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Alissa awoke early the next morning and panicked because she didn’t know where she was. She tried to rip the tubes and wires off her but Denise grabbed her hands and pushed them down.

 

“Shhh sweetheart. Relax Alissa. You’ve got to calm down.”

 

The machines stared to beep and the nurse came rushing in.

 

“What’s going on?” Alissa yelled.

 

“Calm down honey.” the nurse said calmly. “You’re in the hospital.”

 

“My baby! Is my baby ok?” Alissa started to sob.

 

Denise climbed onto the bed and hugged her. “The baby’s fine but you need to calm down honey. All the stress is not good for him. You need to try and relax.” She brushed Alissa’s hair back from her face and rocked her slowly. After a few minutes, Alissa had calmed down enough to talk.

 

“What happened Denise?” she whispered.

 

“You have something called toxemia.”

 

Alissa face paled. “How could this happen? The doctor said I was fine.”

 

“Did he ever mention your blood pressure?”

 

Alissa thought for a minute. “I think he said it was a little higher than normal but he thought it was just the pregnancy.”

 

Denise sighed. “Apparently not. You might have had a mild case but it got much more severe quickly. The doctor said this happens.”

 

“How often?”

 

Denise waited. “Not very.”

 

Alissa closed her eyes and a tear slipped down her cheek. “Did I cause this?”

 

“No sweetheart, not at all! This happens and there really wasn’t anything you could do to prevent it.”

 

Alissa choked up a little. “What am I going to do?”

 

“Well, you need to be on bed rest if they let you out. When are Brooke and Lucas coming back?”

 

“Not for a while. Where am I going to go? I don’t want to stay here.” Alissa started to cry again.

 

“Oh sweetheart, we’ll figure something out.”

 

Denise didn’t mention that she already had an idea. She wanted Alissa to come stay with her but she wanted to tell AJ first. There was no doubt that he loved Alissa and would probably agree, but she needed to make sure before she made the offer.

 

Alissa’s eyes started to close. A few minutes later, she was asleep and Denise went off to call AJ.