Page 4 of Kimbra
I go to the door, knock once, and go in. I see Madison sitting in the chair in the room. She’s a little quieter than the rest of her family but sweet and kind all the same. We exchange pleasantries. “I’m sorry Mick isn’t here yet. I know he’s on his way and should be here any minute.” I look at my other chart and realize that the other patient is probably already here as well. I stand up. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Hopefully, your husband will be here, and we can check on your little one.” Madison gives me a big smile. “I appreciate it, Dr. Hargrave. I really do.” I give her a smile and leave the room, going to my next patient in the room down the hall. I greet her, take somequick measurements, and let her know I’ll be back in a few minutes. I look at my watch and realize if I don’t start Madison’s appointment, I’ll get behind, and my nurses will hate me for that on a Friday.
I go back to the exam room and open the door to a waiting Madison. “I’m sorry, Madison, but I can’t wait to start. I’ve got appointments back-to-back today.” Madison gives me a small smile. “It’s fine. We can get started. He really should be here any moment.” I nod and point to the counter. “Set your stuff there, and I’ll help you up onto the exam table.” Madison sets her stuff down and takes my hand so I can help her.
The door opens, and I assume it’s her husband coming in. She turns around to greet him, and I can feel her go stiff. I turn around to see a man who I’ve never seen before. “Sir, I think you have the wrong room. If you—” I’m cut off by the man pulling out a gun and pointing it at us. “No, I’ve come to the right room.” He looks over at Madison. “You know, I’ve been searching for you for months.Months. Seems you all took something of interest to me when you were up on the mountain. I wasn’t too bothered that you rid the earth of that old man. Saved me from eventually having to do it. I want that box you took.” What in the hell is he talking about? What in the hell is going on? Madison asks the stranger, “What box? I didn’t take anything from up there.” He walks up to us and points the gun right in her face. “You weren’t the only one up there. It took me months to figure out it had tobe one of your people. I only figured that shit out when I saw some of the people from up there workin’ for you and that club your family is a part of. Club is a very loose word for what those weak fuckers in your family got going on. Women being able to speak their minds and involving themselves in club business is bullshit. No real man would stand for that.”
Who the hell does this guy think he is, and how does he possibly think Madison or I can get him what he wants? Madison speaks up again. “I don’t know what you want 'cause I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about. I—” He puts the end of the gun on her nose. How the hell can I help her get out of this-whatever the fuckthisis?
The asshole speaks up again. “I want you to pass on a message. You tell those fuckers you call your family that I’ll be looking for them, and they better have that fucking box for me, or I’m gonna start a war. Awaryou don’t fucking want and aren’t prepared for.” He studies Madison for a second and his eyes widen as if he’s just realized something. “Well, fuck. You’re the one the old bastard was going on about. I think I just changed my mind. You tell them to drop that box off at the split off on the road up the mountain where there’s a wood box, or not only will I start a war, but I’m also gonna take you. Yourfather,Joseph, promised me things, and I’m going to take them since you’re the reason he’s no longer here to fucking deliver.” He taps her on her forehead with the gun and looks her up and down. “I think my brotherswould have fun with you… even if you are a little bigger than we usually go for.” Well that asshole has another thing coming if he—I’m brought back to now when he taps her on the side of the head with his gun. “You’d be fucking lucky if we decided to keep you. We have contacts in the flesh trade. Let’s just say you’d never be fucking found if I sold you to them. You tell your people they’ve got twenty-four hours to get me that boxandeverything that was in it, or I’ll start collecting in very creative ways.”
He turns, and I’m begging the universe to make him leave when Madison finds her voice at the worst opportune time. “They ain’t gonna just roll over and do what you want. They don’t have what you’re looking for.” He moves so fast, turning back toward us, and hits Madison hard on the side of her head, sending her falling away from me. I try to reach out to her to stop her fall, but the fucker kicks her and pushes her down. I try to push him away, but he swings back, and I feel the gun smack the side of my face so hard I see stars.
