The Naughty One

by Michelle Love

  I try hard not to put too much of my weight on her, but as I move the pain sends white heat through my entire body and not in a good way. “Shit!”

  She gets me into the chair and slams the car door, pushing the lock button to make it beep then wheels me in. Straight up to the desk she takes me as I huddle over.

  “I need him to be seen like right now!” Peyton tells the nurse behind the desk.

  “I need you to fill this form out,” the woman in blue scrubs tells her as she pushes a clipboard towards me. “Then we can get him back into the ER.”

  Peyton slams her hand on the desk next to the clipboard. “I’ll fill this out while you take him back to be examined. I need him seen now, not after this shit is filled out. Now!”

  “Miss, what’s your name?” the nurse rises and asks.

  “My name is Peyton Reed, and this is my fiancé, Kip Dixon.”

  A sideways glance lets me see the nurse’s expression change from firm to apologetic.

  “Oh! I had no idea. Take him to the side door and I’ll buzz you both back.” The nurse takes the clipboard. “You can fill this out while the attending physician checks Mr. Dixon out.”

  Peyton smirks and pushes me to the door. “Your name certainly makes miracles happen, Kip.”

  I wish it could save me from this pain as well. Now that’s the kind of miracle I need right now.

  A small room we follow the nurse to and they take my blood pressure and ask me a lot of questions about all kinds of things that don’t make a difference in my opinion. She asks about my pain and I let her know it’s a ten.

  Finally, the nurse wheels me to an examination room and a man in a white coat comes in. “I need you to get into the bed, Mr. Dixon.”

  “Then I need help, because I can’t stand up, much less climb into that bed.”

  Peyton gets in front of me to help me up and I shake my head. “It’s hurting much more now, and I’m afraid I’ll knock you down.”

  She looks back at the doctor who looks like he weighs maybe a buck fifty. “Get someone!” she barks the order, and he moves like the wind to do her bidding.

  “Damn, baby!”

  “They’re taking too long to get you taken care of and it’s pissing me off,” she says as she runs her hand over my head.

  The doctor returns followed by a giant man and in no time I’m in excruciating pain as he moves me to the bed and presses me to lay out flat, which nearly kills me. Stars fill my head and I nearly black out. “Christ!”

  “Be easy with him!” Peyton shouts.

  “Miss, I’ll have to ask you to leave if you don’t let us do our job,” the doctor says with an air of authority.

  “She stays, no matter what,” I say through gritted teeth.

  Deep breaths I take as the pain only grows worse. The doctor moves my hand from my side and pulls up my shirt. His hand is freezing as it touches my skin and I scream as it feels as if he pressing into a horrible bruise.

  “So that hurts then?” he asks.

  “Fuck yeah!” I shout as my body throbs with the man’s touch.

  “Help him!” Peyton shouts. “Just hurry. I can’t stand to see him in pain like this!”

  The doctor turns to her. “I need to order an ultra-sound. I think he has appendicitis. But I need to confirm that. I’ll be right back, and Miss, I am doing all I can as fast as I can, so please help me to keep him calm.”

  Peyton shudders and wraps her arms around herself. “Sorry, please just hurry.”

  She takes her cell phone out and starts pressing the screen like a mad woman. “What are you doing?” I groan and hold my side.

  “Googling appendicitis. Man, I hope it hasn’t burst. That’s going to complicate things if your appendix has burst,” she says with a frown. “I’d show you the pictures I’m looking at but that wouldn’t do a thing to make you feel better, I’m afraid.”

  “What if it has?” I ask, not really wanting to know.

  She shakes her head. “Let’s not speculate about that until we know for sure.”

  She puts the phone in her pocket and comes to my side. Gently she runs her hand over my sweat soaked head. “Peyton, please call my mum and pop and tell them to come. I need them and you right now, more than I ever needed any people in my life.”

