Trouble in Dixie

by Becky McGraw

  Pressing the speed dial number for Karlie, he called her and she answered on first ring, sounding despondent. He told her where they’d taken Katie quickly, then disconnected, as he pulled into the emergency room parking lot on two wheels, parked and took off running for the main door. When he got inside, he slid to a stop at the nurse’s station and asked in between gasping breaths, “Katie Upton, my fiancé, where is she?”

  “The pregnant woman from the accident this morning?” the woman asked and then started pecking on her computer. “Are you her next of kin?”

  “As close as you’re gonna get for now…her sister is on the way,” he told her impatiently, then demanded again more insistently, “Where is she?!?”

  “She’s in the ICU right now, fifth floor,” the woman told him.

  Tommy ran for the elevator and jabbed the button several times. He got tired of waiting and saw a stairwell over to the left, and ran there, then took the stairs two at a time, until he got to the door with a five above it. He pushed the door open forcefully, then stepped through it into a hallway just outside of a nurses station where he heard all kinds of mechanical beeping.

  Running up to the desk, he swallowed then asked the nurse on duty with tears burning his eyes and acid scalding his gut, “Katie Upton…where is she?”

  “Are you her next-of-kin?” the woman asked him.

  He scowled and grated out, “I’m her fiancé and, yes, until her sister gets here, I’m her next of kin.”

  The woman’s face turned serious, and she stood up behind the desk, then walked around to him. Tommy knew whatever this woman was about to tell him, wasn’t going to be good, and he braced himself for it.

  “Miss Upton is in room three…they brought her here for observation after she got out of surgery.”

  “Surgery?” he said and felt the blood rush from his face, and he stumbled.

  “Yes, she had injuries that required surgery…I’ll see if I can get the doctor to come and talk to you,” the nurse said and then took his arm and led him around the circular desk to a room. The curtain was pulled around her, and he swallowed hard and tried to keep his legs under him, as the nurse let him go and walked off.

  Tommy hated hospitals, hated them with a passion and fear that only someone who had been through what he had could appreciate. He sucked in a deep breath of the antiseptic they used to keep the room clean, then exhaled slowly, before he walked across the room and pulled back the blue curtain, then stepped inside, and held back the moan that rushed to his lips.

  Karlie’s beautiful face was swollen and bruised, and she had nicks all over it, along with a bandage on her forehead near her hairline. Her red hair was spread over the white pillow under her head like flames. There was a tube under her nose, he assumed was for oxygen, and she had an IV in her right arm. Her left arm was covered in thick gauze wrapping from her upper arm down, her fingers were the only thing sticking out from the massive gauze wrapping it, and they were swollen and purple.

  On leaden feet, he walked to the bed and picked up her hand, and kissed it, then massaged it with his thumb. Katie stirred, then moaned and tried to swallow, before she turned her head toward him and opened her eyes. They were filled with pain and confusion and he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “Hey, baby,” he whispered and felt a tear escape his eye and it landed on her cheek. He laughed, then wiped it away with his thumb then stroked her cheek.

  “Tommy,” she croaked and her eyes filled with tears, then she tried to swallow again, then pulled her hand from his and ran it over her stomach. She sighed and a few tears fell on her cheeks, then she told him in a trembling relieved voice, “They’re still there.”

  “I’m waiting on the doctor to come talk to me…” he told her then took her hand again, and asked, “What happened, baby?”

  “I was coming to see you and it started raining, then I looked down to put my coffee cup in the holder and when I looked back up there was an semi truck and I tried to stop, but I couldn’t…the road was slick.”

  He brushed the hair on her forehead to the side and sucked in a sharp breath, before he said, “I saw it on TV this morning and saw your truck…I thought…” he moaned and felt tears burn behind his eyes.

  “I’m okay, I think…just a little bunged up,” she said with a small smile, then her face fell. “I was just worried about the babies…still worried,” she told him weakly then looked toward the wall.

  He grabbed her chin and made her look at him, then said, “Katie, I’m just glad you’re alive…and you’re going to survive…whatever happens, we’ll deal with the rest.”

  “I can’t lose my babies,” she said in a broken whisper and tears streaked down her cheeks.

  “Our babies are tough, just like their mama…they’re going to be fine, sugar,” he told her even though he had no idea how the babies were yet, he had to calm her down. “Stop worrying, you’re not helping them by worrying.”

  The doctor walked in the room and threw the privacy curtain back. He was a middle-aged man with kind gray eyes, and salt and pepper hair. He walked in and patted her belly, then said. “How’s the lucky mama feeling?”

