the room.

“At least I have this job to keep me off my own issues,” she muttered to herself as she stood up to follow where Alicia had left, hoping this was just a nightmare.

...

"Jared Dale, when the hell am I going to meet my new daughter-in-law?"

Jared groaned as he heard his grandfather speaking loudly on the other end of the line. "Hello grandfather."

"Hello yourself! How come your witch of a mother has met your wife and not I? I'm the one whom you have a deal with after all!"

"It's been a rough couple months. We haven't had the time to plan anything yet. I think she's scared to meet anyone else in the family. I mean, she did meet my mother and that's enough to scar anyone." Jared rubbed his eyes. "We can set up a dinner sometime. Or we can visit you up in Washington."

"Actually, I'm in California this week. How about dinner at your house?"

"Oh, so it's still my house?" Jared asked sarcastically and winced when he heard his grandfather curse on the other end.

"Don't be sarcastic boy, I still need to meet this wife of yours." He paused. "I hope it's not one of those bimbos that you seem to befriend all the time."

"They're not bimbos." First Dahlia, now him? 

"Sure they are. They're after your money." His grandfather says casually.

"Why do you guys keep saying that?"

"Who?"

"You and Dahlia." He could almost see her face telling him 'i-told-you-so'.

"Oh. I like her already." Grandfather said with a laugh.

"Jesus..." Jared groaned. This old man was beginning to give him a headache.

"Alright, well I have to go. I'll call you about dinner later."

"But I have to talk to Dahlia-- Hello? Grandfather? Well, sh**t."

Jared stared at the screen. He'd hung up on him.

Today was going to be an utter s**t show. He wondered if he'd be able to keep his grandfather from murdering his mother. He was surprised that Dahlia hadn't decided to run for the hills just yet, although there was still time...

.....