Love's Dance

by Marianna Roberg

  His face cleared. "Ah. All right. Pills?"

  "No, the patch," she said. "You didn't notice?"

  Colin shook his head. Jaina, knowing none but he could see her, showed him the flat thing stuck to her hip.

  "Oh, I thought that was a bandage," he laughed.

  "Nope." She shrugged. "It regulates, and everything. And I don't have to worry about taking some stupid pill."

  She sighed. "You ever feel like you're so tired you don't want to move, but at the same time, you can't sit still?"

  "Sometimes. After long, long hours of working."

  "That's me right now. I hate this feeling."

  Colin bussed the top of her head, then stopped and lifted her in his arms. Jaina sighed, resting her head on his shoulder, and he took her upstairs.

  ♥♥♥

  There wasn't a question as to whether Colin would stay the night. Even though neither of them felt up to another round of lovemaking, they crawled into bed and curled up together. Colin had been doubtful about his changes at sleeping, but before he knew it, he was out like a light.

  Jaina slept fitfully, finally rising in the middle of the night. She was surprised to see it really was just past midnight. She stumbled into the bathroom, feeling uncoordinated and even a little dizzy.

  A few moments later, she found she was bleeding again. This alarmed her, but she didn't know what to do. It was the middle of the night.

  She could see herself shaking Colin awake and telling him, and while that might make her feel better, it would worry him, and he probably wouldn't have any idea, either.

  Ruling that out, Jaina shook her head, then grabbed at the counter as the room swayed.

  She caught a glimpse of her face, shockingly pale in the mirror, and then her knees buckled and her fingers slipped off the tile.

  ♥♥♥

  Colin was dreaming of riding one of those old bicycles, with the giant front wheels, when something made him jerk awake. He sat up, scanning the darkened room.

  The bathroom door was ajar, spilling a wedge of light into the room. Beside him, the bed was empty.

  "Jaina?" he called.

  There was no answer. Tossing back the covers, he slid out of bed and padded to the bathroom, pushing to door open.

  Then he was on his knees beside Jaina. She was as white as the tile beneath her. Her breathing was shallow, and when he felt for her pulse, he found it rapid and shallow. What scared him most was the blood on her thighs.

  He shook her gently. "Jaina?"

  There was no response. She was unconscious. She didn't appear to have hit her head.

  For a moment, he considered dialing 111, then decided that taking her to the hospital himself would be faster. By the time the ambulance even got to the house, he could have her at the emergency room. Besides, the neighbors would talk if an ambulance showed up in the middle of the night.

  Cursing himself for not paying more attention when she said she wasn't feeling well, he ran back into the bedroom. He tugged on his pants as he shoved his feet into his shoes, forgoing socks, and then rifled through Jaina's dresser, knowing she had to have a shirt big enough to fit him. He'd seen them, he knew they existed.

  He finally found one. It was the largest T-shirt she owned, with a print of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the words, "Get Home Before Dark." Normally, he would have felt ridiculous, but at the moment, he didn't care. He threw some clothing for Jaina, pretty much at random, into a duffel bag he found in the closet.

  Colin took the folded quilt at the foot of the bed, and her robe, and carefully wrapped Jaina in both.

  His keys and Jaina's in his pocket, the duffel over his shoulder, and Jaina in his arms, he headed for the car.

  ♥♥♥

  At the emergency room, Colin handed Jaina over to the doctors. He was reluctant to let her go, even knowing they could help her and he could not. He had a paranoid fear that if he let them take her, he wouldn't see her again.

  "What happened?" the trauma registrar demanded as Colin put her on the gurney.

  "I... I don't know. I found her on the floor in the bathroom." Colin's voice cracked. "I don't think she hit her head, but she wasn't responding and... she's bleeding."

  The registrar looked from Jaina's motionless form to Colin. "Was she r-"

  "No!" he said forcefully. "I mean, we, uh... we had..."

  Colin forced himself to stop, since he'd started stuttering. Lowering his voice, aware he was red in the face, he said, "We had intercourse, yes. She was a virgin, that's why she's bleeding. But I don't know about the fainting."

