"Mom, what happened to the internet?!"

"Mom, I'm hungry!"

"Honey, have you seen my Giants shirt?!"

Leesha whimpered and pulled a purple throw blanket over her head. "Go away," she cried quietly. Between her mother's passing, planning a funeral with much of the family flying in for the service and a baby pressing into her pelvis, all she wanted was to be left alone with her pain and heartbreak.

Eight months after finding out she was pregnant, the baby made it uncomfortable to lie still or even go to the bathroom. Walking was laughable with her momma penguin waddle and her ankles were always swollen.

Neither Ethan nor Ellie had been this bad. Fucking Bongiovi genes!

"Mom!!"

"Mom!?"

"Honey?"

She grit her teeth together as silent tears slid down her cheeks. Her depression had sunk her low into the pits and she'd found herself retreating into her own mind, dark and cold. Her phone buzzed on the nightstand beside the bed.

Julie: Hey honey, just checking in. Hate to do it but I need your signature on the Expo paperwork before Wednesday. Can I pop in later? Jon wants to know how you're feeling too.

She hurled the phone with as much force as she could muster, against the bedroom door. She took little satisfaction when it only broke into two pieces.

"Shit! Honey?"

"Go the fuck away! Fix the internet, fix dinner and fuck off!!" She screamed from under the blanket.

"Woah! Hey, babygirl," David murmured as he soothed his wife with slow strokes over her back, gingerly sitting on the side of the bed, "what's up? Talk to me."

"Don't fucking touch me, asshole," she sobbed. "You're all acting like you're fucking helpless!"

He tried to lower the blanket to see her face but she held it tightly. He sighed softly and said, "I'll go sort out the kids but then I'm coming back up here so we can talk. Is Sam giving you hell?"

"Go..." Leesha grumbled and sniffled. Hell was putting it lightly and all she wanted was for Sam to be out. Eight hellish months of puking and cravings, zero libido one minute to dripping and salivating the next. Insomnia.

Not to mention David finishing his round of chemotherapy and the kids being of very little help thinned her patience even further. Yes, she was happy to have her husband home, but she'd hoped to have more help from Ethan at the very least.

Part of her wished she's gone quietly and taken care of it before telling the guys...before any of them became attached. The other part knew the guilt would have been too much after her miscarriage all those years ago.

David kissed her head beneath the blanket, his lips cooler than normal, and whispered, "I'll be back in five minutes." He rose and headed downstairs to fix the issues everyone had.

"Ethan!" he yelled as from the stairs, his voice becoming more distant with each step, "Reboot the damn modem yourself and Ellie, you're 14! If you can't make yourself something to eat, then you can go hungry."

"But Mom is the tech expert!"

Leesha rolled her eyes and sighed. She forced her lids shut and tried to block out the yelling. "And she's the one who makes those little heart pancakes and cloud-shaped eggs!" Ellie complained.

"You all have thirty seconds to get your asses to me so I don't have to yell anymore," David shouted, "You too, Arielle! Your mom is trying to sleep."

Not with your booming voice I'm not, she thought to herself. Sam chose that moment to stretch, his feet poking and pressing into her ribs. His head rolled over her bladder and she had to tighten up to stop from peeing.

"Right," David said from the landing outside their door, moving inside the room and back onto the bed, "I've sent them all over to Jon and Julie's for a couple of hours so we can talk in peace. They can feed them for a change."

"Okay," she grumbled.

"Want to tell me why you're under your blanket, baby?" he asked, "You haven't done that in a while."

"I just want a break from reality and the bullshit..."

"Has this got to do with your Mom?"

"No, David...I'm upset that the Kardashians got canceled," she replied sarcastically.

"Baby, the Kardashians have got nothing on what happens here," he chuckled, trying vainly to lighten the mood, "We could set up cameras here if that's what you want to watch. Or better yet at the Bongiovi house."

When there was no response, he sighed and said, "Okay...so that wasn't the best idea I've come up with. Can you please come out so I can see your beautiful face?"

Leesha gave in and slowly lowered the blanket, whimpering in pain. Seeing the distress on his wife's face, David rubbed her belly. "I'm trying to cope with my mom's death and haven't got an ounce of rest since getting back to Jersey. Between you working on your musical and recovering, Ethan and Ari trying to finish school and Ellie's many fundraisers and extracurricular activities, not to mention the gossip going around the school moms, I've just had it! The pain is getting worse and I'm miserable!"