  “Lucky,” she told him with a watery giggle, then swallowed and qualified, “As long as my babies are okay, I’ll be fine…are they okay?”

  “You were spotting, so we did an ultrasound in the E.R. to check for placenta problems, and had them on a fetal heart monitor during surgery, but we were more concerned with your condition then, and how they were affecting your condition. We need to look at how they’re doing now,” he told her and she saw a nurse push in a cart with an ultrasound machine on it.

  The doctor pulled the sheet down and her gown up to expose her rounded belly, then told her, “We have a high-risk OB specialist on staff and he should be up to see you shortly,” he told her as he slathered gel on the device in his hand. “But I’m going to take a look now to satisfy our minds…the nurse said you were concerned.”

  “I’m terrified,” she said in a shaky voice, watching the monitor too.

  He glanced at her and gave her a gentle smile, then twisted a few knobs, made some adjustments, before he placed the end of the cold box against her belly. He moved it all around her lower abdomen, then across her belly, watching the monitor as he did so.

  “You’re what? Four months along?” the doctor asked and kept moving the device around, pressing it to her belly firmly.

  “A little over three months,” she told him.

  “Well, your boys are gonna be big,” he said with a laugh, and started the audio on the machine and steady, loud swooshing sounds filled the room.

  “Boys?” Katie said and grinned at Tommy.

  “Yes ma’am they have appendages,” the doctor said then chuckled.

  “Boys,” Tommy said in awe, then took her hand again, “We’re gonna have two boys, darlin’,” then he grinned from ear to ear.

  “The placenta looks okay to me, and the umbilical cords appear to be attached firmly…they look pretty comfortable in there, but we’ll leave that determination to the specialist,” he told her then hit the print button and handed her a picture of the babies.

  She handed it to Tommy and said, “They look just like you, darlin’,” then sniggered.

  He took it from her and kissed it, then pulled out his wallet, and placed it inside. He couldn’t wait to get her out of this damned hospital, and get her and the babies to the house, where he fully intended to spoil her rotten. “How long is she going to have to be in here doc?” he asked but he didn’t take his eyes off of hers.

  “That depends on what the OB specialist decides. She could go home tomorrow, if not for the pregnancy issues. She really was very lucky, considering the severity of the crash and trauma to her system. A few cracked ribs, bruised sternum, and the laceration and fracture, aren’t too bad considering.”

  “Is that what happened to her arm?” Tommy asked looking at the sling.

  “Yes, she sustained a very deep lace
ration on her left arm and fractured her humerus, which is why we had to take her into surgery. We cleaned and debriefed the wound, so the bone wouldn’t get infected, and had a plastic surgeon do the extensive suturing to minimize the scarring. Her arm should be fine in a couple of months…the radial nerve wasn’t affected.”

  Tommy huffed out a breath, and fought back the urge to howl his relief. His eyes met the doctor’s and he told him, “Thank you for taking such good care of her, doc.”

  The man patted Tommy’s shoulder and said, “It was my pleasure…good luck with the twins,” he told them, then left the room.

  Emotions swirled around in his stomach and it churned. The overwhelming relief was replaced with anger, now that he knew Katie and the babies were going to be okay, he turned back to her and frowned then asked, “What in the hell were you thinking, driving alone at that time of night, in the rain?” Her face blanched and he felt guilty, but dammit, he wanted some answers.

  “I had to fix things with you, with us…” she told him weakly, her eyes begging him to understand. “I couldn’t let you think what you were thinking.”

  “You could have waited until the morning, Katie, that was just dumb,” he said gruffly and her eyes filled with tears.

  “I couldn’t,” she whispered, and a tear trickled from the corner of her eye.

  Tommy cursed then moved to the bed and slid his arm under her neck and hugged her. “I was so damned scared that I’d lost you, baby…” he choked out then kissed her hair. “You could have been killed.”

  “The accident had already happened, and I just couldn’t stop, before I hit him…I turned the truck so the passenger side would hit, and not my side or the front,” she told him.

  “That was good thinking, baby…” he said and kissed her hair again. “Thank, god you were so smart,” he told her soothingly.

  She chuckled through her tears to ask, “Okay, am I smart or dumb? You’ve called me both in the space of a minute.”

  “You’re wonderful, and you’re mine…that’s what you are,” he said fiercely.

  “I have to tell you what happened with Chase…” she said and pulled out of his grasp.

  Tommy growled and stood up, then said angrily, “I don’t ever want to hear his name on your lips again.”

  “Well, you’re gonna have to get used to it,” she told him with frustration. “He’s my contact with the drilling company.”

