Justine
Our Time Part 1
"Kevin Kinkirk" he said answering his phone. He heard nothing though. Then a deep breath, he knew that sound, when Lucy cried so hard she couldn't speak, it was the sound she would make. "Lucy, is everything alright?"
Again though all he heard was her breath. He was turning the car around before he could even think. His partner stared at him, as he hit the lights on the car. He knew he could be fired for using the car for personal business, but he knew something was wrong. Lucy had stopped calling his cell phone at work for trivial matters. Pregnancy had given her a new maturity, and no longer felt the need to call him with family affairs. His new partner had met Lucy a few times, but really hadn't got to know his young partner's wife.
What he did know that was they had been married a year and a half, she was a month away from graduating college, and six months pregnant. Kevin pulled the car into the drive way and jumped out leaving the car running.
She heard the footsteps, "Kevin?"
He could hear that she had been crying, was still crying. "Lucy!" he rushed to where she was lying on the bathroom floor. "Lucy what's wrong?" She shook her head crying, and clutched her stomach. "Come on, arms around my neck." This time she nodded her head, and lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck, and lay her head on his shoulders.
They were on they're way down the stairs, at the car his partner was leaning against it, and Annie was talking to him. They both stopped when they saw the two coming out of the garage. Kevin did not acknowledge the presence of his mother in law at the moment she was the least of his worries, "Tom, can you drive us to the hospital, fast!"
Kevin started to climb into the backseat, not for a minute letting go of Lucy, when he heard the front door open. Annie was climbing into the car as well, "Kevin what happened?"
"I am not sure." He looked down at Lucy who looked like she were dying in his arms, and back to her mother. She could not see her daughters face, but Kevin's face said enough, "Annie, wait here, I will call you when we get there." He stared her down, and finally she got out, and Tom was backing out of the driveway.
"Car 43, We've had a family emergency and will be out of commission as we will be at Glen oak Memorial Hospital."
"Copy 43."
"Thanks Tom."
"Kevin we'll get there, just hold on to that young wife of yours."
That is exactly what Kevin did. He held tight to Lucy, as she cried into his shoulders, and then it stopped, and Kevin looked at her face, her eyes were shut, "Faster Tom, she's not breathing!" Then Kevin started mouth to mouth, and she coughed. "Thank god." he let out as she continued to cough. Fear was beating through every vein of his body, as the car finally pulled up to the hospital.
The car had barely stopped as Kevin was scooting out of the door and bringing Lucy with him. Tom was racing in already to alert the desk to their arrival, Kevin was met with a wheel chair at the door, but he refused to let her go. The orderly instead led them to an exam room, where Lucy was laid down on the exam table. She was already having her blood pressure taken, and an oxygen mask put on. Kevin stood in the corner helpless, when the doctor came in. Finally someone accnknoledged his presence in the room, "What happened to her officer?"
"I found her laying on the bathroom floor, she couldn't tell me what happened, please doctor is she alright? Is the baby alright?"
"I'm sorry officer, I can only give information to family."
"This is my wife Lucy, she is 38 weeks pregnant with our first baby, she stopped breathing for close to thirty seconds in the car, and I don't know what is wrong with her. Please just let her and the baby be alright."
"OK son, the doctor replied, we are going to do everything we can for your wife, for now though, we are going to need you to step outside while we work on her. If you want to do something to help, call her OB. Do you know the name?"
"Dr. Robertson."
"OK, go to the desk and call Dr. Robertson's office and get her or him down here."
Kevin nodded his head, and as a nurse escorted him out, he watched Lucy lay on the table. They had given her a shot to calm her and now she was lying there motionless. He returned to the waiting room where Tom was still sitting waiting for him in a plastic chair. "What's wrong."
Kevin shook his head, "I'm not sure, they are checking her out right now, they said I should call her OB."