I hear a crash, and the asshole tears out of the room. At the same moment, I hear a guttural scream come from Madison. “AHH!” I look over and see a pool of blood starting to surround her, and I know we have to hurry. I scream out the open door for help. Darius and two other nurses come running. Between looking at me and seeing Madison on the floor, Darius is fast to take action. He starts yelling directions out and tells me he’s going to grab a gurney from another room.
I know she needs to understand what’s about to happen. “Madison, we’re getting a gurney and heading up to labor and delivery. Your baby’s gonna make her entrance into this world in the next few minutes. We can’t wait.”
I try to hide my fear and concern from her, but she looks me straight in the eyes. “Mick. He—” I interrupt her as we start to hurry down the hall. “He’ll be escorted up to you as soon as he gets here. But, Madison, this is serious. We’ve gotta get your baby outnow.I’m worried, with that hit, fall, and the way you’re screaming combined with the amount of blood that I see, that you have a placental abruption. If we don’t get her out as fast as possible, she’s gonna be deprived of oxygen.”
Darius swoops in and grabs Madison as he continues to yell out instructions to the other nurses and has the receptionist calling upstairs for me. I add to his instructions, “Tell them to get type-specific blood up there ASAP and cancel the rest of my day now!”
Madison continues to scream as we get in the elevator and rush up to the labor and delivery floor.
I’m reading the monitor that one of the nurses managed to get on her in the rush. Darius speaks to Madison. “Don’t worry, Mama, you’ve got the best doctor in the hospital, and she’s gonna do everything she can for you.” The door opens, and he starts pushing the gurney down the hall so fast that I have to run to keep up. The operating room is buzzing as we get inside. Luckily, Dr. Ferro is there and already scrubbed and ready to go.He looks up at me. “You get scrubbed, and I’ll get her prepped.” I get over to the sink and start scrubbing as fast as I can. Please let me get the baby out and let them both be okay.Please. Please let them both come out of this healthy and whole.
Knowing I need to rely on my knowledge and my amazing staff, I’ve got this. She’s gonna be fine. Let’s get this taken care of now.
**********
That was the most challenging hour of my career… no, my life. To say that I haven’t been that worried for one of my patients before is a massive understatement. Watching Dr. Ferro use the defibrillators on her not once but twice will be seared into my memory. That I had to make the decisions in there that I did hurts my heart, but I know it was the only way to ensure Madison would survive.
I finish sewing her up and ask the nurses to get her ready to go into post-op. I follow Doctor Ferro out of the operating room. We both stop to take off our gloves and masks. He sighs and looks at me. “I hear there’s a room full of her family out there waiting for news. Want me to go out there?” I shake my head. “No. I know them, and she’s my patient. Hell, I have a few of that family as patients, and they need to hear it from me.” He nods. It looks like he wants to say something more, but I’m not sure I can handle hearing anything right now. I find my voice. “Thankyou for your help today. I owe you one.” He gives me a smile. “You don’t owe me anything. That’s what good coworkers do, Hargrave.” He grins at me again. “Though if you agree to take my little Lexi for a night sometime, my wife would love you forever, andthenI would owe you.” He knows just how to make things that are heavy, a little lighter, even for just a moment. “Tell your wife we can work something out so you can have a date night here soon.” He nods at me and watches me turn to leave the room and head toward the waiting room. I hear him quietly give me strength. “You’ve got this, Kimbra.” I know as hard as this next bit is, it could’ve been so much worse, and that’s what I cling to.
I step out into the waiting room and see that Mick sees me immediately and gets up to walk over to me. I meet him halfway. I give him a small smile. “Your baby girl was born about twenty minutes ago. She’s been taken to the NICU. I’ll take you there to meet her in a little bit. I have a feeling your wife was a week or so further along than we thought, which in this case is a good thing. Your daughter weighs four pounds, three ounces, and so far, is as healthy as can be expected for being born this early. All our tests show she wasn’t oxygen-deprived after…after the incident. She’s gonna have to be in the NICU for a while since she is considered premature. They need to watch her lung development and continue to monitor her for a while for any issues that may still pop up.”
