Chapter 34 - Surprise
Hey everyone, I should start getting these out more frequently now that I actually have plot to write for again. Also, just a note, I post updates on this story every Monday on my profile, like how far I am on a chapter, when I might be finished with a current one and anything else I'm doing related to this. Rated T for some mild language. Enjoy and if you can, leave a review. They help out. I'll see you next chapter.
As the light of Sally's phone cut through the darkness, the light's beam caught particles of dust dancing around in the air. *cough cough* Sally grabbed her shirt and pulled it over her nose and mouth in an attempt to filter out the dust as best she could and took another step inside. Even though she had no idea if this was indeed the house he had been living in, it seemed like a good bet. There were a couple of clues she saw that seemed to back up his story. For one, straight ahead in the living room, one of the boards covering a window had been moved over just enough to let a little light in and the counter had empty cans of tuna and processed meat sitting on the kitchen counter. Whatever had remained in them had dried up long ago or eaten by mice or some other pest.
While the tins of food weren't much in the way of evidence, but the board covering the window along with the one she saw when she passed by the bedroom window which had been opened in the same fashion reinforced the notion this was the place. Sally did remember him mentioning that he had been paranoid about getting caught for staying in the house, but had moved two boards, one in the living room and one in the bedroom just enough so he could open the window and let fresh air and light in. This has to be it. she thought as she shined the beam of light around the small kitchen. To her left was an old stove and refrigerator, both of which were rusted out and had to be at least twenty years old. To her right was the counters and sink and on the opposite wall were cabinets. Out of curiosity, she reached up and grabbed the knob of one and opened it.
"Son of a-!" she exclaimed and jumped backward as a mouse, startled by the sudden presence of another living being, shot toward her narrowly missing her shoulder followed by a dull *ting*. It landed with a small thud on the floor behind her and scurried away to the safety of the darkness; Sally placed a hand on her chest to calm her rapidly beating heart. "Shit!" she exclaimed from the sudden scare and took several deep breaths to calm herself down; her hand dropped down, the beam of light illuminating the floor and she saw what caused the dull ting. It was a can of tuna that had been wrapped in an old bread bag. The plastic looked like it was brittle enough to shatter with just a look; there were holes eaten in the plastic that was left, meaning mice had gotten to whatever had been left inside the can.
He used to do that to save food. Sally thought as she shut the cabinet door. This has to be his place. Any doubts she had that this wasn't quickly began to fade as she made her way into the living room. That room to, aside from some dust was clean otherwise. Aside from a dresser and a broken, dirty blue couch, it was bare. Walking a little further inside, Sally shined her light around and something to her right caught the light. Squinting, she turned and once her eyes adjusted, she saw it was a TV set.
Sally walked over to it and bent down to get a closer look, she saw that the plastic on the back of the set had melted slightly and had been taken apart in an attempt to repair it. That's the TV he tried to fix. she thought. The two boards covering the windows having been moved exactly as Sonic had told her, the empty tins of canned meat, tuna and empty bread bags which had been his diet during his time in Metropolis and the broken TV he had mentioned that caught fire were all she needed to convince her that this had been his place. And as it finally sunk in that he had lived in the house, she felt the telltale signs of tears begin to come to the surface.
I shouldn't have come here. she thought as she turned around and headed for the door. As she shoved it opened and headed for her car, the stories Sonic had told her about this place and the things he had went through began to pop up in her mind. In her mind she could see him on that dirty couch, trying to keep warm with just the thin blanket he had taken with him, or take a bath in cold water. Sally reached the car and unlocked it and got in, folding her arms across the steering wheel and burying her face into them. Now that she had seen this place, she had a visual cue to the stories Sonic had told her which made them a lot more vivid in her mind. She saw him on the couch, trying to ride out one of his many withdrawal episodes and trying to keep himself from howling in pain.
"I'm sorry." Sally said as her hands gripped the steering wheel. "I should've *sob*... should've came looking for you *sob*." In her mind she saw him stick a needle in his arm and inject his 'medicine' as he sometimes called it and she cried harder at the image her mind played for her.
"I'm sorry!" she cried out. "I didn't even try to help you. I just *sob* gave *sob* up on you! I didn't *sob* even bother to look for you- Oh God..." she trailed off as the tears came harder and faster. The jag lasted for a few minutes and once it had begun to slow down, she reached over for her purse and grabbed a packet of tissues she kept on hand and pulled a couple of them out and dried her eyes.