"Alright then, let's start there." Tom helped Kevin through the first ten minutes. He could tell, this was the first time something out of his control had happened to his wife. The fear in his eyes said a lot. Tom himself remembered his wife being in an accident right after their second anniversary, he had felt like the walls were caving in, and no one could help him. Young and in love, your world is centered around that one person. He wished he could tell Kevin everything would be OK, that Lucy would be fine, but he didn't know the answer. He wanted to tell him that the older they would get the easier things would get, that the longer they were married the easier it would be to handle these things, but that wasn't true. It would be harder, the moment he heard his wife was in danger, he would always turn those lights on and make the decision to be fired if it gets you to her side that much faster. And the kids, you would risk it all for any of their lives. Tom had been a cop for 19 years and married for 13 of those. Having a partner as young as Kevin was hard at first, but he liked the kid. He had all daughters, and Kevin was a good young guy. When he talked about his wife Tom was reminded of himself years ago.
Kevin hung up the phone and looked at Tom, "Thank you."
"Should we call her family?"
"I will when I know what to say to them. Oh God." he broke, and put his face into his palm, and turned away and put a fist to the wall. He kept his hand on his face, and didn't turn towards Tom, until his hand was on his shoulder, "Tom, I just don't know what I would do without her."
"Don't think about that right now Kevin, you don't know what is wrong, and so don't get ahead of yourself."
"I love her so much."
"I know, and she knows, and she loves you. We'll just sit and wait until the doctors come back out, are you sure we can't call anyone else?"
"I'm sure."
Kevin sat down and turned to Tom, "What's it like, watching them have a baby?"
"You'll know soon enough."
"I know, but what is it like? I mean she has us signed up for birthing classes, they start after she graduates, but that is physical, and for her, what is it like to be there?"
It was a new fear in his voice. The fear that only a first time father can have. "She will never look more beautiful when it is over. I mean it, your wedding day, the first time you made love, the first time you danced with her in your arms and knew there was no one else, the first time you saw her and couldn't help but ask her on a date, no matter how done up and beautiful she was, it doesn't compare with the look that giving birth and becoming a mother has." he laughed, "She won't see it, she will look at the pictures, and see sweat, and the worst hair due of her life. She will see a hospital gown. You will undoubtedly look through tears and then you will look from her eyes, to the little eyes in her arms, and know what love really looks like."
"Wow."
"But before that, just as sure of it, I am sure that she will tell you that she is in pain, and you will see it. You will look at her and a small part of your heart will break. Was this worth it you'll ask yourself. No matter how many times you see it, the moment she looks like her insides are being ripped with a butcher knife and she says she can't go any further, you will wonder. I've had three children and each time I ask myself, why did we do this to her again. Even though I know how worth it everything is, that moment that she is in tears and wants to quit because it hurts so much, you will wonder."
"I can't imagine it would be any scarier then today."
Tom looked at him, "No I can't imagine it would."
Tom's phone rang, and so he answered it, "Hi sweetie." "Good for you, is Mom home?" "Hey, I am at the hospital," "I'm fine, Kevin's wife called late this afternoon, she is in the ER right now, I am going to stay here and wait." "I will, I love you too."
"Kathy sends her thoughts and prayers."
"Do you need to get home to your family?"
"I am fine."
"How old are your daughters?"
"Megan is 10, Jenny is 8 and Allie is 6. Jenny jumped a three foot fence on her horse today, she rides and wants her own horse for Christmas, but Mommy and Daddy have had to tell her that reindeer and horses don't get along, so Santa probably can't give her a horse. Megan is my ballerina girl, and Allie loves that water, so she joined the local swim team this year." He laughed and looked at Kevin, "I remember when I thought these things would never happen to me, but I've got news, you will learn more about your kids' activities then you ever thought you'd need to know. If someone had told me" but he stopped as a doctor walked up to the two of them.
"Mr. Kinkirk?" Kevin stood and faced the doctor. He felt like child as he waited for the news. The doctor knew the scene, nervous family members, he was a seasoned professional, and so there was no use in technical terms at first. Give the status of the family member then tell them what happened. "Lucy is going to be alright." Kevin's shoulders relaxed just a little at the words. "Her body is having trouble processing the fats and vitamins for the pregnancy as she moves along."
