Ethan/Kristina, Near To You (8/10)
Title: Near To You
Author: sarahbell05
Fandom: General Hospital
Characters/Pairing: Ethan Lovett/Kristina Davis
Table: Relationship
Prompt: Loss
Rating: PG-13 for mentions of domestic abuse.
Warnings: Kristina is 17 and Ethan is in his early twenties.
Word Count: 1982
Summary: Ethan and Kristina suffer a loss.
Notes: Sorry about the wait guys! Had a bit of writer's block with this chapter. And I apologize ahead of time for the angst. Just know that I do believe in happy endings!
Loss
Over the next few weeks, things start to settle down as much as they can. Ethan, Krissy, and Alexis all agree that telling Sonny is something that can be put off far (far) into the future. As Kristina has been determined over the preceding months to have as little of a relationship with her father as possible, she decides there's no rush.
Ethan's still not sure where they are in their relationship, and if he's honest with himself he's too afraid to bring it up. They're like they've always been, friendly and comfortable, but there's no kissing and definitely no sex. However, there's that undercurrent of something that confuses Ethan. He eventually has to write it down to the fact that they're having a child together before he drives himself crazy.
Krissy goes on as normally as she can. A few days after telling everyone about the pregnancy, she decided to graduate early and had to work twice as hard as she usually did to get everything wrapped up before December.
Every afternoon, she pops up at the Haunted Star and heads upstairs to his apartment. When he gets off work a few hours later, she's knee-deep in homework but takes a break long enough for them to have dinner together. Afterward, she returns to her homework and he watches telly. When the news would come on, Krissy would pack up her things and head home for the night. It was the closest thing Ethan had ever had to a routine. Ever since his parents had died, he had never wanted a routine, always preferring to coast through life without any ties, any roots. A lot had changed in the year since he had arrived in Port Charles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where exactly are we going?" Kristina asks, looking out of the passenger window at the unfamiliar neighborhood.
"I told you, it's a surprise." Ethan replies, smirking as he watched Krissy roll her eyes. She hated being kept in the dark about anything, but to Ethan that was part of the fun. As she watched houses pass by, Ethan sneaked a glance at her, her hand resting on her still-flat stomach. The thought of becoming a parent still terrified Ethan, but he knew he had to be strong for Kristina's sake. She was taking it all in stride since her breakdown with Alexis, but she was still a seventeen year old girl whose entire life had been turned upside down.
"Okay, we're here." Ethan says as he pulls into the driveway of a rather large white house. Krissy turns and gives him one of her 'looks,' but he shrugs. "Just come on, trust me." he adds before exiting the car.
"This place looks familiar." Krissy says, eying the home as she too exits the car.
"Yeah, it was Luke and his first wife's. I think Lucky lived here for a while too." Ethan replies, leading Krissy up the stairs toward the front door. Producing a key from his pocket, the door opened with a quiet creak to reveal the spacious but fairly empty living room. Ethan beckons Krissy in, and she follows, that uncertain look still on her face.
"So, why are we here?" she asks, crossing her arms in a defensive stance. Ethan chuckles, shaking his head.
"You're the most stubborn woman I've ever met, you know that?" he replies.
"Yes, but that's why you love me." Krissy replies, obviously joking. Despite that, Ethan can't stop the words that leave his mouth next.
"Yes, I do." Krissy freezes, and Ethan's fairly sure she's going to have a panic attack.
"What?" she says after a moment.
"I do. Love you, that is." he says, taking a tentative step toward her. "Whatever you want us to be, that's fine with me, but I thought you should know that." He doesn't add on the fact that he's never said that to a woman in his twenty-three years.
Krissy stares at him for a moment, and Ethan's still not sure that she's not going to have a panic attack, run out the door, or punch him. Slowly, she moves toward him, but Ethan can't read her.
"I love you too." she finally says as she nears him, resting her hand on his chest before looking him in the eye. Ethan's so relieved that he can't stop himself from ignoring his previous statement and bringing his lips down on hers. Krissy doesn't hesitate in her response, wrapping her arms around Ethan as his own arms slip around her waist. It's different from any other kiss they've had before. This one is confident, sure, and true. And absolutely unlike anything Ethan's ever experienced in his life.
