Chapter Eight
After I left the conference room, I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I knew I couldn’t go home, I didn’t even have my car. So, I did the only thing I could think of, call Katie. She happened to be working at the time, so I just walked over to the familiar building and went up to Logan’s office. She was waiting for me and welcomed me with a hug. “The first session is always the worst, I’m sure it’ll get better.”
She pulls away as I try to stop crying long enough to speak, “Katie, he told the therapist that he felt guilty for not knowing his dad, for not taking care of me the way Nick would have wanted, for taking me away from Nick, and the worst part, for loving me.”
“What? Taking care of you? He takes wonderful care of you! And how on earth could he take you away from Nick? He was dead!”
“I don’t know… I just want to get out of here.”
“Now that I can take care of. You can spend the night with me. The girls are at my mom’s and my husband’s out of town visiting family. It’s just you and me, girl. Let’s go.” I followed Katie out of the building. I was so thankful to have a friend like her.
As we were walking to her car, we passed the therapy center, the General was outside talking to Logan, who still seemed upset. He saw me, but I refused to look at him, I just kept up with Katie as we finally reached her SUV.
We drove in silence all the way to her house, honestly, I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to go someplace to think. When we arrived at the house, we went into the kitchen as she started throwing some dishes in the dishwasher. I sat down at the bar and watched her.
“Katie, you wouldn’t happen to have any sour patch kids, would you?”
She smiles, “Kids love ‘em, second drawer to the left.” She points next to the sink. I get up and walk over, but when I stop, I begin to feel a little dizzy. I clutch the counter to steady myself as Katie watches me.
“Caroline? You alright?” She asks, walking toward me.
“Yeah, yeah, just a little dizzy is all.” I grabbed the food from the drawer and started walking back to my seat…
I never made it back there, I got half way around the bar and the dizziness came back. I started blacking out when I heard Katie repeating my name. I felt my legs collapse as I fell to the floor. That was the last thing I remembered until I heard a strong male voice.
My eyes fluttered open as I looked around at my surroundings. I was at the hospital, specifically, the ER. A Doctor was standing over me. “Mrs. Cook, how do you feel?”
“Fine… What time is it?”
“Six PM, you blacked out at your friend’s house. She called an ambulance and they brought you here not long ago. You’re fine, for now, your blood pressure was considerably high and we’ve given you something to settle you down. We’ll be keeping you overnight for observation since you’re pregnant.”
“What about the baby?”
“She’s fine, good and healthy.”
“She?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Had you not had an ultrasound yet?”
“Well, yeah, but I wasn’t going to find out until Friday.”
“Well, surprise! It’s one hundred percent a girl. I’ll check on you throughout the night but please take it easy. High blood pressure is very dangerous for your baby, so keep an eye on it. While you’re here, we have you hooked up to a monitor, every time it beeps, it means your blood pressure is too high, so calm down, alright?”
“Will do.”
He leaves as they wheel me upstairs to a room. That’s when I see Katie. “Caroline, dear God, don’t you ever do that to me again! You scared me to death!”
“Sorry, I kind of scared myself. Um, did you call Logan?” The monitor starts beeping loudly.
Katie glares, “Gez, all you do is say the man’s name and you stress out. Calm down…” I take a few deep breathes and the monitor stops. “Anyway, no, actually I called the General a little while ago and told him, I’m guessing he told Logan. I was in no mood to speak to him.” I knew what that meant, he would be here any minute and when I heard his voice in the hall, I was not surprised.
“Would you explain to him what’s going on before he comes in here, please?” I ask as nicely as possible. I knew she didn’t want to but she stepped out in the hallway as I heard her whispering quite angrily. A few minutes later she walked in with the General and Logan.
“How are we doing?” The General asks as Logan stays beside the door.
“I’ll be fine, I guess I got a little upset…”
“Well, we’ll just have to be careful from now on, won’t we?” He smiles and looks back to Katie, nodding toward the door, “We’ll leave you two alone…” He adds, giving Logan a warning glare as they shut the door.
Logan continues to stand by the door, uneasy. “Logan, I’m not a disease, you can come closer.” He walks over and sits down in the chair next to the bed.
“So, you’re fine, huh?” He asks looking at all the monitors behind the bed.
“Yes, they’re just monitoring the baby and my blood pressure, that’s all.”
He nods, “Maybe we should talk about what happened…”
I shake my head, “Actually, I’d rather not, at least not right now… I’m very tired and honestly, I’d just like to sleep. But what I would really like is for my husband to come here and sleep with me.” I scoot over a bit and pat the bed.
He smiles and slides in next to me, careful not to touch any of the wires. “I’m sorry, by the way. Really, really sorry…” He whispers into my hair.
“Don’t want to talk about it right now…” I add, laying my head on his shoulder. His breathing calms as we lay there together. I feel like the real Logan has returned and for some reason, I’m no longer afraid…
I was almost asleep when I suddenly sat up, scaring poor Logan to death. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head, “Nothing, I just forgot to tell you something.”
“What?”
“The ER Doctor had to do an ultrasound when I came in and he went ahead and told me what we were supposed to find out Friday…”
His eyes light up, “So?”
“Julianna Nicole.”
He smiles as I lay back down in his arms. “Yep, I was right. I told you, the guys know what they’re talking about… You were carrying high, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, go to sleep, Logan.” I chuckle as we both doze off.
This was a moment that I wanted to last forever…
Despite the hospital atmosphere, everything just felt so right…
We felt like us again…