"What does that mean?'
"It means that the body will always protect the baby, and Lucy was suffering. She has become very anemic, and collapsed today from lack of strength. When she started vomiting, her abdomen muscles tightened in a way that pressured her uterus, and made her think something was wrong with the baby. From what we can tell, she had a panic attack at that moment, and called you. She stopped breathing, because she had worked her self up and her throat got to swollen."
"Can I see her?"
"We are moving her upstairs to ICU, she is asleep. When she came in you saw us give her a shot, she is going to be asleep for a while. When you see her, she has an air tube in her nose, just to keep her breathing steady. She will undoubtedly panic when she wakes up again. We are going to allow you to stay in the room; if a patient is surrounded by people they know it will help calm them."
"What do we do to make sure this doesn't happen again, she still has three months left."
"Lucy's eating habits need to change; she needs much more protein in her diet, meats. I am going to prescribe some medicine, and Dr. Robertson is going to start scheduling weekly visits. She mentioned Lucy goes to school full time?"
"Yes, she graduates in three weeks."
"After her graduation, we are going to have to make sure she takes it easy. The less she tries to take on the easier her pregnancy will be."
"We are moving after the new year."
"No heavy lifting."
"I know, she knows this too."
"Good."
"Doctor, we can talk about this, I need to see Lucy."
"I will take you up in just a moment; I am going to sign her chart."
He left, and Kevin turned to Tom, "I don't know how to thank you."
"You don't have to, just take care of Lucy, and take some personal days for the rest of the week."
"I'll call a little later."
The doctor returned and took Kevin to a room two floors up, Lucy was asleep in a real bed, and the doctor left, as Kevin walked over to the bed. "Lucy, thank god you are OK." He lay down on the bed, and pulled her close to him. Emotionally exhausted he wrapped his arms around her, and closed his eyes. Anytime he felt movement his eyes opened, and finally hers opened too. "Lucy." he whispered.
"Kevin, what happened?" She asked scared, then she looked down, his hand was on her stomach, "The baby's OK" it was one word, and relief.
"The baby is alright. You on the other hand."
"As long as the baby is OK."
"No Lucy, I need you both to be healthy. So after graduation, you have to slow down. And we need to change your diet. Your body isn't getting everything you need to sustain two lives. The baby is taking everything; you got sick today essentially because of malnutrition. I am going to be watching you, I can't do this again, ever."
"What?"
"Lucy, I was so scared I was going to loose you, I can't tell you how scared I was carrying you out of our apartment today." Then he was in tears, "Thank God everything is ok, you are OK."
She took him in her arms, "I'm OK Kevin."
"You will be."
"Shhh. Let's just sleep, can we go home?"
"Not tonight. I'll be back, I have to call your parents, your mom saw me carry you out."
"OK, please don't leave here tonight."
"I won't, I couldn't."
Twenty minutes later Kevin walked back into the room, and Lucy was crying this time, he climbed back on the bed, and kissed her shoulder. Lucy rolled over to face him, "Kevin I thought" she took a deep breath, like the one he had heard on the phone, "I was so scared."
"I know Luce, I know. But it's over, and it won't happen again." He started rubbing her back as she lay back down, "You need to take a deep breath and slow down, you can't handle this. You stopped breathing earlier, because you got yourself so worked up. Just sleep Luce."
"I'm sorry Kevin."
He shook his head, "Shhh. I know, there was nothing you could do, we didn't know. Dr. Robertson is coming in the morning, he'll tell us more."
Her head was nodding in silence; she was falling asleep, so he continued the circles, but stopped when she rolled over, "Kevin don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't wait until I fall asleep, lie down and fall asleep with me."
She was smiling at him, she hadn't smiled yet since waking up and it was all he needed, he smiled back and lay down. She snuggled close and both closed their eyes.