After a few moments, Krissy pulls away and smiles in a way that Ethan hasn't seen since before the pregnancy and everything that led up to it. He pushes a lock of hair behind her ear and smiles back, but Krissy soon begins to scan the room again.
"So, seriously, why are we here Ethan?"
"Well, as your mother so kindly pointed out, there's not exactly a whole lot of space in my flat. So I had a talk with Luke and, well, no one's lived here since Lucky moved out and he said Laura would hate to see the place sit empty for so long..."
"Wait..." Krissy replies, moving out of Ethan's arms to look around the room again. "Luke gave you a house?"
"Us. Gave us a house, if we want it. And it's more like....renting without paying. He said it was ours for as long as we want it. And, you know, there's plenty of bedrooms so you could have your own if that's what you want..." Ethan's interrupted when Kristina launches herself at Ethan, pulling him into a hug. Mindful of the baby, Ethan held her as gently as he could.
"Thank you." Kristina whispers after a moment, and Ethan's finally sure he's done something right for once.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks later, Ethan's moving the last of his things into the old Spencer house. In his short time in Port Charles, he had accumulated more things than he had realized - he supposed subconsciously he'd been planning on hanging around more than he had thought. Alexis had been difficult to convince when it came to Krissy moving, especially moving in with Ethan, but in the end Kristina had stood her ground and told Alexis she wasn't going to depend on her mom or anyone else to take care of her and the baby and that she needed to do this. Slowly, Alexis had warmed up to the idea and by the end she and Sam had (grudgingly) agreed to help move Kristina's things.
"What do you think?" Krissy asks, pulling Ethan out of his thoughts. It's only then that he realizes Kristina is standing on a step ladder positioning a mirror above the mantle.
"Krissy!" Ethan sighs, moving toward her. They'd already been through this several times, with Ethan finding his girlfriend trying to do things pregnant women should be more careful about. However, as usual Kristina only rolled her eyes as Ethan pulled her into his arms. She did smile though, and drop a quick kiss on his lips before making him set her down.
"I was only on the first step Ethan." she said, moving back to look at the mirror from a distance.
"Just ask me when you need something hung okay love?" Ethan should have known not to say such a thing, and he spent the rest of his afternoon hanging various mirrors, artwork, and pictures.
A few hours later, they're both resting on their new couch when their front door is thrown open by Lulu, arms full of bags.
"I've brought dinner!" she exclaims, peaking around the bags of what smells like Chinese long enough to spot the steps in front of her.
"Oh, you're a lifesaver." Ethan exclaims, pushing himself off of the couch and moving to take the bags from his sister, which she happily gave. "Dante's on the way with Michael, Morgan, and Molly." she adds.
"How are you doing?" Lulu asks, and Ethan momentarily thinks she's asking after him until she turns away toward the couch where Kristina is still resting. "How's my future niece or nephew?"
"I'm feeling okay. A little tired, but my symptoms haven't been very bad so far. Just a little morning sickness here and there."
"I can't believe you're already showing!" Lulu replies, pointing out the barely-noticeable bump that seemed to appear overnight. To anyone who didn't know, they would just assume Kristina had had a large meal.
The conversation soon dissolves into name ideas, plans for the nursery, and other things that only serve to heighten Ethan's nerves, so he leaves them to set things out in the kitchen. He begins to pull out the numerous boxes of food when he hears a panicked Lulu yell for him from the living room. The box of rice he's holding in his hand goes crashing onto the countertop as he rushes in to find Kristina nearly doubled over on the couch.
"What happened?" he asks, moving next to a whimpering Kristina.
"I don't know, we were just talking and all of a sudden she started having pain."
