Chapter 21:
Bo stretched as he stood up after sitting by his sister's bed all night. Kim was in her office and he knew from the last time that he'd gone to check on her that she'd fallen asleep at her desk sometime around two in the morning. Now that the nurses were coming in to check on Kira, he figured he'd go see about getting breakfast for both himself and his wife. No one except the boys ate much of anything last evening so his stomach was definitely protesting that fact as he left the clinical staff to do their work.
When he got to Kim's office, Bo walked around to gently wake his wife who had fallen asleep with her arms draped across her desk. Brushing her hair away from her eyes, Bo leaned in to kiss his wife's forehead. When she stirred, he bade her good morning as he sat on her desk.
"Has Kira woken up yet?"
"She hadn't when the nurses came in. But it's still really early in the morning. If I was her, I wouldn't want to get up yet, either." Bo gave a grin as he joked since neither he nor his sister were known for being morning people. "Give her time. Though the minute she learns that she can't get up when she wakes up I'm sure that we'll hear about it."
Kim nodded since she knew that her husband was right. Still, as a doctor, she also knew what the fact that Kira had yet to wake up could mean.
~01~
The first thing that she noticed as she began to wake up was that her head hurt worse than she could ever remember. As she tried to open her eyes, the second thing that she noticed was that the light was far too bright. Groaning, Kira turned and blindly reached out in search of the lamp that was on the nightstand on her side of the bed. Funny, she didn't remember falling asleep with the lamp on. As she stretched out she felt an obstacle in her way. Peeking out from beneath her eyelashes, she realized that she wasn't in her own bed at home at all; instead, she was in the hospital.
Falling back against the mattress, Kira did her best to figure why she was in the hospital but couldn't remember just how she had gotten there. The last thing that she could remember was taking the boys to see Kim at the clinic and then she... She what? The harder that she concentrated, the more her head ached.
Feeling the need to get up, Kira tried to work the side of the bed only to become frustrated at not being able to reach the release for the rails that rested just beneath the bed's frame. Sitting up slowly, Kira moved across the bed so that she could try to stand up. As she did so, an alarm sounded in the room and in only a moment, nurses began to filter into her room and insisted that she sit back on the bed.
Angry at being told that she couldn't stand up without telling her why, Kira swung widely at the nearest nurse trying to hold her down. She didn't know what was going on but she never let anyone push her around. Especially in a hospital. She wasn't going to move back up on the bed until someone explained to her both what was going on and where her children were.
~01~
Bo walked through the corridors as he headed toward the parking lot as he slipped an arm around his wife. As they walked, Kim promised him that she'd call home with any word on his sister when she had it. She knew that the fact that he was needed out at the farm was the only reason that he was leaving at all. They both knew that Jebb would be back at the hospital just as soon as both he and the kids were awake and ready for the day. With Jebb here at the hospital, the rest of them will be short-handed out in the fields and the family needed to finish getting all of the crops in the ground before it rained in a few days. The Dukes didn't believe that the rain would be heavy but it would make working out in the fields more than a little difficult.
Kim gave him a kiss before he walked out and climbed into the General Lee. She was still standing by the door and watching the orange car speed out of the parking lot as she heard her name being paged overhead. She was being directed toward her sister-in-law's room. Kim was willing to bet that meant that Kira was awake now.
Hurrying, Kim headed upstairs and even if she hadn't known Kira's room number, it wouldn't have been hard to find her since she could be heard arguing with Nancy, the nurse in charge of the floor. Kim fought a smile since she believed that the cranky old nurse had met her match when it came to a battle of wills. Of course, Kira hadn't been the only patient to express her displeasure at the nurse's bedside manner. She was, however, the only one that Kim had actually seen sending the old woman backing out of her room as if she was a first year graduate.
"Kira," Kim stepped into the room and mentally sighed a bit in relief as she took in her sister-in-law's appearance. While there appeared to be some mental confusion, it wasn't at a level that she would be concerned about. In addition, she didn't see any signs of any lasting injury from Kira's car crash. "Calm down. You were brought to the hospital after you had a small accident while driving, yesterday."
"Accident?" Kira tried to remember it but she couldn't. One thing that she did know, however, was that if she'd had a car accident her boys would have been with her. "Mikey and Jay; are they alright?"
"They weren't hurt. In fact, I'm sure that Jebb will be here in a little while with them. You, I'm afraid, were hurt." Kim indicated for Kira to sit back on the bed as she continued, "Sit back and I'll explain while I take a look at you."
~01~
Jebb walked down the hall with both of his sons hoping that he would find his wife in better health than when he'd left her. He'd spent the whole night thinking about Kira as well as their unborn child. He remembered all too well all of the problems that an infant born too early would face. His sons had been a bit premature but his daughter would be lucky to make it another month before she was forced to be born. From there, only God himself knew if she would live.
Pushing the door open to Kira's room, he was pleasantly surprised to see his wife awake, alert, and speaking with Kim. Just seeing her sitting up in bed made him feel as if a large weight was lifted off of his shoulders. Kira would be alright.
