Adam stared straight ahead, afraid that if he looked away, he’d miss seeing her. There were trees and power lines down all over town.
“Can’t you drive any faster? She’s out there somewhere all alone; she could be hurt or…” Adam couldn’t finish the sentence around the lump in his throat.
“I’m driving as fast as I can.”
Swerving around the downed trees and assorted debris, Logan drove west, praying they would pass her car heading their way any minute. They finally reached the edge of town and were heading towards the lake when Adam spotted Ragan’s Jeep. His stomach churned at the barely recognizable mass of twisted metal. The roof caved in, a telephone pole lay on top of it. He swallowed the bile in his throat as he prayed, Please, God; let her be okay. He flung open the door and jumped out of the car before Logan had even stopped the cruiser.
“Ragan!” he yelled, running towards the car and dodging obstacles littering the path.
“Dammit, Adam, be careful,” Logan warned from behind. “Those power lines are still hot. You’re not going to do Ragan any good if you die trying to find her.”
Adam reached the car and looked through what was left of the driver’s side window. His breath weak, it matched his knees when he realized Ragan wasn’t there.
“She’s not in here,” he yelled to Logan, “She must have bailed out. She should be somewhere close.”
A hand reaching in and squeezing his heart couldn’t have made it hurt any worse. I’ll let her find her happiness, he bargained for her life. The world would be a dark place without her in it. He stumbled to the edge of the road and his eyes moved over the ditch. That was the logical place for her to hide.
Picking up a large piece of barn siding, he saw a foot sticking out from underneath a pile of mangled wood. Oh God, I swear I’ll give anything, just let her be okay, he prayed as he picked up the pieces of siding and threw them to the other side of the ditch. Frantically trying to uncover Ragan, he hadn’t even yelled to Logan for help.
Logan finally spotted Adam tossing chunks of debris around and ran over to him while calling in their location for an ambulance. He watched as his cousin dropped to his knees beside Ragan, terror on his face.
“She’s alive,” he said, a tear running down his face.
“I called for an ambulance. They’ll be here as soon as they can, but it may be a while. A lot of the streets are blocked, and there’s no shortage of emergencies around town.” He clamped Adam’s shoulder firmly. “You found her. She’s going to be okay.”
Ragan groaned and raised her hand up to her head. “Don’t move, Ragan; paramedics are on the way,” Adam implored, the relief evident in his voice as he caressed her face. She grimaced in pain. “Where does it hurt, Baby?”
“Everywhere,” she moaned. “Feels like I was hit by a truck,” she mumbled, reaching for Adam’s hand. Suddenly, she gasped in pain and her breathing became erratic.
“What is it, Baby?” Adam asked. Seeing her like this tore at him, taking a toll on his ability to deal with the trauma.
“Can’t breathe,” she whispered. “Hurts…” and she fell unconscious again.
“Dammit, where’s that ambulance? Hold on, Ragan, help is on the way,” he whispered, “just hold on.”
Chapter 32
Mark exited a cubicle inside the Fort Wayne emergency room. Through the sliding glass doors, he could see an ambulance, lights flashing and sirens blaring, with a Fairfield County Sheriff’s cruiser pulling in beside it. He watched them back into position as he shoved his stethoscope into a pocket of his lab coat.
The hospital had treated multiple injuries already that night since the tornado touched down, and he worried that it likely carried another person he knew from the neighboring small town. hearing his name paged over the speaker, he headed to exam room three. Two patients and twenty stitches later, he walked out of the exam room and found Logan and Adam sitting in the hall, mirror images of each other with elbows propped on their knees, heads in their hands.
Adam was the first to notice Mark. “Where the hell have you been?” he asked, his jaw clenched.
“What are you talking about?” Mark shot back.
“I’ve been trying to call you for almost an hour,” Adam stood, placing his arms across his broad chest.
Mark stuck his hand in his pocket, “I must have left my phone in my locker. What’s wrong?”