"Love, what's wrong?" Ethan asks, pushing Kristina's hair back to find her face contorted in pain, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Ethan...the baby...something's wrong."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Within moments, Lulu had her car keys in her hand, guiding Ethan out of the house as he practically carried Kristina out to her car. He had never seen Lulu drive so fast, and they were bursting through the doors of GH within minutes. Elizabeth spotted them first, and she swept them off to the nearest bed while Epiphany paged Dr. Lee. It must have only taken minutes for Lee to arrive in the ER, but to Ethan it felt like an eternity.
"I'll wait outside." Lulu says, stepping outside of the curtain as Dr. Lee moved the ultrasound machine closer to the bed Kristina was lying in.
Ethan steps forward, taking Kristina's hand with her own. Life had taught him to always expect the worst, but this was one situation where Ethan was desperately hoping everything would be okay.
"Okay, this is going to be cold Kristina." Dr. Lee says, dropping some kind of gel onto Kristina's stomach before bringing the ultrasound wand to her stomach. Immediately, the image on the screen came to life, but Ethan couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"How far along are you Kristina?" Dr. Lee asks, and it's only then that Ethan notices that Kristina is looking in the opposite direction of the screen.
"Eleven weeks." Kristina replies after a moment, still staring at the wall behind Ethan. Dr. Lee doesn't respond, just keeps moving the wand over her stomach. After a few moments, she pulls it away and makes a few notes on the chart before turning back to Ethan and Kristna.
"Kristina..." Dr. Lee starts, but is cut off when a sob escapes Kristina's mouth. The sympathetic look on Dr. Lee's face confirms Ethan's fears and his grip on Kristina's hand tightens.
"I'm sorry, Kristina, Ethan." Dr. Lee continues after a moment. "I can't find a heartbeat. I believe you're having a miscarriage."
"No..." Kristina whimpers, curling in on herself on the bed. Ethan just stands beside her, frozen, until he feels Dr. Lee's hand on his arm.
"Because she's so close to the end fo the first trimester, we're going to keep her overnight to monitor her. I'm so sorry Ethan." she says before leaving them alone. Ethan's not sure what to do, so he just takes the chair next to the bed and hold's Kristina's hand as she cries quietly in the bed, and his heart breaks for her, for him, and the child they were supposed to have.
Author: sarahbell05
Fandom: General Hospital
Characters/Pairing: Ethan Lovett/Kristina Davis
Table: Relationship
Prompt: Loss
Rating: PG-13 for mentions of domestic abuse.
Warnings: Kristina is 17 and Ethan is in his early twenties.
Word Count: 1982
Summary: Ethan and Kristina suffer a loss.
Notes: Sorry about the wait guys! Had a bit of writer's block with this chapter. And I apologize ahead of time for the angst. Just know that I do believe in happy endings!
Loss
Over the next few weeks, things start to settle down as much as they can. Ethan, Krissy, and Alexis all agree that telling Sonny is something that can be put off far (far) into the future. As Kristina has been determined over the preceding months to have as little of a relationship with her father as possible, she decides there's no rush.
Ethan's still not sure where they are in their relationship, and if he's honest with himself he's too afraid to bring it up. They're like they've always been, friendly and comfortable, but there's no kissing and definitely no sex. However, there's that undercurrent of something that confuses Ethan. He eventually has to write it down to the fact that they're having a child together before he drives himself crazy.
Krissy goes on as normally as she can. A few days after telling everyone about the pregnancy, she decided to graduate early and had to work twice as hard as she usually did to get everything wrapped up before December.
Every afternoon, she pops up at the Haunted Star and heads upstairs to his apartment. When he gets off work a few hours later, she's knee-deep in homework but takes a break long enough for them to have dinner together. Afterward, she returns to her homework and he watches telly. When the news would come on, Krissy would pack up her things and head home for the night. It was the closest thing Ethan had ever had to a routine. Ever since his parents had died, he had never wanted a routine, always preferring to coast through life without any ties, any roots. A lot had changed in the year since he had arrived in Port Charles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where exactly are we going?" Kristina asks, looking out of the passenger window at the unfamiliar neighborhood.