  She takes my cell from her other pocket and makes the call. “Hey, we’re in the ER, it’s probably appendicitis. The doctor is about to run an ultra-sound and Kip wants you two to come. Can you do that?” She nods at me. “Okay, just call when you get here and I’ll come find you and take you to him.” She puts the phone back in her pocket.

  “Thank you.”

  “Shh. You be quiet and rest. I’ll be here and soon so will your parents. Everything is going to be fine.” Her hand rests on my chest and she smiles.

  A young man pushes a cart in and asks her to step back. She moves to the other side of me and takes my hand. He pours some cold goop on me then presses something on top of it and I shriek. “Holy shit!”

  “Sorry, sir,” the man says as he moves it around, causing me to nearly pass out with the pain. “A necessary evil, I’m afraid.”

  After a torturous few moments, he stops his torture and throws a tissue over the goop on my searing flesh. He looks at Peyton. “It might be better if you help him clean this off. He may punch me.”

  She nods. “So, is it appendicitis?”

  “The doctor will be in to tell you that soon.” He pulls his cart out of the room, leaving me just as informed about my condition as I have been, which is not at all.

  Peyton moves to the other side of me and gently wipes away the goo and even though it hurts like hell, it hurts less than when the other two men touched me. I pull her hand up and press it to my cheek.

  “Peyton, I feel like something is bad wrong. If something happens to me…”

  With her other hand she presses her fingers to my lips, stopping me. “Kip, don’t even let the thought go through your head. Nothing is going to happen to you. You may have to go into surgery, but they’ll fix you up and you’ll come back out of this. In no time we’ll be back home together.”

  “Do me a favor and call Mum again and let me talk to her. I need to talk to her and Pop.” She makes the call and hands me the phone. “Thank you and can you find me some water, I’m dying of thirst.” She nods and leaves.

  Mum answers the phone. “Is everything okay, Peyton?” she answers.

  “Mum, it’s me.” I groan into the phone.

  “Oh, baby boy! You sound terrible!”

  “Mum, listen please. If I don’t make it through this, I want Peyton to have everything. In my will, everything I have currently goes to you and Pop. Make sure you give every last thing to her if I don’t make it. Promise me, Mum.”

  “Of course, son. But please don’t think like that. You’re going to be fine. Please don’t talk like that,” she begs me and I can hear the tears in her voice.

  “Mum, I just want to be sure, that’s all. I’ll do my best not to leave you all, but just in case I had to tell you that. I never want her to be without. I want her to have it all,” I groan out the last word as a sharp pain radiates throughout my body. “Mum, I need to go. It hurts to talk.”

  “We’ll be there soon, baby. Rest and do what the doctor tells you too. We’re in the air already and two hours away. Bye, we love you.”

  I hang the phone up as Peyton walks in with a bottle of water and the doctor walks in behind her. She holds the bottle out to me and the doc shakes his head. “He’s going into surgery. No water for him, I’m afraid.”

  Peyton stops and spins back to look at him. “Surgery? So, what is it?”

  The doctor looks grim. “His appendix has burst.”

  Peyton gasps and puts her hand over her mouth. “No!”

  He nods. “I’m afraid so. The surgical team is setting up now and the prep team is on the way down to get you, Mr. Dixon.”

  My heart pounds harder than it has been and Peyton’s gorgeous face pales.
Her hand runs over my face as tears fill her hazel eyes. “You come back to us, Kip Dixon. You stay with us, don’t you dare do anything but fight this. Do you understand me?”

  I nod and pull her to me. She clings to me and I can feel her body quivering as she tries hard to hold her cries in. “I love you, Peyton. No matter what, you remember that. You take care of our baby. I sure wish I knew if it’s a boy or a girl, but whatever it is, you take good care of it for me if something does happen.”

  Peyton puts her fingers to my lips. “Kip, don’t.”

  I pull them back. “I called Mum and told her if anything happens to me they’re to make sure you get everything I own. All of it.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to you, Kip,” she says with a long sigh. “Stop talking like that.”

  Three people come into the room, all wearing light blue scrubs. Two men and one woman. The woman has a bunch of papers on a clip board. “Evening, Mr. Dixon. This Thanksgiving wasn’t the best for you was it?”

