Tears of a Stranger


Adam sat restlessly in the waiting room of the hospital he'd brought Amy to nearly an hour earlier.  At first, the redhead had been directed to the emergency room, but a physician's assistant had suggested she be admitted as she'd checked her over.  When Adam had questioned her and then asked about his fiancee's condition and the severity of it, the woman had only said she usually had a sixth sense about these things - whatever that meant.

Adam looked up instantly as he noticed in his peripheral vision that someone had come to a stop to stand directly in front of him.

"Are you with Amy Dumas?" asked a tall blond woman who looked to be in her late thirties.  Her voice was soft and gentle, almost melodic.

"Yes...I'm her fiance," he said, instantly rising to stand in front of the woman.

"I'm Dr. Perl...it's a good thing you brought your fiancee here, Mr...?"

"Copeland," he supplied.  "Adam Copeland.  What's wrong with Amy?"

The doctor noticed the look of stark worry in the young man's eyes.  "It's nothing terribly serious - right now," she said.  "First of all, Mr. Copeland, judging by the symptoms she described, Amy seems to have had a panic attack tonight..."

"What?  She doesn't have panic attacks."

"Well, it appears that she had one tonight," the woman said.  "The symptoms are classic - the tingling sensation, difficulty breathing, vomiting, excessive shaking...but there is another matter that requires immediate attention."

"Okay," Adam said impatiently.  "And what would that be?"  He wished the woman would stop beating around the bush and just spit it out already.

"Amy needs an abortion as soon as possible."

"What?!"  The blond man gaped at the physician incredulously.  He could have sworn he'd heard her say that Amy needed an abortion, but he must have been mistaken - he must have misheard her.

The woman felt terrible as she suddenly realized that this was the first the man was hearing of his fiancee's pregnancy.  "Yes," she said gently.  "Amy is six weeks pregnant.  She needs an abortion - because it's an ectopic pregnancy..."

The color drained from Adam's face as he absorbed the doctor's words.  He suddenly felt faint.  Oh, my God... Amy was pregnant with his child, and he hadn't known about it.  And now, the baby would have to be destroyed because it was growing in the fallopian tubes instead of the uterus, where it was supposed to be.  His mouth went dry as ashes.

He ran a hand through his long hair, glancing elsewhere for a beat as these realizations ran through his head.  "Oh, my God," he said softly.  Then, turning back to the woman, he swallowed hard.  "Can I...Can I go see her?"

"Certainly...come with me."

Dr. Perl led Adam to an elevator, where they traveled up to the third floor of the hospital.  The tall blond man remained as silent as a stone for the entire trip.

A myriad of questions played through his head - Why didn't she tell me?  When was she planning to tell me?  Was she thinking of getting rid of the baby all along?  He felt as though he were dreaming.  This all felt so unreal.

The doctor gestured to the inside of a room, then stepped aside as Adam entered.

His eyes were instantly drawn to the limp form of the redhead lying in the hospital bed.  She looked tiny, her head propped up on the pillows, face turned in the opposite direction, facing away from Adam.  As he neared her, he noticed there were tears on her cheeks.  The expression on her face nearly broke his heart.

"Ames..."  He sat down on the chair by the other side of the bed, gazing up into her face with concern.

A fresh tear trickled down Amy's right cheek, and she shifted her eyes to the man she loved.  She despised herself as she took in the sorrowful expression on Adam's face.  She'd let him down, and that was nobody's fault but her own.

"Adam..."  The diva's voice was barely above a whisper.  "...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."

The blond man reached over the rail of the bed to grasp Amy's hand gently but firmly in his own.  "Honey...why didn't you tell me?"

The redhead gazed at him with a crestfallen expression, her eyes looking so lost and helpless.  She looked much younger than her twenty-seven years as she stared at him plaintively.

"I really didn't know," she admitted, hating herself for this, even though it was the truth.  "I haven't been...regular in the last few years."

"I know, baby, but...if you even suspected for a split second that you might have been pregnant, you should have told me."  He rose from the chair to stand directly over her bed, his head cocked to one side as he gazed at her with a gentle expression on his face.

Amy remained silent for a beat as she met his emerald-green eyes.  She suddenly felt his other hand in her hair, caressing it.  The love in his eyes was clearly shining within them, and she felt something inside her break.

