Through His Grace (15 page)

“Dispatching immediately. They should be there within half an hour.”

“Half an
hour!
“ He nearly spat into the phone.

“We’re based in Lawton,” the dispatcher reminded him. “Sir, you need to stay calm. Now tell me—is her breathing labored? Does she have a steady pulse?”

“I don’t know. I’m on my way over there right now. Her ward called me.” He put more pressure on the gas pedal.

“How close are you?”

“I can see the driveway right now.” He pulled a wide turn that would have done the Dukes of Hazzard proud.

“When you get inside, check on her pulse and breathing patterns.” The cool voice boasted all the calm that had fled from Nickels the minute Lizzie told him what was wrong.

He hit the brake and jumped out of the truck, pounding on the door. “It’s Nickels. Let me in, Lizzie!”

When the door swung open, he spotted Grace, still lying on the floor. He knelt beside her, feeling under her jaw for her pulse.
Lord, please let her be all right
.

“Her pulse is rapid, breathing quick and shallow.” He felt her forehead. “She’s burning up.”

“Loosen any clothing that might constrict her airways,” the dispatcher directed.

“What else?” Nickels unbuttoned the top two buttons near Grace’s collar.

“You’ll need to elevate her feet to help her from going into shock.”

“Lizzie.” Nickels cradled the phone to his shoulder. “Help is on the way. Right now I need you to go get me a pillow. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” Lizzie raced down the hallway. She brought back a throw pillow from the couch, and Nickels put it under Grace’s feet.

“Now what?” He struggled to look as though he were calm, for Lizzie and Jake. In truth he wanted to crawl into the phone and drag a paramedic back through with him.

“You said she’s hot.” He heard rapid typing over the phone. “Run cool water over some towels and try to bring down her temperature.”

Again Lizzie and Jake were eager to help. While they went to get some wet towels, Nickels asked, “What’s wrong with her? Will she be all right?”

“I can’t say, sir.” The man sounded apologetic. “The paramedics will do all they can and take her to the hospital. According to our contact, they’re about five minutes away now.”

Those five minutes passed with agonizing slowness as he knelt with Jake and Lizzie by Grace’s prone form, all of them praying for her.

When the ambulance arrived, the scene changed rapidly. Nickels took Lizzie and Jake to the steps and sat down, making sure the paramedics had space to work.

One lifted Grace’s eyelids, peering at her pupils. “Responsive,” he noted. “She’s definitely running a fever.”

Another took her blood pressure. “Ninety over fifty-two. Low.”

“What happened?” A third, holding a clipboard, blocked Nickels’s view and peppered them with questions about Grace. Questions that, for the most part, none of them knew the answers to.

“She fell down and wouldn’t wake up.” Jake’s lower lip trembled, and he began to cry.

“Does she have any health conditions we need to know about?” the man asked Nickels.

“She’s allergic to cats.” His knowledge seemed pathetically useless as they loaded Grace onto a gurney, wheeling her out to the ambulance.

“Okay. We’re taking her to the ER. You can follow.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Lizzie’s voice, full of fear, stopped the paramedic as he turned around.

“We’re not sure, but we’ll find out.” His promise didn’t make them feel much better.

Nickels ushered the kids out to his truck. He made sure they were belted in before pulling out. He forced himself to obey the speed limits, hating every second it kept him from her side, but refusing to put the children at risk.

“Mr. Nichols.” Jake’s sobs tore at his heart. “Is Auntie Grace gonna go live with our parents now?”

Nickels swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Not if I can help it.”

“Excuse me.” With Lizzie and Jake in tow, he rushed up to the ER registration desk. “They just brought in a woman named Grace Willard,” he told the nurse. “May I get an update?”

“Are you her spouse?” The nurse checked a chart.

“No.”

“Next of kin?”

“These children are.” Nickels raised his hands, still clasped over theirs, for her view.

“I’m afraid I’ll need a close adult relation. She’s given clearance to one Carl Willard. I can also accept the emergency contact listed—one Mary Fellows.”

“Look—this is an emergency. I’m a close family friend—” He was wasting his breath. The nurse gave him a sympathetic smile but kept stonewalling.

“I don’t know this Mary, so we’re going to go get Grampa Carl.” They headed for the car.

Lord, thank You that Carl moved to Lawton. He’s just down the street from the hospital! Please don’t let anything be wrong with Grace. Let her be all right, Jesus. Please
.

He repeated the prayer over and over until he reached the door of Carl’s new apartment and pounded on it. Finally a light turned on.

“What—” The old man glared at him while an orange cat wound round his ankles.

“Auntie Grace is in the ho’pital!” Jake choked out the words between sobs.

“What’s wrong?” Carl grabbed his wallet and a coat, threw it on over his pajamas and locked the door behind him.

“We don’t know. They won’t tell anyone but her nearest adult relative or her emergency contact—Mary something-or-other,” Nickels explained while he herded them all toward the truck.

Carl jumped into the front seat. “Let’s go!”

At the emergency room they stood in front of the same nurse.

“Here. This is Carl Willard, Grace’s next of kin.” Nickels pushed him forward.

“ID?” The medical assistant inspected Carl’s expired driving license. “Relation to the patient?”

“I’m her uncle,” he declared. “Where is she?”

The assistant buzzed him in and several minutes later let Carl come back out.

“What’s going on?” Nickels took heart that Carl didn’t look as shaken as he felt.

“She’s regained consciousness. They’re taking a CT scan right now. Looks like appendicitis.”

“What’s that?” Lizzie cried.

“When can we see her?” Nickels asked the nurse.

“Mr. Willard may see her when the doctor allows.” The nurse pointed toward some seats in the corner. “You may wait there until then.”