As the twins saw their mother, both shouted out as they rushed forward. Once at the bed, they tried to pull themselves up onto it to join their mother. Laughing, Kim lifted the nearest little boy up and set him down on the bed beside Kira as Jebb did the same with the other little blond bundle. Jebb then quickly brushed his lips across Kira's forehead in greeting before asking how she felt this morning.
"Lousy," Kira sighed as she wrapped an arm around each of her sons. "Kim was just informing me that I'm going to be bed-bound for a while."
"It could have been worse," Kim reminded her even though she knew that the redhead didn't want to hear it. If the accident had occurred just a little further up the mountain, the car would have gained enough momentum to have caused serious injury to not only the mother but her boys in the back seat as well.
"I know," Kira acknowledged. That didn't mean that she had to be happy about being confined to her bed already though. "So, when can I go home? If I have to be stuck in bed, I'd rather it be my own."
"Kira," Kim exchanged a glance with Jebb before she answered, "You won't be going home. For both your sake and the baby's, we'll need to monitor you and the leakage of the amniotic fluid."
"You mean I have to stay here until I give birth in August?"
"Not exactly. Kira, chances are, you won't be staying here longer than, at best, four weeks."
Kira glanced over at her husband and saw that he'd already been told about her extended stay as well as what it all meant. "Just four more weeks?"
Kira had so many questions running through her head but she couldn't voice any of them. She was afraid to hear the answers. She had been worried about giving birth to her twins too early. Now it would appear that she would be delivering more than ten weeks earlier than she had even with them. Could her baby even survive if she delivered that early?
"Mumma go home?" Mikey looked up from his place next to his mother as he asked. Meanwhile, Jay leaned in closer to his mother and yawned. His father got him up too early this morning and he was still very tired.
"No, Buddy. Momma's not going to go home just yet." Kira wished that she didn't have to stay in the hospital but she knew that she didn't have the luxury of following her own desires. In doing so, she would risk her baby's life.
"I'll see to it that you have anything that you need to make your stay as comfortable as possible." Kim stood up to leave the small family alone. She knew that after everything that had happened in the last day, some time together was exactly what they needed.
~01~
Daisy walked into the bar to start the evening shift and did her usual checks as she did so; wanting to get a feel for the crowd that had already made it to the old roadhouse. From what she could see, the customers were mainly just the locals with a face or two that she didn't recognize. Grabbing her apron, Daisy got right to work and started delivering drinks and taking orders.
She had just left the hospital where she spent some time with her cousin. She was glad that Kira would be alright but at the same time, Daisy was concerned for the baby. Here she had hoped that it would be fun with the two of them being pregnant at the same time. True, Daisy was having a blast while pregnant. Shopping for baby clothes, planning her nursery, even wearing maternity clothes that showed her ever growing baby bump. Kira's pregnancy, however, only seemed to be filled with anxiety. Especially now that a spike in her blood pressure appears to have been the cause behind her cousin's car accident. An accident that may yet risk the life of the unborn Duke Girl. Just thinking about it made Daisy want to go home and cuddle up with her husband and unborn baby boy and just thank God for her own little family.
Darcy would be in just before closing since, while he had some late flights, he wouldn't be flying overnight. That meant that tonight she would be able to snuggle with her husband for the first time all week. All of the night flights were starting to get on her nerves but she did understand why Darcy took so many of them. He wanted to make sure that she and the baby had everything that they needed. Especially since Daisy had begun to think about how nice it would be to stay home with the baby for a while after their son was born. Still, it would be nice to have her husband home more than two or three nights a week.
By the end of the night, Daisy found herself slipping off to sit down whenever she could and was grateful that with it being in the middle of the week the bar wasn't all that busy. She was also glad that Boss had gone home early tonight which meant she didn't have to look over her shoulder every time she took a few moments to sit down to rest her tired and worn out feet. Not to mention to rest her back, as well. She was rubbing the back of her calves when Darcy walked in.
"I thought you would have stopped wearing those heels of yours by now," Darcy said as he bent down to kiss his wife.
"What made you think that?" Daisy grinned even though she knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to wear her iconic heels to work anymore. She'd have to reserve them for the days that she didn't work for the rest of her pregnancy for as long as she could wear them.
"Maybe the fact that your feet have been killing you every day by the time you get home. Besides, what did Kim say when you asked her about wearing them things while you're pregnant?"
"She said that it wouldn't hurt to wear them as long as I was still comfortable wearing them for a while, yet."
"You don't look like you're all that comfortable wearing them, to me."
Daisy gave her husband a cross look but couldn't deny that her feet were killing her.
"Hey, Daisy," Steve the bartender hollered from across the bar. "If you want, we're almost done here. Why don't you head on out of here? We'll take care of locking up."
Daisy looked around at the nearly empty bar before gave Steve a grateful smile and agreed to head out for the night. She had less than an hour left of her shift and she was looking forward having Darcy home with no flights at all for two full days.