FG 3 - The Wedding Blitz (13 page)
Read FG 3 - The Wedding Blitz Online
Authors: Leah Spiegel
“Do I even want to know what that is?”
“His kidneys stopped working and they’re not sure what caused it but he has the rash too.”
“Well if it’s not poison ivy then what is it?” she instantly dropped her sarcastic tone.
“They don’t know, why? Do you have it too?” I was almost too afraid to ask.
“I got it this morning,” she sighed. “Warren has it too.”
“Okay, well this is good. We caught whatever this is early on. Now tell Warren to get someone to drive you guys to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.”
“Wait hold on, I need to get a pen to write the name down,” Lizzie explained. While she was looking for a pen and something to write on I heard her faintly call out Riley’s name a few times in the background. “Riley, get up already!” she finally hissed followed by an eerie silence. “Wake up Riley, oh my god, wake up. Warren!” she cried. “Warren, get out of bed! I don’t know what to do, he’s passed out.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I listened in utter helplessness and shock. I heard a muffled conversation before Lizzie’s voice suddenly boomed on the other line, “Joie, I got to go. I need dial 911.”
“Take him to the Harborview Medical Center!” I shouted in a rush of words before the call was disconnected. I slowly dropped my cell from my ear and stared down at it; too horrified to even move.
“Joie, what is it?”
“It’s Riley,” I murmured in a voice that didn’t sound like my own, like the world had shifted and I was looking in on the small ER room instead of out. “They found him passed out like your dad but I don’t know for how long. It could have been since this morning, he never got up for breakfast and that’s not like him,” I finally turned to look at Hawkins. “My god,” I cried, “what if he…?”
“Hey, hey,” Hawkins pulled me in close against his chest as I continued to cry. “Don’t think like that. He’s going to get help, that’s all that matters now.”
I wanted to believe him but if something happened to Riley I would never get over it especially since I was already blaming myself for giving him this deadly rash.
“Move over,” Hawkins nudged me.
“No,” I stopped him a bit abruptly. “I don’t want to give this to you.”
“I’d already have it by now, if I was going to get it, Joie. We share a bed remember?” his eyes twinkled with amusement.
“Oh yeah…right,” I mumbled.
It wasn’t long after that Hawkins and I were tucked in together in the same hospital bed. I could hear his heart pumping through his chest and I concentrated on the slow but strong sound to help calm me down enough to breathe evenly again. We both turned to look when a nurse ripped back the curtain divider that separated us from the rest of the emergency room.
“Joie?”
“Yes?” I sniffed as I tried to wipe my messy face clean again.
“I’m here to take you to your ultrasound.”
I looked at Hawkins with a renewed sense of fear, “The baby.” I couldn’t help but wonder how he or she was doing when everyone else was getting so sick and I’d already had the rash and the other symptoms for so long.
“Let’s worry about one thing at a time, okay?” Hawkins put on a brave face for me and then kissed my forehead.
I was so nervous that my hands were literally shaking when they escorted me down the hallway and into a small waiting room. Hawkins must have noticed because he took my hand in his and squeezed it as he walked beside me. When I wasn’t thinking about the baby my thoughts turned to Riley. All I could think about was how strong Riley was. He sometimes seemed larger than life to me, and yet he had also gotten sick. And then there was Hawkins’ dad who was now hooked up to a machine he couldn’t survive without. It made me wonder how something so small as our child could ever survive this.
“I didn’t even tell my mother,” I murmured almost to myself.
“Tell her what?”
“About the baby, and if something happens…it means, I’m never going to tell her.”
“Joie—
“I need your phone,” I turned to him.
“Why?”
“I need to call her—
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“No, you don’t understand before I go in
there
,” I cut my eyes at the room. “I need to talk to my mother. I need her to know, Hawkins. I need my mom to know that I’m a mom. And that I tried—”
“
It’s
okay, Joie, I understand,” he handed me his cell.
The nurse opened the door to the room and announced, “Joie Hall?”
Hawkins held up a finger and said, “Just give her a second.”
After several rings, I was afraid that she’d already gone to bed due to the different time zones but I said a prayer thanking God when she finally answered, “Hello?”
“Mom?”
“Joie?”
“Hey, yeah it’s me,” I sighed.
“What is it? Is there something wrong?”
“No,” I was quick to say and then faltered a bit by adding, “Maybe, I don’t know. But it’s not wrong…it’s something really, really right for once.”
“Okay?”
“I’m pregnant mom,” I finally confessed but could hear her take a haggard breath. “I know what you’re going to say, it’s not why I called,” I looked at the nurse who was still waiting on me. “The baby might not make it,” I suddenly gasped. “And I wanted my mom to know, that for once I think I know what I want to do with my life and I might not get to do it now.”
“Oh honey.”
“And I wanted you to know that it’s real, this life inside of me is very real even if doesn’t—
“I appreciate you telling me, Joie, but what’s going on? Is it just the baby or are
you
also at risk?”
“I don’t know yet, I’ll call you after the test.”
“Have you given it a name?”
