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By the time he pulled up to the hospital, I wasn’t willing to go through the whole credit card process to pay, so I just pulled a hundred from my wallet and handed it to him while I stepped out. If he objected to the cash, he certainly didn’t say, and I was already off.
I went straight to the front desk, trying not to look like some enraged killer. I think I managed somewhat, because when the worker looked up and didn’t appear to be terrified.
“Hi, may I help you?”
“Yeah, I’m looking for Nicole Arden. I received a call that I’m listed as her next of kin?”
“Oh, of course. Let me look that up for you!”
She looked back to her computer and typed away, eerily reminding me of how Nicole told me most of her work days went. I shifted from foot to foot, hoping to keep my calm just a little bit longer. I was almost there, and the feeling of impatience was growing that much stronger.
“Ah, tenth floor, room 1015. You’re going to want to go to the right, following the green line on the ground, and then you’re going to want to go into the red elevators. Once you get out on the tenth floor, the desk there should be able to point you in the right direction for the room.”
“Great, thanks.”
I took off, doing that strained run-walk that was just on the edge for an appropriate speed to move without being stopped. Somehow, I managed not to get lost, and finally ended up on the tenth floor.
I took a step towards the desk just outside of the elevators, but a room number caught my eye. 1001. That meant Nicole had to be close. I wasn’t willing to waste another moment getting instructions, so I walked off in the direction it made sense for 1015 to be.
My blood was pounding so hard with every door I passed. I had never had something affect me like this, but there was no denying that I was a mix of protective, scared and relieved. I just knew I wanted to see Nicole’s face and deal with whatever had happened to her head on. No more wondering, no more imagining the worst.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I reached her door. It was only closed partially, so I was fairly sure I could go in, but I managed to pause long enough to knock.
“Come in,”
I heard her voice and it was like all of the tension in me came undone. I pushed open the door and strode in, walking right up to her bedside
“Nicole,” I said, no other words coming to mind. I could only look at her face. She didn’t have any bruises or scratches, but she looked both pale and stressed, which I didn’t like on her at all.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her brow furrowing as she looked up at me with a guilt I didn’t understand. “I know it’s a Wednesday and you had to leave the office, but they wouldn’t release me without having someone else to pick me up and if I left against medical advisement, then insurance might not cover everything.”
“Shhh, shhh, it’s fine.” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. “Just tell me what happened.”
There was a knock on the door and she sighed. “It’s probably a nurse. They check on me every hour and each time I thought it was you.”
“Hope you weren’t too disappointed.”
She laughed lightly at that, but the sound wasn’t rich or deep. Peering over my shoulder, she looked to the door. “You can come in.”
Instead of the singular nurse I was expecting, three people came in, one of them dressed in a lab coat and looking quite official. That, I guessed, was the doctor.
“Ah, hello! Is this Mr. James Hines that we have been waiting for?”
“In the flesh,” I answered as politely as I could. But my stomach was still twisting with nerves, so it wasn’t very convincing. “Can you explain to me what happened here?”
“I’m afraid Miss Nicole here lost consciousness in the parking lot of her place of employment. Thankfully, there were three people there to witness it, and they called an ambulance immediately.”
“It’s fine,” Nicole interrupted. “I let myself get too dehydrated then when I dropped something in the parking lot, I stood up too fast. This is a whole lot of to-do about something that should have been just an embarrassing mishap.”
“I’m afraid that’s not quite the case,” the doctor continued. I could tell that they were trying to be kind but were a bit exasperated with Nicole. I wondered what had happened when I was gone and if she had been fighting them the entire time. As strong as the woman was, sometimes she fought too hard to be independent.
“The unfortunate news is this is not just a case of dehydration, or low blood pressure. With the tests we’ve run, I’ve reason to believe that you’re experiencing a complication in your pregnancy and are most likely going to experience more.”
