'You can count on me
like one, two, three
I'll be there'

ಠ_ಠ

It's not everyday I get to sleep so heavily and the one day I do, I feel feather kisses waking me up. I let it go on, pretending I'm asleep and enjoying the attention.

"You know you've been pretending for around ten minutes," Ace whisper in my ear, his hot breath fanning over my face. Since I've been caught, I smile a wide smile but still refuse to open my eyes.

"Oh really?" Ace sasses. Suddenly I'm flipped on the bed and placed on top of Ace. "Now she's wide awake!"

"Good morning," I say hoarsely, probably looking like a mess.

"Morning Sunshine," he places his hands on my thighs and I immediately get goosebumps.

"No, I need to shower first," I say, stopping whatever was about to happen.

"Can I join?" He asks as I'm getting a fresh towel from a drawer. I look at the nearest pillow and throw it directly at him with perfect aim.

"It was a harmless question!" He yells as I close the bathroom door laughing.

After I'm dressed and ready to go downstairs, I smell one of the foulest things on the planet. I get down to see Ace cooking my favorite pancakes but they suddenly don't look so great.

"My favorite pancakes," I try to sound excited.

"You don't like them," he immediately notices.

"No, I love them! I'm surprised you're making them though," I wrap my arms around his torso and peck his lips.

"I thought I'd start your day with something good," he says, making my heart clench.

"You woke me up with your lovely kisses, I wouldn't ask for more," I say.

He looks at my eyes before guiding me to the dining table right next to the kitchen. Before I could ask him, he walks over to the kitchen, grabs a water bottle, and splashes it on the pancake pan making the batter fizz up and shoot everywhere. I gasp but he completes his irrational action by pouring whatever is left of the water into the bowl that had the mixed batter.

"Oh no, what do we do? Somehow the pancakes got messed up," he says sarcastically.

"Whose fault do you think that is?" I scoff and stand up to walk to him,

"Wait, the batter is still popping on the pan. I'll come to you," he turns of the stove and walks towards me with a proud smile.

"Why would you do that to my favorite pancake?" I ask.

"Because it may have been your favorite, but it didn't look like it was the little bean's favorite," he says, referencing the child.

We stayed up all night talking about the bean and all the morning sickness I've been hiding from him. I filled him up to date about everything that makes me sick so far, which isn't much, and told him everything that's been going on.

"The little bean wouldn't have minded eating his daddy's handmade pancakes," I pout.

"That's okay, I'll make us something else," he shrugs.

"The kitchen is completely destroyed," I remind him.

"Okay you're right, I guess we're going out to eat then," he smiles, completely unbothered by the mess he created.

"Aaccee," I stomp like a child. "You created a mess for nothing."

"It's not for nothing. My beautiful bride needs to eat whatever sounds appealing to her," he kisses me and my heart explodes. How did I, of all people, score a man this perfect?

"You asked me to marry you yesterday, so technically I'm still your fiancée," I correct, even though it all meant the same thing to me. I love this man and he loves me.

"We should get married today," he exclaims, his face thinking that it's the best idea.

"What?" I laugh.

"I don't want a big fancy wedding with all the guys staring at you in a beautiful white dress. I want to be the only one who's able to do that," his voice that starts off forceful turns into a whisper.

"I don't want a big fancy wedding either, but we can't just get married today," I say.

"Why not?" He asks, looking genuinely curious.

"Because I don't have a dress to get married in, we don't have a witness, and I don't know the process of having a court wedding," I explain.

"Honey, how little money do you think I have? I'll get the best designer out there to pick out your dress, you can call Rose for a witness aandd you can leave the complicated information to me," he convinces me.

"You're a damn good debater," I bite my lips in thought. "How about we have it in a couple of days? It won't be months or even weeks away, but it'll give us time to actually think about it," I compromise.

He sighs, his smile dropping to a childish frown. "If that's what you're more comfortable with."

"Let's go get some food," I distract him.

"Oh right, where do you want to go?" He asks.

"Anywhere with french toast," I say truthfully and he chuckles.

And so we leave to get some food. It takes around an hour to eat our food since we couldn't stop talking for most of the time. On our way back, Ace suggests to look at strollers already.

"I'm barely five weeks," I laugh at his suggestion.

"You can never be too prepared," he smiles.