"I...didn't do a very good job," she berated herself.

"Oh, Ames...sweetheart, this is not your fault..."

"I know," the redhead whispered.  "But I still can't help feeling like a failure."

Adam winced and lowered his head to hers.  Nuzzling her gently, he whispered, "Don't ever think that...you are not a failure."  He lifted his head to gaze directly into her sad hazel eyes.

Amy kept her gaze on him for a long moment before lowering them to her abdomen, which was covered by a thick white sheet.  She moved their clasped hands to her stomach, closing her eyes tightly as she did so.  More tears escaped her eyes.  "I know I only just found out about the baby...but I can't help feeling regretful..."  She didn't conclude her sentence, as she was unable to, choked with heavy emotion.

"I know, sweetie," the blond said softly.  "I feel the same way..."

*

A bit later, while Amy was being prepped for emergency surgery, Adam stepped outside of the hospital to make a couple of phone calls.  He pulled his cell phone out of the pocket of his light jacket and pushed some buttons, then waited for an answer on the other end.

"Hello?" came a sleepy female voice.

"Stephanie?  I'm sorry to bother you so late, but this is urgent..."

"Adam?  Hi...what's the matter?" she said.  The General Manager of SmackDown knew that if the man was calling her at this ungodly hour, it had to be something serious.

"I...I'm not going to be able to go to SmackDown this week," he said, bracing himself for the woman's reaction.

"What happened, Adam?"

"It's...it's Amy..."  He took a deep breath before continuing.  "...she's in the hospital..."

"Oh, my God!  Why?  Is she going to be okay?" the brunette asked frantically.

"Yes, she will be...but she needs..."  He paused as his voice threatened to break.  "...Stephanie, she needs an abortion."  Before the woman could say anything in response, he said, "We just found out tonight that she's pregnant...but it's ectopic."

"Oh, God...oh, Adam...I am so sorry to hear that," Stephanie said sympathetically.  "How is Amy taking all of this?"

"Not well," he admitted, running his free hand through his hair.

"I'm really sorry...please give her my sympathies...and don't worry about missing SmackDown.  You just take care of Amy - your place is with her right now."

"Thank you, Stephanie..."  After another moment, they hung up, and Adam made a couple of other calls.

Finally, he made the call he'd been most dreading.  He knew the person wasn't the most receptive or friendly soul around.  The man on the other end answered after several rings, and he didn't sound happy.  "Hello?"

"Mr. Bischoff?"

"Yeah...who the hell is this?!"  It was after two in the morning, and he wondered with irritation who in hell would be calling him now - and disturbing him from his sleep.

"Sorry to disturb you...it's Adam Copeland - Edge," he said.

"If you want to be on RAW, I suggest you give me a call at a reasonable hour.  I'm not going to have my sleep disrupted just because some flash in the pan from SmackDown wants to be on my show."

The tall blond man took a deep breath, trying to rein in his temper.  He was already feeling stressed out beyond belief, but this man was so nasty and obnoxious.  He ran a hand through his long blond hair as he tried to calm himself.  He closed his eyes as he finally spoke again.

"I'm not calling for that...I'm calling about Amy, my fiancee."

"Amy?" Bischoff questioned.  "You mean Lita?"  Not a thing did he mention about Adam's usage of the word "fiancee."

"Yes...she isn't going to be able to make it to RAW," Adam said.  "In fact, she's going to need some time off."

"What?  You tell her that if she doesn't come to the show tomorrow night, her ass is going to be fired!" the man boomed, yelling so loud that the Canadian had to hold the phone away from his ear, lest he get deafened.

"Mr. Bischoff," he said, again trying to keep calm, "that's not going to happen.  She won't be physically able-"

"If that woman is not at the arena in Indianapolis tomorrow night, she's gone - period."  Before Adam could say another word, he suddenly realized the man had hung up.

"God damn bastard!" he shouted.  Then, in all of his fury, he tossed his cell phone to the ground.  Without thinking, he used the heel of his shoe to stomp it.  Once it was smashed to smithereens, he kicked it as hard as he could, where it came to land in the middle of the small hospital parking lot.

He sank down to the pavement, where he was unable to stop the tears from coming.  He felt as though his world were collapsing around him.  His sobs were silent as he thought about the baby he and Amy would never get to hold.














Part 6

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