I see a nurse from the nurses’ station come over and ask Mick, “Do you have a name picked out? I want to get your information in so you’ll be able to go back to see your daughter whenever you want.” Mick nods and looks back to his family in the chairs. “Yeah, we picked out a name. Her name is Mikayla Erika.” I can see that the name holds meaning for the family and that always warms my heart.
Mick looks back toward me again and asks, “How is my wife? Is she…” I take a deep breath before answering and give him the answer he needs. “Your wife lost a lot of blood before we even got into the operating room. She’s had multiple transfusions. She did have to be revived twice after your daughter was born.” He starts to buckle at his knees, but two guys are there holding him up before I can do anything. I can see the tears begin to fall, and I know I need to get it all out now. I continue, “We were able to stop the bleeding eventually, but due to the blood loss and some other complications that arose, we had to perform a hysterectomy.”
I can see Mick’s devastation, and he starts losing it more. I reach out without thought and touch his arm. “She’s alive. Focus on that. She’s in recovery. It’s going to be a bit before they have her in a room. She’s under heavy sedation right now, but once they have her settled, someone will come out and bring you back to her.”
Mick nods a couple of times and looks up at me. “Thank you…thank you for saving my world.”
I squeeze his arm again. “Your daughter is going to be ready to meet you shortly. Go and see her, meet her, and we’ll find you wherever you are when Madison is in her room. I will be honest with you. She might need some more transfusions, and we need to watch her closely for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. She’s stable for now, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep her that way.” The older gentleman holding on to Mick speaks up. “Thank you, Doctor. Thank you for saving both of them.” I nod and go back through the doors.
As soon as I’m behind the doors, I sneak into a supply closet and lose my shit. The tears come fast and hard. I let myself cry for a few minutes and then get my shit together. I walk out of the supply closet and physically run into a wall. I look up and see it’s Darius. He gives me a smile. “I figured you might need these.” He holds up a clean set of scrubs.
I take them from him and give him a smile. “You really are my favorite, you know that?”
He gives me a huge grin. “Darlin’, of course, I am. I also double-checked, and they have rescheduled your appointments for the rest of the day until next week. Your two patients who were in early labor are here. The first-timer is still early on, and the expert is sitting at about six centimeters. You go do the things I know you need to take care of, and I’ll check on both of themagain and find you with an update. I ain’t leaving you to deal with all of this alone. I’ll go check on our gal in post-op.” I thank him and hurry to the bathroom to get changed. It’s gonna be a long night.
Ben
Mike, Jackson, and I have just arrived on the labor and delivery floor. We are walking over to the tables, and I can see by his expression that Jonah is trying to contain his rage.
Jackson updates Jonah and the others sitting in the waiting room. “Cops can’t tell us much of anything. Sounds like whoever it was has some serious IT people in their corner ‘cause the feeds that are in the area where Madison was were magically all turned off for five minutes before and after everything happened.” Jonah looks frustrated. He speaks up just loudly enough for us to hear. “I think our best bet is to speak with that doctor lady before the cops do. We need to find out what she saw and if there’s anything we should ask her not to disclose to the officers. I know she knows my boys and Shane pretty well. Do you think one of them is the best bet to speak to her?” Fuck that. No one is going to talk to her without me. “Fuck no. I’ll go talk to her. She’ll listen, and she’ll give us everything she saw.” I see her over at the nurse’s desk, and I head her way. Right before I get to her, I can tell Mike has come up next to me.
Kimbra looks up as we get close to her, and I see she’s got a big bruise on the side of her face. Seeing that makes me see red. Someone touched her. Someonehurther.
She gives us both a nod. “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”