“Ragan got caught in the storm,” Logan cut in.
“What? Is she okay?”
“We don’t know. A doctor is in with her now,” Logan also got to his feet, ready for action.
Mark reached for the doorknob and waved the pair off, “Let me see what I can find out. Wait here. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
The nurse changed her focus from the patient to the door as Mark entered the exam room, looking back down as she dropped an empty syringe into the sharps receptacle.
“Can I help you with something, Dr. Fairfield?” The other physician in the room asked as he closed the chart as the nurse made a hasty retreat.
“What did you just give her?” Mark leaned over, prying her left eye open to examine her pupil.
“I ordered something for her pain,” the other physician explained calmly.
“No more pain meds. Didn’t anyone tell you that she’s pregnant?”
“How do you know? Neither Mr. Bricklin nor Deputy Miller mentioned it.”
“We’ve been dating. She must not have told anyone yet; she just found out this morning.” Mark swiped his fingers gently over her forehead.
“Sounds like congratulations are in order,” his coworker grinned.
“Not for me, I’m not the father.”
Doctor Morgan cleared his throat. “Oh, sorry.”
“How bad are her injuries?”
“She was lucky, it’s only a couple of cracked ribs. We’ll need to run some more tests to check the viability of the pregnancy. I need to see if her family has made it here yet.”
“They weren’t here a couple of minutes ago, but I’ll let them know when they get here,” Mark moved to exit the small chamber.
Logan waved his hand as Mark approached, preventing him from explaining what he had learned. “I’ve got Peggy on the phone. Let me put her on speaker and then you can fill us in.” Hitting the button, he held the phone out as Mark explained about Ragan’s cracked ribs.
“She’s okay,” Adam mumbled as he sat down and put his head back in his hands. “Thank God.”
Mark led them to the waiting room, “I’ll let you know when you can see her. She’s still out from the pain meds, and Doctor Morgan is running some additional tests.” He didn’t mention the pregnancy, knowing Ragan would want to tell Adam herself, especially after the way he found out about Skylar.
Two hours later, Ragan lay in a private room, sleeping through the worst of the pain. Adam watched her breathe, grateful that two cracked ribs were her only injuries. Robbie pushed the door open and entered.
“Thank God you found her, Adam.”
Ragan shifted, groaning as she did so. Robbie walked closer and reached on the side railing to push the call button. Adam leaned over and whispered, “Shhh, Baby, you’re okay.” He raised her hand to his mouth and gently kissed the back of it. Her breathing calmed and she slipped back into a deep sleep, a smile on her face. Adam leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair, and then rubbed at his eyes.
Robbie watched him. “Even with everything that’s happened, you still love her, don’t you?”
“Yeah. Are you going to be here for a while? I really need a shower and some coffee, and I don’t want her to wake up alone.”
“Sure. Take your time,” Robbie claimed a stiff backed chair to take up his post.
Adam reluctantly walked out the lobby doors, squinting in the bright sunlight. He rode a wave of euphoria, so thankful that Ragan would be okay. Lost in thought and trying to forget the terror he had experienced when he saw her foot sticking out from under the debri
s in the ditch, he failed to notice the sound of an engine revving, or the squeal of tires as a car sped towards him, swerving to try and hit him.
Seeing the glint of chrome at the last moment, Adam barely dodged the blue Toyota by jumping between two parked cars, his heart thumping in his chest. “Jesus, what is that idiot doing?”
A short time later, he was back in the hospital, heading to Ragan’s room and feeling semi-human after taking a shower at a nearby hotel and drinking an entire pot of coffee. Robbie was pacing the hall with his phone to his ear, “She’s doing fine, Dad. I’ll let her know you’ll be here soon. She understands that you have to deal with the storm damage. Mark is in with her now. I’ll have her call you when he’s finished. I’ll tell her. Bye, Dad.”
Adam opened the door and poked his head in, not wanting to interrupt. “Is the baby okay, Mark?” he heard Ragan ask. Adam backed up, letting the door shut softly.
