The Hurt

Bad Joke

“You alright, baby girl?” Sean asked me after my folks had left for home.

“I’m fine, just tuckered out,” I wasn’t meeting his eyes, a telling sign I had that meant I wasn’t being truthful.

“Kay Lynn, I know when you ain’t telling me somethin.’ Spit it out now, hear?” He was using a stern tone I could only assume would be his dad's voice.

I rubbed my belly thoughtfully, “Yeah, I’m just nervous about my biopsy, is all,” I lied, “I just don’t know what to tell my folks if somethin’ went south in a hurry.”

Sean nodded, seeming to buy the lie I had told him, “I reckon that’s a good reason to worry.”

“You and I both know it’s not going to be good news. Either bad news or worse news,” I rubbed my forehead at the thought of sitting down with the doctors again as they looked at me with pity in their eyes.

“Don’t talk like that, girl,” Sean rolled his eyes at my melodramacy.

I turned to look at him directly, my face felt hot, “You think I’m jokin’ about all this, or somethin’?”

“Now, I never said that, quit puttin’ words in my mouth,” he shot me a look.

I frowned, “My life practically depends on how that biopsy goes next week. If they catch it early enough, things will probably be fine for the next five months. If they didn’t, it’s either my life or his.”

Sean slammed his fists down on the counter before yelling at me, “Don’t you talk at me like that! I’m sick of you spoutin’ all this bullshit like some diva.”

“Do you even care?” My voice was starting to rise, matching Sean’s energy.

He gripped my face hard with his large hand, not choking me, but it was enough to get my attention. “You shut your damn mouth, woman,” Sean growled. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t waste my time with you, hear?”

I swallowed, nodding slightly, “Yes,” my voice was a whisper, and I felt so small compared to him all of a sudden.

“Good,” he tossed me to the ground, not enough to hurt me, but I landed on my backside. I moved to pick myself up, but something didn’t feel quite right when I shifted. Sean took notice, “You gonna spend the night on the floor?” He raised an eyebrow, seeing my expression, “Miss Kay, you listenin’ to me?”

Looking down, I felt the blood running between my legs, and my heart dropped into my stomach. “Sean,” my voice was hardly a whisper.

Regret flooded Sean’s face as he knelt by me, offering a reassuring touch, “I didn’t hurt you, did I, baby girl? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tossed ya like that.”

I slowly met his eyes, panic in my eyes, “You need to take me to the hospital, right now.” My voice was level, but the seriousness in my tone had left Sean at a loss for words.

“Why?” He searched my face for an explanation, not knowing what was going on. I looked down, his gaze followed before recoiling in shock, seeing me standing in a puddle of my own blood, helpless to try to hold it in.

***

Sean was trying to reassure me as he drove frantically through town. I was hardly able to hear him through my sobs as I held my stomach, fearing the worst. Pulling up to the emergency department, Sean ordered me to stay put while he went in for help. I nodded, the tears streaming down my face. Rushing in, he pushed an elderly man and his wife out of the way to bark frantically at the receptionist. The poor woman looked alarmed, but before I could blink, another nurse was tailing her and Sean with a wheelchair to come out to the car to get me.

“Please save my baby,” was all I could choke out when Sean opened the door for the nurses to help me out of the car and into the wheelchair.

“Miss Kay, we’re going to get you in right quick,” she started, pushing me back into triage. “We’re going to do whatever we can to save your baby, alright?”

The next few minutes were a blur of putting monitors of all different sorts on me to get my vitals and to check on my son. The nurses assured me his heartbeat was strong, and the ultrasound showed he wasn’t in any distress, but they were still trying to determine where the bleeding was coming from. The doctor was poking around my nether regions, offering an apology now and again for the pressure or for the poking and prodding he was doing. Sean wasn’t in the room with me, assuring me he would take care of the paperwork while the staff took care of me.

“Miss Kay,” the doctor said more clearly, pulling me out of my thoughts, the tears having dried on my cheeks.

I cleared my throat, “Yes?”

He stood up, “Everything will be just fine, dear. Your baby is fine; you just had a hematoma rupture. Your bleeding has already stopped. Just take it easy for a little while so the rupture can heal, and you will be just fine.” He gave me a reassuring smile as he threw his gloves in a biohazard garbage can and washed his hands.

“You’re sure?” I shifted as the nurses helped get my legs out of the stirrups on the exam table.

“Just be more careful, you said you fell before the bleeding started?” The doctor was drying his hands before signing onto the computer to put in some notes.

“Um,” I hesitated, “Yes, that’s right. Just landed on my backside, is-is all.”

The screen of the computer illuminated his eyes, the doctor’s fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard, “You’re already a high-risk pregnancy. I suggest that if you have a high-stress or an active job, you cut down on your workload.”

“I sit in an office half the day, nothin’ to it,” I shrugged it off, though it was a stressful job in management; I thrived under stress. I thought of myself as a great problem-solver and quick on my feet when the situation was demanding.

The doctor nodded, “Right, just mind yourself, hm?” He peered at me over the rims of his glasses.

I nodded, “Yessir.”

“Good.” When he finished up, he wished me a good rest of my night before he left the room.

“Miss Kay, we’re going to keep you overnight just to make sure the bleeding has stopped, make sure you’re retaining fluids, and the like,” the nurse was putting another bag of saline on my IV, noticing I was a little dehydrated by how empty the bag was in such a short time.

I sighed. I just wanted to go home, "Yes'm."