Emma’s vision finally focused. She looked at her friend and her eyes darted around the hospital room. She turned back to Carrie, her eyes full of question.
“You fainted in the quad. Don’t you remember?” as she spoke, Carrie sat on the side of the bed. She touched her friend’s face and sighed, “You’ve been working so hard, I certainly expected this. I warned you but you’ve just been so stubborn.”
“I need to leave here. If Gramps finds out that I am here, he is going to completely freak out and head here. You know his fear for planes. He will be stuck on the road for twelve hours and that’s not good for his health.”
“Uh...” Carrie scratched her head, “I think it’s too late for that, Emma. He is your emergency contact so the hospital has already put a call through to him. He called me already. I told him the doctor’s still running tests and there is no need to bother coming down but you know your grandfather.”
Emma sighed and leaned back against the pillow. “I really just want to go home. Can you please go find the doctor? Can’t they just fill me with fluids or something through my veins so I can gain strength and head home?”
Carrie quirked a brow and shook her head. Sarcastically, she said, “Too bad you are not in premed right?”
“Go on and get the doctor already, pretty please. I know I still feel a bit ill but I'll feel better in my apartment in my own bed. You know I don’t like hospitals.”
“I’m afraid we can’t do that, Emma,” a voice said from the door. The girls looked towards it and saw a brown haired woman in the doorway. She looked like she was in her early forties and she smiled as she walked further into the room. She held a tablet in her hands.
“Who are you? You are not Dr. Simms,” Carrie said. She turned to her friend and said, “Dr. Simms is the one who attended to you when you were brought in.”
“Dr. Simms is an ER doctor. He is busy right now but your case has been referred to me. I'm Dr. Kara Kingston,” the woman stopped beside Emma.
“Okay, why did he need to refer my case to you? What kind of doctor are you? Is there something wrong with me?”
“Calm down, Emma. I will answer your questions. But first, would you rather I speak to you privately? What I am about to tell you is quite sensitive. I hope you don’t mind me calling you Emma.”
Emma held her friend’s hand and Carrie squeezed it. She looked at the doctor and nodded, “Yes, please go ahead. Carrie is my best friend. And you can call me Emma, it’s fine.”
The doctor nodded and looked down at the tablet, “It says here that you are twenty-one and will be twenty-two in three months?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“So, you should be rounding up at the university in what? Four or five months?”
“Four months. Carrie and I will be finishing then.” Emma managed a smile.
“What is your major?”
Emma sighed and she looked at the doctor tiredly, “Are you really not going to tell me what’s wrong with me?”
“Humor me, please...”
Emma shrugged and she said, “I’m doing a double major, hospitality management and business and a single minor, communications.”
The doctor nodded subtly, “That must be a workload and you don’t have any outstanding, huh?”
Emma shook her head and Carrie grinned. She said, “Emma is an honors student.”
“You have family, right? A grandfather who does not live in the state? So you live alone?”
“Yes and yes. Doctor, I'm at my wit’s end, you’ve got to tell me what’s wrong. What kind of doctor are you?”
“These questions are necessary, Emma, as I need to assess your situation.”
“And what is her situation, Dr. Kingston?” Carrie asked before Emma could.
“To answer your question, I am an obstetrician.”
“Why would I need an obstetrician?” Emma asked.
“Emma, you are six weeks pregnant,” Dr. Kingston said quietly.
