The Before [Prequel- Part 2]

~~~Catherine's pov~~~

The pain wore off after a few more seconds and now that I wasn't convulsing in pure agony, I could clearly see the panic on Loki's face,

Even though I was thoroughly terrified at that moment, seeing his blank face of shock brought some levity to the situation. He looked like someone just pressed the reset button on his brain.

While his expression was funny, I needed at least one of us thinking clearly in that moment, and considering I was in excruciating pain, it couldn't be me.

Thankfully, he snapped out of his trance rather quickly and started rubbing my back to soothe some of the pressure I was feeling. "Everything's going to be fine. We already prepared everything we need. We just have to..." He trailed off as he realized something. Likely the same thing I was already panicking about.

"We can't go to the compound. My dad and the rest of the team are all on assignment right now." Breathing became more difficult as my heart started pounding harder and harder.

Back when we first found out I was pregnant, I told my dad and we started planning for when it actually came time for the baby to be born.

He hired a new medical staff, sworn to secrecy because of the whole fugitive situation, and they would take place of normal doctors at a hospital.

But my dad wasn't at the compound, meaning we had no way to contact the doctors.

"No, no, no. This can't be happening." My panic skyrocketed just before I was hit with another contraction.

Tears streamed down my face as I gripped onto Loki's hand tightly, trying to ride out the contraction without screaming my head off.

"How far apart are the contractions?" He asked me, clearly failing to keep the panic and worry out of his voice.

Still in pain, I managed to look over to my alarm clock on the end table and saw that it was now 4:20 a.m.

Four contractions in twenty minutes. Holy shit.

"About five or six minutes." I kept breathing through the remnants of the contractions. "Loki, what are we going to do? We can't go to the compound."

"Going to the hospital is our only choice." He shook his head, still rubbing my back comfortingly.

My eyes widened at his words. "We can't! Ross could find us! It's too risky!"

"Normally, I would agree. But under the circumstances, it's probably even riskier to stay here."

I kept shaking my head in denial, fear suffocating my lungs. "We don't know that. What if the doctors there find out who we are? What if they hurt the baby or try to take her away from us?!" I cried, my vision getting blurry with tears.

I couldn't risk Ross finding out about the baby and then taking her away. Who knows what he might do to her?

Through my tears, I saw Loki staring back at me, the fear in his eyes replaced with complete and utter love and determination.

"I won't let them." He said firmly, grasping my hands in his. "I'll be by your side the whole time and if anyone, doctor or not, tries to hurt you or our daughter, I'll ensure they won't live to see another day."

I took in a deep breath and nodded, not doubting his words for a single second. "Okay, then. What's the plan? How are we going to get to the hospital?"

He thought about that for a moment before handing me my phone off of the beside table. "Here. Call an ambulance. Tell them our car broke down on the side of the road on our way to the hospital. Once you tell them that, they'll track your phone, so we need to hurry. I'll take care of the rest."