Trouble In Dixie (19 page)

She snorted then glanced at Tommy and said,
"Irritability..."

"Are your breasts sore?" The doctor asked
and looked at Tommy, then her.

She blushed and felt Tommy's eyes on her,
but she didn't look up at him, then she answered, "Yeah, a
little."

"When was your last period, Katie?" The
doctor flipped through the file and then looked up at her.

Her periods weren't regular, they came when
they decided to appear, so she couldn't really remember the last
time that happened, but it seemed like it was a good while back.
"I'm not really regular, but maybe six weeks ago?"

"Are you on birth control?" he asked.

"No...the pill makes me sick," she said, and
it did. She'd tried it once and she was sick for a whole month,
then quit taking it. She figured condoms would have to do the
trick. She wondered why he was asking so many questions about all
that. She was here for an ulcer.

"When did you last have intercourse?" he
asked clinically and waited for her response.

She looked over at Tommy and his eyes met
hers, then she said, "About a month ago..."

There was a knock at the door, and the
dark-haired nurse walked in, glanced at her, then handed Doc
Percival a piece of paper, before she walked back out and shut the
door. He studied it intently, and his eyebrows pinched together,
then he looked up at her, and sighed. "I'm thinking there's
something in the water around here," he chuckled and shook his
head.

Katie gave him a quizzical look and he said,
"You're pregnant, Katie."

"
Holy, shit!
" she and Tommy said
together. Her breathing ramped up to hummingbird pace as did her
heart rate. All the blood drained from her head and headed for her
feet, and black spots filled her vision. Katie had never passed out
before in her life, but she was afraid that was about to happen
right now. When she swayed in her chair, Doc Percival pushed her
head down between her knees and told her to slow her breathing
down. Tommy's hand moved to her back and he rubbed circles there,
his hand was trembling as much as her body was.

"I don't do obstetrics anymore, but I still
have ultrasound equipment. I'd like to see if we can hear the
baby's heartbeat...maybe get a look at your uterus and
placenta."

"I can't breathe," Katie wheezed and put her
hand to her chest, then held her head between her hands.

Doc Percival got up and pulled out a white
paper bag from the cabinet above the sink, flicked it open then
handed it to her. "Breath into this, slow down gradually, take deep
breaths," he instructed her, then looked at Tommy and said, "Do you
need one too?"

Katie glanced up and saw him shake his head,
and she put the paper bag to around her mouth and tried to regulate
her breathing. Tommy's face was pale, and his lips were pinched
tight, he looked like he might throw up.

When her breathing slowed and she felt some
blood return to her head, Katie said in a shaky voice, "When do you
want to do the ultrasound?"

"I don't have any more appointments this
afternoon, so if you like, we can do it now."

God, she didn't know if she was ready for
this...but it didn't matter really, she was pregnant, and she was
going to have to deal with it, because it wasn't going away. "Now
is fine..." she agreed.

"Okay then, just lay up on the table and
unzip your shorts and pull up your shirt, I'll be right back," he
told her in a soothing tone, then walked out of the room and shut
the door.

She stood up and walked to the exam table
and unzipped her shorts then scooted up on it. Tommy was quiet in
the chair beside where she'd been sitting, and she was afraid to
look at him, afraid of what she'd see in his eyes. He wanted to
keep their relationship a secret, take it slowly, well that wasn't
going to happen now. The cat was out of the bag, and the cow was
out of the barn...she was pregnant and he'd just have to figure out
how to deal with it too.

His voice was raw and hoarse when he forced
out one word, "How?"

His question struck her as funny and she
snorted, then looked up at him, "If you don't know, I'm sure not
gonna tell you. I'm sure Doc Percival could explain it to you."

"Stop the sarcasm, Katie...we used a
condom...how could this happen?" his tone was accusatory, and she
wasn't sure she liked it one bit.

She stiffened her shoulders then told him,
"Condoms break...did you check? I told you I wasn't sure how old it
was..."

