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Unknown Number

Page 57

by Victoria Hyder


  He went to her and froze, heaving at the red stain of her bottoms.

  “Fuck, Bonnie what happened?”

  “I d-don’t know …” she whimpered, barely loud enough to hear.

  Taking care to avoid the mess, Cavan sat on the bed and drew her against his chest. “Are you in pain?”

  “Every few minutes I feel something … think it’s a contraction but … the blood …” She dissolved into sobs.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he soothed, feeling utterly useless. “Are you still bleeding or … h-has it stopped?”

  “Think it’s stopped … Just get the pains …”

  “Okay I’m going to call 999 okay?”

  She nodded. Digging his mobile out he dialled the number.

  “999 What is your emergency?”

  “My friend is eight months pregnant and she’s bleeding a lot. Says she’s having possible contractions. We need an ambulance.”

  “Okay, what is your address?” Cavan told them their address. “ETA on an ambulance is around twenty minutes.”

  “That’s not good enough!” Cavan protested. “She needs help now!”

  Bonnie let out a shriek of pain.

  “Can’t you hear her?” he snapped.

  “There are no available ambulances at the moment. Unless you have a vehicle yourself the most you can do is make her comfortable while you wait.”

  Despite the sincerity in the woman’s voice, Cavan was still angered. His leg bounced hard as he thought of what to do.

  “Cavan …” Bonnie gasped, clenching a fistful of his shirt. “Take … the car …”

  Cavan frowned. “I can’t,” he argued.

  “Pleeeeease –OW!”

  “Okay, okay!” he brought the phone back to his ear. “Cancel the ambulance. I’ll drive her to the hospital. Where’s the nearest one?” He typed in the name to his navigation maps and ended the call. Turning to Bonnie he asked, “Do you have all your hospital stuff ready?”

  “It’s in the bathroom …” she gasped. She was as white as a sheet as he pried her hand from his shirt.

  Ducking into the en-suite bathroom, he found the floral bag filled with all the baby’s first’s essentials. “Okay, I got the bag,” he said. “Do you think you can get changed into something less … sticky?”

  Bonnie shook her head. “N-no … hurts …”

  “Um … okay … I’ll grab a towel or something.” He grabbed a rather raggedy looking towel and prayed Bonnie didn’t secretly love it, before shouldering the hospital bag and moving so that he could help Bonnie to her feet.

  Getting down to the car was a feat in itself. Cavan thanked God that Lucas rode his motorbike to work at the start of the week. He just needed to avoid any ‘pregnant mess’ getting anywhere in the time it took to get to the hospital. His heart was in his throat. He was shaking with nerves and he felt the urge to puke. Bonnie was clinging onto him for dear life, drenched in her own blood and sweat as they stumbled towards the car.

  Bracing herself against a concrete pillar, Bonnie tried to breathe deeply whilst Cavan readied the front passenger seat with some old towels. Once done, he took the quaking young woman by the hand and helped her hobble over to the car. He lowered her gently into the seat, wincing as she squeezed his hand when another contraction threatened to split her in two, before gently sliding her legs into the foot well.

  “Do you need anything before we head off?” Cavan asked as he opened the driver’s side door.

  Bonnie shook her head. Her hair was almost blood red with how sweaty she was. “Just d-drive!” she growled through clenched teeth.

  Swallowing, Cavan nodded. He started the engine and, feeling tense and flustered, edged his way out of the parking lot and onto the main road. He still felt brand new on the roads and this was definitely not the time to be putting him in a high risk, high pressure situation. However, there was no other choice. At a red light, he quickly tried to dial Lucas’s number, but it went through to voice mail.

  “Damn it, Lucas!” he hissed. “The one time you don’t reply to me!”

  He tried Fletcher’s number.

  Voice mail.

  “Fuck!” he cursed. “Does no one answer their fucking phone’s anymore?!”

  Another contraction caused Bonnie to keel over, clutching her belly with a horrifying expression on her face. “Fuck! This is killing me!” she shrieked.

  “Hold on, we’re almost there!” Cavan tried to keep himself calm, but knew he wasn’t succeeding.

  He tried to remain focused on the speed limits and the proper turnings along the motorway. It didn’t help that his brain had gone utterly blank except for the mantra;

  Bonnie’s in pain.

  Bonnie’s in pain.

  What’s happened to the baby?

  Bonnie’s in pain!

  Finally, the sight of the hospital came into view.

