**I HAD TO UPDATE CAUSE IT'S MY FAVORITE FUCKIN HOLIDAY EVER! 

USA! USA! USA! Wait...can u hear....can u hear that? 

it's the sound of freedom ringing *bald eagle screeches in the background*

If you weren't aware, America is the greatest country in the world. I mean, we were spilling the tea before it was even cool (last one I swear lmao).

No, but in all seriousness I wanted to take a second to recognize and thank all active duty military men and women and veterans out there. It is because of every single one of them that we Americans have the ability to do and say ANYTHING we want. Take a second and thank them for the incredible sacrifices they make every single day to keep this country the land of the free and the home of the brave. God bless America!!

Tansy's POV

My body tensed as I waited for Tanner's reaction. It seemed I wasn't the only one either because the entire room grew eerily silent. I wondered if I was the only one who didn't know about Tanner's older brother until just recently.

I was going to go with yes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Tanner asked quietly. So quiet, in fact I'm pretty sure only the three of us heard it.

"I can't come visit my only brother?" Adrian asked, seeming peeved at Tanner's shock.

"Not after I fucking begged you to stay last time only to turn up at your hotel room the next day to find you gone," Tanner growled back. Sensing that this was going to get much more heated than it already was, I decided to facilitate the conversation to a more private area.

"Listen, why don't we go have this talk in our bedroom? There's a lot of listening ears right now and I think this is a conversation to be had between just the two of you," I insisted before clearing my throat. Tanner and Adrian just continued to glare at one another, despite my repeated tries to snap them out of it.

"I have nothing to say to you," Tanner sneered before turning away from him and grabbing the knife I was going to use for his cake out of my hand.

"Tanner you have to blow the candles out first!" I hissed, watching as he just about cut out the middle of the cake. The little shit.

"Tanner," Adrian growled once more.

"Fine! You wanna fuckin' talk? Then let's fuckin' talk!" Tanner yelled, causing everyone to flinch. He slammed the cutlery down onto the counter before pushing his way through the crowd of people to the hallway that led to our bedroom. I rubbed at my temples as I heard the bedroom door shut behind the two before a screaming match instantly ensued.

"You're going to have to go moderate," Scar spoke, giving me an apologetic stare.

"I was hoping this wasn't going to happen," I whispered before following the path Tanner and his brother took. When I'd made it to our door and out of the sight of everyone staring at me, I leaned against the door and took a few deep breaths, feeling light-headed and short-of-breath. I knocked once I finally felt grounded again. The door swung open so fast I slipped before grabbing the door frame to catch myself.

"Jesus Christ, would you be fucking careful! She's goddamn pregnant you asshole!" Tanner screamed at his brother before shoving him harshly out of the way and cradling my face in his hands.

"Are you okay, baby?" He asked, looking highly worried. I just nodded and brushed off his concern before leaning my weight against his body as my feet and knees started to ache already.

"Please, stop yelling," I asked. They both opened their mouth to talk, but I shot my hand up to silence them, "I don't care who thinks who is at fault. Yelling will get us absolutely nowhere, just like talking over one another will get us nowhere. If one of you starts to talk, the other shuts their damn mouth and listens. Am I clear?" I asked with a no nonsense tone.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a pregnant fiancee?" Adrian asked with crossed arms.

"How do you know I wasn't going to tell you? You goddamn up and left after seeing and talking once in I can't even fucking tell you how many years, Adrian!" Tanner growled. I watched as Adrian gritted his teeth, obviously mad that Tanner had a point and he had no defence to that.

"Why didn't you contact me after you'd gotten custody of Calla? Huh? Months went by after you'd moved back and you only finally called me when you needed me. What kind of fucking shitty brother does that?" Adrian accused.

"Look, I realize I should've called you sooner about her, and I'm sorry you found out through word of mouth, but I was just trying to make sure she was comfortable in her new environment before I introduced a bunch of new people. Not to mention, I didn't want you to come in and blow my cover as her supposed dad and I knew you would've," Tanner stated knowingly. Adrian sighed.

"And besides, why would I call you and let you be in her life when you'll just up and leave without an explanation, huh? What makes her any different than me when we were younger?" Tanner challenged.

"Don't you dare pull this shit! I left for the army so that you and I could have a better life!" Adrian screamed, catching me completely off guard.

