Trouble In Dixie (29 page)

The doctor pulled the sheet down and her
gown up to expose her rounded belly, then told her, "We have a
high-risk OB specialist on staff and he should be up to see you
shortly," he told her as he slathered gel on the device in his
hand. "But I'm going to take a look now to satisfy our minds...the
nurse said you were concerned."

"I'm terrified," she said in a shaky voice,
watching the monitor too.

He glanced at her and gave her a gentle
smile, then twisted a few knobs, made some adjustments, before he
placed the end of the cold box against her belly. He moved it all
around her lower abdomen, then across her belly, watching the
monitor as he did so.

"You're what? Four months along?" the doctor
asked and kept moving the device around, pressing it to her belly
firmly.

"A little over three months," she told
him.

"Well, your boys are gonna be big," he said
with a laugh, and started the audio on the machine and steady, loud
swooshing sounds filled the room.

"Boys?" Katie said and grinned at Tommy.

"Yes ma'am they have appendages," the doctor
said then chuckled.

"Boys," Tommy said in awe, then took her
hand again, "We're gonna have two boys, darlin'," then he grinned
from ear to ear.

"The placenta looks okay to me, and the
umbilical cords appear to be attached firmly...they look pretty
comfortable in there, but we'll leave that determination to the
specialist," he told her then hit the print button and handed her a
picture of the babies.

She handed it to Tommy and said, "They look
just like you, darlin'," then sniggered.

He took it from her and kissed it, then
pulled out his wallet, and placed it inside. He couldn't wait to
get her out of this damned hospital, and get her and the babies to
the house, where he fully intended to spoil her rotten. "How long
is she going to have to be in here doc?" he asked but he didn't
take his eyes off of hers.

"That depends on what the OB specialist
decides. She could go home tomorrow, if not for the pregnancy
issues. She really was very lucky, considering the severity of the
crash and trauma to her system. A few cracked ribs, bruised
sternum, and the laceration and fracture, aren't too bad
considering."

"Is that what happened to her arm?" Tommy
asked looking at the sling.

"Yes, she sustained a very deep laceration
on her left arm and fractured her humerus, which is why we had to
take her into surgery. We cleaned and debriefed the wound, so the
bone wouldn't get infected, and had a plastic surgeon do the
extensive suturing to minimize the scarring. Her arm should be fine
in a couple of months...the radial nerve wasn't affected."

Tommy huffed out a breath, and fought back
the urge to howl his relief. His eyes met the doctor's and he told
him, "Thank you for taking such good care of her, doc."

The man patted Tommy's shoulder and said,
"It was my pleasure...good luck with the twins," he told them, then
left the room.

Emotions swirled around in his stomach and
it churned. The overwhelming relief was replaced with anger, now
that he knew Katie and the babies were going to be okay, he turned
back to her and frowned then asked, "What in the hell were you
thinking, driving alone at that time of night, in the rain?" Her
face blanched and he felt guilty, but dammit, he wanted some
answers.

"I had to fix things with you, with us..."
she told him weakly, her eyes begging him to understand. "I
couldn't let you think what you were thinking."

"You could have waited until the morning,
Katie, that was just dumb," he said gruffly and her eyes filled
with tears.

"I couldn't," she whispered, and a tear
trickled from the corner of her eye.

Tommy cursed then moved to the bed and slid
his arm under her neck and hugged her. "I was so damned scared that
I'd lost you, baby..." he choked out then kissed her hair. "You
could have been killed."

"The accident had already happened, and I
just couldn't stop, before I hit him...I turned the truck so the
passenger side would hit, and not my side or the front," she told
him.

"That was good thinking, baby..." he said
and kissed her hair again. "Thank, god you were so smart," he told
her soothingly.

She chuckled through her tears to ask,
"Okay, am I smart or dumb? You've called me both in the space of a
minute."

"You're wonderful, and you're mine...that's
what you are," he said fiercely.

"I have to tell you what happened with
Chase..." she said and pulled out of his grasp.

Tommy growled and stood up, then said
angrily, "I don't ever want to hear his name on your lips
again."

"Well, you're gonna have to get used to it,"
she told him with frustration. "He's my contact with the drilling
company."

Drilling company? What the hell?
Tommy shook his head and said, "What he hell are you talking
about?"

"He was at the ranch, because he and the
engineer with him were checking out the well bore by the barn that
hit oil instead of water...there's oil on my property, Tommy. Chase
thinks there's a lot of it, and I signed a mineral lease with his
company yesterday."

Shock, disbelief and elation warred inside
of Tommy, and he couldn't get a handle on which was going to win.
In a stunned breathless whisper he asked, "You're shitting me
right?"

"No, I'm not...he shot me a figure and I
passed out. That's why I was in his arms when you showed up," she
told him.

Tommy groaned, then started, "I was an ass,
I'm sorr--"

Katie held her good hand up to him palm
first. "It's not your fault...I would have freaked out too if I was
in your shoes and found you with a girl in your arms...next time
though, give me a chance to explain, before you run off with your
tail on fire."

"Okay then, I'm sorry for not giving you a
chance to explain," he told her sincerely.

"Much better," she said and smiled, then
dropped her hand to the bed. She tried to scoot up in the bed to
sit and moaned loudly.

Tommy ran over there and pushed her
shoulders back to the bed. "Lay down! You're in ICU, darlin--you're
supposed to be still!" he chastised her then hit the up button on
the bed control twice.

