He'd been in the classroom, his head down on his desk, eyes shut and breathing slow through his mouth when Blayze found him. It wasn't an entirely abnormal way to find him. These past few months, Rex had spent many hours riding out waves of nausea and ill health by just putting his head down and trying to push through it. He'd always been the type to try and tank pain and illness as best he could, he could never rely on his family to look after him when he felt ill, they rarely believed it unless they witnessed him puking his guts up, so he'd learned to deal with it by grinning and bearing.
A stressful and complicated pregnancy was just another thing on that list, really. He'd struggled his way through such severe morning sickness that his weight had plummeted at an alarming rate, managed to escape his shitty parents (thank god for Blayze and his family being willing to put him up, because his own parents would have done everything they could to try and force an abortion and then moved Rex to a girls only school while tripling their shitty efforts to force him to be more feminine), and was now basically in the home stretch, still nauseous but at least able to eat now, constantly dealing with whatever aches and pains, and dealing with more than his usual baseline anxiety. It probably sounded bad, but he was looking forward to when this whole thing would mean he wouldn't be able to go to school for at least a while, but that was more a 'badly bullied' thing than anything else, and yeah, teen pregnancy had not helped that whole thing.
He didn't hear the door open, kind of zoned out, and jumped out of his skin when Blayze put a hand on his shoulder.
"Shit, sorry, Rex. You okay?"
With a soft groan, Rex raised his head, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Feeling sick?"
"Got a migraine halfway through class. Professor didn't offer to get the nurse and I didn't ask. Fuck all can be done for it anyway."
Blayze pulled up a chair next to him, rubbing his back soothingly. "Anything I can do? Or get for you?"
"Nah...that's nice, what you're doing there, but just chilling for now is good."
Blayze nodded. "Fair enough. When you feel up to it, we can probably angle to go home early."
"Together?"
"Of course together."
Rex gave a slight nod. "Sounds good."
"Quick question, though...are those my mum's slippers?"
Rex looked at his feet, flicking his toes. "I asked to borrow them."
"...Why?"
"Swollen feet. Can't get my own shoes on anymore. Like, fuck's sake, I knew I'd get the classic bump thing but I didn't realise I'd become fucking Bigfoot."
He couldn't help but laugh a little. "Yeah, that's not one I thought about much either."
"I've swollen up a whole bunch. It's like my limbs have been attacked by bees."
"You don't look that bad."
"You have to say that."
"No I don't."
"I didn't realise how much everything would fucking hurt, too. I never got migraines or auras before the baby, and right now I wish I didn't have a spine."
"Sorry, man."
"No, no, I'm sorry for being such a downer."
"Rex, seriously, under the circumstances I think you have a right to complain."
With a shrug, Rex leaned over, resting his head against Blayze's shoulder and shutting his eyes. He felt his boyfriend's fingers come up to play with his hair. It was nice. At least until he lurched forward with a hiss of pain.
"Rex?"
"Shit, sorry-"
"No, no sorry, what's wrong?"
"Just a cramp, sometimes the practice ones take me by surprise..."
"...You sure?"
He shrugged again. "I don't feel well. I'm gonna ask to go home." He stood, and Blayze went to stand with him, stooping to grab his bag for him before freezing.
"Rex. Rex. Rex?"
"Hmm?"
"You're bleeding."
"What? Where?" He craned his neck, trying to look over his shoulder at whatever Blayze had seen. His vision whirled uncomfortably and for a moment he felt he was going to throw up there and then.
"There's, uh, a smear of blood over the seat of your trousers?"
"Oh. That's not...not good..." Rex pressed his hand to his head again, really really not feeling well.
"Um...shit." Blayze definitely was not prepared for whatever this was. "Hospital. Fuck school, we should go to a hospital."
"Yeah..."
"I'm gonna get my phone. And maybe a teacher or the school nurse. I'm either calling an ambulance or checking the bus times, whatever gets us there faster."
Rex gave a vague nod and sat back down, putting his head on the desk again as Blayze ran out of the room.
By the time he came back, with help in tow, Rex had managed to pass out and fall onto the floor, which did little to help the sensation of panic clawing in Blayze's chest. No matter how regular an occurrence this had been over the past few months (because god did this man end up unconscious or in a hospital bed a bunch lately, to the point there had been talk about keeping him confined to a hospital bed for a while only for that to be thrown aside as unnecessary because of course it was) it was not fun to see his idiot boyfriend sprawled on the floor in his own blood.
One ambulance ride later, things weren't much better but Rex was alive and stable. The baby, alive and in ICU. Something about needing to be delivered very premature because of pre-eclampsia and placental abruption. Because of course anything that could go wrong would go wrong. If anything, Rex was pretty damn sure he had no intention of having any more biological children - if he ever got the itch to have another, it would be adoption for sure.
All things aside, little Scarlette Rosewood was going to have a good life. Her dads would make sure of it.
