Mouse stared at Dr. Souza from her place in the bed. Next to her, she could feel Travis sitting tensely in the chair. Around them, the emergency room hummed with activity, with only a curtain separating them from everyone else.

Dr. Souza looked back at Mouse, concern and fatigue in her kind, brown eyes. "I'm sorry, but the notes say we could speak freely in front of--" she checked her notes, "--Mr. Hall?" She looked over at Travis. "I hope this is correct? Would you prefer to speak in private?"

Mouse swallowed and shook her head. "Are you sure, though? I had a miscarriage?"

Dr. Souza nodded her head, grasping Mouse's foot in a sweet gesture. "I'm afraid so. You're still having it, technically. It's going to take a few days for the bleeding to stop, okay?" She looked back and forth between Mouse and Travis again. "It was very, very early, based on what we saw. Six weeks, maybe less? You might not even have known you were pregnant if you hadn't had the secondary side effects, the severe cramping, the fever, the dizziness. Many women lose pregnancies at this early stage and just think they had a heavy period," Dr. Souza told her, patting her foot.

Mouse nodded her understanding, taking a deep breath, trying not to cry. "Do you know what caused it?" she managed to ask.

Travis reached over and grasped her hand.

Dr. Souza shook her head. "Everything looked normal, there was no underlying problem. You're a healthy young woman, and future pregnancies aren't contraindicated. So the good news is that there won't be any lasting effects," the doctor said, making her voice soothing. "Most women go on to have lots of perfectly healthy pregnancies and babies after early first trimester miscarriages, okay?" She looked at Travis, then back at Mouse. "Is he your partner?" she asked.

Mouse shook her head.

"Well, my professional recommendation is to wait to have sex for at least two weeks after all bleeding has stopped, and to wait to try to get pregnant again until you've had one normal period, okay?" Dr. Souza said, making a notation on Mouse's chart. "I'm going to discharge you tonight, because everything looks fine. The worst of the bleeding has passed, as well, I believe. You can come back here if things get worse, or you can follow up with your primary care ob-gyn."

Travis turned to Mouse as soon as Dr. Souza had pulled the curtain aside, but Mouse shushed him, saying, "Please, please, Travis, I'm begging you, if you care about me at all, can we not do this now?" She lifted exhausted, sorrowful eyes to his, and he just nodded.

"But Mouse, we do have to talk about what we're going to do now," Travis told her in a soft voice.

Mouse had already texted Henry, apologizing and telling him not to expect her until tomorrow. Leo was sad, but understanding, Henry said. Leo sent her a text full of hearts and kissy-face emojis, which made her smile.

"I just want to go home," Mouse said. "You get out to the Hamptons, to your company, okay? I'll take the jitney to Henry's place tomorrow."

"Mouse!" Travis gave her a reproachful look. "I'm not leaving you alone tonight, you must know that!."

"Absolutely not," Mouse insisted. "It's still early, you can be there before dark if you leave now. Get going, I'll catch a cab." At his continued look, she spoke again. "You heard the doctor, it's just like a heavy period. I have my pain pills, I'll be fine. And in the morning I'll catch the jitney, and everything will be back to normal. Done."

The clerk came by to check them out, and they had to stop talking for a few minutes, but continued again as soon as they were out front, waiting for a cab.

"There's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone," Travis reiterated. "You could start hemorrhaging, or your cramps could get worse, or you could pass out, or--"

"Or monkeys could fly out of my butt," Mouse interrupted, laughing. "I'm fine, honest."

They got in a cab, and Mouse gave her address.

"Okay, how about if I spend the night at your apartment with you, and I drive you up to Henry's tomorrow, if you're going to insist on going?" Travis suggested. "Then you won't be alone, and we'll know by morning if you're going to be okay."

Mouse thought, but could find no flaw with this plan, so she reluctantly agreed.

So they went back to the apartment, where Mouse spent a minute convincing Bobby the doorman that she was fine, and went upstairs. Mouse took a bath, put on a fresh pad and comfy pjs, and they ordered a pizza and watched a movie.

When the time came for bed, Travis got Mouse settled, then sat next to her instead of leaving.

"Mouse?" he began.

She sighed and looked at him. "I just took a pain pill, so you'd better talk fast," she said with a smile.