Mark sensed the motion in his peripheral vision, but dismissed it when he realized the door was completely closed. “Yes, the baby’s fine. When are you going to tell him?”
“When he gets back. Robbie said he just went to get a shower, so he should be getting back here any minute now. Thanks for having the nurse come in and brush my hair; it feels so much better. I’m so nervous,” she smiled faintly. “I still don’t know how he’s going to react to the news.” Ragan blushed when she realized she was babbling.
Mark smiled at her, seeing her nervousness. “I’ll go see if I can track him down. I’ll be back. You rest; doctor’s orders.” He left Ragan’s room, searching up and down the hall. “Dammit, I hope that wasn’t Adam at the door.” Somehow, he thought it probably was. He hurried to the elevator and went down to the lobby level, spying Adam sitting on a bench near the entrance with long-stemmed roses in his hand. “There you are. Ragan is waiting for you to get back.”
“Why? So I can congratulate the two of you? Not going to happen. I would rather rip your head off for touching her.” Standing in obvious anger, he threw the flowers in the trash barrel next to his bench. “If you’re what makes her happy, I’ll deal with it, but don’t ask me to be pleased about it.”
Mark grabbed Adam by the wrist and dragged him into an empty consultation room, closing the door behind them. “You heard her ask me if the baby was okay, didn’t you,” he accused. “Well, that’s what you get for eavesdropping; you immediately assumed it was mine. Man, you are simply stone-stupid where Ragan is concerned, aren’t you? It’s not my baby, genius; it’s yours,” he stated while glaring at Adam with envy.
Adam paced the length of the room, staring at the floor. When he raised his head to confront Mark, he asked, “How do you know? I’m sure she’s been with you a lot more than the one time we’ve been together since she’s been back.”
“It’s really none of your business, but we never slept together. She wouldn’t sleep with me until you were out of her heart, and that never happened,” Mark informed him bluntly. “When she discovered she was pregnant, she broke it off with me. She loves you, not me. It’s always been you.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth? I still don’t even know how she felt before she left three years ago without so much as a goodbye.”
Mark pulled the creased and stained envelope out of the pocket of his lab coat. “Recognize this? I think it’s time you read it,” he said as he threw it down on the table next to Adam. He left the other man alone to deal with his pain, pulling the door closed behind him.
Adam stared at the creased paper, recognizing it as the envelope he had sent back to Ragan unopened. He turned it over and noticed the water marks were heavier on the back side where he had written “AND NEVER COME BACK.” Tear stains? The envelope remained sealed; no one has read this since she wrote it. Adam wasn’t sure he wanted to know how it ended up in Mark’s possession, but he sure wished he had a drink to calm his nerves. “Here goes nothing,” he mumbled as he opened the envelope and pulled out a folded sheet of paper.
My dearest Adam,
I hope you read this with an open mind and an open heart. I am so sorry that I left without a proper goodbye. Finding out you had been married and had a child really threw me for a loop. I cannot explain all my reasons in a letter, and you wouldn’t believe them if I tried to. I wanted to wait for you to come back and explain, but I panicked. By the time I had calmed down enough to think straight, I was in the Congo. I will regret that for the rest of my life.
Enough about that. It is over and done with. I wanted you to be the first to know that you are going to be a father.
I hope you don’t hate me.
I’ll love you forever…
Ragan
Tears ran down his face as he struggled to fit the folded letter back into the envelope. God, if I wasn’t such a stubborn ass we could have been together all along… I’ve got to get up there and make this right.
Flinging open the door, he ran out of the room and took the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. As he climbed them, he realized that he hadn’t asked Mark if the baby was okay. Stopping to catch his breath, he stood in the stairwell and willed himself to calm down before he strolled towards Ragan’s room as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Instinctively, he put his hands in his pockets to stop their shaking. He pulled on the stairwell door and took a deep breath, preparing himself to admit he’d screwed up three years ago.
