Chapter
42
Not long after Dr. Hall had left, I looked up to see Josh
hurry into my room.
“Josh!” I cried, relief washing over me. I suddenly felt so much better, for he was
there with me, safe and sound.
I pulled myself into a sitting position and wrapped my arms
around him, hugging him tightly. “God,
baby, I was so worried about you,” I cried, my face buried in his neck.
“I was worried about you too, baby,” Josh replied. “The guys told me what happened when I got
here.”
“Do you think Sammy’s going to be okay?” I asked,
forgetting about myself for the time being.
Josh sighed and pulled back from my hug. “Jules, I really don’t know,” he said
softly. “To be honest, it doesn’t look
good. She lost so much blood.”
“Oh, God,” I moaned.
“Don’t give up hope yet,” Josh warned. “She could still make it.”
I nodded, but after hearing Josh’s grim analysis of Sammy’s
situation made it seem even more hopeless.
“Who else was hurt?” I asked, my voice small.
“Aaron and Kevin,” Josh said. “But they’ll be fine, I’m sure. Justin punched Aaron in the face and knocked
him out, and they brought him here to the ER to be checked over, but he’ll be
fine. He probably just has a broken nose
or something.”
I nodded. “What
about Kev?” I asked.
“Well, Justin shot him in the shoulder, but just
barely. It bled a little, but it’s not
too bad. It’ll just be sore for
awhile. Justin also hit him pretty hard
over the head and knocked him out. He
was still unconscious when the ambulances got there, so he might have a
concussion. But I’m sure he’ll be okay
too,” Josh explained.
“Is that all?” I asked hopefully, praying that there were
no more injuries.
“That’s all,” Josh said.
“Well, actually, Nick whacked Justin over the head with the doorstop and
knocked him out, so I guess that counts as another injury.”
I brightened at the news.
“Did the cops get him then?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Josh said.
“I think they were going to take him to the hospital to get checked
over, and then he’ll probably be going straight to jail.”
I sighed with relief.
I thought I had heard the worst of all the news. But I was wrong.
***
Dr. Hall returned a few minutes later. “Oh, hi, Josh,” he greeted when he saw Josh
in the room with me.
“Hey, James,” Josh said.
“Okay, Julie, I want to do a sonogram now. Are you ready?” Dr. Hall asked.
I nodded nervously.
I wasn’t nervous about the sonogram at all. I had had several during my pregnancy. What scared me was the results. What if there was something wrong with the
baby? What if I was going into labor
right then?
I tried to push those thoughts from my mind as Dr. Hall got
everything ready to run the sonogram.
As he ran it, I watched his and Josh’s faces carefully, as
they looked at the monitor where the sonogram was being projected. It was then that I realized something was
wrong.
“Julie, it looks like you’re going into early labor,” Dr.
Hall said grimly, when he was finished.
I let out a long breath and lay back, fighting tears.
“Who’s your obstetrician?” Dr. Hall asked.
“Tammi Linden,” I replied.
“Okay. I’ll page her
right away so she can get down here and take over. She can explain things to you then. I’ll see you later,” Dr. Hall said and left
the room.
Once he was gone, I looked up at Josh with tear-filled
eyes.
“Don’t cry, sweetie,” he begged, squeezing my hand. “Keep the faith. It’ll be okay.”
I let out a shaky breath and weakly squeezed his hand
back. “I hope so,” I murmured, my tears
slowly spilling down my cheeks.
My obstetrician, Dr. Linden, entered my room a few minutes
later. “Hi, Julie,” she said, her
expression concerned. “Dr. Hall just
told me what’s up.”
I wiped my eyes and nodded.
“There’s not anything you can do to postpone labor, is there?” I asked.
She shook her head sadly.
“No, I’m sorry, but there’s not,” she said. “You’re going to have to deliver this baby
soon, whenever it’s ready. Of course,
that could take hours.”
I nodded again.
“What do you think the odds are?
I mean, of the baby surviving?”
“Well, I won’t be able to tell you exact odds until after
the baby is born, and I can examine it.
But I’m sure you know that the odds of any baby living after being born
three months premature aren’t good,” she told me softly.
Tears rose in my eyes again, and I fought hard to keep them
back. I looked to Josh to see that his
blue eyes looked unusually shiny as well.
I gave his hand a tender squeeze, knowing that if he lost it, I would
too. We both had to be strong, for our
baby, and for each other.
***
Back in the waiting room, Nick grew more and more uneasy,
as time passed by, and he didn’t hear anything on his fiancée’s condition. He looked at Megan, sitting beside him. She had been silent the whole time, just
staring off into space. He could tell
she was just as worried about Sammy as he was.
Nick reached over and rested his hand on her shoulder
gently. She looked up and offered him a
weak smile. He managed one back.
It had not even been two months since Megan had come to
live with Sammy and him, but in that time, the three of them had grown close,
like a real family. Sammy and Megan had
formed a special bond right away, as mother and daughter reunited after almost
ten years. Nick had grown close to Megan
too, as a father to her. He knew that
Sammy had never told Megan who her real father was. Megan did not even know that Sammy had been
raped. She had been told that her father
had left before she was born and that Sammy hadn’t heard from him since. Megan seemed to accept this. Nick hoped she would never have to learn the
truth about her father.
“Can I speak with the family of Samantha Peter, please?”
Nick looked up sharply and saw a doctor standing in the
doorway of the waiting room.
“Yes. I’m her
fiancée,” Nick said, standing up. He
turned back to Megan. “Come on, honey,”
he said, offering her his hand. “This is
her daughter,” he said to the doctor.
The doctor nodded.
“I’m Dr. Kilbourne. Why don’t you
come down the hall with me so I can talk to you two alone.” Nick nodded, and he and Megan followed the
male doctor down the hall to a small, private room with two small sofas. “Have a seat,” Dr. Kilbourne said, motioning
to one of the sofas. Nick and Megan sat
down side by side on it, and the doctor sat on the other sofa.
“Well, to start off, I treated Samantha in the ER. She was in critical condition when she was
brought here, and she still is. I’m
afraid the bullet hit her left lung, puncturing it, and then traveled to her
heart.”
Nick didn’t know how to respond. He felt completely numb with panic and
fear. Finally, he found his voice and
asked, “What are you going to do?”
“She’s in surgery right now,” Dr. Kilbourne replied. “Hopefully, the surgeons will be able to
remove the bullet and repair the damage done to her lung and heart.”
“When will she be out of surgery?” Nick asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Dr. Kilbourne replied. “Surgery like this can be risky, and it
usually takes a few hours. So I wouldn’t
expect to hear anything for probably another two hours.”
Nick nodded slowly and rested his chin in his hands, trying
to prepare himself for the long, anxious wait he had ahead of him.
***
