“Hurry up though, OK?” I asked, giving him my begging face.

He smiled. “I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised, kissing my forehead and leaving quickly. I closed my eyes and listened to the noisy ward and waited for him to come back.

Liam was back within five minutes with a pre-packed sandwich and a drink. “Hey, I’m not sure if you’re allowed these yet, so you’ll have to wait until the nurse comes to stitch your head. I didn’t miss that, did I?” he asked worriedly.

“No, you didn’t miss it.” I smiled at how thoughtful he was all the time.

He sat down on the little chair and held my hand. The nurse came in a few minutes later and stitched up my head, apparently, I needed six stitches. I made Liam distract me the whole time, he was actually the best painkiller known to man. Maybe I should try to bottle him somehow, and then sell it. I’d be rich!

Finally, after an hour and a half, the doctor came back. “Hey, so I’ve got your blood test results back and it appears it wasn’t the lack of food that made you pass out,” he said, looking at me seriously. Liam tensed next to me, squeezing my hand, leaning so far forward in his chair that it wouldn’t surprise me if he fell off any second.

“OK, so what was it?” I asked curiously. It couldn’t be anything bad. I was only sixteen for goodness sake, I didn’t smoke, didn’t drink very much, I wasn’t overweight, I exercised regularly. I mean, I shouldn’t be able to get ill, should I?

“You’re pregnant,” he stated.

I burst out laughing. Damn, that was funny, he almost had me there. I shook my head, still chuckling. “Seriously, what was it?”

He looked from me to Liam. “You’re pregnant,” he repeated.

I stopped laughing immediately. I couldn’t be pregnant. No, this was a mistake. “I can’t be, I’m on the pill. I’ve taken it every day; I’ve not missed a single one. I take them at exactly eight o’clock every morning,” I protested, shaking my head, it had to be something else. I looked at Liam; he was looking at the doctor, his mouth hanging open.

“Well, when was your last period?” the doctor asked.

I looked at Liam again. “Two weeks ago. I’m on the pill where you stop taking it for a week, so it was definitely two weeks ago. I’m due to have my next one the week after next,” I said positively.

“And your period, what was it like? As heavy as normal?” the doctor asked, scribbling on his pad again.

As heavy as normal? I thought about it. Actually, it was really light, but that was because I was on the pill, Kate said it made your periods lighter. “It was light but I definitely had one, two weeks ago. I can’t be pregnant,” I said sternly.

“Sometimes you can still have very light periods through pregnancy. It’s called spotting. How long have you been on the pill?” he asked curiously.

“Six weeks,” I replied, quietly.

This couldn’t be right. Please tell me this is some kind of huge mistake, or even one of those hidden camera shows and people are going to jump out and shout ‘Gotcha’ any minute.

“And when you started taking it, did you take it on the first day of your period?” he asked.

I shook my head. “It was a couple of weeks after my period. What difference does that make?” I asked, starting to get nervous.

“Right, well, when you start taking the pill you need to start on the first day of your period and then it will be effective straight away. If you take it within five days, it will be effective after two weeks, but if you start on any other day then you need to start your second packet before it takes effect,” he explained softly.

So that means it didn’t even start to work until two weeks ago when I started my second pack and we had been having unprotected sex the whole time! Liam was still staring at him. He hadn’t said anything at all, I wasn’t even sure if he was breathing. He was sitting so still that it was like he was a statue.

“I’m going to get a portable ultrasound machine and we’ll have a little look, OK?” the doctor suggested, smiling kindly as he disappeared out of the curtain.

“Liam?” I whispered. He was honestly scaring me a little, I’d never seen anyone be so still in my life, it wasn’t natural. He didn’t answer. The doctor came back and I watched as he squirted some gel on my stomach and pressed a little thing that looked like a small microphone to my stomach, rolling it around.

Oh crap, please let this be a mistake.