"I'm okay with the idea, but it would be stupid to buy one today," I say.

"We're just going to look around," he assures me.

I look at his side profile as he continues to drive and I know I've said this before, but my heart feels overly happy. It's like the happy you feel when you've finally made it, it's the happy I thought I'd never feel.

I reach my hand out and interlock my fingers with the hand that was resting on his thigh. He brings it up and kisses the back of my hand, taking less than a second to look at me.

When we reach a red light, he drop my hand and cups my face to give me a quick kiss. When he pulls back for breath, I'm horrified to see a truck charging at our car full speed.

"ACE!" I shout in urgency, making him look and then everything turning black.

"Ray? Ray!" I feel someone shaking me violently but the ringing in my ears is much louder.

Ace, I wonder if he's okay. What is happening?

"SOMEBODY HELP US!" Screaming, I hear someone screaming for help. Does that mean Ace is hurt? My little bean?

I have the power to crack open my eyes slightly, everything else feeling numb. I see a bloody face that I'm very familiar with.

"Why are you crying?" I barely crook out.

"Ray! Stay with me, please," he begs, and it's not like I'm trying to hurt him further by closing my eyes to rest.

"I'll be okay," I assure him. "I've survived worse, right?" I whisper, my voice giving out on me.

"No, Ray! Open your eyes! Please!" More yelling, sirens filling the smoky air. I just want it all to be quiet.

I am being juggled from person to person, moved on wheels, placed somewhere cold. But the one thing I was sure about is the warm hand that never left mine.

"She's five weeks pregnant, please help her," someone cries.

"Sir, you're also bleeding heavily. You should go on the other ambulance," another voice instructs.

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm leaving her," a voice growls.

After that, I couldn't even feel the warmth as my body feels paralyzed.

"We have a code blue!" Why is everyone yelling?

"Sir, let go of her hand!" He's still holding my hand? Why can't I feel anything?

"Clear!" I can't breathe.

"Charging to 250, clear!" I'm scared, Ace. What's going on?

"Starting compressions," compressions, but I'm not dead. I hear everyone. I see everyone. I can even see myself.

Wait, why am I laying so helplessly on the floor of the ambulance? Get up! You have a fiancé and baby awaiting, you can't just die now!

"Ray, please come back to me, please," Ace is sobbing. "Don't take her away," he whispers.

And then everything stops, the paramedics look around at Ace.

"Time of death, 12:03," the only sound that could be heard is the flat line on the monitor beeping.

I'm scared, what do they mean death? Ace, help me.

No, we haven't lived our life to its fullest. We have a bun cooking in the oven. We're getting married this week. I haven't had enough of your kisses, I haven't looked at you enough, I haven't had enough time with you.

"Ray? Ray!" Somebody yells out my name and my eyes slam wide open. "Thank God, are you okay?" Ace asks.

"What happened?" What was that hallucination?

"That moron was charging at us so I swerved before he could hit us," he points at the flipped truck in the middle of the road.

"Is everyone okay?" I worry, looking around at people walking outside their cars.

"I think it's just the driver that got hurt, the paramedics are on their way," he explains.

"Wait, I'll go help the first responders," I move into action, remembering the things taught in school.

"Let the others handle it, I think they already have a doctor with them," he tries to stop me, probably worrying about the fire that's starting.

"They'll need an extra hand, you can come help," I convince him.

And so, we move the driver into a safe area. Someone started CPR on the non responsive driver as I tried to collect information about him and Ace switching for CPR. When the paramedics come, they thank us and we get the clear to go home.

Instead of going anywhere else for the day, we decide to go home to rest from the shock. It shows that anything could happen any day, at anytime.

We walk in the room, Ace setting down the keys along with his coat while I head straight to the couch.

"I could sleep for hours," I sigh into the leather.

"You can take a nap, I'll wake you up for dinner," Ace says, sitting next to my head on the coach. I place my head on his lap, letting his fingers dance through my hair as I sigh in bliss.

Slowly, I drift away into the darkness.

*
I really wanted to get a chapter out on april's fool day. I'm not a big prankster so this is the best I could do to try and trick y'all. Hopefully you didn't believe I'd kill off Ray that easily, not yet at least. Anyway, happy april's fool day! (happy studying to my students struggling out there, we're in this together!)