"Kevin Kinkirk" he said answering his phone. He heard nothing though. Then a deep breath, he knew that sound, when Lucy cried so hard she couldn't speak, it was the sound she would make. "Lucy, is everything alright?"
Again though all he heard was her breath. He was turning the car around before he could even think. His partner stared at him, as he hit the lights on the car. He knew he could be fired for using the car for personal business, but he knew something was wrong. Lucy had stopped calling his cell phone at work for trivial matters. Pregnancy had given her a new maturity, and no longer felt the need to call him with family affairs. His new partner had met Lucy a few times, but really hadn't got to know his young partner's wife.
What he did know that was they had been married a year and a half, she was a month away from graduating college, and six months pregnant. Kevin pulled the car into the drive way and jumped out leaving the car running.
She heard the footsteps, "Kevin?"
He could hear that she had been crying, was still crying. "Lucy!" he rushed to where she was lying on the bathroom floor. "Lucy what's wrong?" She shook her head crying, and clutched her stomach. "Come on, arms around my neck." This time she nodded her head, and lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck, and lay her head on his shoulders.
They were on they're way down the stairs, at the car his partner was leaning against it, and Annie was talking to him. They both stopped when they saw the two coming out of the garage. Kevin did not acknowledge the presence of his mother in law at the moment she was the least of his worries, "Tom, can you drive us to the hospital, fast!"
Kevin started to climb into the backseat, not for a minute letting go of Lucy, when he heard the front door open. Annie was climbing into the car as well, "Kevin what happened?"
"I am not sure." He looked down at Lucy who looked like she were dying in his arms, and back to her mother. She could not see her daughters face, but Kevin's face said enough, "Annie, wait here, I will call you when we get there." He stared her down, and finally she got out, and Tom was backing out of the driveway.
"Car 43, We've had a family emergency and will be out of commission as we will be at Glen oak Memorial Hospital."
"Copy 43."
"Thanks Tom."
"Kevin we'll get there, just hold on to that young wife of yours."
That is exactly what Kevin did. He held tight to Lucy, as she cried into his shoulders, and then it stopped, and Kevin looked at her face, her eyes were shut, "Faster Tom, she's not breathing!" Then Kevin started mouth to mouth, and she coughed. "Thank god." he let out as she continued to cough. Fear was beating through every vein of his body, as the car finally pulled up to the hospital.
The car had barely stopped as Kevin was scooting out of the door and bringing Lucy with him. Tom was racing in already to alert the desk to their arrival, Kevin was met with a wheel chair at the door, but he refused to let her go. The orderly instead led them to an exam room, where Lucy was laid down on the exam table. She was already having her blood pressure taken, and an oxygen mask put on. Kevin stood in the corner helpless, when the doctor came in. Finally someone accnknoledged his presence in the room, "What happened to her officer?"
"I found her laying on the bathroom floor, she couldn't tell me what happened, please doctor is she alright? Is the baby alright?"
"I'm sorry officer, I can only give information to family."
"This is my wife Lucy, she is 38 weeks pregnant with our first baby, she stopped breathing for close to thirty seconds in the car, and I don't know what is wrong with her. Please just let her and the baby be alright."
"OK son, the doctor replied, we are going to do everything we can for your wife, for now though, we are going to need you to step outside while we work on her. If you want to do something to help, call her OB. Do you know the name?"
"Dr. Robertson."
"OK, go to the desk and call Dr. Robertson's office and get her or him down here."
Kevin nodded his head, and as a nurse escorted him out, he watched Lucy lay on the table. They had given her a shot to calm her and now she was lying there motionless. He returned to the waiting room where Tom was still sitting waiting for him in a plastic chair. "What's wrong."
Kevin shook his head, "I'm not sure, they are checking her out right now, they said I should call her OB."