"NGH!" she grunted as an intense pain shot through her abdomen. Her eyes grew wide with the sudden throbbing sensation and she leaned back in the seat. "What the- NGH!" she grunted again as another bolt quickly shot through her belly; this time it didn't subside, but downgraded to a steady dull sensation. "Ngh." Sally moaned as she tried to get hold of her senses. "Nngh!" she yelped as another sudden jolt shook her.
Her arms trembling, she reached over to her purse again and grabbed her phone with one hand, the other holding her stomach and dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?" the operator said when the call connected.
Sally grimaced and let out a small "ngh" as another burst of pain shot through her again, although this one was much less painful than the others had been. "I need... an ambulance." Sally said, her breathing slightly labored.
"All right ma'am, and what's your emergency?"
"I was sitting in my ca- ngh!" Sally moaned as another burst ran through her. "sitting in my car when I started having stomach pain."
"Okay. How painful is it?"
"NGH! *sob* Bad." Sally replied through a pained sob.
"Okay and are you driving right now? Drinking, drugs, are you pregnant? Anything like that?"
"No." Sally replied.
"Do you have any other symptoms?"
"No. Ngh...!"
"Can you tell me where you are right now?" the operator asked.
"In Metropolis, on... ngh- AAAAH! *sob* on Wilson, white four door sedan."
"All right. I'm dispatching the medics to your location. Are you taking any medications we need to know about?" the operator asked. Sally could hear her typing then a beep.
"No." she replied through clenched teeth.
"All right." the operator said as she tapped a few more keys. "And how old are you?"
"18." Sally replied.
"Okay." There was a short silence followed by a series of three beeps. "Metropolis call center to EMS station 14." the operator said, followed by a beep.
"Station 14, go ahead." the voice of a man said; Sally grunted from another burst of pain.
"Requesting ambulance dispatch to Wilson street, 18-year-old female complaining of severe abdominal pain. Can you advise?"
"Checking." the man said. There was a brief pause, then he said something that Sally couldn't understand what it was, and then he began to speak to the operator again. "10-4. Dispatching Unit 31 to the area. Code 4." the man said, followed by a beep.
"Copy that. Thank you station." The sound of keys could be heard clicking over the phone then the operator began to talk to Sally again. "All right ma'am, I have a unit en-route to your location now."
"Thank you." Sally said as her breathing began to calm down.
"I want you to try to remain calm and breathe normally; I'll stay on the line with you until the paramedics get there."
Ten minutes later
*WRRRRRRRRRR* Even with the windows rolled up, Sally heard as the tell-tale sound of the ambulance's siren announced it's arrival and less than a minute later, it pulled up behind her car. "They're here." Sally said to the dispatcher.
"All right. I'm going to hang up and let them take over." the operator said.
"Thank you." Sally replied as she hung up her end and laid the phone on the passenger seat. She watched her rear view mirror as two men, one human and a dog type Mobian stepped out of the cab of the ambulance and walk around to the back. The rear doors flung open and they brought a stretcher around and began to walk toward Sally's car.
She opened the door and swung her legs out, her stomach complaining with every inch she moved but she bit the bullet and took it as best she could. "Afternoon." the human male said as he approached the car; the Mobian gave her a nod of the head. "My name's Mark and this is my partner Fred. What's going on today?" he asked. "Jeez. Forgot the portable. Be right back." Fred said. Mark nodded and Fred headed back to the ambulance.
"Well," Sally began to speak, but a quick burst shot through her. "Ngh. I was sitting here in my car and all of a sudden, I started having these pains in my stomach." she replied.
Mark nodded as Fred came back carrying a device that was the size of a lunch pail; Sally recognized it as a portable defibrillator and heart monitor. Mark nodded and walked up to her. "Alright. And are you still having pain now?"
Sally nodded that she was and grimaced as a small burst shot through her. "How long do they last?" he asked her.
"A few seconds at the most."
"Okay." Mark replied as he reached out and put an arm around her. "Let's go ahead and have you get on the stretcher. Can you stand up?"
Sally nodded and grabbed onto the door to stabilize herself, but as she went to stand up, another burst of pain went through her but she gritted her teeth and managed to walk over to the stretcher and sat down, breathing a sigh of relief once she was on it. "Can you grab my keys and purse?" Sally asked. Mark nodded and reached in and grabbed them both, setting them in a small compartment underneath the stretcher.
