AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How long? Has it been the whole day? Has it been coming and going?”
“Maybe twenty minutes.”
The nurse nods and pushes open a door to an empty room. “Go ahead and lie down, honey. I’m just going to ask you a few more questions and then we will have the doctor in.”
I toss the clipboard into the chair across from the bed. Rachel sits on the edge of the bed and I help her ease more onto it. She lies down, her gaze once again glazing over.
“Can you see?” The nurse asks while hovering over Rachel.
Rachel shakes her head. “I-I don’t know. My vision keeps blurring and darkening.”
“When was the last time you saw your OBGYN?”
“Today,” Rachel wails before breaking down. She presses her hands to her face as she cries. “I was just there and when we got home, I was having problems seeing.”
The nurse takes Rachel’s hand and presses her fingers against it. My eyes widen when I see how swollen they are. When the fuck did that happen? Rachel’s face also seems puffier. Why didn’t I notice this before? What the fuck is going on?
“Alright, honey, we are going to hook you up to an IV. You’re extremely dehydrated. But, before we do that, we need you to pee. Can you do that?”
Rachel bobs her head.
The nurse turns to me and asks, “Do you think you can call her OBGYN while she’s peeing? They should know she’s here. Maybe they know a bit of what’s going on.”
“I-I don’t have the number,” I stutter while turning to Rachel.
“It’s on their website,” Rachel says. “Google Dr. Nancy Adams. It should pop up.”
“Okay,” I say with a curt nod while the nurse helps Rachel down from the bed.
The door swings shut as they leave. My fingers fumble for my phone. I press the wrong button at least five times before I am able to find Dr. Adams phone number. We should have brought Rachel’s purse. I don’t even have her health insurance information. I just wanted to get her here as fast as possible. I’m sure Lucas can grab her purse.
I stab my finger on top of Dr. Adams’ phone number and listen to the ringtone, prayer to all the higher powers above that she answers.
“Hello, this is Nancy Adams,” the woman on the other line says cheerfully.
“Hi, this is Hunter, I know Rachel Miller. We’re right now at the hospital. Rachel is having problems seeing and she says there’s pain in her side.”
I hear Dr. Adams sigh followed by, “Which hospital is she at?”
“St. Patrick’s Hospital. Do you know what could be wrong? I know she needed to pee into a cup.”
“Yes. I wanted to check her protein levels, but it looks like it’s just as I thought.”
“What?” I ask louder than intended. “What’s wrong with her? Is she having a miscarriage?”
“No, she’s not having a miscarriage.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“But, it’s not good.”
Fuck. “What is it then? Is she going to… be okay?”
“We will definitely want to run some tests, but I believe she has preeclampsia. I will be over there in about thirty minutes. Just, try to keep her calm, okay?”
“Okay,” I say before hanging up.
Keep calm, Dr. Adams says. How the fuck can we keep calm? And what the fuck is this preeclampsia? I should have asked her. Fuck. What the hell was I thinking? Nothing, that’s obvious. It doesn’t matter. Dr. Adams will be here in thirty minutes. I can ask her then. Or I can ask the nurse.