"Alright then, let's start there." Tom helped Kevin through the first ten minutes. He could tell, this was the first time something out of his control had happened to his wife. The fear in his eyes said a lot. Tom himself remembered his wife being in an accident right after their second anniversary, he had felt like the walls were caving in, and no one could help him. Young and in love, your world is centered around that one person. He wished he could tell Kevin everything would be OK, that Lucy would be fine, but he didn't know the answer. He wanted to tell him that the older they would get the easier things would get, that the longer they were married the easier it would be to handle these things, but that wasn't true. It would be harder, the moment he heard his wife was in danger, he would always turn those lights on and make the decision to be fired if it gets you to her side that much faster. And the kids, you would risk it all for any of their lives. Tom had been a cop for 19 years and married for 13 of those. Having a partner as young as Kevin was hard at first, but he liked the kid. He had all daughters, and Kevin was a good young guy. When he talked about his wife Tom was reminded of himself years ago.
Kevin hung up the phone and looked at Tom, "Thank you."
"Should we call her family?"
"I will when I know what to say to them. Oh God." he broke, and put his face into his palm, and turned away and put a fist to the wall. He kept his hand on his face, and didn't turn towards Tom, until his hand was on his shoulder, "Tom, I just don't know what I would do without her."
"Don't think about that right now Kevin, you don't know what is wrong, and so don't get ahead of yourself."
"I love her so much."
"I know, and she knows, and she loves you. We'll just sit and wait until the doctors come back out, are you sure we can't call anyone else?"
"I'm sure."
Kevin sat down and turned to Tom, "What's it like, watching them have a baby?"
"You'll know soon enough."
"I know, but what is it like? I mean she has us signed up for birthing classes, they start after she graduates, but that is physical, and for her, what is it like to be there?"
It was a new fear in his voice. The fear that only a first time father can have. "She will never look more beautiful when it is over. I mean it, your wedding day, the first time you made love, the first time you danced with her in your arms and knew there was no one else, the first time you saw her and couldn't help but ask her on a date, no matter how done up and beautiful she was, it doesn't compare with the look that giving birth and becoming a mother has." he laughed, "She won't see it, she will look at the pictures, and see sweat, and the worst hair due of her life. She will see a hospital gown. You will undoubtedly look through tears and then you will look from her eyes, to the little eyes in her arms, and know what love really looks like."
"Wow."
"But before that, just as sure of it, I am sure that she will tell you that she is in pain, and you will see it. You will look at her and a small part of your heart will break. Was this worth it you'll ask yourself. No matter how many times you see it, the moment she looks like her insides are being ripped with a butcher knife and she says she can't go any further, you will wonder. I've had three children and each time I ask myself, why did we do this to her again. Even though I know how worth it everything is, that moment that she is in tears and wants to quit because it hurts so much, you will wonder."
"I can't imagine it would be any scarier then today."
Tom looked at him, "No I can't imagine it would."
Tom's phone rang, and so he answered it, "Hi sweetie." "Good for you, is Mom home?" "Hey, I am at the hospital," "I'm fine, Kevin's wife called late this afternoon, she is in the ER right now, I am going to stay here and wait." "I will, I love you too."
"Kathy sends her thoughts and prayers."
"Do you need to get home to your family?"
"I am fine."
"How old are your daughters?"
"Megan is 10, Jenny is 8 and Allie is 6. Jenny jumped a three foot fence on her horse today, she rides and wants her own horse for Christmas, but Mommy and Daddy have had to tell her that reindeer and horses don't get along, so Santa probably can't give her a horse. Megan is my ballerina girl, and Allie loves that water, so she joined the local swim team this year." He laughed and looked at Kevin, "I remember when I thought these things would never happen to me, but I've got news, you will learn more about your kids' activities then you ever thought you'd need to know. If someone had told me" but he stopped as a doctor walked up to the two of them.
"Mr. Kinkirk?" Kevin stood and faced the doctor. He felt like child as he waited for the news. The doctor knew the scene, nervous family members, he was a seasoned professional, and so there was no use in technical terms at first. Give the status of the family member then tell them what happened. "Lucy is going to be alright." Kevin's shoulders relaxed just a little at the words. "Her body is having trouble processing the fats and vitamins for the pregnancy as she moves along."