  She looked reluctant to believe him. "We'll examine her, sir. You can wait here, give her information to one of the personnel."

  "Her name is Jaina," he said. "Jaina McGregor."

  No one acknowledged him. Colin watched, feeling numb, as they wheeled Jaina through the doors at the end of the hallway.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Since he didn't have much else to do, Colin went and parked the car, which he'd left sitting in front of the emergency room doors. He didn't think they'd be particularly happy with him if his car was in the way when an ambulance arrived.

  After that, he spoke with a young woman in a white nurse's smock, giving her what information he knew. It was in doing that, that he realized how little he knew.

  "Her name is Jaina Leigh McGregor. That's L-E-I-G-H. No A in McGregor," he said.

  "Like Ewan?" the nurse asked.

  "Exactly." Colin managed a weak smile. "Date of birth... the seventh of July 1981."

  She put that in, then asked, "Are you her husband?"

  He blinked. "No, I'm not her husband, I'm her boyfriend." That felt strange to say, because he'd never said it aloud. They'd only been an item for a matter of hours.

  "What's her insurance company?"

  "I don't have that information. Her family is out of town, I'd assume they know. And I don't know how to reach them."

  Finally, he was able to collapse into a chair, lean his head back, and close his eyes.

  Colin couldn't help feeling guilty. He knew that Jaina would tell him it wasn't his fault, but he couldn't help feeling it was. First he'd made her feel betrayed, and now he'd landed her in the hospital.

  He felt a tug at his pant leg. Opening his eyes, he looked down.

  Huge blue eyes peered at him from behind a mop of white-blonde wisps that hung around a dirt-smudged face, and stuck out in random directions, some straight up. The little girl, about four, stood beside his chair, clutching a doll. The blonde hair of the doll mirrored its owner's. She was dressed in a rumpled pajama set, pink with multi-colored hearts and stars. He saw she had bare feet.

  "Hi," she said.

  "Hi," he replied.

  "Are you sick?" she asked. She had a very slight lisp, caused by the gap in her front teeth.

  "No," he said, sitting forward. Colin looked around the room, but didn't see anyone besides himself. That was strange. Where had the child come from?

  "I'm not," she told him. She was cheerfully messing up Barbie's hair. Not that it seemed it could get much worse, he thought idly. "My mommy's sick."

  The child didn't look upset, which meant that either she was used to her mother being in the emergency room, or she didn't understand what was going on.

  "Where's your daddy, sweetheart?" Colin asked.

  "Don't have one," she said.

  "Okay, then, who brought you and Mommy to the hospital?" he asked.

  As if summoned, the doors that Jaina had been taken through opened and a man walked out. He wore a flannel shirt, jeans, and boots, nothing out of the ordinary there. Actually, nothing about him was out of the ordinary. He had light brown hair, grey eyes, was of medium height and build, medium complexion.

  But at the sight of him, the little girl ducked behind Colin, whimpering.

  Colin didn't know what it was, but something about the man set his nerves on edge. The hair on the back of his neck rose, like the hackles on a dog.

  The man s
aw the child and his expression darkened. Colin noticed he had bandages on his knuckles, and felt vaguely sick. "There you are, you little brat."

  He started forward. The air of menace around him was almost palpable, so much so that Colin stood and put himself between the man and the child.

  The girl apparently saw Colin as her protector, because she latched onto his leg, dropping her doll. Steeling himself, Colin straightened to his full height--which was only five-ten, but still taller than the man he faced--and looked him in the eyes.

  "Come here, Jessie," the man said.

  From the vicinity of his knee, Colin heard Jessie whisper, "Not my daddy."

  "Jessie, come here," the man said again.

  Colin looked down. The child's blonde head swiveled back and forth. Looking back up, he said, "I don't believe the lady wishes to accompany you."

  "Gimme my kid," the man growled, turning those empty grey eyes on Colin.

  Colin's voice was flat. He was never one for fights, except if they were choreographed ones, but the child was terrified of this man. He knew to the marrow of his bones he couldn't let this man lay a finger on Jessie. "No."

