Page 35 of His to Love
“Mrs. Nash. Alexa. And I’m three months pregnant.”
“Okay,” he said with a calm tone. “So, what has you coming here today, instead of going to your doctor? I am assuming you have seen one for the pregnancy?”
I nodded my head. “I’ve been seeing Doctor Barclay,” I told him as I tried not to cry. “My back has been hurting for about two and a half hours. My stomach began cramping about a half hour ago. And when I went to the bathroom, there was blood on my panties. I didn’t want to risk the longer drive to her office.”
“How much blood?” he asked.
Patton stopped filling out the paperwork to look at me, waiting to see what my answer was. I could see the fear in his eyes and knew he really did care about this baby that I carried—a baby that wasn’t even his. He cared deeply for it.
“Not a lot. But with everything else I’m feeling, it concerned me.”
Pulling the curtain around to give us some privacy, the nurse then went to a drawer, pulled out a hospital gown and laid it at the foot of the bed. “Okay, you put this on and the doctor will come do an examination shortly to see what’s going on. Take everything off,” he said as he looked over his shoulder. “Everything.”
“Okay.” I felt the frown form on my face. “Ugh.”
Patton put the clipboard down as I stood up to undress. “Let me help you.”
“I’ve got to get completely naked, Patton.” I wasn’t going to let him see me stark naked.
Cocking his head, he gave me a no-nonsense look. “Do you think that you’ll be wearing much more than that when you have this baby in a few months, Alexa?”
“I haven’t really thought about that.” Mostly because it scared the crap out of me.
“Let me help you.” He picked up the gown, unfurling it in front of me. “Take your clothes off. This will cover you up, and I swear I won’t look. This thing ties in the back. I don’t think you can manage that.”
Along with the physical pain came the pain of embarrassment as I took every stitch of clothing off, kicking my bloody panties under my pants to hide them. “This is not what I expected to be doing today.”
“Me neither, but here we are.” He held out the gown as I put my arms through the sleeves. “Turn around and I’ll tie it.”
I felt the cold air on my exposed bottom and knew he was going to see it as soon as I turned around. “God, this is horrible.”
“I’m not looking.” His fingers grazed my skin as he tied the gown closed. “There. Now lay back down.”
As I lay down, he leaned over, scooping up my clothes. “Uh, I should do that.”
“You’re not getting back out of that bed until they say you can.” He rolled the clothes into a neat ball then shoved them into a plastic bag that he found on the counter. “I’m going to tell my assistant to go to our place to bring some fresh clothes for you to put on when it’s time for us to leave.” He took out his cell and typed in the message.
“You think of everything.” I watched him until he was done and put the phone away to look at me. “Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Coming to me, he put his hand on my stomach. “Hey, you in there. You’ve got a mommy and daddy out here who love you very much, so hang on in there. Please.”
Moving my hand over his, I felt the tears dripping down my cheeks. “You really are a daddy.”
He leaned over, kissed my stomach then whispered, “Iamyour daddy.”
The curtain opened and a man in a white coat came in, closing the curtain behind him. “I’m Doctor Flanigan. I’ve been caught up on your situation and feel fairly certain about what the diagnosis will be, but I’ll have to do an exam.”
Patton came to stand beside me, taking my hand in his. “I hope it’s not too bad.”
“We’ll have to see.” With no sheet to cover me at all, he unceremoniously pulled up the gown, bent my knees then moved to the end of the bed, pulling a big light up behind him before putting on one glove. “There’s not much leakage at this time.”
I gasped as he plunged an ultrasound wand into me. I heard a low growl come from Patton. “Hey, man. Ease up there. You can be a hell of a lot gentler than you’re being with her.”
“So, you’re one of those kinds of husbands, huh?” He nodded. “Okay. Well, I need to switch to an abdominal ultrasound now anyways.” He suited his action to his words as I tried not to panic. “You can expect more bleeding as a side effect of the exam. But that should stop by tomorrow,” He explained as he now pushed the probe against my skin.
“So, the exam put the baby in further danger?” I could tell Patton was seeing red as he asked the question.
“No. Not at all,” the doctor tried to explain, as he could see the steam coming from Patton’s ears. “The bleeding will be from the vaginal walls, this time,” he looked away from Patton and back to me. “It looks like you’re experiencing something called a subchorionic hematoma. This means there is some blood gathering under the placenta. This is fairly common, and is not likely to cause any complications with your pregnancy.” He let out a huge sigh of relief at this news.