"You won't talk about it? You don't want to tell me anything?" Travis looked at her, eyes troubled. He smoothed her hair and grasped her hand.

Mouse shook her head. "I don't," she replied.

"I just want to know if knew you were pregnant, for fuck's sake," Travis said, his frustration evident. "Was it planned? Did the father know?" He squeezed her hand. "It's just so out of character for you, you know? And we're good friends, Mouse, please tell me. Were you forced?" These last words came out very softly, as if he might not want to know the answer. He looked at Mouse with tortured eyes.

"Oh, Travis," Mouse replied. The pill was beginning to take effect, she could tell, but she struggled to sit up so she could hug him. "Shh, no, nothing like that, honest. Honest. I just don't--I can't talk about it, any of it, right now, okay? Please understand. It's too overwhelming."

Mouse broke down and started to cry, and once she started, she couldn't stop.

A baby. Hers and Henry's. She'd been pregnant, she'd been carrying a life inside her. For the first time since she'd heard the words hours before, she let herself think about what they meant. If nothing had gone wrong, the tiny cluster of cells would've resulted in a new life, a fresh presence, made up of her genes and Henry's.

Leo's sibling.

Mouse hugged Travis, who hugged her back and stroked her hair, letting her make his shoulder soggy with her tears as she wept for the baby she would never have, the baby she hadn't known she wanted, but now mourned.

Eventually she felt sleep pulling on her, bearing her under its somnolent weight. She stopped trying to pull herself up out of it and let it carry her away.

Travis could tell she'd fallen asleep in his arms, and held her for a while, just because he could. Eventually, though, her arms fell away from him, and he laid her down, adjusting the blankets around her. She looked so young, he thought. Even in sleep, her brows were drawn together, her lips pursed with concern. He could feel her legs twitching, as if she ran from something in a dream.

Who? Who had done this to her? Even though she'd told him that she was no one's victim, Travis couldn't help but see her this way. She was the person upon whom a violent act had been committed, an act which had culminated in this awful, bloody, mess, the expulsion of a wad of tissue which should have been a blessing, a wonderful new life, but which instead had become this terrible, painful burden for her to bear alone.

He lay down next to her, on top of the blankets, sleeping lightly all night long, in case she woke and needed him in the night.

****************

Mouse felt better the next morning, and the bleeding had abated somewhat, so she insisted on sticking to their original plan of having Travis drive her to Henry's beach house. Travis was against this, especially since she didn't want anyone to know what had happened.

"Shouldn't you stay with me, then?" he kept asking as they sat on the 495 in the late morning sunshine. "Someone who knows what's happened? In case something goes wrong?"

"Nothing's going to go wrong," Mouse said. "I already feel much better, I promise."

Travis felt stifled by not being able to ask her about the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy, and he let his frustration show by arguing with Mouse pretty much all the way to Henry's. Mouse steadfastly refused to change her mind.

"I'm fine," she kept repeating.

"You look so pale," Travis said. "You don't look fine."

"I've lost a lot of blood," Mouse said, swallowing and firming up her chin. She was finished crying about it. "I'm doubling up on my iron vitamins, and I'm going to spend a week in the sun, don't worry."

They finally got to Henry's in the early afternoon. It was beautiful, two stories, right on the beach, with a pool, of course.

"Wow, so this is what millionaires call 'a cottage', huh?" Travis asked. They could hear music coming from the house.

They seemed to be around back, on the beach-facing deck, so Mouse and Travis walked around that way. Mouse was surprised, because there seemed to be quite a few people, and she'd thought it was only going to be Leo and Henry today. It looked kind of like a party.

Of course, Leo saw her first.

"Mouse!" he cried, jumping up from where he sat. "You're here! You came! I missed you!" He came barreling toward her as fast as his little legs would carry him.

"Ooof! Leo, I missed you too!" Mouse said, putting her bag down so she could pick him up and hug him.

"Do you feel better? Your tummy all good?" Leo asked, his arms around her neck.

"Yeah, all better," she assured him, holding him tight.

Travis, meanwhile, had set the rest of her bags near the door and had come to stand near them. There were a couple of young women, obviously models, splashing around the pool and sitting under some umbrellas.

The sliding glass door to the house opened, and Henry came out, carrying some drinks on a tray. Right behind him was someone familiar to Mouse.