  The child was staring between the two men, eyes huge. All she really understood was that the nice man in the shirt with the pretty lady on it was keeping her away from the bad man. He was keeping her safe.

  "He hit Mommy," she said, staring defiantly at the man. "He yelled at her and made her cry."

  The nurse at the desk watched with acute interest, paperwork forgotten.

  Colin glanced down at Jessie, her small fingers holding his slacks in a death grip. "Is that why your Mommy's here?"

  She nodded. Through the blonde wisps, he saw a smudge on her cheek he'd thought was dirt. But dirt wasn't purple. It was a bruise.

  Blue eyes fixed on the man, who had started forward, thinking to take advantage of Colin's distraction. Seeing Colin level a chilly look at him, the man lunged forward, reaching for Jessie. The little girl screamed.

  Acting on instinct, Colin grabbed the man, propelled him backwards, and slammed him into the wall. His arm pressed hard against the man's throat, Colin's eyes were like shards of ice.

  "Don't you dare touch her," he said, and his voice shook with rage.

  Behind him, the little girl was cowering under the chair, sobbing. The nurse quickly left the desk and retrieved the child, holding her close while watching the men warily. She'd already signaled for security.

  It took only a moment before security got there. At first, they went for Colin, since he was pinning the unidentified man, but the nurse quickly set them right, and they hauled off the man. She and Colin had both come to the conclusion that he'd beat Jessie's mother, and possibly Jessie.

  They let Colin go. The confrontation had momentarily distracted him from the reason he was there, but now his worry for Jaina hit him like a fist to the gut. He sank back down into his chair, a wave of nausea rolling over him. He put his head in his hands.

  "Sir?"

  He looked up. The nurse holding the little girl had approached. "Yes?"

  She looked at him nervously. "I don't want to... impose, but I was wondering... I have to get back to work, and I have to call the social worker..."

  "I'll watch her," Colin said. "If you'll tell me immediately when I can see my girlfriend."

  She nodded and handed him the child.

  Colin settled Jessie on the chair next to him. "Hi, Jessie. I'm Colin."

  ♥♥♥

  Colin knew that sitting in a chair, worrying about Jaina, would do him no good, so he distracted himself by entertaining Jessie. Which meant that he gave her rides on his shoulders, played a game of connect-the-dots with her with a paper borrowed from the nurse, and told her a story.

  "... and just when they were about to push Luke into the pit, he jumped off! But he didn't fall. He jumped up, over the heads of the bad men, and just as he landed, he caught his lightsaber." Colin made a "wsshhbzzz" noise, imitating a lightsaber.

  Jessie stared up at him with wide eyes, mouth hanging open.

  "He swung his lightsaber, and knocked all the bad guys off the boat. Then, Boba Fett attacked Han, who still couldn't see. Luke couldn't help him, because he had to go rescue the princess. He jumped over to the bigger boat, and-"

  "Mr. Pierce?"

  Colin stopped and turned, seeing the nurse there. "Yes?"

  "Dr. Grey will see you now."

  ♥♥♥

  Since Colin didn't know what else to do with Jessie, he took her with him. The nurse led him back to a curtained area, where Jaina lay on a bed, hooked up to an IV. A petite woman, with short red hair, round silver glasses, and hazel eyes, was looking at her vitals. She looked up when Colin approached, then glanced at Jessie, and turned a questioning look to Colin.

  "It's a long story. I'm pretty much babysitting," he explained. "How is she?"

  Dr. Janice Grey looked at him for a moment, then said, "I have a few things to ask you, Mr. Pierce. Ellen, if you could take Mr. Pierce's charge for a little while?"

  "Yes, Dr. Grey."

  Colin sat down in the chair next to Jaina and took her hand, mindful of the IV. He studied her face. She looked better; there was definitely more color in her cheeks.

  "You said that you had had sexual intercourse with Jaina earlier this evening?"

  "Yes." He turned serious blue eyes to the doctor. "Is that what caused her collapse?"

  The doctor met his gaze for a moment, then looked at her patient. "It's possible. Though only because she's anemic. She has a lowered platelet count, which means she's getting less oxygen than she should, which made it much easier for her to go into shock."

  "That's it? Shock and anemia?"