“No,” I suddenly stopped. “I’ve been calling it everything, but nothing seems right. If it’s a boy, I’ve been thinking about giving him initials like his dad,” I glanced up at Hawkins who I realized was also overcome with emotion. “Something with Hawkins’ dad and my dad’s initials because although dad wasn’t the greatest dad in the world, I wanted to honor his memory. And if it’s a girl, I’ve been thinking about your middle name mom, Abigail.”
“I don’t know what’s happening,” my mom tried to comfort me. “And I don’t like your situation but if you’re scared of losing the baby, give him or
her a
name…that makes the connection with that little one real. That gives the baby its place in your heart and the baby will feel your love and get strength from that love.”
“Thank you, mom, I needed to hear that,” I exhaled, knowing that I could face whatever happened now. “I love you.”
“I love you, too and call me when you’re ready let me know what’s going on, okay?”
“Okay, I will.”
“Bye.”
“Bye, mom.”
“So?” Hawkins brushed back my hair off my shoulder. “Are you ready?”
“I am now,” I wiped away the last remaining tears from my face and tried to stay calm for the baby.
The room, like all hospital rooms, felt cold to me but then again maybe it was because I was dressed in only a thin gown. My eyes instantly zeroed in on a large chair that was equipped with metal stirrups and was surrounded by lots of technology and a large monitor that I had never seen before. The nurse helped me up into the chair and placed my feet in the stirrups. Hawkins squeezed my hand letting me know that he could tell all of this felt foreign and a bit scary to me. With my approval the nurse lifted up my gown to prep me for the ultrasound. She then coated a small handheld round metal device with a clear cool gel and placed it on my small bump. With the help of the gel she slid it around at different places along my belly and then stopped from time to time to check the monitor. I couldn’t make out much on the screen but I could hear a repetitive thumping sound and knew that somewhere in the black and white blur was our baby.
“And that’s the baby’s heartbeat,” the nurse smiled up at me as it filled my ears. “It’s strong and that’s good.”
“
Really
?”
I lifted my head to ask as tears of joy welled up in my eyes.
“Yes, really,” she smiled up at both of us. “Now my only question is do you want to know the sex of the baby or wait to be surprised?”
“Well you won’t know what to name it, if you don’t know the sex,” Hawkins pointed out.
“This still isn’t over yet,” I realized. “So yeah, I would like to know if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“Congratulations then, it’s a baby girl.”
I instantly covered my mouth with my hands as tears welled up in my eyes again. I looked up at Hawkins who I could tell was also pleasantly surprised by the news. “I’m speechless,” was all he could say at first and he then bent over to kiss my lips. “I am so proud of you.”
“Hi, Abigail,” I smiled at the monitor.
“Abigail Hawkins,” he smiled down at me, his eyes full of love and admiration.
We were so elated to finally hear some good news in the middle of what was becoming one of the roughest days of both of our lives that the good feeling stayed with us long after they had escorted us to a different floor where I’d be staying for the night. With my blessing, Hawkins went to find his dad and mom, who we learned were also on the same floor to finally break the news to them as well. I wasn’t sure how his mom would react but we were at a point where we didn’t care anymore. Abigail was the most important thing to us now.
I kept an eye on the hallway waiting for Hawkins to return when I overheard a mumbled but intense conversation building. “They had to life flight him in,” I overheard someone say as the end of a gurney came into view. “They revived him and raced him here. They started him on dialysis when they saw the color of his skin. He has kidney failure like the other one. They’re talking about quarantine.”
I was halfway out of my bed when I felt my heart suddenly drop at the sight of Riley’s ashen face with his eyes closed. Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched his listless body being rolled into the room across from mine. Before I realized it I was halfway across the hallway when a nurse stopped me by saying, “Ma’am you need to go back to your room.”
“That’s my friend,” I said in a distant voice that didn’t sound like mine. “My god, Riley—is he okay?” I finally peeled my eyes away when someone shut the door to his room.
“He’s stable for now,” the nurse explained but I noticed she was keeping her distance when she insisted, “Now you need to go back to your room.”
“Joie?”
My thoughts were interrupted as I turned to Hawkins’ familiar voice. “What happened?”
“It’s Riley,” I lifted my hand to point across the hallway before starting to walk toward Riley’s door to the dismay of the nurse and before Hawkins caught me in his arms to stop me. “No, don’t, no please…I swear…he looked bad Hawkins.” My frightened eyes locked with his when I hissed, “What is
this
?”
“I don’t know,” his troubled eyes looked at a loss.
“I have to see him, I have to know he’s not—” I pleaded with Hawkins as his strong frame easily pulled me away.
“Joie, he’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” my eyes welled up with tears.
“You have to believe in something bigger than yourself,” he took my shoulders in his hands. “You have to believe, Joie, that’s all any of us can do,” his eyes searched mine for understanding. I slowly nodded because even though Hawkins was my rock, I knew this experience had shaken him too.
“Okay.”
He swooped down to pick me up in his arms and carried me back into my room. I rested my weary head against his chest and murmured, “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Chapter
Eight
I woke up the next morning to the sound of Hawkins’ voice. My blurry eyes focused in on the back of him talking to his mom and Dr.
Pohren
near the doorway. I felt like I barely had enough strength to lift my head off the bed and after one failed attempt to sit up, I gave into the weariness I felt and decided to turn my head in their direction to listen instead.