by L. P. Dover
“Galen,” I whispered, coming up to the bed. I took his hand lightly, but it was also wrapped in the gauze. I wished I could feel the smoothness of his skin, but I knew that wasn’t possible. “I’m so sorry,” I cried. “Please forgive me … oh my God, Galen please forgive me.” I kept waiting on him to answer but he laid there frozen while I poured my heart out. He couldn’t hear, think, or see me right then and it killed me to know that when he woke up there was no telling what was going to be wrong.
“You can’t leave me, Galen. Do you hear me? I’m not going to let you, so do us both a favor and fight. I’m going to be fighting for you, but I need your help.” I let his hand go and pulled up a chair so I could be by his head. Angrily wiping the tears away, I sat there and cried for who knew how long. Why couldn’t this be a bad dream, and when I woke up Galen would be right there beside me?
“I need you to come back to me, Galen. We have so much to live for. We have our cabin that needs to be finished. We need to have a family …” I choked on a sob and my throat began to tighten. Not being able to stay still, I got up from the chair and leaned over so I could see his face better and clearer. Placing a gentle kiss on his lips, I silently wished that it would’ve been enough to wake him. This sure wasn’t a fairytale, so wishful thinking wasn’t going to work, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I ran my fingers lightly across his face just to be able to feel him.
“Can’t you imagine us being together until we’re old and gray? I can see us eighty years from now, sitting on the front porch of our cabin drinking moonshine or something crazy like that. Imagine all of the things we’re going to do and share together. I’m done with losing people. You promised me you would always be here for me, so this is me asking for you to keep that promise, Galen.” My heart felt like it had been ripped in two. Why was it so hard to remain strong? I placed my head on the bed and closed my eyes, drenching the sheets with my tears.
“Ducky,” Jenna whispered softly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her blurry form in the doorway. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I answered truthfully. “My whole body feels exhausted. My throat hurts from the strain of crying, and not to mention my heart feels like a knife has been thrust through it.”
“I know, but it’s about time to go,” Jenna stuttered with hesitation in her voice. “Visiting hours are almost over.”
“Damnit!” I hissed. “What if something happens and I’m not here!” I felt like I was close to a panic attack, a time bomb waiting to go off. “I don’t want to leave him,” I cried.
“I know,” she said to me. “But remember, you need to rest. You have two minutes, Ducky. I’ll be waiting for you outside the door.”
She closed it softly and now it was time to say good-bye … for now. Before kissing him again, I leaned and whispered across his lips, “You came into my life and saved me. Now it’s time for me to save you. I’ll be back, my love. You won’t be able to get rid of me easily after this.” I kissed him gently and it took everything in my power to walk away from him. Once I opened the door and shut it I took in a deep, ragged breath. Jenna was standing there, leaning against the wall and waiting patiently on me.
“Do you need to call your parents and let them know?” she asked.
“I’ll do it in the morning. Right now I can’t seem to focus on anything other than Galen.”
“Okay, let’s get you home then.” Sighing, Jenna put her arm around my shoulder, and led me down the hall. How could I go home and rest while he’s there? That night and every night until he got better were going to be nothing but hell for me.
Chapter Twenty
“You don’t think it’s too early to call them?” Jenna murmured. We were on our way to the hospital and my nerves were shot. I was nauseous as hell, and with the surgery coming up I couldn’t eat or drink anything to help calm my stomach. When was this damn food poisoning going to go away?
“It is early, but I need to let them know what’s going on before I go under. They’ll be pissed at me if I went through with everything and didn’t tell them,” I answered.
Jenna agreed, “Very true.”
Calling my parents this early would terrify them. My mom always expected bad news when calls came in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. I guess I was going to help prove that theory.
The phone rang for several rings until I heard my mom’s frantic voice over the phone. She would know it was me calling. “Kori, are you okay?”
“No, I’m not,” I said, choking on my words. “Something bad has happened to Galen.”
My mother gasped and I could hear my father snapping to attention in the background. “Oh honey, what happened? Is he all right?” she asked hesitantly, concern etched in her words. She was probably afraid of how I was going to handle it, afraid I would revert back like I did with Carson. The tears forced their way out, making my eyes hurt and burn from all of the excessive crying I’d done.
“He’s not doing so well, Mom. Galen was in a motorcycle accident, and now he’s in a coma with kidney failure and a brain injury,” I cried. I paused and took a deep breath before telling my mother my plan. “I’m going to give him one of my kidneys, Mom.” I cringed, waiting to hear what she had to say about that, but the line went silent. Both of my parents loved Galen, but I knew their main concern was of my well-being. It didn’t matter what they said, this was my decision and if I had to risk my life then so be it. Jenna looked over at me and raised her eyebrows in question. The line was still silent, so I shrugged and mouth the words ‘I don’t know’ to her.
“Mom?” I called out sheepishly. “Can you say something please?”