Katie lost her breath the pain in her ribs
and chest was so intense, she put a fist to her chest, and tried to
gulp some air. She watched Tommy's face turn red, then purple, and
his eyes were the size of saucers, before the ran out of the room
yelling for the nurse. They ran back in the room, and the nurse
lowered the bed back down and Katie sucked in a deep lungful of
sweet air, but the pain was still there.

"You hurting, Miss Upton?" the nurse asked
with concern.

Katie nodded and lightly beat her fist on
her chest. "I'll get you some pain medicine, you're about due. I'll
be right back," she said then hurried from the room. "Don't raise
the bed again, please," she said over her shoulder, as she
left.

Tommy grabbed her hand, and whimpered,
"Don't you die on me darlin'."

The pain in Tommy's eyes was almost as
intense as the pain in her chest and she squeezed his hand and
shook her head., then mouthed, "I love you," and closed her
eyes.

Katie opened her eyes when, the nurse came
back in the room with needles and vials and started filling the
needles and poking them into the IV tube, then squeezing the bag.
After a minute, Katie felt blessed relief from the pain, and her
muscles relaxed, and her breathing became easier, but thinking
became difficult. Her head felt like little fairies were dancing
around inside, and she smiled at the thought.

She glanced over and saw Tommy sitting in a
chair by the window with his hands gripping the arm rests, his
knuckles were white and his face was pinched with worry. "I'm fine,
baby...not your fault," she said right above a whisper, then smiled
and gave in to the heavy lethargic feeling dragging her to
sleep.

When she woke up again, the bright sun was
coming through the window and it made it look like her sister had a
halo on her head, where she sat in the chair where Tommy had been
earlier. Her eyes were red and there were mascara tracks on her
pale cheeks.

Katie cocked up one side of her lips and
told her, "You look like hell, sis," then chuckled, which made her
moan.

Karlie was on her feet and at her bedside in
a flash, leaning over her she gasped, "God, Katie...are you
okay?"

"I'm fine...it just hurts when I laugh," she
said then laughed and groaned again.

"Then don't fucking laugh," Karlie demanded,
and picked up her hand. "You need anything? Water? Drugs?"

"Water would be good, but I'm good on the
drugs...they make me sleepy," she told her.

"I'll get you some...the nurse wanted to
know when you woke up, anyway...be right back," her twin said then
walked swiftly from the room.

She came back in with a yellow pitcher and a
cup with a bendy straw and set it on the bedside table, then filled
the cup and held it to her lips. Katie took a long swallow and the
cool liquid slid down her throat soothing all the way to her
stomach. She took another swig, then sighed and rested back on the
pillow.

"Thanks, sis," she said and smiled.

"You're welcome," Karlie told her then set
the glass on the table beside the pitcher. "The nurse said the OB
specialist is going to be in here in a minute. You want Tommy in
here with you?"

"Yeah, I do..." she said and frowned. "I'm
worried about the babies...they said I was spotting when I came
into the emergency department."

"Well, I'm worried about you...you shouldn't
have lit out like that in the middle of the night," Karlie scolded
her.

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Katie told her
with a sigh, then added, "It wasn't raining when I left, and it was
a freak accident, Karlie."

"Freak or not, you should have waited..."
Karlie told her fiercely.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Karlie...now
would you please go get Tommy?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, I'll see you in a little while,"
Karlie told her then kissed her forehead, and left.

An hour later, the specialist had examined
her, done another type of ultrasound on her to make sure everything
was okay inside, then he told her that it looked like the spotting
had been an isolated result from the impact, and not an indicator
of something wrong with the babies.

Hearing that from him had been a huge relief
on her nerves, and she finally stopped worrying. The doctor
informed her that he was keeping her at least three more days in
the high-risk OB unit at the hospital, so they could watch her to
make sure, and he told her to take it easy for at least two weeks,
which is when he wanted to see her again at his office in
Amarillo.

Tommy stayed by her side, holding her hand,
while the doctor did his exam, and talked to them. He'd
occasionally squeeze her hand in encouragement, or smile down at
her. The love in his eyes soothed her heart and made her feel like
things were going to be okay with them.

His face was filled with indecision, after
the doctor left, and she had a feeling she knew why. "You need to
go and be with Dixie, Tommy...I'm fine. Ya'll come back up and see
me tomorrow, when they move me to the OB unit. She probably scared
and needs you," she told him firmly.

"I don't want to leave you, sugar..." he
said and squeezed her hand.

"You need to go back to the ranch, and talk
to Dixie, I'm worried about her," Katie said, then added, "Karlie
is here with me, and if something happens, she'll call you."

He nodded, then leaned down and slid his arm
under her neck to hug her. He placed a lingering kiss on her lips
then said, "I love you, sweetheart, so damned much."

"I love you too--now go take care of Dixie,"
she demanded.

The next morning, when they were getting
ready to move Katie to the OB floor, the nurse who'd cared for her
all night had jokingly told her that she felt like she was part of
the family now, because Tommy had called her every hour on the hour
last night to get at status update on her condition. It looked to
her like the woman might be glad to be moving her to another
floor.

Karlie and Gabe were in the room now,
standing in the corner, while the nurse worked on removing tubes,
and replacing bandages. When she finished, she stood up and said
with a grin, "There, you're ready to roll now," then added with a
chuckle, "Good luck with the twins...and with Tommy."

Two nurses came in and transported her down
to the second floor, and set her up with sensors on a harness that
would let them monitor the babies from the nurse's station. The
room they put her in was a lot less intimidating than the room in
the ICU. It was bigger, had more chairs for visitors, and didn't
have the massive amount of hi-tech equipment in it that was in her
other room. Karlie and Gabe took seats over by the window, and sat
there looking at her.