"I told you, it's a surprise." Ethan replies, smirking as he watched Krissy roll her eyes. She hated being kept in the dark about anything, but to Ethan that was part of the fun. As she watched houses pass by, Ethan sneaked a glance at her, her hand resting on her still-flat stomach. The thought of becoming a parent still terrified Ethan, but he knew he had to be strong for Kristina's sake. She was taking it all in stride since her breakdown with Alexis, but she was still a seventeen year old girl whose entire life had been turned upside down.
"Okay, we're here." Ethan says as he pulls into the driveway of a rather large white house. Krissy turns and gives him one of her 'looks,' but he shrugs. "Just come on, trust me." he adds before exiting the car.
"This place looks familiar." Krissy says, eying the home as she too exits the car.
"Yeah, it was Luke and his first wife's. I think Lucky lived here for a while too." Ethan replies, leading Krissy up the stairs toward the front door. Producing a key from his pocket, the door opened with a quiet creak to reveal the spacious but fairly empty living room. Ethan beckons Krissy in, and she follows, that uncertain look still on her face.
"So, why are we here?" she asks, crossing her arms in a defensive stance. Ethan chuckles, shaking his head.
"You're the most stubborn woman I've ever met, you know that?" he replies.
"Yes, but that's why you love me." Krissy replies, obviously joking. Despite that, Ethan can't stop the words that leave his mouth next.
"Yes, I do." Krissy freezes, and Ethan's fairly sure she's going to have a panic attack.
"What?" she says after a moment.
"I do. Love you, that is." he says, taking a tentative step toward her. "Whatever you want us to be, that's fine with me, but I thought you should know that." He doesn't add on the fact that he's never said that to a woman in his twenty-three years.
Krissy stares at him for a moment, and Ethan's still not sure that she's not going to have a panic attack, run out the door, or punch him. Slowly, she moves toward him, but Ethan can't read her.
"I love you too." she finally says as she nears him, resting her hand on his chest before looking him in the eye. Ethan's so relieved that he can't stop himself from ignoring his previous statement and bringing his lips down on hers. Krissy doesn't hesitate in her response, wrapping her arms around Ethan as his own arms slip around her waist. It's different from any other kiss they've had before. This one is confident, sure, and true. And absolutely unlike anything Ethan's ever experienced in his life.
After a few moments, Krissy pulls away and smiles in a way that Ethan hasn't seen since before the pregnancy and everything that led up to it. He pushes a lock of hair behind her ear and smiles back, but Krissy soon begins to scan the room again.
"So, seriously, why are we here Ethan?"
"Well, as your mother so kindly pointed out, there's not exactly a whole lot of space in my flat. So I had a talk with Luke and, well, no one's lived here since Lucky moved out and he said Laura would hate to see the place sit empty for so long..."
"Wait..." Krissy replies, moving out of Ethan's arms to look around the room again. "Luke gave you a house?"
"Us. Gave us a house, if we want it. And it's more like....renting without paying. He said it was ours for as long as we want it. And, you know, there's plenty of bedrooms so you could have your own if that's what you want..." Ethan's interrupted when Kristina launches herself at Ethan, pulling him into a hug. Mindful of the baby, Ethan held her as gently as he could.
"Thank you." Kristina whispers after a moment, and Ethan's finally sure he's done something right for once.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks later, Ethan's moving the last of his things into the old Spencer house. In his short time in Port Charles, he had accumulated more things than he had realized - he supposed subconsciously he'd been planning on hanging around more than he had thought. Alexis had been difficult to convince when it came to Krissy moving, especially moving in with Ethan, but in the end Kristina had stood her ground and told Alexis she wasn't going to depend on her mom or anyone else to take care of her and the baby and that she needed to do this. Slowly, Alexis had warmed up to the idea and by the end she and Sam had (grudgingly) agreed to help move Kristina's things.
"What do you think?" Krissy asks, pulling Ethan out of his thoughts. It's only then that he realizes Kristina is standing on a step ladder positioning a mirror above the mantle.
"Krissy!" Ethan sighs, moving toward her. They'd already been through this several times, with Ethan finding his girlfriend trying to do things pregnant women should be more careful about. However, as usual Kristina only rolled her eyes as Ethan pulled her into his arms. She did smile though, and drop a quick kiss on his lips before making him set her down.
