by Becky McGraw
Wade hadn’t known that, and the thought of Jess almost dying made his heart tweak in his chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way…I’m just worried about Angel.”
“That’s exactly how you meant it,” Jazzie told him fiercely, then hissed, “What you did to Jess is horrible…she loves that baby.”
Hot fury surged up inside of Wade, and he was going to set this fiery little woman straight right now. “No, what she did to me is horrible! First, not telling me about Angel when she had a chance, then taking off with her, so I couldn’t ever see her, that is what’s horrible, ma’am. She set the pace on how this thing would go, I’m just trying to keep up, so don’t you go blaming me.”
Jazzie huffed out a breath then said, “You’re right, I’m sorry, Wade. I’m worried about her too…she’s really bad. I’ve never seen her this way before and it’s scaring the shit out of me.”
Wade shoved a hand through his hair, then said, “I care about her too, Jazzie…I didn’t do this because I wanted to…I had to do it. She’s not going to keep Angel away from me again. I’m trying to help Jess and take care of my daughter, and by god, she needs to let me.”
Shaking her head, Jazzie told him, “I know…I’ll try to talk some sense into her.”
“Thank you,” Wade said then shoved a hand through his hair, and asked what he’d come to ask, “The doctor wants to know if ya’ll gave Angel any Tylenol recently.”
“Jess gave her some on the bus, but that was probably four hours ago, so she’s probably due for another dose,” she told him, then asked, “The doctor say what’s wrong with her yet?”
“No, I’ll keep you know when I hear something…let me know what’s up with Jess too, okay?”
“Yeah, I will…go, take care of Angel,” Jazzie said then leaned up on her toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “I know you’re just trying to be a good daddy, Wade, and I’m sorry all this is going down like it is…Jess is just scared.”
With a frustrated sigh, Wade nodded, then turned and went back to the exam room and Angel. When he walked back in the room, a younger guy in green scrubs was taking blood from her tiny arm, and she was whimpering. There was an IV in her other arm, and she was restrained on some kind of board. Fear clenched his heart, and emotion clogged his throat. He couldn’t even hold her, comfort her, and it pissed him off.
With every little weak wail Angel made, it felt like a nail was being pounded in his heart. He couldn’t watch anymore, so he walked out of the room to go find the nurse or doctor, who’d been in the room a minute ago.
The nurse was at the station writing on a chart, so he walked up to her and demanded, “Where’s the doctor?”
“With another patient,” she told him distractedly, which pissed him off. Wade slammed his hands down on the desk, which got her attention and she looked up at him.
“Why isn’t she with my daughter? Did she figure out what’s wrong with her? I found out the last Tylenol she had was over four hours ago.”
“She has other patients to see too. When the results of the blood work come back, she’ll come in and talk to you. We gave your daughter another dose of Tylenol, so her fever should be coming down soon, hopefully. The doctor’s preliminary assessment is that it may be an ear infection, but she’s ordered blood work to make sure something else isn’t going on.”
Wade huffed out a relieved breath, but he was still worried, because the explanation didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him. How could an ear infection cause her to be so sick? Vomiting, and high fever? He wasn’t a doctor though, so all he could do was wait, and take it that the doctor knew what she was talking about.
“Okay, I’ll be in the room with her…”
“Perfect, I’ll let the doctor know,” she told him with a tight smile, then she shoved a clipboard at him, and said, “You can fill this out while you wait”.
He looked down at the patient intake form, as he walked back to the exam room, and his jaw got tighter and tighter, because there were so many questions he couldn’t answer about his daughter. Knowing he was going to have to either ask Jess or maybe Jazzie to help him, he headed down the hall, instead of into the room with Angel.
When he walked into Jess’s room, there was a nurse in there giving her a shot, and she didn’t even seem to notice him, she was staring at the wall, not moving, not talking…just breathing. Jazzie was standing against the wall, her face pale and drawn, and Travis was beside her looking the same way. The nurse stood up and looked at him with concern, then walked around the bed, and put a hand on his arm, then said softly, “Maybe you shouldn’t be in here.”
“I have to be, I have to ask her questions to fill out this form.” He waved the clipboard at the nurse, frustration and worry warring inside of him.
“She probably won’t be much help right now, and she’ll be going to sleep in a few minutes. I just gave her a sedative.”
“I have to try…” he told the nurse, and she shrugged then shook her head and left the room.
“I can probably answer most of them, Wade,” Jazzie told him then pushed away from the wall. “Have they said anything yet about her condition?” Worry pinched between her dark brows and her black eyes were glassy.
“Doctor thinks it might be an ear infection, but they’re doing blood work to make sure that’s all it is.”
