He’s right, though. The most pressing matter is closing out this damn series. If I can do that and steal a couple of days with Ellie, everything will be looking up.
Chapter 27
“I’ll be okay,Nonna. Leo’s bringing my nausea medicine with him when he comes.”
I’m not sure I’ll be okay, but I’m trying my hardest to maintain my facade. Since Nonna, Mama, and Leo already know I’m pregnant, it’s really only Papa I have to fool, and he’s been busier than usual lately. And coming home later, but Mama swears everything is fine. Gabri and Nikki are too busy with hockey these days to pay too much attention to me, and Teddy…I don’t know what to think about Teddy. All my energy has been spent trying to stay hydrated and keep enough nourishment down to stay out of the hospital. Mama shared that she had such severe hyperemesis gravidarum when she was pregnant with all four of us that she spent time inpatient to receive intravenous fluids.
By the midway point of the first period, though, I’m not okay, and Leo still hasn’t shown up with my meds. He’s probably waiting in line for a fresh pretzel. He always manages to sweet-talk the woman who runs the cart into using her freshest batch of dough to make his, and it always seems a little bit bigger than the ones she makes for the rest of us.
The announcer seems far away, and I manage to tell Mama I don’t feel well just before I start to see spots. Everything happens quickly after that, with some very hunky men helping me into a wheelchair and then onto a stretcher waiting outside. Papa leaves to take Nonna home, then Mama and I are alone in the back of the ambulance with a medic who quickly starts fluids that make me feel much better.
“Mama, did anyone see? I don’t want any of the boys distracted, and I don’t want them to know…”
“Nobody saw, tesoro. That’s why we wheeled you out first and took the back hallway. Papa will send Gabri a text that I’m sure he’ll see between periods, and everything will be okay. I told Papa you have food poisoning.”
“He’ll find out once he comes to the hospital!”
“We will figure it out, Elia. All you need to do is relax and get hydrated. It was scary back there, watching you slump over in your seat. You have to stay healthy for both of you now, my dear.”
Fuck.She’s right. I can ignore my own health and well-being all I want, but the little thing inside me that’s half me and half Teddy…I have to be my strongest for this little nugget.
By the time we’re in the emergency department and settled, my blood work has already come back, confirming severe dehydration. Conversations are taking place about whether I’ll be admitted, but I’m already on a bed in a hallway, sandwiched between a room that looks straight out ofGrey’s Anatomyand the door I came in from the ambulance. Apparently, the hospital is beyond full, and I’m relatively low risk to send home with close supervision and strict criteria for when to call 911 again.
“I do think it would be best to admit you, Miss Santori, but as you can see, we’re already stretched very thin. My only concern is that if you’re already exhibiting such severe symptoms at an earlystage of your pregnancy—”
“Pregnancy?” Papa chooses this moment to make his grand entrance after taking Nonna home, and my nausea comes back full force.
“Amore mio, we can talk when we get home. Elia is pregnant, she’s in love, she was planning to tell you very soon, and she doesn’t want to tell the boys and distract them from hockey, okay? Can we please let the doctor decide what she needs for tonight, and then we can all discuss?”
Seeing the confusion and hurt on my dad’s face that I didn’t choose to confide in him makes me feel even worse, as a flurry of activity shifts the focus from whether I should be admitted to a new patient being wheeled in.
“Got dropped on the doorstep, adult male, multiple GSWs to the chest, no pulse, we got him on the stretcher outside and brought him right in.”
The nice man who got my IV with no pain looks ashen, giving his report to the doctor who was just chatting casually with me. Tension in the hallway skyrockets as I peer around the doorframe to see someone doing CPR, my nurse putting in IV lines, and…blood.So much blood. They said GSW…gunshot wounds, I think. I watch way too many medical dramas. I don’t know how many times this man was shot, but it doesn’t seem good. He looks familiar, too, and like he’s a cute guy. Maybe I went to high school with him…
“My boy!”
A bloodcurdling scream startles me, sending my heart rate spiking as I realize the animalistic sound is coming from Mama, and Papa was the one who yelled.
What the…no. No, no. No.
As soon as I see Mama on her knees in the doorframe and Papa sobbing into the shoulder of the security guard holding him back, I realize why he looked familiar.
My Leo.My Leo.My fair-haired baby brother is the handsome man bleeding out on the stretcher.
“Initiate mass transfusion protocol. Someone call the blood bank and tell them it’s a bad one.”
“We need to get to the OR as soon as possible, people.”
“We’re not making it to the OR. Prepare for a thoracotomy.”
Not going to make it to the…what?Buzzing fills my ears, and black spots threaten the edge of my vision again as I sit up on the edge of the bed. I hear and see and feeleverything,but also nothing, and it’s like the world turns slower on its axis as it feels my panic. Snippets of voices cut in and out, the loudest quiet I’ve ever heard.
Hard bed, scratchy sheets, grippy socks that are one size too big, bunching up around my toes in the way that I hate.
“Ma’am, your heart rate and blood pressure are rising. Can you please lie back down? I know this scene might be distressing…”
“He’s my baby, please. Please. He’s my baby. Leonardo! Leonardo, please listen to Mama! You have to fight, my love. Please…”