  I shake my head and she smiles at me. Peyton stands back and lets the prep team do their thing. The man with dark hair looks at Peyton. “We need to get him prepped, Miss. Can I get you to step just outside and we’ll let you see him before we sedate him completely.”

  She nods and comes to my side once more. A kiss she places on my forehead. “I love you. See you in a bit.”

  Her shoulders slump as she turns to walk away. “I love you, Peyton.”

  The female nurse comes back to my side and starts reading the first paper to me. “This is a living will, Mr. Dixon. It states whether you wish to be resuscitated should you stop breathing or your heart stop.”

  I nod and she checks something on the paper. My heart aches with the question and the thought I might leave this world never seeing my child’s face nearly makes me cry.

  The nurse continues. “Mr. Dixon, if resuscitation is performed and homeostasis is returned, do you accept to be placed on life support, if necessary?”

  I nod and try my best not to jerk my hand as one of the male nurses stab it with a huge needle. “Sorry, Mr. Dixon. In just a few minutes, this will be the thing you love the most. It’ll give you the medicine you need to get out of pain.”

  “Good,” I say with a moan.

  The female nurse touches my cheek to draw my attention back to her. “Mr. Dixon only a few more questions then we’ll get you up to the O.R. There are time limits on life support. You need to choose how long you wish to be kept on it.”

  How long do I wish for machines to keep me alive?

  How does one choose that? “Can I leave that up to someone else?”

  “Sure. Who would that be?”

  “Peyton Reed.”

  The nurse jots her name down and smiles. “Okay then, let’s get your clothes off and the gown on and we’ll be on our way. The morphine will help you tolerate the movement we need you to make to get this all accomplished.”

  “Morphine?” I ask as the dark haired male nurse pushes a syringe into my IV and instantly I feel no more pain. “Wow, that was fast,” I slur. “Maybe I can just stay on this and avoid surgery all together. Yeah, I can see spending some time like this. Oh, yeah.”

  The three giggle and the next thing I know, I’m moved around and naked in front of them and then some awful green checkered gown is pulled around my shoulders. They lie me back down, cover me with a thin blanket and move my bed out of the room.

  Peyton is leaning against the wall. She wipes her eyes quickly and comes to me. “Baby, you look drunk,” she says with a laugh.

  “Do I?” I slur and grope her as she stands next to the bed. They stopped so I could say my goodbyes to her. Perhaps my final goodbye. Her large, milk filled breast I touch and surprisingly she holds my hand to it. “I’m gonna miss those.”

  “Don’t worry, they’ll be here when you get out of surgery.” She kisses my lips and my other hand runs over her hair.

  “So, soft and silky curls, you have. I like ‘em.”

  She giggles and I do too. “See you soon, Pop Rock.”

  Peyton pulls out of my hands and I watch her as they move me away. I look up at the female nurse who walks the closest to me. “I love her so much it hurts.”

  A smile lights up her face. “It’s pretty obvious, Mr. Dixon.”

  “It is?”

  She nods and I smile and then I feel like drifting off. My eyes roam over to find the dark haired male nurse pumping another syringe into my IV. I murmur, “Thanks, dude.” Then I close my eyes and float away.

  Peyton

  My heart beats along with the large clock in the private waiting room they took me to. I called my parents, and they said they’d be on the first flight out. Kip’s parents are almost here and I don’t know if I’m more nervous to meet the famous people or about how Kip’s doing in surgery.

  Sebastien and Chloe Dixon are beyond famous. Kip’s mother is a glamourous super model from the eighties and his father a rock legend. And here I am about to meet them for the first time.

  Kip’s cell rings, making me jump. It’s Bobby. “Hi, Bobby,” I answer.

  “I got your message. Is he okay?”

  “He’s in surgery as we speak.”

  “Damn it. I’m coming down. Be there soon.”

  He ends the call and I hold the phone to my chest and try not to freak out about how I’m sure to be in a room full of celebrities before this is all over with.