She reached for the clipboard in his hand and he pulled it back, “Thanks, Jazz, but I really want to talk to Jess for a minute, before she goes to sleep.” He had to try to get through to her, make her believe that she hadn’t lost her baby, that he hadn’t taken Angel from her. “Can ya’ll give us a few? Close the door?”
Jazzie shook her head and glanced at Jess then said, “I don’t know Wade…she’s not in a good place right now.”
He grabbed her shoulder with one hand and said, “I have to try, Jazzie…for Angel. Let me see if she’ll listen to me.”
“Go forward at your own risk, then…” Jazzie told him with a forced chuckle, then she waved at Travis and they walked out shutting the door behind them.
Wade swallowed down the fear that pushed up into his throat, and walked to the bed to sit down beside Jess. He took her hand in his, and she pulled it back, then looked toward the far wall.
“Jess, talk to me, baby…” he said softly, then told her, “I’m sorry about the custody thing, but you didn’t leave me a choice…” he told her and she sucked in a deep breath then tears slid out of the sides of her eyes, and she rolled over on her side away from him.
“I’m not taking her away from you, sugar…you’re still her momma, you’ve got to help me here…the doctor needs information to help her.”
He saw her stiffen, then she croaked out in a raw voice that sounded nothing like her rich silky voice, “What do you need to know?” He went down the list of questions, and she answered them, in short one word answers, where she could, then she told him quietly, “Now, leave me alone…”
“She needs you, Jess…come with me to go see her. We’ve got to work this out between us, darlin’…for Angel.” He reached over and stroked her cheek, then leaned down and kissed her there, and she flinched. Wade flinched too, because he didn’t want to see the strong, vibrant woman she’d been a year ago in this shape. He’d done this to her, and he felt guilty as hell. “You need to be strong, sugar…for her.”
Wade stood up, then put his hands under her legs and neck, and rolled her into his arms. She struggled against him for a minute, then settled down. “Shhh…let’s go see our baby girl, darlin’,” he whispered by her ear, and she let out a shuddering sigh. Seeing a wheelchair against the wall, Wade carried her over there and gently set her down in it, then pulled out the leg rest, so she could prop her cast on there. Letting off the brake, he pushed her out into the hall, then down to Angel’s room.
Jazzie and Travis were already in there, and when he pushed the wheelchair into the room, they cast surprised, but relieved glances his way.
“Hey Travis, would you go get the
nurse and see if she can take Angel off that backboard?” he requested, as he parked the wheelchair beside the exam table.
Angel was sleeping now, probably exhausted from all the poking and prodding, but her color was more pink and less red. He felt her forehead and the fever had come down, a lot.
He leaned down by Jess’s ear and whispered, “See, Jess…she’s doing better, the fever is almost gone, she just needs her momma to hold her, and she’ll feel a lot better.” Jess whimpered, then put her hand to Angel’s face and stroked her, before putting her finger in Angel’s little fist, and her tiny fingers clamped around it.
The doctor walked in behind them smiling as she told them, “The blood work is fine…she’s a healthy little girl, with an ear infection, and a little dehydration, but with her fever and vomiting, that’s to be expected. I’ve given the nurse a prescription for antibiotics, just follow up with her pediatrician in seven to ten days for a recheck. If the fever comes back, give her Tylenol.”
“We can take her home?” Wade said incredulously, and broke out in a big relieved smile.
“Yep, the nurse is coming in to remove the IV and give you instructions, and then you’re free to leave.”
Wade ran over to the doctor and gave her a big hug, then spun her around and put her down to say, “Thank you so much!”
He’d never felt so relieved and overwhelmed with emotion. He heard Travis and Jazzie laughing behind him, and turned around then ran over there and hugged them too. Wade was not a hugger normally, but he was now. His baby girl was going to be okay, and he sent up a silent prayer of thanks too.
The nurse came in and gently removed the needle from Angel’s arm, then put a cotton ball over it and covered that with a Snoopy band aid to hold it in place, then she unstrapped her from board, and gently laid her in Jess’s arms. Wade swallowed twice, then walked over to them and kissed Jess’s cheek first, then the top of Angel’s head.
“Let’s get out of here, sugar,” he told Jess in a choked voice, then wheeled her through the exam room door. He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost seven in the morning, and all he could think of was getting back to Bowie, which was a few hours away. “Jazzie, ya’ll grab the prescriptions, I’m getting them out of here,” Wade said over his shoulder.
“Where’s the diaper bag?” Jess asked Wade weakly, slurring a little. “I think she’s hungry…” He looked down and saw that Angel was sucking her fist hungrily, which was a good sign, as far as he was concerned, as was the fact that Jess was coherent and realized it.
“You feeling sleepy, baby?” Wade asked Jess, just remembering that they’d given her a sedative in the E.R. He didn’t want her to drop Angel.
“I am, but I want to hold her…” she said cuddling Angel up to her neck. “I don’t want to let her go,” she said in a trembling voice.