"What does that mean?'
"It means that the body will always protect the baby, and Lucy was suffering. She has become very anemic, and collapsed today from lack of strength. When she started vomiting, her abdomen muscles tightened in a way that pressured her uterus, and made her think something was wrong with the baby. From what we can tell, she had a panic attack at that moment, and called you. She stopped breathing, because she had worked her self up and her throat got to swollen."
"Can I see her?"
"We are moving her upstairs to ICU, she is asleep. When she came in you saw us give her a shot, she is going to be asleep for a while. When you see her, she has an air tube in her nose, just to keep her breathing steady. She will undoubtedly panic when she wakes up again. We are going to allow you to stay in the room; if a patient is surrounded by people they know it will help calm them."
"What do we do to make sure this doesn't happen again, she still has three months left."
"Lucy's eating habits need to change; she needs much more protein in her diet, meats. I am going to prescribe some medicine, and Dr. Robertson is going to start scheduling weekly visits. She mentioned Lucy goes to school full time?"
"Yes, she graduates in three weeks."
"After her graduation, we are going to have to make sure she takes it easy. The less she tries to take on the easier her pregnancy will be."
"We are moving after the new year."
"No heavy lifting."
"I know, she knows this too."
"Good."
"Doctor, we can talk about this, I need to see Lucy."
"I will take you up in just a moment; I am going to sign her chart."
He left, and Kevin turned to Tom, "I don't know how to thank you."
"You don't have to, just take care of Lucy, and take some personal days for the rest of the week."
"I'll call a little later."
The doctor returned and took Kevin to a room two floors up, Lucy was asleep in a real bed, and the doctor left, as Kevin walked over to the bed. "Lucy, thank god you are OK." He lay down on the bed, and pulled her close to him. Emotionally exhausted he wrapped his arms around her, and closed his eyes. Anytime he felt movement his eyes opened, and finally hers opened too. "Lucy." he whispered.
"Kevin, what happened?" She asked scared, then she looked down, his hand was on her stomach, "The baby's OK" it was one word, and relief.
"The baby is alright. You on the other hand."
"As long as the baby is OK."
"No Lucy, I need you both to be healthy. So after graduation, you have to slow down. And we need to change your diet. Your body isn't getting everything you need to sustain two lives. The baby is taking everything; you got sick today essentially because of malnutrition. I am going to be watching you, I can't do this again, ever."
"What?"
"Lucy, I was so scared I was going to loose you, I can't tell you how scared I was carrying you out of our apartment today." Then he was in tears, "Thank God everything is ok, you are OK."
She took him in her arms, "I'm OK Kevin."
"You will be."
"Shhh. Let's just sleep, can we go home?"
"Not tonight. I'll be back, I have to call your parents, your mom saw me carry you out."
"OK, please don't leave here tonight."
"I won't, I couldn't."
Twenty minutes later Kevin walked back into the room, and Lucy was crying this time, he climbed back on the bed, and kissed her shoulder. Lucy rolled over to face him, "Kevin I thought" she took a deep breath, like the one he had heard on the phone, "I was so scared."
"I know Luce, I know. But it's over, and it won't happen again." He started rubbing her back as she lay back down, "You need to take a deep breath and slow down, you can't handle this. You stopped breathing earlier, because you got yourself so worked up. Just sleep Luce."
"I'm sorry Kevin."
He shook his head, "Shhh. I know, there was nothing you could do, we didn't know. Dr. Robertson is coming in the morning, he'll tell us more."
Her head was nodding in silence; she was falling asleep, so he continued the circles, but stopped when she rolled over, "Kevin don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't wait until I fall asleep, lie down and fall asleep with me."
She was smiling at him, she hadn't smiled yet since waking up and it was all he needed, he smiled back and lay down. She snuggled close and both closed their eyes.