Chapter 98

Dylan POV

Insomnia...

I officially must have had insomnia, because yet another night had gone by with me getting zero sleep. Well, Maybe I had dozed for half an hour but it still was far from good enough. I was supposed to be getting stronger now that I was here, but everything in me was shutting down and I felt myself becoming more and more drained. The lack of sleep and the fact that the day was going to be long and tedious was making me really wish the ground could just swallow me up.

Still, I sighed and climbed out of the bed that was in the RV, there were already some clothes placed in the closet, so I grabbed a t-shirt that was at least two sizes too big for me and a pair of leggings that again would most likely hang off me like a sack, before making my way to the shower.

My scarred skin was always sensitive to the waters spray. Baths were absolutely fine, but showers, I had found that they often caused one of two main issues, either the pressure from the spray was too much for my mutilated skin, or the temperature would fluctuate so much that I'd feel the water burning. So naturally I set the shower to cold in anticipation and turned it on slowly making sure to keep the water pressure to a minimum.

I hated fucking showers.

By the time I was finished and halfway through getting dressed, a knock sounded on the RV door. I quickly slipped the top on and scooped my cold wet hair into a halfhearted bun before opening the door only to see Lewis. I should give him credit where it is due, he took one look at my face and instantly knew something was up.

"Goddess, did you get any sleep?!" He was quick to climb the small steps and stand in front of me, he raised his hand to cup my cheek which I was actually starting to love him doing, however For some reason unknown to me, I flinched away preparing myself to get hit, his movements were too fast for me to comprehend that he had good intentions.

Immediately he stopped in his tracks, and looked at me completely taken aback by my response, he held both his hands up quickly and took a step back away from me. I knew he would never hurt me and yet, my body reacted in a way that feared it. I chuckled in my usual awkward fashion and stepped back away from him.

"I slept a bit..." I ran my hand over my eyes out of exhaustion and shook my head then looked at his worried gaze. "Don't ask me if I'm ok..." I swallowed hard before walking to the door he just stepped through. "I'm fine, really, So Let's just get this over with"

The walk was quiet but it really wasn't uncomfortable. Having the beta with me never was. "Thank you... for coming today." My words came out daily quiet as we approached the medical tent. Lewis gave me a small smile in response and a nod of his head greatly reassured me and gave me the strength to walk in. Honestly this man's presence alone was enough to help me.

"Your grace." The doctor instantly greeted us and bowed low to me which in turn caused my eyes to roll. I really did hate that title. When he raised himself back to his standing position and met my form he gasped slightly. I really was a ghastly sight. When my eyes blinked their water away that formed from his reaction he let out a small cough to play off his disgust and looked at my sorrow filled orbs. "Forgive me, I wasn't expecting your condition to be so severe." Great, I must have really looked a state if the doctor was saying so. "Please take a seat, I will start with basic observations." He gestured to an actual hospital bed that was situated towards the back of the room. A panel room divider was then pulled over providing me with some privacy in the otherwise open spaced tent. Lewis took a seat on a small armchair that sat next to the bed and gave me yet another reassuring smile.

I did as the doctor asked and sat down on the bottom of the bed, waiting as he pulled an old cart of medical equipment over, my legs fell over the side and swung to and fro out of nervousness. The man was obviously a medical professional before this new world, and got on quickly with the task at hand. He gently took my temperature, blood pressure, he checked my pupils reaction to light stimulation, and even held my tongue down with a small wooden stick in order to check my throat.

"You had a tonsillectomy?" He enquired as he wrote up some notes on a clipboard.

"When I was 7." I agreed with his statement quickly and he continued to check me over.

"Is there any other medical history I should be aware of?" Was there? Should I tell him about the time I slit my wrist? Or maybe the time I had my tooth knocked out of me? Those events weren't made public. Instead I shook my head and sighed when he frowned. "Ok..." He quickly began to run his hands down the entire length of my arms, pressing slightly every few seconds as if checking they were still working. When he got to my previously burnt forearms he winced, running his thumb over the hideous scarring that now lay on them. "Did you have proper, regular medical treatment for these?"