  Dr. Grey bit her lip. "Not entirely. She's anemic, as I said, because of her red blood cell count. I don't know if you noticed this..."

  She leaned over and pulled the curtain closed. Then she pulled Jaina's blanket back, lifted the hem of her hospital gown, and showed him a scattering of bruises, tiny, tiny bruises, on her hips and thighs, along with what looked like a rash.

  Colin frowned. "I didn't see those."

  "That's what I thought. They're petechiae. Basically, they're very small bruises, caused by broken capillaries. Her lowered platelet count has made clotting more difficult. Has she been sick recently?"

  Colin had to think. "I think she had a cold last week. She was injured a month ago, a sprained ankle."

  Grey raised a brow. "You think she had a cold?"

  "We'd had an argument, and weren't exactly speaking. But we've made up."

  "Well, this doesn't necessarily mean it's anything serious. We tested for Lupus, but she's only showing three of the symptoms so far. It could be idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, but it could also be caused by a recent menstruation."

  She placed her hand on his shoulder. "She's sleeping now, and I'll be prescribing iron supplements. If it gets worse, I want her back here immediately."

  He nodded. "When can we go?"

  "I'll be giving her a checkup when she wakes, and another blood test. The results of that won't be back for about a day, so I'll be releasing her into your care. Just make sure she eats plenty of red meats, and takes her vitamins."

  Colin nodded, though he knew that could be difficult. Jaina wasn't fond of red meat. "Thank you, doctor."

  "You can stay with her. Just alert one of the nurses when she wakes up."

  Dr. Grey left.

  Colin leaned over Jaina and kissed her forehead. "Rest, sweetheart. I'll be here."

  Holding her hand, he kept a silent vigil.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jaina woke a little after 4 AM. She blinked groggily, then focused with an effort on the shape that appeared above her, blocking the blinding light.

  "Where am I?" she asked.

  Colin's face came into focus. "You're in the hospital. You passed out in the bathroom. You've been here about four hours."

  She tried to sit up, but he put his hand on her shoulder
and kept her down. "Don't sit up yet. You've got an IV in, and Dr. Grey wants to check you out first."

  Jaina was confused. "What happened?"

  "Apparently, you're anemic, and you, uh, went into shock, after we..."

  She wondered why he was editing his speech, then noticed a pair of blue eyes under a blonde fringe peering at her over the edge of the bed. She blinked, then looked at Colin.

  He spoke quietly, leaning close to Jaina. "This is Jessie. Apparently, her mother's boyfriend put her in the hospital, and he's been... hurting Jessie, too. I, uh, stopped him from getting Jessie, and she seems to be temporarily in my charge."

  "Ah." She wriggled until she could see over the edge of the bed at the child. "Hi. I'm Jaina."

  Jessie edged over behind Colin. He laughed.

  "It's okay, Jessie. Remember how I told you about the lady who likes elves just as much as you?" Colin crouched beside her.

  Jessie nodded, looking shyly at Jaina.

  "Well, this is her."

  "Oh."

  Colin picked her up, saying, "Upsie daisie."

  Jaina smiled. "I remember you doing that on the show."

  Over the child's head, he grinned at her. Jaina's stomach clenched, and she suddenly wondered what his child would look like... if she would be the one to bear it.

  Setting Jessie on the edge of the bed, he said, "Wait here with Jaya, okay? I have to go find the nurse."

  Jessie was careful as she moved closer to Jaina. "Are you inna movie?"

  "Nope." Jaina shook her head. "I put makeup on people. Lipstick and stuff."

  The curtain slid back and Dr. Grey came in, followed by Ellen the nurse and Colin, who picked Jessie up and set her on the chair.

  Dr. Grey picked up Jaina's right hand, which didn't have an IV, and checked her pulse. "Hello, Jaina. I'm Dr. Grey. How are you feeling?"

  "Like I passed out in the bathroom and woke up in the hospital with a needle in my arm," she said dryly. "Other than that, I feel fine."

  "That's good." Dr. Grey made a note in on the clipboard she carried. "I want to run you through the usual checkup, weight, hearing, blood pressure, all of that."