Wade stopped the wheelchair outside the sliding glass doors and knelt down in front of Jess, then took off his hat. “She’s not going anywhere, Jess…you are her mother, and she belongs with you, darlin’. I just want to be there for her too. I love her too, please let me be a part of your lives.”
Her green eyes teared up, and she nodded, then handed Angel to him. Exchanging the baby for his hat, he took her and tucked her into the crook of his arm, then stood, and went behind the chair to push Jess to the truck.
“I’m going to let Travis drive, so I can hold Angel…we need to stop and buy a car seat, though. You just climb in and go to sleep…you need some rest. We’ll stop for breakfast in a little while, then go somewhere to get a car seat.”
Jess pushed up out of the chair, then hesitated a moment gnawing her lip, then she used her good leg to boost herself up inside, and buckled in. Wade leaned inside and kissed her gently on the lips and told her again, “You’re her momma darlin’, Angel needs you…I’m not taking her from you, I promise,” figuring maybe if he said it enough, she’d believe him eventually…he hoped so anyway.
Jazzie and Travis came out and got into the truck, then he got inside, and shut the door. “We need to stop for breakfast somewhere, to waste some time, then find a baby store, so I can buy a car seat for Angel,” he told Travis, then buckled his seat belt. “Riding like this isn’t safe for her.”
After they found an all night breakfast joint and hung out there for a couple of hours, the asked the waitress and she directed them to a baby store on the outskirts of Greenville where they stopped. Wade handed Jazzie the baby, and he and Travis went inside. There was so much stuff in there, and so many choices on seats, he felt like he was lost in a foreign land, and didn’t speak the language.
Travis helped some, but not a whole helluva lot, so he found a master to help him…a woman with three kids holding onto her pants leg, and one in her arms, as she walked up and down the aisles of stuff. She gave him the ins and outs on the different models available, and pointed him toward the one that was rated the best, so he grabbed it quickly, then thanked her profusely, before heading to the checkout.
Of course, they had cute little toys lining the main aisle to the checkout, and he had to grab some of them too, then there was a clearance rack of precious little dresses, and he grabbed a couple of those. One little short set caught his eye, because it had little cherubs with halos on it, and he thought that one would be adorable on her, so he picked it up too. Three hundred dollars later, he and Travis walked out of the store and across the hot parking lot to the truck.
Wade opened the back door and saw Jess was awake and had Angel in her arms. She was singing to her, and Angel was looking into her eyes mesmerized. He knew that feeling, because he’d experienced it himself a year ago, and that was why Angel even existed. Jess looked up and smiled when he opened the door, it was a sight he was so damned glad to see he wanted to let out a whoop and dance around the parking lot.
“You buy out the store, daddy?” she asked a little more clear-eyed than she’d been earlier. Wade reached into the bag and handed her one of the toys he’d bought, then pulled out the little angel short set. “Those people in there know what they’re doing…they put all that damned cute stuff on the exit aisle, so people get caught on the way out,” he said gruffly, then grinned when he heard Angel coo as Jess gave her the toy.
“Worth every damned cent, too…” he said with a chuckle, then put the rest of the stuff in the back of the truck, before he picked up the box with the car seat. “We need to get this out of the box and set up, but I don’t know how. Think you can help Jazz?”
“Sure, just give it here, and I’ll strap it in between us…daddy,” she said with a wide grin, and a wink. The mood from earlier had definitely lifted, and that gave Wade hope that things might actually work out. Huffing out a breath, he muscled open the box, then pulled out the seat and took off all the styrofoam and wrapping, then handed it to Jazzie.
“The lady with the four kids told me to get a car seat cover too, so I did,” he told her then reached in the back and pulled it out of the bag.
“Oh, that is so damned cute, little pink elephants!” Jazzie said then took it and put it on the car seat.
Jess leaned over to see and grinned, “I’ve seen a few of those in my day, how about you?” she said and looked up at Wade with a chuckle. His eyes held hers and the happiness he saw there made his heart clench. She was so damned beautiful when she smiled, even with red-rimmed eyes and splotchy cheeks. Wade fought the insane urge to go to the other side of the truck and kiss her, and his smile faded, as heat pumped through him.
There would be a time and place for that, he reminded himself, and this wasn’t it. One thing at a time, first he needed to earn her trust, and she needed to earn his. Wade knew a piece of paper wasn’t going to keep Jess from running off with Angel again, if she set her mind to it.
Once they got Angel secured in the car seat, Wade got behind the wheel, and they headed for Bowie. Jess was humming to the baby in the backseat again, and he looked up in the rearview and met her eyes. Angel cooed along with her, like she was sin
ging too, and he grinned. “I think she’s going to be singing, before she talks,” he said with a chuckle.