Page 9 of Heal
Lisa shook her head as her grip on her brother's hand tightened. "I can't leave him alone."
"It's important." Beau would not have the conversation with her brother there. It was too personal, and it needed to be Lisa's choice if anyone else knew about it.
"He's scared to be alone." Lisa bit her lip nervously.
"You can go with him and she can stay here with me." Jeff nodded to Jenny.
Beau's chest tightened at the thought of not having Jenny there for the conversation.
Jenny stepped a little bit closer to the bed, still keeping on the other side so she wasn't near Lisa. "I'm okay with that if Beau is, but promise me, if you need to talk to me after, Lisa, you'll think about it, okay?"
Lisa narrowed her eyes. "What's this about?"
Beau glanced at Jeff, then at Lisa. "Let's go in the other room and talk for a minute."
"And Jeff and I will talk about what we can order for him to eat so he's not so hungry between meals. I might have a friend who works in the kitchen who will sneak us some good stuff." Jenny grinned at the young boy.
"Really?" Jeff's eyes went wide.
Jenny nodded, but she was looking over at Beau. "You okay with that?"
Beau couldn't very well admit that he wasn't okay talking without Jenny. Lisa needed to know she was pregnant, and if he had to be the one to tell her and deal with her reaction, he would do it. "Yeah, that will work." He stepped back and smiled at Lisa. "We won't be gone too long. When we get back, you can let Jenny know what you'd like to eat as well."
Lisa leaned over and whispered something in her brother's ear, then straightened. "I'll be right back, I promise."
Jeff nodded.
The boy was amazingly strong for having gone through everything he had.
As he made his way out of the room, checking over his shoulder to make sure Lisa was following, he tried to figure out how to break the news to Lisa gently. He didn't want to do this alone, but for some reason, he was meant to. Maybe Jeff needed Jenny's help more than he did right now. No matter what, this wasn't going to be easy and it was going to change Lisa's life forever, no matter the choices she made.
"Have a seat." Beau stepped into the small family waiting room each hospital floor had for the families to relax in.
Lisa took a seat on the couch, tucking her hospital gown tighter around her body. "It's bad news, isn't it? That's why you couldn't talk in front of Jeff."
Beau shut the door before going over and sitting in a chair next to the couch. "It's personal medical information about you. It's up to you if you want Jeff to know about it." He rubbed his hands over his slacks. "There's no easy way to say this."
"It can't be worse than what I've already been through." Lisa's fists tightened in her lap. "Did they give me a disease or something? Do I have herpes now?"
Beau shook his head. "All the tests for diseases came back negative. You'll still have to be retested for them in a few months, but as of right now, you're clean."
"Then what is it? I already know the scars won't ever go away." She bit her lip as her eyes filled with tears.
"The scars will fade in time. This isn't about the scars." It was best just to tell her instead of playing this guessing game. "We got all your tests back. You're pregnant."
Lisa's face paled and the unshed tears broke free, dripping down her cheeks. "Pregnant?"
Beau nodded. "We don't know how far along. We wanted to tell you first before we ordered any more tests."
Lisa opened her mouth, then closed it, her hands coming up to her face as she started to cry. "I thought this was over." Her shoulders shook as she sobbed.
Beau wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but he worried that with all she had been through it might freak her out. He didn't even dare reach over and place a supportive hand on her shoulder. "You're not alone, Lisa. You have people here who are going to help you."
"I can't even remember my last period. Half of the time I didn't know one day to the next. It was impossible to keep track."
He was barely able to understand her through the crying. "Here." He handed her a box of tissues that was on the coffee table.
She took the box, pulling one free and blowing her nose. "I always wanted a lot of children. I wanted to get married and have a big family, but I didn't want this. Not like this." She wiped her eyes with a clean tissue.
