Chapter 111

**Blue**


Rhea breaks a few traffic laws to get us to the hospital and along the way I have the same random pains.

“I can’t have the babies yet! It’s too soon.” I say between sobs.

“You won’t they are going to stay in there until Artemis gets back and exactly when they need to be born.” She says trying to reassure me, but it isn’t working.

Everything feels off and it has me terrified. We park as close to the emergency room as possible and Rhea helps me out of the car because I get hit with another pain when I try to climb out on my own. She holds my arm tightly as I wobble toward the door. As soon as we walk in a concerned nurse comes out of the door leading to the ER exam area and coming straight to us.

“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” She asks.

“I don’t know. I’ve been having this really bad pain in my belly. I’m having triplets, but isn’t it too soon to have them? I don’t want them coming too soon. I can’t lose my babies!”

She rubs my back and takes me back right away. “Multiples pregnancies can be very hard on the mother’s body, so you might have been a little too active and you’re having muscle cramps. We’ll check on the babies to be sure, but until we have an idea of what’s going on let’s not get too worried yet.”

I nod, but like hell I’m not going to worry. Why do people say that as if it will suddenly make you not worry? I’m already worried dammit!

“Did you message Artemis? Have you heard from him?” I ask Rhea.

She shakes her head. “Not yet but I’m sure he’ll check on you soon. My brother is so crazy for you that he can’t go an hour without asking about you or talking to you. I’m sure he’ll be in contact soon.”

Right…okay. She’s right. He will call me or text me as soon as he’s able.
The pain comes and goes as we wait for a doctor but when he does come he checks the babies heart beats and my cervix. According to him everything seems fine and the pains could be Braxton Hicks contractions which were perfectly normal. He also said it could be from stress. Either way he says it’s safe for me to go but I needed to be careful not to over exert myself. I haven’t been so he has nothing to worry about there.

Rhea and I get back home close to two in the morning and I’m surprised when we get there to find Beck and Max there too. They are all sitting on the couch watching something on the TV and when I read the tag line at the bottom of the screen my heart stops. I gasp and everyone turns to look at me. I ignore them and walk closer to the TV as they start to show video of a wrecked plane, a plane I recognize.

“Oh my god. What is this?” I yell and whirl around to glare at the others as if they are to blame. “What is this?”

“Blue…” Max tries to speak to me calmly like I’m a wild animal priming for an attack.

“Don’t! Is this true? Where is Artemis? I-is he alive?” I can barely speak right now but I have to know.

They glance at each other while I wait. “Would one of you fucking tell me!”

Athena steps forward and rests her hands on my arms rubbing them to comfort me. “We don’t know. They found the pilot who had died before impact but they didn’t find Artemis.”

What?

“How can that be? How could he just disappear?”

“This good be good news. Maybe he wandered off to find help.” Rhea says and I glare at her.

She cringes at the death glare but I can’t feel sorry for being upset with any of them right now.

“I need to call him.” I walk toward the table I set my purse on and pull up his number.
It goes straight to voicemail after one ring, so I call again, and again…and again.

“Artemis you asshole! Answer your damn phone!” I yell at my phone.

“Blue the doctor said you need to be careful about stress. Let us try to find something out and you try to relax. Your babies need their mom to be strong right now.” Rhea says in a tone that I’m sure is supposed to be calming and soft, but it sounds condescending to me.


“I need to find him.” My next call is to The General.

“Blue.” I let out a relieved breath when he answers straight away.

“General, please tell me Artemis made it to you guys safe.”

There’s a too long silence and my breath catches, and I feel like I can’t pull any more air in.

“I’m sorry Blue, he didn’t make it here. We are all out looking for him, but we haven’t found him yet. From what we could tell, he walked away from the wreck, but he could have a concussion or worse. It could have disoriented him, and he could be wandering confused, so we are not going to stop searching until one of us find him. I swear we won’t give up looking.”

I break down crying and my legs give out beneath me. Rhea is close enough to catch me, but her quick speed doesn’t spare me from the pain in my heart.

“Please don’t lose hope Blue, we’ll find it I swear it to you.” The General says but I can barely hear him now.

The phone falls from my hands and Beck quickly grabs it and puts it to his ear. Athena comes to wrap me in a hug from behind and I break down in hard sobs against Rhea’s chest.

I don’t know how long I cry for but all too soon my tears dry and then I just feel numb.



**Artemis**


I have to make it…it’s not far…home…where is it again?

Man, my head is throbbing and different parts of my body are aching with pain but I need to get home.

Everything around me looks the same. The same trees and blades of grass…am I even moving forward?

God my head hurts.

Where am I? How did I end up here?

A wave of nausea hits me like a gut punch, and I bend down and letting out all the contents of my stomach. The violence of it has me stumbling on my feet until I slam into a tree, and I cry out in pain. I think my arm is definitely injured.

I’m so tired…

Maybe if I sit down and rest for a while, I’ll feel better. I let gravity take over and I slide down the tree until I’m sitting against it. Yeah, I’ll just rest for a little while. I see something before sleep takes me, it’s a beautiful woman’s smiling face. Then there’s nothing.

Someone is jostling me around making me goran in pain. I want to tell them to leave me alone, but they won’t listen. They’re saying something but I can’t make it out, but there’s something familiar about it.

“He has several injuries, but he’s alive.” Someone says.

Well, that’s good right? I’m not dead. Who are these people though? I blink my eyes open to try and figure out why one of the voices sounds familiar. When my vision clears, I see several men standing around me in camouflage.

“Artemis! Thank fuck. How you feeling brother?” The older man asks.

“Okay.” I croak.

“That’s good. You have no idea how happy I’m going to be to tell Bleu you’re alive.”

Blue? Like the color?

“Who?” I ask.

“Blue, your wife.” He says as if that should mean something to me.

“I have a wife?” Since when?

“Shit.” He says running his fingers through his hair.

“it’s not uncommon for someone with a concussion to be confused. It might pass once he’s recovered more. He might have a more serious head injury that can make it hard for him to remember.” The guy poking me.

“You better be right, or we are going to have a very angry pregnant woman on our asses.”

“I can’t be sure. The brain is still a mystery to us.”

“That’s the sort of shit you do not want to say to me right now!” The older guy says. “Get him up so we can get him out of here.”

Several arms grab me, and I hiss. “Easy men we don’t know the full extent of his injuries.”

I start to feel dizzy again and my eyes get heavy. Now that it seems someone is helping me I let myself fall asleep again. The next time I wake up I’m inside a room. There are machines hooked up to me and I seem to be in a hospital bed but this doesn’t look like a usual hospital. It looks more like a quickly thrown together attempt at one.

“Good you’re awake. I have someone who needs tto talk to you.” The older guy form early says.

He’s carrying a tablet and hands it over to me. There is a familiar face on it and her beautiful eyes fill with tears when she sees me.

“Oh god Artemis.” She bursts into tears and my heart hurts for her, but besides a vague familiarity I don’t recognize her.

“I’m sorry, do we know each other?”