“It’s gonna be okay, Chel.”
“Are you leaving?” I asked, my voice shakier than I want to admit. I knew I should want him gone, should urge him to go get my insurance card so he would be far away when I talked to a doctor about my fears for the baby. But I wanted him with me. I wanted his strong hand holding mine, his reassuring, steady voice. Letting go of his hand seemed impossible.
“No, baby, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll text somebody to bring your card. Is your car unlocked?”
“Should be. I just stuck my purse in the console. Trixie can get it.”
“I’ll have her bring it over when she can. I’ll wait right out here.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said, biting my lip.
A nurse took me back to an exam room and asked me about a hundred questions about if I had chest pains or a history of stroke or if I took illegal drugs.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said. She handed me a plastic pan and I gagged, my vision going dark as I tried to catch my breath. “I’m pregnant,” I managed to tell the nurse.
The on call doctor checked me briefly and said I was dehydrated. Soon an IV was in my arm and I was getting fluids and an anti nausea medicine. He wrote me a prescription for some of the anti nausea stuff to help with the morning sickness. A quick check on the baby and he told me that everything looked fine.
“You can go home after you finish this bag of fluids. You have to rest for at least the next couple of days. No working or spending time outside in the heat. Drink as much as you can, aim for sixty-four ounces a day of water, decaf tea and sports drinks. If you’re taking the anti-emetic and still getting sick, call your OB and get checked,” he said.
I felt relieved. I swiped a few tears from my face. When the doctor was gone, Drew poked his head in around the curtain of my cubicle.
“Mind if I come in?”
“Sure.”’
“I had to sneak past the registration desk. That woman—I swear, they got her after she was too tough to be a drill sergeant. Kept lecturing me about privacy laws and asking if I was family.”
I smiled weakly.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better. I got overheated and I was dehydrated. I appreciate you bringing me in.”
“Anytime,” he said, “and now you can’t say I never take you anyplace nice.”
“Very funny,” I said.
He sat down on the edge of my bed and took my hand. “You gave me a scare, Chel. You went pale and just dropped. When I caught you, you felt lifeless. I don’t mind telling you it was the worst thing ever. When—when we were apart for years, at least I knew you were okay. You were healthy and safe, even if you weren’t mine. The idea that something could happen to you, something really bad, just hit me so hard when I saw you falling.”
“Thank you for catching me.”
“I wish I could say I’ve always been there to catch you, but we both know that’s not true. You should know I promised God above all kinds of things on the way here if you were just okay.”
“Like what? Are you going to become a monk?” I asked wryly.
“There was a lot of things I offered to do. Give more money to charity. Fix preachers’ cars for free from now on. Quit saying goddammit all the time. Never ask you for anything. If he’d just let you be all right, why, I swore I wouldn’t insist on talking things out with you or try and get you to listen to me. I’d just leave you be and be grateful that you were fine.”
“That’s so sweet,” I said, meaning it. “If you called Trixie, she can take me home when she brings the insurance card. You don’t have to hang around. You’ve done your good deed for the day, Drew.”
“You think I’m gonna walk out of here without you? After you asked me to stay?” He leaned down and kissed my hand that was holding his. “Not on your life.”
The nurse came in with my discharge papers and the prescription for the anti nausea medicine.
“Now, remember, if you don’t feel better after seventy-two hours on this medication, call your doctor. You’re supposed to call in sick to work and rest the next couple of days. Normal activity is fine as long as you stay inside out of the heat and you stay hydrated. And here, I thought you’d like to take a copy of this home.” She smiled at me, and handed me a narrow strip of shiny paper that held a printout of the ultrasound images. I nodded, eyes welling up as I looked at the shadowy oval that was my growing baby.