"Adrian, stop," I hissed, feeling my heart pound in my chest at the feral look in Tanner's eyes.

"Bullshit!" Tanner screamed right back, just as loud, "You left me alone in that fucked up neighborhood to rot without anyone to help me! I had no food, no home, and no money! You never even tried to get back into contact with me!" Tanner finished.

"Tanner, please just calm down," I tried again, stepping back a few steps to lean my weight against the wall as the oxygen in the room seemed to grow thin.

"I told you when I left not to leave the place we were at! I told you I would take care of you but you were just a goddamn stubborn kid!" Adrian yelled,

"You guys," I rasped out, pressing a shaking hand to my belly.

"No, I was fucking scared you prick!" Tanner yelled before cocking his fist back and hitting Adrian across the jaw with a strong right hook. My breath caught in my chest as that single hit caused them to tumble to the floor in a heap of flying fists. Evan, Scar, and a few other guys burst into the room at the commotion as my eyesight went blurry.

My knees shook before giving out as I slowing dropped to the floor.

"Tansy!" Evan screamed before rushing to my side. Black spots dotted my vision, the last thing registering being the terrified look on Tanner's face as her forcefully shoved his brother away and began sprinting towards me.

**

"Why isn't she waking up!" Tanner's familiar gruff voice demanded.

"Sir, as I've told you many times, her body is just recuperating from the traumatic event she endured. We just have to wait and allow her to wake on her own time," the man explained calmly. Tanner growled before a loud screech echoed throughout the room and I felt my hand being engulfed in a familiarly called one.

"I'm just going to check her vitals once more and then I'll be out of your way," he murmured. A minute or two of silence ensued before the man spoke up once more.

"Her vitals have changed a noticeable amount within the last hour. Tansy, can you hear me?" The man called. I huffed out before clearing my throat, but I kept my eyes closed - too tired to open them.

"She's awake. I'll page the doctor," The man - who I now assumed was the nurse - spoke before I heard a curtain swish and his footsteps fade.

"Tansy, baby," Tanner's hopeful voice called.

"Water please," I rasped out, my voice sounding like sandpaper. My head was pounding with a splitting headache that had me wincing at the light before I'd even opened my eyes.

"Here, baby. Open," Tanner said as I felt something poke my lip. I cracked my lips just enough for the straw to fit through before I drank until there wasn't anything left in the cup.

"Miss Nicole, you've given your family quite the scare," A different man's voice spoke up. This time I forced my eyes to open before wincing and doing my best to get my eyes used to the brightness.

"What happened?" I croaked out as Tanner continued stroking my knuckles from my bedside.

"You fainted. You've been out for about eight hours or so. We have you hooked up to a saline drip right now as we wanted to be certain it wasn't from dehydration," He explained, coming closer.

"So if it wasn't from dehydration, what was it from?" I asked, worried.

"Well, we're not so sure yet so I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. Were you having any symptoms prior to you passing out that seemed out of the norm?" The doctor asked.

"I felt short-of-breath, my vision was quite blurry, and I was pretty lightheaded," I confessed sheepishly, already feeling Tanner's intense gaze on the side of my face.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me this?!" Tanner demanded angrily.

"Because you were too busy arguing and fighting with your brother! I was just trying to get the two of you to fucking stop and start acting like men instead of children!" I scolded back, seconds later hearing the machine I was hooked up to start to beep.

"Just now, would you describe yourself as feeling a bit stressed?" The doctor asked. I sighed deeply before slumping back in my hospital bed.

"Not really, just pissed off," I grumbled before shooting Tanner a glare.

"Well, I can't be too sure right now, but I'm thinking this might all add up to being preeclampsia. It's a condition some women occur during pregnancy and it's characterized by hypertension, or high blood pressure. This can cause all the symptoms you were describing from the shortness of breath to the dizziness. If you don't mind, I would like to run a few blood and urine tests to check and see if I'm correct in my diagnosis. Usually preeclampsia doesn't develop until about twenty weeks of pregnancy, but with you being seventeen weeks I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's at play here," the doctor explained intelligently.

"If the tests come back and it is preeclampsia, what does that mean for me and the baby?" I asked worried.

"Unfortunately, there's no medication or really anything we can do on our end that we can do other than birth the baby that will alleviate the symptoms. It can be fatal if you're not careful and you're not precautious with the kind of lifestyle you adapt to help with the symptoms. If that's what this is all being caused by, then you'll just have to take up a more sedentary lifestyle and make sure to eliminate all or most of your excess stresses," he said.