"Look who's here!" Leo said loudly, pointing. "It's Oskar, from the beach, remember?" He laughed, squirming to be set down.

"Oskar," Mouse exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"He came to New York to surprise you," Leo explained. "So Lila and Neve brought him up here this morning. Surprise!" he shouted, laughing.

She quickly walked over to Henry and Oskar, reaching out to hug Oskar and saying a quick hello to Leo's father.

Leo had grasped Travis' hand and was leading him over to the others.

"Oskar is our friend from the beach in Greece," he was telling Travis. "He played with me and Mouse every single day while we were there. He likes Mouse, a lot, I guess, since he came all the way to New York from Sweeten to see her, don't you think?" He looked up at Travis. "He also kissed her goodbye when we left," he informed Travis in a loud voice.

Travis looked down at Leo when he heard these words. His eyes narrowed.

Oskar, and Henry, in the meantime, were looking at Mouse.

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" Henry asked, setting the drinks down on a table. "You still look a little pale." He was trying to gloss over Leo's words, obviously.

"I'm fine," Mouse began, smiling, taking her cue from Henry.

Travis, however, didn't want to gloss over anything. He was staring at Oskar, and looking very odd, Mouse thought.

Mouse finally figured out what was going through his mind, but not fast enough. She put a hand on her ex-boyfriend's arm, but he shook it off, grabbing Oskar by the arm.

"You asshole, do you know what you did to her?" Travis shouted.

All other conversations on the deck stopped, as all eyes turned toward them.

Travis, who used to run track in high school, was pretty built, and outweighed the law student by a good thirty or forty pounds.

Plus, he was furious.

He threw a wild haymaker at the side of Oskar's head that connected, more by luck than anything, and Oskar went down immediately, noiselessly, in a heap.

"Travis, oh my god!" Mouse cried, jumping between them. This was unnecessary, since Travis could see that Oskar was unconscious on the deck. He now stood off to the side, holding his wrist, obviously in pain.

"Whoa, hold on, what in the hell are you doing?" Henry shouted, grabbing Travis and pulling him back.

Leo, of course, began to cry, and Mouse put an arm around him while still trying to check and see if Oskar was okay.

Travis was shouting, cursing at Oskar, who was motionless. "That prick got Mouse pregnant, while you were in Greece, then left her to deal with it on her own! She had a fucking miscarriage yesterday, in an emergency room in the Village!"

There were gasps from everyone on the deck.

Mouse closed her eyes where she knelt next to Oskar, her arm around a tearful Leo.

"What did you say?" she heard Henry ask.

"You heard me!" All of Travis' frustration and anger came pouring out. "Poor Mouse has been pregnant and alone since you got back from Greece, and yesterday she had a miscarriage! She was in so much pain, too! It happened in a fucking ER waiting room! She was bawling in my arms for most of the night!" Travis had tears of his own in his blue eyes as he told his story. He shook Henry's arms off him.

Oskar was moaning, finally coming out of it.

Mouse felt like she was in a nightmare she couldn't wake up from. She wanted to run, but to where? Next to her, Leo's little body was still shaking with sobs.

"You dick!" Travis was shouting at Oskar. "You probably didn't even know she was pregnant, did you? You just screwed her and said goodbye!"

Oskar slowly rose and walked with Mouse's help to a chair, where he sat, holding his head.

"Mouse? What is he saying? Is he a friend of yours?" Oskar asked, squinting as he looked at her.

"Yes, I'm her friend, you motherfucker," Travis answered. "How could you do that to her?"

"It wasn't him," Mouse said in a soft voice.

"What?" Travis looked at her sharply.

"It wasn't him, Trav," Mouse repeated. She sounded exhausted.

Mouse looked over at Henry, who was staring at her.

He took her in, from the dark circles under her puffy eyes, to her pale, bloodless lips, and he knew it was true.

"Oh god, Mouse," she heard him say softly. "I'm so sorry."

"Oh my god, Henry?" Travis asked. His voice was disbelieving. Oskar, too, was staring from where he sat.

"Leo?" Mouse asked. "Can you show me where my room is, big guy?" She quickly wiped away the tears which had streaked down her cheeks.

"Sure," Leo replied, nodding. He looked around the tableau in confusion.

"It's okay," Mouse reassured him. "I just need to lie down. Show me, okay?"

He nodded again and led her inside.