"Shall I call the doctor? See if she can give you something to help you sleep for a bit?" he asked before latching onto a snippet of what Leesha had given up, "Hang on! What gossip? What haven't you told me, babygirl?"

"They're all talking about 'that little Bryan whore' and how Sam is the bastard child. How 'that handsome man needs to divorce her for being a slut'." She glanced up through red eyes at her husband and ran her fingers over his wedding ring.

"Fuck!"

"They're right though," Leesha said pitifully. "Look at me! I'm huge and waddle when I walk..."

"Stop it!" he snapped, "You've never been more beautiful, baby. Wanna know what I think about those women?"

She shrugged. "That they're young, blonde and hot?"

"That's just the outside, sweetheart," he hooked his finger under her chin forcing her to look at him, "You have more guts, heart, and soul than ten thousand of those women. Why do you think Jon and I got so tired of sleeping with random women before we met you two? They were shallow and self-centered and cared about nothing than their own importance."

"I'm so proud to have you as my wife, my soulmate and the mother of all of my children," he dipped down to kiss her sweetly, "You're going through a rough time at the moment. Together; we'll get through this together." He sat back and took a good look at her and frowned seeing the pinched look on her face, the stress and pain clearly evident. He kicked himself for not noticing it earlier. "I'm calling your doctor to come out for a house call. You look a little pale, sweetheart."

Leesha reached up and caught his arm, shaking her head. "I'm not nine months yet. It's just him moving and stretching. Please...just come lay down with me...without your shirt...maybe nix the jeans too..."

He nodded but made a mental note to call the doctor's office anyway later as he stood and stripped out of his clothes, "Your wish is my command, my Queen." He climbed back on the bed and drew her against his chest, soothing slow circles over her extended belly.

"Since the kids are out of the house, I just...I want my husband's touch," she whispered, her fingertips trailing through his chest hair. "It helped when I was pregnant with Ethan and Ellie. Maybe it'll help now? If you feel up to it?"

David gasped when her fingers slipped into his briefs, tracing over his cock. Despite his medications, his body reacted to her touch as it always had. He took his time removing her clothes and crawled behind her. "That, my dear, is music to my ears."

*~*

Leesha moaned loudly into David's chest, the pain waking her from a restful sleep. "H...hun?" He grumbled in his sleep. "D...wake up...plea--ahhh!" She screamed into the dark room and smacked him hard.

"Huh!?" he sat up, dazed and confused with his thin disheveled curls tangled, "What's going on?" Leesha groaned beside him again as her nails dug into his arm. "Fuck!" He reached for the phone when he saw the sheets beneath her soaked and tinged red. He dialed 911 and scrambled to find his clothes.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"My wife...her waters' broke. She's only eight months. Hurry!" David barked into the receiver.

Leesha's eyes rolled into her head and the color drained from her face. Her arms twitched and legs locked up, fingers and hands bending at awkward angles.

"Leesha!! Baby?!" David yelled and fell to his knees at the side of the bed, patting her face to try and rouse her, "She's just passed out or having a fit or something! What do I do?"

"Sir, I need you to stay calm," the dispatcher replied, "Paramedics are en route. Roll her onto her left side and prop a pillow behind her so she doesn't choke."

David grabbed the pillows and stuffed them in behind his wife, trying to stay calm but failing miserably. "Come on, babygirl, come back to me..."

"Sir, has your wife had any complications in the past?"

"Ahh..no, never. Two successful pregnancies, last one about 14 years ago," David said, willing Leesha to open her eyes. "Oh wait! Early 2010 she had a miscarriage when she was...uh...6 or 7 months along..."

He heard typing from the dispatcher. "Sir, the paramedics are outside. They said there's a locked gate blocking the entrance. Can you let them in to get to your wife?"

*~*At the Hospital*~*

David took his wife's hand in his, kissing her knuckles and smiling up at her. "How're you feelin', darlin'?"

"Exhausted," she replied, eyelids drooping slightly. "Least Sam settled down." Attached to her IV hung a clear bag of fluid, a strap around her belly connected to a fetal monitor. Due to her heightened blood pressure induced headache, the nurses lowered the room lights and were closely monitoring both mother and baby.