  Drilling company? What the hell? Tommy shook his head and said, “What he hell are you talking about?”

  “He was at the ranch, because he and the engineer with him were checking out the well bore by the barn that hit oil instead of water…there’s oil on my property, Tommy. Chase thinks there’s a lot of it, and I signed a mineral lease with his company yesterday.”

  Shock, disbelief and elation warred inside of Tommy, and he couldn’t get a handle on which was going to win. In a stunned breathless whisper he asked, “You’re shitting me right?”

  “No, I’m not…he shot me a figure and I passed out. That’s why I was in his arms when you showed up,” she told him.

  Tommy groaned, then started, “I was an ass, I’m sorr—”

  Katie held her good hand up to him palm first. “It’s not your fault…I would have freaked out too if I was in your shoes and found you with a girl in your arms…next time though, give me a chance to explain, before you run off with your tail on fire.”

  “Okay then, I’m sorry for not giving you a chance to explain,” he told her sincerely.

  “Much better,” she said and smiled, then dropped her hand to the bed. She tried to scoot up in the bed to sit and moaned loudly.

  Tommy ran over there and pushed her shoulders back to the bed. “Lay down! You’re in ICU, darlin—you’re supposed to be still!” he chastised her then hit the up button on the bed control twice.

  Katie lost her breath the pain in her ribs and chest was so intense, she put a fist to her chest, and tried to gulp some air. She watched Tommy’s face turn red, then purple, and his eyes were the size of saucers, before the ran out of the room yelling for the nurse. They ran back in the room, and the nurse lowered the bed back down and Katie sucked in a deep lungful of sweet air, but the pain was still there.

  “You hurting, Miss Upton?” the nurse asked with concern.

  Katie nodded and lightly beat her fist on her chest. “I’ll get you some pain medicine, you’re about due. I’ll be right back,” she said then hurried from the room. “Don’t raise the bed again, please,” she said over her shoulder, as she left.

  Tommy grabbed her hand, and whimpered, “Don’t you die on me darlin’.”

  The pain in Tommy’s eyes was almost as intense as the pain in her chest and she squeezed his hand and shook her head., then mouthed, “I love you,” and closed her eyes.

  Katie opened her eyes when, the nurse came back in the room with needles and vials and started filling the needles and poking them into the IV tube, then squeezing the bag. After a minute, Katie felt blessed relief from the pain, and her muscles relaxed, and her breathing became easier, but thinking became difficult. Her head felt like little fairies were dancing around inside, and she smiled at the thought.

  She glanced over and saw Tommy sitting in a chair by the window with his hands gripping the arm rests, his knuckles were white and his face was pinched with worry. “I’m fine, baby…not your fault,” she said right above a whisper, then smiled and gave in to the heavy lethargic feeling dragging her to sleep.

  When she woke up again, the bright sun was coming through the window and it made it look like her sister had a halo on her head, where she sat in the chair where Tommy had been earlier. Her eyes were red and there were mascara tracks on her pale cheeks.

  Katie cocked up one side of her lips and told her, “You look like hell, sis,” then chuckled, which made her moan.

  Karlie was on her feet and at her bedside in a flash, leaning over her she gasped, “God, Katie…are you okay?”

  “I’m fine…it just hurts when I laugh,” she said then laughed and groaned again.

  “Then don’t fucking laugh,” Karlie demanded, and picked up her hand. “You need anything? Water? Drugs?”

  “Water would be good, but I’m good on the drugs…they make me sleepy,” she told her.

  “I’ll get you some…the nurse wanted to know when you woke up, anyway…be right back,” her twin said then walked swiftly from the room.

  She came back in with a yellow pitcher and a cup with a bendy straw and set it on the bedside table, then filled the cup and held it to her lips. Katie took a long swallow and the cool liquid slid down her throat soothing all the way to her stomach. She took another swig, then sighed and rested back on the pillow.

  “Thanks, sis,” she said and smiled.

  “You’re welcome,” Karlie told her then set the glass on the table beside the pitcher. “The nurse said the OB specialist is going to be in here in a minute. You want Tommy in here with you?”

  “Yeah, I do…” she said and frowned. “I’m worried about the babies…they said I was spotting when I came into the emergency department.”

  “Well, I’m worried about you…you shouldn’t have lit out like that in the middle of the night,” Karlie scolded her.

  “Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Katie told her with a sigh, then added, “It wasn’t raining when I left, and it was a freak accident, Karlie.”

  “Freak or not, you should have waited…” Karlie told her fiercely.