Chapter 18: Jessica
My head still hurt, and I was less than clear-headed. I’d woken up to find people hovering over me and poking and prodding. Slowly, I recalled the wreck. I told them and Zara, or Dr. Newton as she was called by others, what happened. I was shocked to see her here. She’d explained that Demon had called her.
While I was happy to have a friendly face, I wasn’t happy when she told me Ajax and half the club were in the waiting room. I’d hoped not to have to face him at all, but especially when I was less than at the top of my game. All I wanted to do was have him hold me. I needed his arms.
I rubbed my stomach. They told me so far, the baby looked to be fine. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost her. I smiled as she kicked my hand. I was waiting for Zara to get back then we would talk to the ER doctor and see what they’d found out. She’d gone to tell Ajax and the others I wanted them to leave.
The curtain was thrown open and Ajax stalked inside my cubicle. My heart sank. He looked ready to explode. I shrank back into the bed. He stopped. Zara gave me an apologetic smile from over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Jessica. Ajax insisted on seeing that you’re alright for himself. I’ll let you two talk for a minute while I go find your doctor.” She hurried away. I couldn’t blame her. I wanted to do the same. He came over to the side of the bed.
“Jess, why? Why did you take off? I know you were pissed and we needed to talk. But—”
“But you had to be somewhere else, like always, Ajax. You can’t seem to wait to get away from me. I’m sorry I took your truck. I was going to have it returned. Since I wrecked it, I’ll pay for a new one. As you can see, I’m okay. Now, I’d like it if you left. There is no reason for you or the club to be here. I’m not your problem anymore,” I told him coldly. I needed to harden my heart before he finished ripping it to shreds.
“The fuck if I’m leaving! You’re mine like that baby. I’m staying right here. I don’t get where you get the idea, I don’t want to be around you.”
“From you! Every time you run out the door and leave me alone. I’m done, Ajax. I can’t take this anymore. I was on my way to meet my lawyer. I’m going to have him give me an advance so I can set myself up somewhere else. There’s no reason for you to pretend anymore. Go be with whoever you’ve been seeing,” I almost screamed. I was fast losing my composure.
“Jesus, Jessica, how can you think I’m seeing someone else? I admit I’ve been going out at night, but not for that reason, baby. I’m not letting you leave me. Not now, not ever. Please listen to me. I can explain.” He looked like he was torn.
I was panting. My mind was going crazy, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. As I struggled to do so, I felt a wave of panic coming over me, very much like what had happened prior to the wreck. I fumbled for the call light. He saw my distress and rushed to the side of the bed.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I grabbed my chest. My heart was beating like crazy.
He turned and screamed, “I need a nurse!”
I lay there gasping and fighting to catch my breath. Things were going out of focus. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up.
“Jess! Jess, calm down. Take a breath. Baby, you’re fucking scaring me. Breathe!”
I heard myself gasping. In the door ran Zara, a nurse, and another doctor. As I reached out my hand to Zara, I felt myself slipping away. I gave into it. Maybe I could breathe if I did.
Ajax:
I was about to lose my mind. One minute, she’s yelling at me, and the next she can’t seem to breathe and is turning pale then red. The panic on her face almost killed me. There was nothing I could do but yell for help. As they came through the curtain, I saw her reach toward them and then her eyes closed, and she went limp. I shook her.
“Baby, baby, please wake up. Jess, don’t do this.” I turned to the doctors and the nurse. They were fluttering around her.
“Help her! What the fuck is wrong with her? You told me she was fine, doc,” I yelled at Dr. Newton.
“She was. Let us in here, Ajax. We need to find out what happened to her. Tell me what happened,” she demanded. I quickly told her the bare facts of our argument then how she reacted and couldn’t breathe. I saw the two doctors glance at each other in comprehension.
I growled. “What? You know something. I can see it on your faces.” The nurse was busy pricking Jessica’s finger and putting blood on a piece of something and then into a little machine.
A few seconds later she spoke, “Her blood sugar has dropped. It’s forty.”
“Get a glucose drip going, but first give me a tube of glucagon. We need to get that up. I want you to grab her chart. I need to see what her labs were,” Doc Newton demanded. The other doctor seemed willing to let her take over. The nurse scurried away.
“Doc, tell me what’s wrong. Why does she need glucose?”
“Her blood sugar is too low, Ajax. We think that might have been part of the cause of her wreck. She literally doesn’t have enough in her body to keep her functioning. Both her and the baby need it. We’re going to put some under her tongue to get it up fast then we’ll put a slower infusion in her IV.”
“What would have caused that? Is it dangerous?” She gave me a patient look.
“It’s not that uncommon for some women when they’re pregnant. We generally find it on lab work at a visit and work to keep the woman on a special diet. It looks like Jess is having a more extreme case. I hate to say it, but it can be very dangerous. It causes unconsciousness like you saw as well as it could cause her to have seizures.” She hesitated.
“Can she die from it?”