She closed her eyes and ran fingers through David's mess of curls. Leesha sighed when a nurse came in and they both looked up.

"Mrs. Bryan, you have a visitor. You feeling up to some company?"

"Who is it?" David asked. "We told our kids to stay home."

"Their names are Jon and Julie," the nurse answered.

Leesha and David exchanged a knowing look and he stood up. "I'll take care of him, babe. You just relax." He kissed her sweetly and followed the nurse out to the sitting area. "Jon...Julie...what are you two doing here?"

"We heard that Leesha was being taken away in an ambulance," Julie said, "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," David replied tersely. "You don't need to be here...really..."

Jon cut him off and asked hurriedly, "What about Sam? Is he okay? Is she delivering him tonight?"

"He was giving her some issues earlier. They said her blood pressure was too high so they're monitoring both of them. Now please...go home," David explained, turning to return to his wife.

"Sam's my child! I have every right to be here," Jon responded equally as terse.

David glanced up towards the ceiling and prayed for patience. "She's my wife. My wife is the one pregnant...why can't you respect that? There's no reason for you to be here, Jon."

"I have the welfare of my child to consider here," Jon pointed to his chest, "So I'll decide if I stay or if I don't. You can't stop me."

"You're not going in that room and stressing out Leesha any more than she already is," David snipped. "Do you realize she just buried her mother a week ago? She's going through too much for you to come in all high and mighty."

"David, please," Julie spoke, "Can I just-" She was cut off abruptly by David raising his hand in front of her face.

"I said no!"

"Just let Julie go in so she's not worrying all day," Jon said through clenched teeth as his anger started to simmer.

David blocked Julie's way as she tried to push past him. "All you Bongiovi's are the same...your way or no way...always demanding control and thinking your name gets you special treatment. Tell ya what, darlin', how about you go dancing on a pole to make your husband happy and get him off my ass."

He reached into his pocket and pulled a few 20s and 50s, reaching out and stuffing down Julie's shirt. "That should keep him occupied," David added.

Julie gasped in shock as Jon reacted with a shove to David's chest, pushing him up against the doorframe, snarling, "Tell me you did NOT just do that, asshole!" Jon had his arm pushed across David's throat pinning him to the wall, his fist clenched and arm reared back ready to hit something or someone, his cane falling to the floor with a clatter.

David smirked and replied, "I would but I'm not a liar."

"Hey!" Jon and David glanced over as a short, dark nurse stormed over. "Do I need to call security on you two? I do not need you stressing out my patients!"

"Jon!" Julie said, pulling her angry husband away as she fished the notes out of her shirt letting them fall to the floor, "Baby...please. He's not worth it. You're not supposed to overexert yourself, remember?" She managed to get Jon to back away, putting herself between the two men.

"That's not what you said when you hopped on my dick," David muttered, straightening out his shirt and hair. "Why couldn't you two have stayed home?!"

Hearing what David had said as she pushed Jon further away, Julie turned back to the blonde and slapped him with all her might leaving a perfectly distinguishable handprint on his face. "If it wasn't for Leesha, you wanker, I would have nothing to do with you!" she snarled.

He was about to retort when several alarms sounded at once, the red light above Leesha's door shining crimson. Several nurses rushed their way and David looked at Jon and Julie with watering eyes. "Go home...stay away from my wife and son..."

"My son!" Jon spat.

"Mr Bryan," one of the young nurses tapped David on the shoulder. "Your wife and child are in danger. It's not looking good. She's progressed from preeclampsia to Eclampsia and her uterus has ruptured. If we don't act now, neither will make it. She requires an emergency c-section. We need your permission to save her." She handed him a clipboard with a consent form for surgery.

"And my son?" he asked.

"We'll do everything we can but...I can't promise anything..."

David signed the form and handed it back. "Don't let my wife die."

Within moments Leesha's bed was being wheeled from her room. Julie gasped and clutched at Jon's arm when she saw her friend lying unresponsive with tubes, wires and a breathing tube from her mouth. "Oh Leesha!" she cried bursting into tears. Jon pulled her into him as they watched them disappear down the bare corridors to the operating theatres.