"Sorry, baby, you've got to go. Doctor's orders," I cheekily joked while patting Tanner's cheek. He and the doctor laughed before Tanner rolled his eyes and me and moved his head just enough so that he could press a chaste kiss to the middle of my palm.

"I'll talk to your nurse and have him come in to get the blood and urine sample, but other than that I'd like to keep you here for another day or so just to monitor your blood pressure," he explained before making his leave.

"I'm so sorry sweetheart," Tanner stressed, his eyes showing so much guilt it made my heart hurt.

"You didn't mean to do anything Tanner. Neither of us knew this would happen, just promise me the next time you talk to your brother it's civilized and there aren't any fists being thrown," I demanded more than asked.

"Whatever you want," He murmured before leaning forward and kissing my lips. "Speaking of my brother, he's in the waiting room absolutely besides himself. He also feels responsible for you being here," he explained.

"It's not his fault. Really, if anyone should be blamed it should be me. I was the one that called him and your father to come down for closure," I rambled, only realizing my mistake when Tanner stayed dead silent, just staring back at me.

"Did you just say my father?" He murmured. I sighed deeply, trying to come up with the best way possible to say what I wanted to say.

"After we found out about the baby, I've seen the way you've changed when it comes to your own family. I can see that it's been eating you up and it kills me. I just wanted to try and do something good so that you could finally get some closure and finally get whatever questions you had answered. I didn't think your brother's attendance would be as troublesome as it was, but I knew your dad would be a touchy subject. When I finally got a hold of him and got to talking, he started sobbing. He's in a rehab clinic in Ohio, but he's almost finished his treatment and he's been sober from all drugs and alcohol for almost a year now. He went back because he was afraid he would relapse, so he admitted himself.

"He's adamant about doing better and being clean once and for all. He told me he's wanted to see you for about a decade now, but he never wanted it to be when he was still strung out between one high and the next. I told him that a phone call to start would be the best and he agreed. I have a number to reach him from 8 am to 8 pm, but it's up to you whether you want to contact him or not," I murmured, watching his reaction closely. He looked conflicted, that was for sure. I couldn't imagine what he was going through.

"I think I'll call him eventually," he started, pulling his bottom lip into his mouth to gnaw on it, "I can't thank you enough, baby. I never asked you to do any of this, but you took it upon yourself to find both of them anyway. I just want you to know one thing; I didn't need either of them back in my life to feel whole or complete. You do that for me. You. Just you, Calla, and our baby. It's all I ever needed. Since you've come into my life, my heart has been so full. I can see situations in ways that I've never been able to see them before, and it's all because of you. I'm the man I always wanted to be and I'm only getting better everyday with your love and encouragement. I love you so much," he wept, single tear sliding down his cheek as he pressed his forehead to mine.

There was a light knock on the door, causing Tanner and I to pull away and look as the nurse from before came into the room.

"Miss Nicole, I'm here to get the blood and urine sample. Additionally, we've got a nurse coming from the OB ward to do an ultrasound and just make sure everything is still looking okay and there's nothing we should be looking into," the man explained with a kind smile. I nodded and allowed him to do his thing, rolling my eyes as I watched Tanner watch him with a scrutinizing stare.

Everything went pretty quickly, before I knew it the second nursing was entering while wheeling the familiar machine behind her.

"Miss Nicole, if you'd like to cover your lower half with this sheet, we'll go ahead and get started" she said. I nodded and did as instructed before raising my hospital gown over my belly to rest under my boobs, jumping slightly when she squirted the cold gel on my skin.

"Since you're a couple days over seventeen weeks we'll be able to identify the gender. Would you like to know, or keep it a surprise?" She asked while moving the wand around to spread the cold goo.

"We want to know," Tanner demanded instantly. I just giggled at his reaction before taking a hold of his hand and squeezing. She moving the device around for a few seconds before stopping in one spot and smiling.

"Well, mom and dad, you're going to be having a little girl!" She exclaimed with excitement. I gasped loudly before squealing and looking over to Tanner.

I'd never seen a man cry so hard. 

If you got butt hurt about my author's note, just know that I'm sorry you take things too literally and are too sensitive lol. For real tho, I love you all xxx