Robbie stood in front of Ragan’s door, almost blocking it, “What took you so long? Cold feet already?”
“Back off, Robbie, I’m here to make things right.”
“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
“God, I hope not. I love her,” Adam stated simply.
“Glad you finally realized it. Now, get in there tell Ragan that. Just know that if you hurt her again, I will find you, and it won’t be pretty when I do.”
Adam pushed the door open and walked in before he could talk himself out of it.
Inside, Ragan sat half reclined, staring out the window and wondering how her life had spun out of control so fast. Here she was again, in love with Adam, pregnant with his child, and afraid that letting him know would put him in danger. Talk about déjà vu. At least she was here at home instead of halfway around the world this time. She heard the door shut and looked up to find Adam standing there. “Hey,” she said as she pulled herself up on elbows in order to sit up straighter. “Shit, that hurts.”
“Don’t try to move, Baby. I can’t stand seeing you in pain.” Adam took her hand as he sat in the chair next to the bed. “I think we have some things to talk about.”
Looking at the expression on his face, seeing his uncertainty, she hesitated. “First, I want to talk to you about this,” he said as he pulled the letter out of his pocket.
“How did you get that?” she demanded with a husky tone. “I threw that away a couple of days ago.”
“Never mind how I got it. Did you plan on running away again this time? I know about the baby, Ragan. I overheard you asking Mark if the baby was okay.” He held her hand with both of his, and she couldn’t decipher the look on his face. “What did he say? Please tell me everything is fine,” he said with a hitch in his voice.
She smiled and nodded yes, not trusting herself to speak. She cleared her throat and whispered, “He said everything looks good.”
“Thank God,” he exclaimed as he kissed the back of her hand. “Now; we need to talk about us. I still love you. I have all along.” She could see the seriousness in the set of his jaw and read it in his eyes. “When I sent this letter back to you, I was not in a good place. My ex was dead, and my daughter hadn’t spoken a word since the accident. The woman I loved was gone with no goodbye, no explanation. I got this in the mail and immediately headed for the pub and started drinking. The booze clouded my mind. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have read it. If I had, I would have been on the next plane to you. I love you, Ragan. I never stopped loving you.”
He pulled a chair over and took a se
at, deciding it was time to get everything out in the open. “About what happened that night at the house; I know you probably can’t forgive me for that, but maybe we could start over.” He glared at his lap, afraid to look up and see the condemnation in her face.
She stared at him with pain-filled eyes as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. He can’t mean that night he came to my bed, can he? “Adam, look at me,” she said as she squeezed his hand tighter. “Did you hear me say no? Did I fight you?”
“Well, no. But…” he stammered.
“But nothing. I was a willing participant that night,” she smiled.
“You were crying.”
“I was crying because I knew I had to push you away. My heart hasn’t been whole since the night I left. I never stopped loving you,” she beamed.
Hope dawned in his eyes. “You still love me?” he asked in a whisper.
“I’ll remind you of that after I explain the other reason I left; the real reason I’m not sure how much of it you’re going to believe,” she said with a yawn, grimacing at the pain in her ribs.
“Just rest, honey. We can discuss that later when you feel better. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it together.” He bent down and kissed her as her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep.
An hour later she woke up, with the memory of Adam’s face when she told him she still loved him making her smile. The squeak of a shoe on the tile floor caught her attention. Someone was adjusting her IV, pulling a syringe out of his pocket and injecting it directly into the line. When he turned and she saw his face, she realized that something about him was familiar. “Do I know you?” she asked as her eyelids grew heavy again. She fought the drowsiness, trying to stay awake, but it was no use.
He watched her sleep for a moment before answering, “Yes, you know me, but you never noticed me; you will now.” He turned and rolled the wheelchair over next to the bed and gently lifted her into it, making sure she was strapped in securely.
Ragan's Song (Fairfield Corners #2) Page 12