He stopped, holding it still and nodded. “Yep, definitely pregnant. I’d say from the sizes here, you’re about four, maybe five weeks. You want to see?” he offered, holding the little handset out to me.

“No,” I refused, pushing it away quickly.

I didn’t want to see because then I wouldn’t be able to do what needed to be done. I couldn’t have a baby, we were too young, it would ruin everything. We’d only just got together; there was too much going on. Liam would be leaving me for college soon, we couldn’t have a baby. I wouldn’t ruin Liam’s dreams, he’d always wanted to play hockey and I wouldn’t take that away from him. I couldn’t look at the little handset; I couldn’t see the little baby in there because I needed to stay strong.

“You don’t want to see?” the doctor asked, looking a little confused.

I shook my head. “No. I want an abortion,” I said sternly.

Liam moved. Oh thank God, finally!

“An abortion? What? Why?” he cried, shocked.

I looked at him; he was looking at me, horrified, as if I’d just suggested clubbing a seal or something. “Because it needs to be done,” I said, looking away from his intense stare. I turned to the doctor. “Can I get it done today? What do I need to do?” I asked, nervously.

“Well, there’s two ways; a medical abortion, which is a pill today and tomorrow, which would basically bring on a period. Or there’s a surgical one which would need to be done under general anaesthetic and we would basically remove everything,” he explained in his business like tone.

I cringed. I hated the sound of both of those, but I needed to do this. I couldn’t think of it as a baby, a tiny little Liam, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get rid of it.

“Can you give us a minute?” Liam requested. The doctor nodded and walked out quickly. “Angel, what the hell are you doing?” Liam asked once we were alone. He took my hands, looking at me like I had lost my mind or something.

“Liam, we can’t have a baby! I’m sixteen. You’re going to college. We can’t,” I explained, shaking my head.

He shook his head. “Angel, think about this, please? I love you, you love me. I want us to have kids one day. I mean, shit, this is A LOT sooner than I thought.” He blew out a big breath, running a hand through his hair, nervously.

“Liam, we can’t. You’re going to college in Boston for goodness sake; I can’t raise a baby on my own. Don’t be ridiculous!” I cried, shaking my head. He wasn’t thinking this though properly.

He climbed onto the bed, laying next to me. “Angel, just hear me out, OK?” he pleaded. I nodded and looked at him, unable to see what he could say to make this right. There was nothing he could suggest, there was no other way. “I love you more than anything in the world. Before this happened I was going to reject my scholarship and go to a college here instead,” he started. I opened my mouth to tell him he was being stupid, but he covered my mouth, looking at me pleadingly. “I wanted to ask you to come with me to Boston. But I can’t ask you to move away from your home and Jake and your friends, so I decided to stay here with you instead,” he said, shrugging.

Jeez, he is so damn adorable and sweet and thoughtful. But how the hell does any of this relate to us having a baby, meaning that he probably wouldn’t get to go to college anyway as he’d have to drop out and get a job? I’d have to drop out of school without even graduating.

He smiled as he continued to try and convince me. “We could make this work; I know my mom would help out. I’ll go to college and get a job in the evenings and weekends to earn some money. You’d have to either finish school by correspondence, or we could get a childminder so you could go to school. Or maybe even my mom would do it,” he suggested, looking at me hopefully. “That’s our first baby in there, Angel. That’s a baby that we made together. Can you just think about it, please? It’ll be hard for a little while, but once I get signed by a team, I’ll be able to give you anything you want. Both of you,” he cooed, rubbing his hand over my stomach lightly.

“Liam, I don’t want to ruin your future,” I whispered.

He smiled and kissed me lightly. “Angel, you’re my future,” he countered, slipping his hand under my top, and placing his hand on my stomach.

