Chapter Thirteen

7 weeks

Monday morning Sarah was back at work, back to her usual weekly schedule.

As always the hospital was busy, but that was what Sarah liked about her job, it kept her busy. As usual Taylor popped up at the reception desk to chat. No one at the hospital knew anything, everyone was bound under patient confidentiality which was good because Sarah wasn't ready to tell just yet.

She was pregnant but it was too soon to announce anything. When she was asked about her absence and hospitalization she blamed it to a stomach flu and dehydration and everybody seemed to believe it, it was flu season after all.

For Richie his weekly schedule returned too, as always on his way to the studio he dropped off the boys. Ava would have gone home on Tuesday but because Richie didn't have to go to New York, Heather was fine with letting Ava stay until Sunday as she always did, so Richie had dropped her off at home the day before.

At the studio there was a bunch of work waiting for him, he hadn't been there in a whole week and not much had advanced on the album, he was glad he could get back to work. The sooner he had this finished, he could tour and be home with Sarah. For now her pregnancy was alright but would it stay like that?

As every Monday afternoon, Sarah received a text on her phone, just as she was leaving the hospital. Every Monday and Thursday Richie worked overtime at the studio, she knew he would but he always texted her anyway, telling her he wouldn’t be home for dinner that night.

As she got in the car she guessed he did have more work now, having missed a whole week of working last week, but she didn’t mind, she liked how ambitious he was.

He was even later that he usually was that evening, she had expected him around 8pm but it was close to an hour later and she was a little unsure about it. He must be really busy if he forgot to text her again.

Not until she decided to go to bed another hour later, she heard the front door open as she walked up the stairs. Instead of going further, she turned around and watched him come in.

Richie noticed her on the stairs right away.

“I’m sorry.” He quickly said.
“For what?” Sarah asked confused.
“Being late, aren’t you angry?”
“Of course not, I know you’re busy.” She assured him.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not angry. Are you coming to bed?”
“I’ll be there in a minute.”


By Wednesday Sarah was glad everything was still the same, her morning sickness hadn’t made any more appearances. Even though she was glad it hadn’t, it made her suspicious too, what if it came back but even worse?

She didn’t want to spend another week in the hospital, it hadn’t been bad, but as anybody else, she preferred being at home where her husband and children were too.

The hospital was her job, it was different when she worked there than when she stayed there. She also didn’t remember her pregnancies with Caleb and Noah being so bad. A little morning sickness but nothing compared to last week.

In the mean time Richie was making a lot of progress on the album, the songs were written and most of them were mixed too. He hoped to be finished in another month, then he had to start thinking about a name for the album and a record label to produce it and hopefully tour with it. He knew he couldn’t make a enormous worldwide tour on his own but a few shows in the US and a few in Europe should be realistic, as long as he was home in November.


That week, Richie worked his usual overtime on Thursday too, realizing they hadn’t made enough progress during the week and there were a few things that needed to be finished before the weekend.

Listening to one of the songs they were trying to mix, he realized he didn’t like the vocals one bit. How could they have sounded fine until now? Annoyed, he got up to sing them again.

When he came back and listening to what he had just recorded, Luke said he didn’t hear any difference in it. Which made Richie get up and do it again, it just didn’t sound right.


Friday went almost the same, they hadn’t finished the song the night before and Richie was still annoyed that it wouldn’t work the way he wanted it too. For now he thought the vocals were alright but now the music sounded off. After a few changes on the notes, they tried again.

By 5pm he called it quits, it wasn’t working and he didn’t want to work overtime two days in a row, he had a wife waiting at home for him.


Saturday morning Richie was up early, he had forced the song out of his mind the evening before but sometime during the night it had creeped back in to wake him up.

He tried to forget it, it was weekend, he shouldn’t work today, he should relax and spend time with his family, he tried to push the song back out of his mind until Monday, he’d just work late and finish it then.

His frustrations kept him up most of the next night. Sarah noticed he couldn’t sleep but couldn’t help him either. She tried to stay awake with him and suggested watching a movie to take his mind off of it but only half an hour later she was sleeping on Richie’s shoulder.

Richie appreciated her efforts but he knew it wouldn’t make a difference. He watched the movie and started another one but still couldn’t manage to get to sleep.


Sunday wasn’t much better, Sarah was still trying to take his mind off of the song but it didn’t help any, with only a little of sleep, it was impossible to get it out of his mind.

After dinner, after Ava had come home, Sarah took Richie up to their room. Richie still kept in mind that Sarah was only trying to help and he let her, hoping it might anyway. So he followed her to their bedroom and into the bathroom.

“What are we doing?” He asked a little confused when they stood in the bathroom.
“We’re gonna have a nice, hot, relaxing bath.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, come, clothes off.” She ordered as she reached over to fill the huge whirlpool bath tub.
“You got a cast.” He pointed out.
“I thought of that.” Sarah said as she went into the bedroom and returned with a plastic bag and tape. “And I haven’t been able to wash my hair decently in a week either.”

Richie shrugged and started undressing, a bath with his wife couldn’t be a bad thing.

A few minutes later he was laying in a hot bath, enjoying the bubbles, his wife was leaning against his chest so she could hold her wrist on the side of the bath so it wouldn’t get too wet even though he had made sure the tape around the plastic bag was tight enough.

“Relaxed yet?” Sarah asked from her comfy place.
“Hmmm.”
“Doesn’t sound very convincing.” She said as she turned her head on his shoulder to be able to kiss his cheek.

She continued her kisses, determined to make him relax, she kissed his neck, jaw and cheek.

Richie’s hands that were relaxed on her chest, started making subtle touches to her skin and turned a little to be able to kiss her back.

For a few minutes they kissed intimately, his touches made Sarah shiver unintentionally.

“Let’s go to bed.” She said, sitting up in front of him.

“Can we just go to sleep?” Richie asked as they got in bed.
Richie passing on a chance to have sex? “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just got a really bad headache.”
“That bad? You need to relax and stop worrying.” Sarah said as she got in bed, once Richie was next to her, she pulled to covers over them both.
“No, it’s just a headache.” He insisted although the pounding in his head was terrible.
“Alright, go to sleep then.” Sarah reached up and kissed him good night.