Her voice sounded shaky when she came back over the line. “I don’t know what to say, Kori. I’m just worried about you.”
“I know, but this is something I have to do,” I replied sternly.
My mother sighed. “Then I will be there to support you. I would do the same thing for your father if he were in this situation. We’ll both be there in about four hours. We’ll pack quickly and head on our way.”
“Mom, you don’t have to come all of this way for me. I’ll be fine, I promise,” I reassured her. “As much as I would love to see you, I can’t expect you to drop everything and come out here.”
“That’s enough of that nonsense, Kori. You’re my daughter and I’m going to be there for you. Do you know what time you’ll be having your surgery?”
“I’m not sure. Jenna and I are headed to the hospital now. They had to do the blood work on me last night, but they wanted me prepared just in case they did the surgery this morning,” I explained. “His head injury is what worries me. He’s in a coma and we don’t know if he’ll wake up. I have to believe he will.”
“And he will, sweetheart. How could he not when he has you waiting for him? He’s a fighter. I may not have had the chance to be around him much, but that man will fight anyone and everything to be able to be by your side. I could see it in his face when he looked at you.”
“That’s so strange. Galen’s mother said almost the exact same thing to me yesterday.”
“She’s a smart lady then,” my mother observed. “Your father is already up and packing, so I’ll get to packing as well and see you in just a few short hours.”
“Ok, Mom,” I cried. “I love you.”
“And I love you, care bear.” We both ended the call, and before I could put my phone back in my purse another call came in. Who would be calling me that early in the morning?
“Who’s calling you now?” Jenna asked.
Looking down at the screen I didn’t recognize the number, but it looked like it may be a number from the hospital. Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. “It’s the hospital,” I told her. The fear in my body had me scared to answer the call. What if it was news that Galen had taken a turn for the worse?
“Answer it, Kori,” Jenna demanded. “We need to know what’s going on.”
Taking a deep breath, I pressed the but
ton to receive the call. “Hello,” I answered hesitantly.
“Korinne?” It only took me one second to recognize the voice as being Jason Andrews.
“Good morning, Jason. Please tell me Galen’s okay,” I blurted out.
“Yes, he’s fine,” Jason responded. “But that’s not what I need to talk to you about. When will you be arriving at the hospital?”
“I’m almost there now.”
“Good, I need to see you when you get here. Do you mind coming to my office as soon as you get in?” Jason insisted.
“Of course I will. Is everything all right? Did my blood work come back?”
“It did, and that’s why I need to talk to you. I’ll see you in just a few minutes,” he said quickly before hanging up the phone. This couldn’t be good, I thought. Why was he trying to get off the phone with me so fast? His haste could only mean one thing … bad news.
“What did he want?” Jenna asked, concerned.
“I don’t know exactly, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be good,” I told her.
“Do you want me to go in there with you? I can be your moral support,” Jenna claimed. We stood outside of Jason’s door, and I was covered in sweat while my heart beat frantically. Moral support was definitely what I needed.
“I would like that,” I said, agreeing with her request.
I knocked on the door twice, and almost immediately after that we heard Jason’s voice tell us to enter. Poking my head around the door, I saw him sitting at his desk with a file in front of him. I could only assume it was mine. Jenna and I both walked in while Jason motioned to the two seats in front of his desk. “Good morning, ladies,” he said to us. I knew he was nervous by the tone in his voice, and that only spurred my nervousness on even more.
“Good morning,” Jenna and I both greeted together.
Lifting his gaze from the file, Jason clasped his hands together. “Korinne, I don’t know where to start. If this were strangers I was talking to it would be a whole hell of a lot easier, but it’s never easy when you’re personally tied to someone.”
“Just tell me what’s wrong,” I ordered desperately. “I know me and Galen are a blood match, so it can’t be that. What else could it be?”
“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” he asked.
I narrowed my eyes at him, completely confused that there would be any good news to be heard. “By the haste in which you wanted me here, I didn’t think there would be any good news,” I assumed.
Jason unclasped his hands and began to fumble with the papers in the file. “I’m sorry about that, but you needed to know what was going on. So which is it, Korinne? Good or bad?”
“Give me the bad news, Jason. That way the last thing on my mind will be the good,” I mumbled wearily.
He hesitated, but looked me straight in the eye when the words came out of his mouth. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re not going to be able to give Galen one of your kidneys.”
“What?!” I screamed, standing abruptly from the chair. If I thought I couldn’t cry anymore, I was sorely mistaken. The tears that were now flowing down my face were of anger and desperation. I knew I was going to hear bad news, but I wasn’t expecting that. What if Galen got put on a waiting list and died because he didn’t get a kidney fast enough? That was something I couldn’t live with.
“Calm down, Ducky,” Jenna said. She took my hand and pulled on it to get me to sit down. Glancing down at her, she smiled reassuringly and nodded to the chair.