I looked at his gorgeous face; his blue eyes were sparkling with love as he stroked his hand across my stomach. “I didn’t do this to trap you,” I said nervously.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “You trapped me when you were four years old. You were wearing a dark blue dress with a bow on the back, and little white socks. The first time I saw you I was trapped. This,” he drew a little pattern on my stomach with one finger, "this is a bonus. Sure, I wasn’t expecting it for about five or six years, but still…. it’s a bonus,” he said, grinning.

Could we really do that? He would stay here with me? “Would you really stay with me here and give up your scholarship?” I asked a little shocked. He worked so damn hard for that scholarship, it was such an awesome opportunity, and he would give it up for me and a baby?

He smiled. “Angel, if you want to get rid of the baby because you don’t want it, then I could understand, but don’t do this for me. I want to stay here with you. If you weren’t pregnant I’d still be turning down the offer,” he vowed, scooting closer to me on the bed, wrapping his arms around me.

I buried my face into his chest and closed my eyes; I wanted to have kids with him one day too. I could see myself holding a little baby that had Liam’s blue eyes and messy hair. Granted, when I pictured it I was a lot older than I am now, but I could still see it, and I liked it. Maybe we could make this work. The baby wouldn’t be short on love, and once people got over the shock of it, they’d understand. I had no doubt in my mind that Liam’s mom would help out too. And Jake, once he got over the initial anger of everything, he’d be a great Uncle.

Liam pulled away from me slightly. “I swear I’d be the best dad in the world,” he promised.

I smiled; I didn’t doubt that for a second. I kissed his lips, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. I loved him so much, more than anything. I knew we could make it work, a little family. He pulled out of the kiss to look at me with a hopeful expression on his face.

“OK,” I agreed.

He grinned and kissed me again, moving so he was half on top of me. I noticed he put none of his weight on my stomach, he was being super gentle. He kissed down my neck, getting lower and lower. He hitched my top and kissed all over my stomach before pulling up to smile at me.

“I love you,” he whispered.

I pulled him closer to me. “I love you too, baby daddy,” I teased, making him laugh.

He wrapped his arms around me, laying close to my side. I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heart beat flying as I slipped one hand down my body, resting it on my tummy, rubbing my fingertips over it lightly.

I kissed Liam’s chest. How the hell could such an adorable, gorgeous, sweet, kind, funny, talented and responsible boy, want me? How could he love me as much as I can see he does? I couldn’t help but smile. Laying in Liam’s arms, I actually felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I got to have a baby with the man I love.

After a couple of hours I was discharged. Apparently, Liam was to wake me up every hour to make sure I didn’t have concussion or anything. We’d agreed not to tell anyone about the baby yet. It was so early and we were only just getting our heads around it - we didn’t need any interference from anyone else.

“Shall we call a cab or something?” I asked as Liam walked me out of the hospital, holding me tightly to his side.

He grinned. He’d been doing that a lot for the last couple of hours; I actually think he was really excited about being a dad which I had never seen on an eighteen year old before.

“No. Jake left us his car. He went home with Johnny and gave me his keys,” he explained, guiding me to the parking lot. He helped me into the car, even putting on my seatbelt for me. His hand lingered over my stomach as he pulled it away.

My head was pounding; the painkillers they gave me were starting to wear off. I rested my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. It was going to be hard lying to Jake. I hated lying and was actually really terrible at it, but it needed to be done for a few weeks. We just needed to let the whole abusive father thing settle down first, that would give us a chance to sort out everything in our own heads. I still had the money from the bet, I hadn’t spent any of it yet so that would help with all of the things we needed to buy for having a baby.

When we pulled up at my house, I didn’t even get out of the car before Jake attacked me into a hug. “Shit, you scared the hell out of everyone, Amber!” he scolded.

I smiled and hugged him back. “Sorry, Jake. I didn’t exactly plan to pass out in front of everyone and bang my head, did I?” I replied sarcastically as I rolled my eyes. Why the hell is he mad at me for getting sick?

He sighed and pulled back. “So, what did they say? Why did you pass out in the first place?” he asked, looking concerned.