baby? I can’t keep it. Not when I don’t know who the father is,” she said as she looked almost desperately at Charlie as though hoping she’d tell her what to do.
“Look that doesn’t matter. You need to make the choice for you. Do you want a baby?” Charlie asked her, and Claire shook her head crying again.
“So you don’t want a baby, that’s your choice. We can fix this Claire. You and I,” Charlie said smiling; “we can always fix things.”
Claire smiled back at her.
“I’m here for you, always and forever. Anytime you need me I’ll drop everything to be in Bath in a flash, even if it’s just to hold your hand because you’re feeling sad. Or even if it’s just to give you a hug because your hormones are all over the place,” Charlie said smiling again.
“Will you come with me if I have an abortion?” Claire asked nervously.
Charlie put her palm together with Claire’s, and then she looked into her face and said; “anything you need, I’ll be there for you. You want me to come with you? Then consider it done.”
Claire was so overcome with gratitude that she flung herself at Charlie, but the force of her hug sent Charlie – and her with her, into the bath that Charlie had been perched on. The two of them burst out laughing, and they were still trying to get untangled when Matt walked in on them.
***
Claire wished that she could go back in time and not tell Charlie about her pregnancy. She could’ve dealt with the situation on her own she said to herself. There was no reason that she always had to be so dependent on Charlie she thought angrily to herself. If she hadn’t relied on her then Charlie wouldn’t have been in Bath. If she hadn’t been in Bath then the accident couldn’t have happened. If the accident hadn’t happened then Charlie wouldn’t be in the hospital right now she told herself.
She started to cry. It was all her fault, and what was making her feel worse was the thought of the impact that her actions had obviously been having on Matt and Charlie’s relationship.
Claire believed without a doubt that she knew Charlie better than anyone. Yet she got the distinct impression, thinking about things now, that Charlie hadn’t recently been all that honest with her. She also got the sense that she’d been keeping things from Matt, and she wondered whether he’d known that Charlie had been coming to see her as frequently as she had over the past few weeks. Or for that matter, if he’d known that she’d been away from Birmingham at all.
Charlie was the most honest person that she knew. It wasn’t like her to keep secrets, especially not from Matt. Claire knew, embarrassingly, that Charlie told him everything and vice versa. They just didn’t keep secrets from one another. So if Charlie had started to, then Claire could only assume that their relationship was in a bad way.
She wondered distractedly how much she was to blame for that, and if this had been the impetus behind Charlie’s seemingly sudden decision to want to start a family.
Matt
Mr and Mrs Young arrived, along with Matt’s parents, a couple of hours after he’d called them. He hugged his mum tightly, and then Charlie’s mum hugged him.
“She’s still in surgery,” he said to Charlie’s dad – Harry.
“How is she?” Harry asked him.
“Not great,” he said knowing that he shouldn’t downplay things and that he should tell them exactly what Oak had told him. Yet he didn’t want to worry them, and he knew that telling them that Charlie had been taken into surgery because she was bleeding internally would do just that.
Diane, Charlie’s mum, began to weep. Matt looked at her, and he saw through misted eyes that his mum was comforting her.
“How are you Matthew?” His father asked him.
He went to answer but found that he was unable to speak. So instead he just looked at his father and shook his head. His father gripped his shoulder, and his mum took his hand in hers.
“Matt,” James said from behind him. “Why don’t you and your family wait at your house? You’re minutes from the hospital, and Charlie could be in surgery for hours.”
Matt nodded and said to his and Charlie’s parents; “if you want to wait at the house that’s fine, and I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything, but I’m going to wait here for her.