Heart & Soul by Nicole Williams

Author:Nicole Williams [Williams, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Lost and Found Series
Published: 2015-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

THEY WANTED ME to leave. They’d told me to leave. They’d ordered me to leave.

I was still here.

I didn’t know how these nurses and doctors could just expect people to leave the ones they love because they’d asked that person to. I didn’t know why they’d even expect a husband to go quietly back to the waiting room while his wife and child were in trouble. Maybe it worked sometimes. It didn’t work this time though.

Screw protocol, procedure¸ and policy. I wasn’t leaving Rowen.

The swirl of doctors and nurses didn’t seem to stop, all of them rushing in and out, rolling in new machines each time. By the end of the initial whirlwind, Rowen was attached to a heart rate monitor—actually two, one for her heart and one for the baby’s—an oxygen mask, and an I.V. with a couple of different bags dripping into her veins. The baby’s heartbeat was so fast—so strong—in comparison to hers. Rowen’s sounded slow and weak, like it was dwindling down to its last beat. I didn’t think I stopped staring at that heart rate monitor until the buzz of medical staff had calmed to a gentle trickle and a woman carried in a clipboard of paperwork.

“So you’re the stubborn one.” She was close to my mom’s age and had perfected the fine workings of the “Mom look” as was evidenced by the one she aimed my way.

I answered with a non-committal shrug and took the clipboard when she handed it over.

“Well, I see why the nurses didn’t insist security throw you into the waiting room where you belong.” She lowered her reading glasses as she took a good look at me. She followed that up with a shake of her head.

“Why’s that?”

She shook her head again. “For the same reason they’re in the break room, fanning themselves and talking in high-pitched squeals.”

I clicked the pen and filled in the first box. Name: Rowen Sterling-Walker. “Because they’re hot?”

The lady gave a sudden laugh before walking away. “They’re hot all right.”

I didn’t spend any more time trying to decipher what she was implying. I focused on filling in every column of every page of the dozen sheets attached to the clipboard. Most were front and back. Paperwork wasn’t typically my thing, but I didn’t mind it so much right now. It gave me a temporary distraction from the beeping machines and dripping I.V.s, and it made me feel as though I was useful for one thing at least, instead of feeling utterly useless as I would if I were just sitting there, holding her hand, and holding my breath while hoping that everything would be okay. I was on the back of the last page when one of the doctors from earlier slipped back into the room.

“We’re going to move her upstairs,” he announced, inspecting the machines and Rowen and just about everything else as he spoke to me. “We’ll keep her for a couple of days to make sure she and the baby stay stable, then we’ll send her home.

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