  The door opens and in walks a nurse followed by Kip’s parents. I stand and find my knees weak and have to hold onto the arm of the chair. “Hi,” I manage.

  “Oh, hunny!” Kip’s mom says as she gathers me up in her slim arms. “How are you holding up?”

  “As best I can,” I mumble against her chest, as she’s about four inches taller than I am.

  A hand grasps my shoulder and I’m pulled away and wrapped in Kips’ father’s arms. “Sweetheart, you’re gorgeous. I’m sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances. It’s not how I thought this would happen.”

  He lets me out of his hug and holds me back and looks at my baby bump. His hand touches it and he looks into my eyes. He’s handsome and has this air about him that makes me want to freak out like the girls I hate.

  “Our grandbaby,” he turns to his wife. “You have to touch her tummy. It’s our grandbaby in here.”

  Kip’s mother looks at me timidly. “Is that okay with you, Peyton?”

  I nod as words seem to have left my brain as I’m as star struck as I’ve ever been. She touches my tummy and looks at her husband. “Finally, our very own grandchild.”

  His father looks at me. “She’s been wantin’ one of these. You’ve made us very pleased, Peyton.”

  I nod and smile like an idiot. The door opens again, and a doctor walks in with his facemask still on. We all turn to look at him, our collective breaths held.

  He pulls the mask down and we all see the corners of his thin lips pulled down in a deep frown. “Okay, he’s out of surgery. His appendix had burst and I’m afraid there is already gangrene in some of his organs. We removed as much of the affected tissue we possible could.”

  “Dear Lord,” his mother says and sits down, pulling me along with her as she takes my hand in hers.

  Kip’s father sits on the other side of me, his arm runs around my shoulders. “Is that all, doc?”

  The doctor shakes his head. “He’s going to need a kidney transplant as we had to completely remove one and the other is damaged so badly that it cannot do the job on its own. I’m aware he has no siblings, perhaps a cousin or someone like that might be an eligible donor?”

  Kip’s mother nods. “He has three on his father’s side near his age. But they’re back in England. How long does he have to find one?”

  The doctor inhales and his frown deepens. “Maybe a week. There’s more though.”

  Kip’s father’s grip on my shoulders tightens. “God damn!”

  The doctor nods. “I’m really sorry to have to tell you all this. I really am.
I wish I could offer more hope, but I cannot lie. He quit breathing on us twice and once his heart stopped for ten minutes. The fact is that even given the transplant, he may not be able to live off of the life support we’ve been forced to put him on.”

  My heart stops. “He’s on life support?”

  He nods. “He’ll be kept in a drug induced coma until we’re able to find a compatible kidney. Machines will keep him breathing and his heart will be kept beating. As far as that goes. The risk of his liver becoming affected is quite high as it wasn’t in the best condition in the first place.”

  Sniffles come from his mother and her hand covers her mouth. “I’ll get on the phone and get the relatives coming in.”

  “You do that, Mrs. Dixon. I wish I had better news for you all. He’s being taken to the ICU and sometime tomorrow we’ll start allowing one visitor at a time to go in and see him for ten minute visits once an hour during the day.” As the doctor turns around a very pale Bobby fills the doorway.

  “What’s happened? Why do you all look like that?” Bobby asks.

  The doctor nods. “I have to get back to make sure Mr. Dixon is hooked up properly. They’ll fill you in, sir.” He leaves and we all stare after him.

  I open my mouth to tell Bobby the news but all that comes out is a wailing noise and my eyes fill with tears. Someone pulls me into a hug, and I fall apart.

  Kip

  Beeps and other weird noises I hear in the distance. Everything is black and I can’t seem to move. A voice I hear from so far away its almost inaudible. “Kip, I’m here.”

  It might be Mum or Peyton, not sure which. A soft hand touches mine and a shot runs through me. The beeping sound speeds up and I hear her speak again. I know its Peyton now, my body always has reacted to hers. “Kip, you stay with me.”