Nickels sank into one chair, and Jake crawled onto his lap. Lizzie pressed close between him and Carl on another. “What’s a-pen-bite-us?” Jake asked.

“Appendicitis is when your appendix is swollen,” Carl told his grandson. “Grace will be all right.”

“What’s your a-pen-bics?” Lizzie sounded out.

“A little part inside you that doctors can take out,” Nickels tried to explain.

“Why is it hurting my auntie Grace?” Jake’s fear changed to anger. “Let’s get it out!” He was ready to go to war.

“That’s the doctor’s job,” Carl told him.

“What do we do?” Lizzie jumped up, walking around in a small circle.

“We pray and remember to show your aunt how much we love her, so she’ll get better.” Nickels ignored the glance Carl shot him at the word
love
. “Don’t we, Grampa Carl?”

“Yes.” Carl reached for Lizzie. “That’s exactly what we do now.”

“We were right.” Dr. Rutgers came into her room after the anesthesia from the emergency surgery had worn off. “Acute appendicitis with peritonitis.”

“I can’t believe it.” Grace leaned back against the pillow.

“Believe it.” He peered at her over the top of his glasses. “You say you’d been having intermittent abdominal pain for a few weeks?”

“Yes, but I thought maybe it was stress or something.” That sounded feeble even to her own ears.

“If treated with antibiotics in the early stages, it probably would have healed on its own.”

“Would have?” Grace echoed, not liking the sound of the phrase.
I’ve had the surgery. Won’t the antibiotics help it heal quickly now?

“When you felt the sharp pain on your right side, it indicated the inflammation had spread to the lining of your abdomen.”

“What does that mean?” She plucked nervously at the bedsheet, shifting her weight to her left side to try to alleviate the discomfort on her right.

“That was your body’s clearest sign that something was wrong with your appendix.” He gave her a pointed look. “Your entire lower abdomen hurts now because your appendix had ruptured and the infection was spreading. We’ve taken out the appendix and cleared out a lot of the leakage.”

“I feel much better now.” Grace sat up, refusing to accept that anything was seriously wrong.
Much better, but still hurting
. She gritted her teeth against the ugly reality.

“I see you’re still hurting, though. I’ll prescribe some pain medication for you—but you should know they’ll make you groggy.”

He made an attempt at a smile. “The pain medication should prevent too much discomfort, and the IV will hydrate you. If you need help, call for a nurse tonight. I’ll check on you during my rounds tomorrow.”

“And I can go home after that?”
Thank You, Lord, that Uncle Carl and Eric are with the children. But they need me, and I have to get out of here!

“Typically we send the patient home after one or two days,” Dr. Rutgers said. “But in your case, since the organ had ruptured, it will more likely be between four and seven days before you’re well enough to be released.”

“A whole week?” Grace let out a deep sigh.
Lizzie and Jake will be taken back to the group home. I can’t put them through that
. “There must be some other way.”

“I’m afraid not.”

Nickels shifted anxiously as he waited for Carl and the kids to come back. They were her kin. They had every right to go in first. He tried to see reason. But still! Why couldn’t they bend the rules a little? He’d been waiting hours since they’d brought her in—during the tests and the operation. He needed to see with his own two eyes that she was awake and going to be okay.

“Nickels!” Sondra’s voice brought him to his feet, and he received her anxious hug. “How is she? Where’s Carl? Lizzie, Jake?”

“Hold on, honey.” Dylan put a calming hand on her shoulder. “He can answer only one question at a time.”

“She’s had the surgery and regained consciousness. Carl and the kids are seeing her now.” Nickels shook his head as though to clear it. “I thought I told you two not to come.” He knew love was a crazy and powerful thing, but he didn’t think it would make him lose his mind!

“You did.” Dylan shot him a wry glance.

“As if we’d listen!” Sondra scowled at him in reproach for even thinking she’d stay away from her friend. “We’ve called Miss McNarty—Jake and Lizzie need to be taken care of while Grace recovers.”

“You don’t mean—” An icy chill shot down Nickels’s spine. “They won’t go back to the group home? We can’t put them through that!” Grace had worked so hard to give them a stable home. If it was yanked away now, the kids would never feel safe.

“The state won’t put them back in Carl’s custody after they’ve been removed once,” Sondra said. “And it’s up to the doctors how long Grace will be here.”

“I’ll stay with Lizzie and Jake so long as they let me.” Nickels set his jaw.

“They won’t.” A new voice joined the conversation as a rail-thin woman with cat’s-eye glasses bustled up. “Unless you’re Max Rockheart? The uncle I could never reach?” At Nickels’s look of astonishment she shook her head. “I thought not.”

“Miss McNarty, I presume.” Sondra shook the woman’s hand. “Sondra Ward.”

“Ah, the Wards.” Miss McNarty eyed her and Nickels for a moment.

“Yes.” Dylan placed a proprietary arm around his wife’s shoulders.

“Oh.” She seemed taken aback. “You’re still working on your clearance to be officially sanctioned as foster parents, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Sondra nodded.

“Hmm.” Miss McNarty hesitated. “And what is your connection to Miss Willard?”

“Family friends,” Sondra put in. She glanced at Dylan, and Nickels saw them exchange a slight nod. “Is there any way we would be allowed to watch Lizzie and Jake while Grace recuperates?”

“If Miss Willard is agreeable, I’ll see what I can push through.” Miss McNarty seemed willing to help but non-committal. “It would be best if Lizzie and Jake could maintain as much of their day-to-day schedule as possible. Moving them back to the home, even for a short period of time, could prove traumatic after so much upheaval.”