"I was only on the first step Ethan." she said, moving back to look at the mirror from a distance.
"Just ask me when you need something hung okay love?" Ethan should have known not to say such a thing, and he spent the rest of his afternoon hanging various mirrors, artwork, and pictures.
A few hours later, they're both resting on their new couch when their front door is thrown open by Lulu, arms full of bags.
"I've brought dinner!" she exclaims, peaking around the bags of what smells like Chinese long enough to spot the steps in front of her.
"Oh, you're a lifesaver." Ethan exclaims, pushing himself off of the couch and moving to take the bags from his sister, which she happily gave. "Dante's on the way with Michael, Morgan, and Molly." she adds.
"How are you doing?" Lulu asks, and Ethan momentarily thinks she's asking after him until she turns away toward the couch where Kristina is still resting. "How's my future niece or nephew?"
"I'm feeling okay. A little tired, but my symptoms haven't been very bad so far. Just a little morning sickness here and there."
"I can't believe you're already showing!" Lulu replies, pointing out the barely-noticeable bump that seemed to appear overnight. To anyone who didn't know, they would just assume Kristina had had a large meal.
The conversation soon dissolves into name ideas, plans for the nursery, and other things that only serve to heighten Ethan's nerves, so he leaves them to set things out in the kitchen. He begins to pull out the numerous boxes of food when he hears a panicked Lulu yell for him from the living room. The box of rice he's holding in his hand goes crashing onto the countertop as he rushes in to find Kristina nearly doubled over on the couch.
"What happened?" he asks, moving next to a whimpering Kristina.
"I don't know, we were just talking and all of a sudden she started having pain."
"Love, what's wrong?" Ethan asks, pushing Kristina's hair back to find her face contorted in pain, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Ethan...the baby...something's wrong."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Within moments, Lulu had her car keys in her hand, guiding Ethan out of the house as he practically carried Kristina out to her car. He had never seen Lulu drive so fast, and they were bursting through the doors of GH within minutes. Elizabeth spotted them first, and she swept them off to the nearest bed while Epiphany paged Dr. Lee. It must have only taken minutes for Lee to arrive in the ER, but to Ethan it felt like an eternity.
"I'll wait outside." Lulu says, stepping outside of the curtain as Dr. Lee moved the ultrasound machine closer to the bed Kristina was lying in.
Ethan steps forward, taking Kristina's hand with her own. Life had taught him to always expect the worst, but this was one situation where Ethan was desperately hoping everything would be okay.
"Okay, this is going to be cold Kristina." Dr. Lee says, dropping some kind of gel onto Kristina's stomach before bringing the ultrasound wand to her stomach. Immediately, the image on the screen came to life, but Ethan couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"How far along are you Kristina?" Dr. Lee asks, and it's only then that Ethan notices that Kristina is looking in the opposite direction of the screen.
"Eleven weeks." Kristina replies after a moment, still staring at the wall behind Ethan. Dr. Lee doesn't respond, just keeps moving the wand over her stomach. After a few moments, she pulls it away and makes a few notes on the chart before turning back to Ethan and Kristna.
"Kristina..." Dr. Lee starts, but is cut off when a sob escapes Kristina's mouth. The sympathetic look on Dr. Lee's face confirms Ethan's fears and his grip on Kristina's hand tightens.
"I'm sorry, Kristina, Ethan." Dr. Lee continues after a moment. "I can't find a heartbeat. I believe you're having a miscarriage."
"No..." Kristina whimpers, curling in on herself on the bed. Ethan just stands beside her, frozen, until he feels Dr. Lee's hand on his arm.
"Because she's so close to the end fo the first trimester, we're going to keep her overnight to monitor her. I'm so sorry Ethan." she says before leaving them alone. Ethan's not sure what to do, so he just takes the chair next to the bed and hold's Kristina's hand as she cries quietly in the bed, and his heart breaks for her, for him, and the child they were supposed to have.