I huffed, aggravated as hell, because nothing seemed to be going right for me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you,” I said to Jason. “It’s just I don’t understand. I know we are a match.”
“And you are,” he agreed. “But there’s something we found in your blood that’s stopped us from being able to take your kidney.”
“Is this still considered the bad news?” I wondered. “Because nothing at this moment is going to be considered good for me.” I was caught off guard when Jason actually looked at me and smiled. How could he be smiling at a time like this?
“I think you might beg to differ once you hear all that I have to tell you.”
“What the hell is going on? Why are you smiling?” I demanded, looking back and forth from him to Jenna, totally confused. My heart was pounding out of my chest and my vision had begun to get blurry from being lightheaded. Gripping the arms of the chair, I waited expectantly to hear what Jason had to tell me next.
“Korinne,” he began and paused. He took a deep breath before finishing his sentence. “You’re pregnant.”
Those last two words were all I heard before the world went silent.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Korinne, wake up.” The voice sounded so far away, but close at the same time. Something cold touched my forehead and I flinched. The moment I did, the pain shot through my body.
“Oww,” I groaned. My tongue felt heavy and thick, and there was a spot on my forehead where the horrific throbbing was coming from. When I reached up to touch it, I noticed there was a bump there that hadn’t been there before. I could feel the world spinning around me and I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet.
“Open your eyes, care bear,” a voice said soothingly by my ear.
“Mom?”
“Yes, it’s me,” she answered.
I opened my eyes and saw that my mother and father were beside the bed. Looking around the room, I had no clue how I came to be in a hospital bed. “What happened?” I asked them.
My mother and father looked at each other, and then back to me. My father was the one who spoke. “Apparently, you took a nasty tumble and hit your head on Dr. Andrews’ desk. You’ve been out for five hours.”
It only took one second to remember why I had passed out. Running my hand over my stomach, my eyes went wide. Both of my parents smiled when I gazed back up at them with tear-filled eyes. “You both know?” I asked.
My mom nodded excitedly and cried, “Yes, we know. Jenna decided to tell the whole world because she was so happy. As soon as we walked in she told us. We were ecstatic when we found out we were going to be grandparents.”
Seeing her and my dad smile actually made me happy for a second, but then I remembered the bad news Jason had told me.
“They can’t take my kidney,” I told my parents anxiously. “We need to get Galen a kidney. Do you know if they have one or if he was put on the waiting list?”
“We don’t know, pumpkin, we haven’t heard anything yet, but you need to calm down and relax. You have someone else to think of now, too,” my father emphasized by looking down at my stomach.
My mother brushed the hair off of my forehead and smiled. “The doctors want to do an ultrasound to make sure the baby is okay. They were waiting for you to wake up.”
“When are they going to let me out of here? I want to see Galen.”
“Impatient as ever aren’t you, Ducky?” Jenna announced, coming through the door with Brady and Elizabeth behind her.
“I just want to see my husband,” I snapped impatiently.
“I see my brother got you knocked up. I believe heart-felt congratulations are in order.” Brady laughed.
I was taken aback by his joking, but Elizabeth barged in and took over. “Brady hush! That was really uncalled for to say it like that. I think you and Jenna also need to be getting busy, to give me more grandbabies.” She came to over to me and kissed me on the forehead. “Galen is going to be so happy when he finds out about the baby. Congratulations, my dear. Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t know if you could have kids or not? I wouldn’t have hounded you so much.”
My eyes roamed over to Jenna and she shied away sheepishly. “It wasn’t something I liked to discuss,” I informed her. “Jenna, you are all about revealing the secrets today, aren’t you?”
“I was excited,” she admitted. “Knowing you, you were going to stay passed out for forever and I couldn’t wait to share the good news. It was a blessing i
n this tragic situation. Everyone needed something good to come out of it.”
Hearing her say it like that it didn’t sound so bad. It all seemed surreal. I couldn’t believe there was actually a life growing inside of me, but what made my heart hurt was that my child might not ever get to meet their father. “Is there any news about a kidney for Galen? I know you are all happy for me and the baby, but I think we need to focus on getting Galen taken care of,” I pointed out to them.
Jenna came up to the bed and shook her head, grinning the whole time. “Well, Ducky, if you hadn’t passed out, you would have heard the rest of the good news that Jason wanted to tell you. However, it does happen to be bitter-sweet news.” Narrowing my eyes in question, she continued, “The good news is that they found a kidney for Galen.”
I screamed for joy as the happiness inside of my body blossomed to every fiber of my being. “That’s great news! He didn’t have to be put on the waiting list?” I asked, looking at everyone. They all seemed happy, but there was sadness in the air that I couldn’t place. “By the looks on your faces, I guess this is where you tell me the ‘bitter’ part of that news.”
Lowering her eyes, Jenna nodded. “Yes, it is. Apparently, Galen was going to be put on a waiting list, but something must have changed because now he’s good to go.”
“What happened?” I asked curiously.