It felt like hours before Mark continued. "He's been in an accident, and we, I thought, wondered..." His voice faded out as he thought of something to say. "I wondered if you want to come over to the hospital, you know, like, just for support." It was clearly hard for Mark to ask me this. "Does he want me there then?" "I don't know, I haven't been able to ask him... he's fighting for his life, please come. If you won't come for his sake then come for me. Having you around would be comforting for us all..." I thought for a while. What did he just say? Was that meant as a compliment? "Yeah, OK then, I'll come up" "Oh, Nikki, thanx a lot, I'll come and pick you up as soon as I can right?!" "Yeah, that's fine, bye then" "Bye"

I was shaking as I put the phone down. He couldn't die, please. 'Fighting for his life' Mark had said. in what way? It was probably bad then. I put my arms around myself. He couldn't die, there was still something I had to tell him. I hadn't been able to tell him before, but I knew I had to. I was pregnant, and the baby was his as well. I had made up my mind I'd keep it from the start, couldn't kill an innocent life like that. I know I was young, and I didn't like the thought of getting tied down already, but it was my fault as well...

Half an hour later Mark arrived. "Wait two seconds, I'm just getting my bag." I said as I opened the door to let him in. "OK." On my way out I looked in he mirror. I looked such a state. My hair was a mess from sleeping and my eyes were still red. It didn't matter, I was just going to the hospital anyway. "Are we going then?" "Yeah." Mark walked out the door before me and I locked it behind us.

As we walked over to the car Mark looked at me. "You know what?" "No..." "You look lovely like that, which hairdresser do you go to?" I looked up at him and smiled, then ran my fingers through my hair to try to fix it. We reached the car "Here, jump in," he said and opened the door. He closed the door behind me and went around to his side, and started the car.

We just sat there quiet, until Mark finally broke the silence. "He was over at your house, wasn't he?" "Yeah..." I replied, did Mark know what had happened? If he did, it didn't show. "How bad is it?" I asked nervously. Mark looked at me, "I honestly don't know. The diagnosis wasn't set yet when I rushed away for you... but he's placed in intensive care, so I guess... it's pretty bad." "Do you think he'll make it through?" "I don't know... the car hit a stonewall and the doctors say it's a miracle that he didn't die on the spot..." "I hope he does... make it through I mean..." We went quiet again, and I was wrapped in my thoughts again. I couldn't keep my secret anymore, and I decided to confide in Mark, he wouldn't tell anyone else, I was sure about that. I took a deep breath.

As we drove into the parking space at the hospital, I had finally plucked up the courage to tell him. "Mark?" "Mmm..." "I'm pregnant..." "Wha'?!" Mark turned around to look at me. "Nikki are you serious?" "I'm more serious than I've ever been in my life." "And Shane is...?" I nodded, "Yes." Mark sighted. "Does Shane know about this?" "No... oh Mark I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't." My tears started falling again. Mark took my hand, "It's OK..."