Her face blanched and she slid off the
table, then picked up her backpack and opened the side pocket where
the second condom she had was stored. Holding it up, she looked at
the expiration date, and it was two years ago. She groaned and
handed it to him, then turned her back and folded her arms across
her middle.

"Totally fucking irresponsible," he grated
then ran a hand through his hair, before he stood and tossed the
packet into the garbage can. She got back up on the table, and he
started pacing in front of her, his breathing erratic.

"I only had them in there just in case. I
didn't have sex often, so I didn't need them...or the person I was
with had their own," she accused right back. Hell, he'd been there
too, he should have had protection. Katie admitted she'd been the
aggressor, and he'd wanted to stop, but she wasn't taking full
responsibility, that was for sure.

His face turned so red it was almost purple,
and he stopped pacing to face her, "Guess I was just the lucky
bastard to use your 'just in case' condoms, since I hadn't had sex
in four years, and didn't carry them around."

She slid down off the table and got up in
his face, then put her finger in his chest, narrowed her eyes.
"This wasn't an immaculate conception, even though you were with
another woman that night, not me, right?" she accused and poked her
finger in his chest, then finished, "I don't need you, and
my
kid doesn't need you. Go back to the Rockin' D and just
forget we exist. We'll be just fine."

He face flinched and then he took a step
forward and put his nose to hers, before he grated, "I don't
fucking think so, you're carrying my kid and I take care of what's
mine."

Katie turned her back to him again and said
in a trembling voice, "Well, I'm not
yours
, and I don't
intend to be...and this baby doesn't have to be either, just leave
me the hell alone."

The door opened right then and Nurse
Goodbody backed into the room tugging a cart in with a screen and
other gadgets on it. Doc Percival came in behind the cart and
evidently noticed the tension in the room, because he looked at
Tommy, then at her and gave them a tight smile, before he asked
Katie, "Okay, is Mr. Tucker staying in the room while we do
this?

Katie said "No!" at the same time Tommy
grated "Yes!" and then they glared at each other. Choosing not to
get in the middle of them evidently, Dr. Percival pushed the cart
beside the exam table and folded his arms waiting for them to
decide.

"I'm not leaving, Katie," he told her
mulishly, his hazel eyes bright with anger.

"Fine, stay then," she spat then stepped up
and sat on the table and folded her arms under her breasts.

"Okay, Katie, scoot farther back on the
table and lay down for me," the kind doctor told her and she huffed
out a frustrated breath, then did as he asked. After she laid back
on the paper covered pillow, he shoved her shirt up under her
breasts and then asked her to lift her hips, and he slid her shorts
down along with her panties, so her lower abdomen was exposed. She
was still covered, but she felt so exposed, because Tommy was in
the room. Hot tears burned behind her eyelids, but she refused to
let them fall. Katie stared at the ceiling, refusing to look his
way.

The doctor picked up a rectangular device
then slathered some clear gel on it, before he placed it on her
lower abdomen and smoothed it around in circles. She gasped because
it was cold, and tensed her muscles.

"Sorry, it's cold, I should have warned
you," Doc Percival said and glanced at her.

He reached over to the machine and adjusted
a few dials and moved the probe around on her belly, watching the
screen intently. Leaning closer to it, he studied it intently for a
second, then moved it a little to the left and studied it again. He
reached for another knob and a swooshing sound filled the room, and
Katie gasped, then asked in a whisper, "Is that the baby?"

Tommy walked closer to the table and leaned
over to see the screen, he looked interested, but confused as to
what he was actually seeing. Doc Percival didn't answer her
question, he just looked really close at the screen, then pursed
his lips. "You're an identical twin, right?" he asked Katie.

Katie gulped and her heart stopped, because
she was afraid of where he was going with this. "Yes, sir..."