"Yeah..." my voice was mumbled as his thumb gently rubbed over the mess that was permanently on my arm.

"And do you have full movement in your wrists?" I hadn't been asked that before. Thinking about it, it did feel like my skin was pulling everytime I pulled my hand back or leaned on it. But that was just due to how tight the skin had gone, and it was a known fact there was some nerve and muscle damage.

"I'm not here about my old injuries." I snatched my hand away quickly causing the doctors face to drop suddenly. I didn't need to be reminded of just how fucked up my body actually was. "What I need is a..." My voice got caught in my throat as I tried to say what I needed. Why was it so difficult to vocalize? I had managed to tell Lewis just fine. "Ok... I need a pregnancy test." I blurted it out without even looking at the doctors face. "I just need to be sure!"

I felt a small squeeze on my elbow and turned my head to Lewis who was now moving his thumb in slight circles on my skin. For some reason though, the sensation made a faint pleasurable tingle shoot down my arm, and made me frown at his hand. It was the same feeling I felt with Josh, except it was much less prominent, I could only just about feel it. To be honest, it could have just been my mind making it up. Even so I pulled my arm away from him quickly.

"I'm Sorry... I just feel like I should be doing more." I shook my head and sighed. He was doing more than enough, I just couldn't understand what I felt when he touched me.

"Just being here is enough." I quipped turning back to the doctor who was looking between the two of us with a frown.

"I'll go and get you a test that we can do, but I can't hear a heartbeat or any movements yet." He then continued to look between me and Lewis, before holding the betas gaze, curiosity clouding his every expression. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask... did you leave the kings service because you two..." He trailed off swallowing hard at his assumption. How could he even think that? Why does everyone just assume we slept together?

"NO!.." Lewis's outburst triggered me a little bit earlier in all honesty. I mean of course the notion was absurd, but he didn't have to act so repulsed. "No, I left because I no longer agreed with Josh's views. Dylan had nothing to do with it."

"Not that it is any of your business anyway." Was I being harshly blunt with him? Probably, but the doctor really should learn to mind his own.

"My apologies, your grace. I will go and get a test for you." With that he bowed low and walked away to some medical cabinets on the other side of the tent.

"Im sorry Lewis..." I felt an extreme sense of guilt around him in honesty. I mean, thinking about it, that can't be the first time his morals and loyalty had been questioned because of me. "You must get asked about the king a lot."

"I do, but you don't have to apologize for it. I was his beta, and yet now I'm here. In hind sight, everyone was always going to speculate. That's hardly your doing." Still, it must look a bit odd seeing me and him being so close.  I suppose if I was viewing things from the outside then I'd make certain assumptions too.

"True, but I can't exactly be helping the situation." He just shook his head, clearly he wasn't fazed at all by my presence or our friendship.

"Here you go..." The doctor quickly walked up to us with a pregnancy test in a rectangular box. "The instructions are on the side, but just wait two minutes after you take it, a single line is negative, while a plus symbol means positive. When you get back we will take some bloodwork regardless of the outcome and then see what other tests we need to do, you can use the closest RV restroom.” I took the box off of him and took a minute to just stare at it.

God I was nervous as I walked to the RV alone. I insisted Lewis stay in the main tent while
I peed on the stick. Once I’d finished on the toilet, I put the cap back on and placed it on the bed in the main area of the RV. Two minutes, the doctor said two minutes.

And so I waited, and waited and waited.

After at least 10 minutes I sighed and forced myself to look at the results, my hand clenched around the plastic stick slightly, as my mind began to process what had actually happened.

In the end I simply walked back to the medical tent, to find the ex royal beta and the doctor waiting for me and the answer.

“It’s negative.” I stated a little bit happier than I should’ve been. “I’m not pregnant…”