  Cavan swung into the short-stay car park, since it was the closest, before parking the car and jumping out of the front seat. He grabbed the bag from the back seat and swung it over his shoulder. Bonnie was visibly shaking and pale as he extracted her front the passenger seat. He cast a forlorn look at the sodden towel before locking the car and helping Bonnie wobble her way through the bitter wind towards the entrance.

  Bonnie had to brace herself up with Cavan and the reception desk. Her knees felt weak as her vision blurred. Cavan held onto her tighter. “Can we get a wheelchair please? My friend’s in labour and she needs attention now!”

  The polish nurse looked up behind her pointed glasses and was on her feet within seconds. “Come this way, dear, let’s get you cleaned up. I’ll fetch a doctor once you’re settled.”

  Glancing over her shoulder Bonnie mumbled, “…Cavan?”

  Cavan went to follow but a secondary nurse stopped him. “Are you the father?” she asked.

  “I’m the godfather,” he lied.

  “Sorry, but only relatives are allowed in the room at this time.”

  “You can’t let her be in there alone!” he protested. “The father is on his way, but until he gets here I need to be with her!”

  “I’m sorry but that’s the policy.”

  Cavan clenched his jaw. “My friend has lost a lot of blood. She may even have lost the baby. Do you seriously want to tell me that it’s within her best interest to let her take any of that news whilst she’s scared and alone?” he snapped.

  Dear God, he was starting to argue like Lucas.

  The second nurse was about to protest before the polish one, Ewelina, butted in. “He can come in for now, but as soon as the father is here, he needs to leave.”

  “That’s fine,” Cavan said, hurrying to follow after them.

  The small, private room Bonnie was given was clean and pale. The only word to really describe it was ‘sterile’. Cavan placed the bag on the bedside table whilst the nurse helped to rinse Bonnie down and help her into a hospital gown. When she hobbled back into the room and eased herself awkwardly up onto the bed, with a inordinate amount of grunting and hissing, the nurse said that she was going to get the doctor in to see how she was doing.

  Bonnie waited for the nurse to leave before whispering, “I’ve lost the baby, haven’t I?”

  “I … I don’t know, Bonbon,” he said. It wouldn’t do any good to lie to the poor thing, not now. Reaching out he took both her hands in his own and kissed them. “You just need to be strong for a little while longer, okay?”

  She nodded, her bottom lip trembling. “Were … Were you able to get through to the guys?”

  Cavan shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I’ll go out when the nurse gets back and try again.”

  “No …” Bonnie shook her head. “I need Fletcher here now. Just c-call him! Until he picks up!”

  “I don’t want to leave you on your own.”

  “Cavan, he needs to be here!” she wept. “I –I c-can’t do this with-without him!”

  Feeling all the energy sag out of him, Cavan nodded. “Okay, but I�
��ll do it in here okay?”

  Bonnie nodded mutely, biting her lip to ward off the pain. Cavan dug his phone out and tried Fletcher’s number.

  Then Lucas’s.

  Then Fletcher’s again.

  Finally, Lucas picked up in between classes.

  “Damn brat what happened? Did Bonnie eat too much ice cream or something?”

  “Bonnie’s in the hospital!” Cavan cut in. “She’s in a bad way. I need you to get Fletcher and bring him here now!”

  “Shit,” Lucas hissed down the line. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know, we just got here. The doctor hasn’t been able to check what’s wrong or anything, but there was a lot of blood and she’s not in a good way, Luc.”

  “Okay I’m on my way. I’ll grab Fletcher and be there in twenty. What hospital are you at?”

  Cavan told him and stated that he’d taken the car.

  “You did? Cavan you’re brilliant. We’ll get there as soon as we can. Stay with Bonnie, don’t let anything happen without you there. She needs you, kid.”

  “I know, I know,” Cavan frowned. “I just need to try and do my best.”

  “You’re doing great,” Lucas assured in a rushed tone. He was hurrying out of the school by the sounds of it. “I’m just getting on the bike. I’ll see you when we get there.”

  “Drive safe!” Cavan snapped. “We don’t need any more incidents today!”

  “Will do.”

  The line went dead.

  Turning to Bonnie, Cavan slipped his hand into hers, ignoring the pain as her nails sank into his flesh. “They’re on their way. Lucas’s just going to pick Fletcher up now.”

  “Cavan …” Bonnie panted, clutching his hand. “I’m … I’m sc-scared!”

  “Hey now,” Cavan stood up and hugged her close, pressing kisses to her damp forehead. “The only thing you need to be scared of is Lucas, and he’s not going to be here for a while.”