"Well, it looks like you may be having a
twin set too," the doctor told her and she heard a whoosh of air,
then a crash. Katie screamed then sat straight up and saw Tommy
Tucker's large body laying haphazardly on the tile floor, passed
out cold, with chairs on top of him.

"Oh, Lord...this is a first," the doctor
said with concern, then fished around in a drawer, before he knelt
beside Tommy and ran something under his nose. Tommy coughed a few
times then opened his dazed eyes and looked around, before he
glanced up at her and his face turned a putrid shade of green. He
scrambled to his feet and ran out of the room with his hand over
his mouth.

Doc Percival shook his head and chuckled,
then turned to her. "I'd say you're about five or six weeks along,
Katie, but with twins you're going to be considered a high risk
pregnancy, and need to be monitored closely. You'll need to see a
specialist, and I can recommend a few. You should make an
appointment as soon as possible."

"Thank you," she said breathlessly, and he
handed her a prescription for prenatal vitamins, then scribbled the
name of his recommended specialist on another sheet of paper then
handed it too her with a smile, and said good luck, before he left
the room.

When Tommy staggered back into the room in a
cold sweat, with his face white and his body shaking, she just met
his stunned eyes with her own. Katie felt numb inside, and was in
shock, as she slid off the table and grabbed a paper towel to wipe
off the gel from her stomach, then zipped her shorts. The tears
she'd held back finally found their way down her cheeks and she
stumbled past Tommy, and walked swiftly out the door. She had to
get out of here, and get some fresh air, because she felt like she
was suffocating.

She pushed through the glass fronted doors
and picked up her pace down the sidewalk. Katie didn't know where
she was going, but she knew she had to get away from that office,
and away from Tommy Tucker.

Her life was ruined, she'd spent all her
money on buying the ranch, and now she wasn't going to be able to
run it, or make any money, until the babies came. Then she'd have
not one, but two, babies to support and raise alone. Her steps got
faster and faster, until she was running down the sidewalk in
downtown Bowie with tears pouring faster and faster down her
cheeks. She needed her sister, but her cell phone was in the
backpack she forgot to pick up before she left the doctor's
office.

Blood pounded in her ears as she ran, and it
was like she was seeing things through a tunnel, as she ran faster
and faster toward nothing. The chicken salad she'd ate for lunch
seesawed from her stomach to her throat several times, but she
wasn't going to stop to toss it, she needed to keep running. Katie
didn't stop when she came to a cross street, she didn't even
realize it was a cross street, as she barreled toward the other
curb, until a loud blaring horn about deafened her, before a car
slammed on the brakes and its bumper hit her thigh and she flew
through the air, then landed hard on her hip.

Darkness closed around her as a good dose of
fear, along with the adrenaline in her system saturated her brain.
It was too much, all of it, just too much for her to handle...she'd
dealt with enough, and gave in to the peace of the darkness.

CHAPTER NINE

After he gathered his senses, Tommy grabbed
Katie's backpack then walked out of the doctor's office and looked
up and down the street for her. When he saw her running hell bent
for leather down the sidewalk, he took off after her. He knew she
was in shock too, and he needed to calm her down. It wasn't good
for the babies for her to be that upset.

She was faster than him, and she had a good
head start, so she was half a block ahead of him, when he saw her
run right through a 'do not cross' sign at a crosswalk. His heart
stopped when he heard the squeal of brakes, the blare of a horn,
then saw her fly through the air and land on her side. He ran
faster than he ever had in his life, with dread squeezing his heart
and fear coursing through his veins like acid.

When he got to her, he dropped to his knees
and felt for a pulse. He whimpered when he felt the extremely rapid
and not so regular pulse beating at her throat. Running his hands
along her body, he checked to see if anything was obviously broken.
He didn't want to move her, if she was hurt, but he had no way of
knowing, because she was unconscious. Maybe she hit her head, he
thought, and emotion clogged his throat, as he made a quick
decision to take her back to the doctor's office.