He turns his attention to me and holds out his hand.
“I’m Derek Devine.”
He glances down at the chart as he takes a seat on the stool and slides closer to Winnie.
“How are you feeling?”
“Still a little sore.”
“That’s to be expected.It’s only been a little over a week.You have about ten more before you should feel completely healed.You might have some nerve damage from the skin incision, but internally you should be good to go by then.Can you lay back so I can check how your skin is healing?”
He quickly washes his hands, then comes over to check Winnie’s abdomen.I haven’t seen her wound, she hasn’t changed around me and I didn’t ask to see it.I didn’t even think about it.
“Winnie,” I whisper, taking a step closer and stare down at the four-inch incision.
“You didn’t let him see it, huh?”Derek smirks at her.
“No.He didn’t need to.”
“She’s lucky to be alive.If she hadn’t gotten medical attention for twenty or thirty minutes longer, I'm not sure she’d still be with us.”Derek takes a step back and jots down something in her chart.“Scott will be right in.”
“I appreciate him coming here so I didn’t have to go to multiple offices today.”
“Trust me, we’re happy to do it.We both try to help out patients whenever we can.If he couldn’t come here, I was going to come to his office.I want you to rest up and get better.You’re going to need the strength in a few months.Call me if you have any questions.Otherwise, keep seeing Scott when he tells you to.He’ll probably want to see you more often than normal.And he’ll keep me up to date.”
“Thank you for everything,” I say softly.“I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
He smiles and exits the room.We’re only alone for a few seconds before someone knocks on the door again and another doctor walks into the room.He’s pulling an ultrasound machine behind him and I frown.Is this to check her spleen for bleeding?
“Hey, I'm Scott McLaren.And you are?”
“Jamie Schmidt.”I shake his outstretched hand.My brows tug together.Jackson’s last name is McLaren.He joined our team last year and he’s an amazing short stop.I wonder if they’re related.McLaren isn't a common name.
“He’s my fiancé,” Winnie adds.
“Ok, great.We’re going to check things again, Winnie.Is everything going well?”
“I think so,” she whispers, sounding so scared.
“There weren’t any issues last week and I don’t expect to find any this week.You know this is just a precaution.I want to make sure.”
She nods her head as the first tear slips down her cheek.I scoot my chair a little closer and brush her hair away from her face.I press a soft kiss to her forehead and try to offer my support.
“I'm going to squirt the gel on your stomach so we can see if we can get a good view.”
I watch his every movement carefully.I want to ask a million questions because I don’t know what’s going on, but I'm saving them to ask Winnie later.She’s clearly terrified and I don’t want to make it worse.
I frown as Scott presses the ultrasound wand into the lower abdomen.Her injury is in her upper abdomen, why would he…
My mouth falls open as I see a little bean shaped image fill the screen and the unmistakable woosh of a heartbeat.
A slow smile spreads across Scott’s face as he checks a few things.He presses some buttons and takes measurements, then he’s printing out a few pictures.
“Everything looks great, Winnie.I want to continue checking on the baby every two weeks.Normally, I say once a month, but I want to continue being cautious, though I don’t think there will be any issues.The baby is small enough to still be protected by your body.If your altercation or accident had happened a few months further into your pregnancy, this could’ve been a very different outcome.”
Baby.
The word keeps playing on repeat in my head.I can't seem to wrap my head around her being pregnant.She didn’t say a word to me about it.How could she keep this to herself?