David started towards the door but stopped and glanced back at Jon and Julie. He didn't know if there was any bouncing back from this. They'd been on shaky grounds since the Ethan and Ari incident, though they did start mending their friendship when David had received his cancer diagnosis.

His stomach roiled at the thought and his eyes darted between them and the floor. He twisted his lips and swallowed, backing towards the operating department doors and left their two friends standing together.

*~*~*

"She's seizing. I need 5mg of Diazepam and 10mg of Lisinopril intravenous. Run the fluids wide open. Start the local anesthetic." David watched the surgeon dish out orders and hang the operating curtain to spare him the visuals.

Leesha's seizures slowly calmed and he leaned in towards her ear, whispering through his surgical mask. "I'm right here, baby. I know you're scared but I need you to hang in there. Your son...our son...will be here soon for us to spoil."

David stroked Leesha's cheek and neck as the theatre staff and doctors bustled around his wife. He tried to block out the requests for tools to slice Leesha open, whispering words of love and devotion in her ear. A tear fell from her dark brown eyes and he knew she was listening.

"That's it, babygirl. Concentrate on my voice and the happiness Sam will bring us. I bet he'll look you." There was choking from the other side of the curtain. He peeked around and watched the paediatric specialist clearing out Sam's airway.

"Da...Dave..." The colored drained from Leesha's face.

"I'm here, babygirl and so is our son. Full head of dark hair." Both were crying as Sam's screams filled the room. As he was taken to the specialised crib and all his vitals checked and recorded, the surgeon proceeded to remove the rest of the damaged placenta.

"Damn it. Uterus has been compromised. She's bleeding out," the doctor said, "Dad, do you consent to an emergency hysterectomy? I need an answer stat!"

"Yes! Fuck yes!" David cried, "Anything to save Leesha!"

It took nearly thirty minutes to stop the bleeding and perform a full hysterectomy. David never left Leesha's side even when they tried to hand Sam to him. He brushed the nurses away to concentrate on the woman who had become his whole life. He would never be able to forgive himself or Jon if anything happened to her.

Once she was stitched up and sedated, Leesha was wheeled out with her husband right beside her. The hospital sounds were little more than foggy whispers in the darkness.

"Your son is being brought to the NICU but when he's able to, I'll bring him to your room," the nurse said with a kind smile. "We'll be keeping her sedated for at least twelve hours."

"Shouldn't she be feeding him right now?" David asked with a frown.

"She's in no shape to feed him with the medication in her system. He's being fed with milk from the Breast Milk Bank until she's cleared to breastfeed herself...if she chooses too..."

The small procession reached the hallway outside of Leesha's room. David groaned unhappily when he saw the Bongiovi's still waiting.

"Thought I told you two to fuck off," he said to Jon as he watched the hospital bed maneuvered into the room.

Julie rose to follow her friend but David stepped in front of her, blocking her. She glared at him, her hostility toward him clearly evident.

"Where's Sam?" Jon asked, rising stiffly from the chair, "Just...just tell us what happened. Then we'll go, if that's what you want."

"He's fine," David grumbled, "He's in the NICU for assessment and no you can't see him. My wife is now as sterile as yours. It was the only choice or she would have bled out." His voice trembled with emotion and crossed his arms over his chest. "Anything else?"

Jon scrubbed a hand over his face as Julie laid her head on his shoulder, "Don't make me be the bad guy and get the lawyers involved, D. I just want to see my son. I never wished any harm on Leesha, you know that?!"

"Don't you dare threaten me," David growled, "All I'm doing is protecting my family. The same way you would."

Jon huffed out a breath. "Difference is, I would never have slipped drugs into your drink. You brought all this on yourself, brother."

"And you could have wrapped up before fucking my wife," David snarled, "plus you've done much worst than give me a boner. Like drugging those girls in '89 after our concert in Los Angeles. Don't make me lay your skeletons bare, Bongiovi."

"You're a nasty piece of fuck, Bryan," Julie sneered using her husband's favourite turn of phrase, "How does that sweet woman in there put up with you?"

"I'm done with this shit. My wife needs me," David said, "Get the fuck out of here before I call security on you both. You wanna push your weight around...I can do the same."

Jon stood blinking in shock before he gripped Julie's hand and sadly turned away from his friend, waiting until they were safely in their car before breaking down as Julie drove them both home.