  Bonnie grimaced –or perhaps it was a smile. Cavan couldn’t tell. They sat in silence for what felt like forever, the ticking of the clock making Cavan’s nerves jump.

  Eventually, the door opened with the nurse, Ewelina, and a young man wheeling a machine. Next came a tall woman with a wide face and glasses. “Hello Bonnie, I’m here to do an ultrasound for you so that we can see what’s going on with the baby, okay?”

  Bonnie gave a shaky nod. Cavan stood as close to the bed as possible, gripping Bonnie’s hand tightly. He didn’t know who was going to be sick first, her or him. Bonnie was shaking as the nurse moved the scanner over her stomach.

  There was something …

  Cavan’s stomach flipped as the low rhythm of a heartbeat.

  Bonnie gasped out loud. “Cavan … Cavan did you hear that?” she choked out; her voice hoarse from all the crying.

  “Your baby’s heartbeat is a little slower than we’d like, and the bleed was rather intense. If we want to avoid you haemorrhaging, then we’re going to need to do an emergency C-section.”

  What little blood remained, drained from Bonnie’s face. “But I … F-Fletcher isn’t here …”

  “If we wait too much longer, we won’t be able to do much for you or your baby.”

  Cavan bit his lip. He couldn’t make any form of decision like this for Bonnie. He looked down into her shining brown eyes and felt the floor give out from underneath him.

  “It’s okay Cavan.”

  He jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. It was Fletcher, red-cheeked and smelling of cold air. His resolve began to crumble as the blonde man hugged him tight before shifting to Bonnie’s side.

  “Where the HELL have you been?” the redhead snarled, tears racing down her cheeks.

  “It’s okay I’m here now, little chick,” he pressed a kiss to her damp hair and slid his hand into her death-grip. “Now, what were you saying about a C-section?”

  Cavan backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.

  The cool air of the corridor rushed over him and chilled the sweat on his skin. He sank into a chair and dropped his head in his hands, finally allowing the tears to explode down his face. He let all the emotions soak into his jeans as he quaked in the chair, rocking back and forth, his legs bouncing a hazardous rhythm into the linoleum floor.

  Footsteps approached, probably a doctor, but he ignored them. He was having a full-on manic episode and he needed to let it happen.

  “Cavan …”

  Lucas’s voice made his head snap up so fast it hurt his neck. The older man took one look at his lover, his own face crumpled with anxiety and distress. He opened his arms and Cavan launched himself into the embrace, toppling them both to their knees. Lucas was fast and strong, readily catching the younger man as he broke out into another bout of hysterics against his shirt. Stroking the brunette’s hair, Lucas willed himself to remain calm. His best friends were in a crisis and it would not do them any good for either he or Cavan to panic.

  And yet …

  Thoughts of Bonnie lying lifeless on a white bed, her skin blue with death contrasting with the redness of her hair …

  He heaved, his lunch threatening to come out.

  “Is … Is the baby …?” he let the question hang.

  Cavan shook his head, “The baby’s fine. Th-they said … about a C-section …”

  “Fuck!”

  “Just as Fletcher came in …”

  “Poor guy.”

  Cavan nodded, a cold numbness crawling through his limbs.

  The door opened. They both turned to see a pale-faced Fletcher step out into the hallway. He stopped short when he saw them crouched on the floor and frowned. “What’re you doing?” he asked, his voice devoid of emotion.

  “Nothing,” Cavan sighed, forcing himself to his feet alongside Lucas.

  “How is she?” Lucas asked.

  Fletcher shook his head, “Not in a good way. She’s hysteric, says she doesn’t want surgery but without it …”

  “Are they going to?”

  Fletcher nodded vigorously. “It’s non-optional. They’re just alerting the surgeons now and then we’re going down.” To Lucas he said, “Thanks for getting me here, man. I owe you.”

  “Nonsense,” Lucas hissed. “Just go with her and make sure our girl comes out of this, got it?”

  Tears shone in Fletcher’s eyes. None dropped. He forced a wrecked smile, “Course I will.”

  Within ten minutes everything was approved. Bonnie was taken down to surgery with Fletcher at her side. Cavan and Lucas were left in the waiting room. They stood staring long after the doors closed shut behind their friends.

  Chapter 36

  Tuesday AM

  The waiting area was deserted. That meant it was the only ideal place for Cavan and Lucas to try and get some rest whilst they waited for news on Bonnie and the baby.

 

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