"Were you drinking or taking any kind of drugs? Pregnant?"
"No, no... it was just sudden- NGH!" Sally said, followed by another sharp moan.
"Okay. Go ahead and lay down for me." Mark said as he reached for a walkie-talkie hanging on his hip. "Dispatch, this is Unit 31. Request to begin transporting patient to Station Square General."
"10-4. Standby." A male voice said from the radio. There was a good 30-second pause before it came to life again. "31, request granted. Transport to Station Square General approved."
"Thank you dispatch." Mark hung the radio back on his belt. "Let's get you strapped in. Is the monitor ready?" he asked Fred as they both began to secure her with a couple of straps so she wouldn't go sliding off. "Just need to hook up the pads." Fred said as he locked the one for her legs into place. "Those too tight?" Mark asked her and Sally shook her head no.
Mark nodded and they began pushing her to the ambulance. "Ngh!" Sally moaned again as another bolt of pain shot through her. They got to the rear of the ambulance and they lifted her inside with ease, then Fred climbed in with her. "Start oxygen and get the pads hooked up." Mark said as he shut the doors and walked back to the driver's side and climbed in.
Sally heard the growl of the engine as it started up and watched as Fred grabbed a long section of clear tubing, attaching one end to a valve on the ceiling then grabbed the other end that would go around her face. "Let's get this on you." he said as he put her head through it, then brought it around, inserting the ends that delivered oxygen into her nose; once that was on, he reached up and turned a knob and a hiss began emanating from the hose as oxygen flowed through the tubing.
Once that was done, he reached into a cabinet and pulled out a good length of wire that had those sticky pads that Sally had seen attached to Sonic when he was in the hospital. Just as Fred sat down, the ambulance lurched forward, almost sending him off of the small bench. "Easy there, boss." Fred said jokingly as he began hooking up the leads to Sally and the monitor.
"Sorry bout that. I told them to take a look at the engine last time we parked it." Mark said as the ambulance turned a corner.
29 minutes later
Sally moaned as the ambulance came to a stop and the inertia threw her body slightly toward the front of the cab. Her stomach had calmed down considerably in the past ten minutes but it was far from over as another burst rang through her. Mark came around the back and opened the doors and with Fred's help, they took her out of the ambulance and wheeled her through the emergency room's back entrance.
They pushed her gurney through the automatic doors and stopped just inside at a desk where a nurse glanced up at them. "What d'ya got?" he asked.
"18 year old female, complaining of severe abdominal pain. Last BP check was 108/91, pulse 84." Mark told him. He typed the information on a computer and pointed down toward the hallway. "Exam 4."
"Thanks." Mark said as they began to push her once again. As they wheeled her down the hallway and into the exam room through a pair of large automatic glass doors, a doctor was already waiting for her, his back turned toward him looking over a small monitor in front of him on the wall. "How ya doing?" Mark said as he wheeled the gurney in, setting it in the middle of the room under a large light hanging from the ceiling. "Good. What do you got?" he asked as Fred unhooked the leads from the portable monitor up to the hospital's monitor on the wall. I know that voice. "Dr. Anderson?" Sally said.
The doctor turned around and she was right. It was the same doctor Sonic had when he was in the hospital. "Sally?" Dr. Anderson said as he tried to place her in his mind. "Yes." he said with a smile as he reached out to shake her hand, which she returned weakly; Fred unhooked her from their monitor, then grabbed it off the gurney as he and Mark walked out the room; Dr. Anderson reached over and pushed a button for the speaker on the wall. "Need a nurse in exam 4." he said, then turned back to Sally.
"I saw that you've been having stomach pain?" he asked.
Sally nodded. "It started about thirty minutes ago. I was just sitting in my car and all of a sudden it felt like someone kicked me from the inside."
Dr. Anderson nodded as he watched the monitor that was now beeping steadily along with her pulse. "Okay." he murmured, one of his favorite words Sally remembered. "Any other problems? Drugs? Drinking? Anything like that?"
"No." Sally said with a shake of her head as the nurse he had called for walked in. "Let's get her on one of the beds, then go ahead and get her a gown, start an IV and get a BP reading." he said to her as he walked up next to the side of the gurney. "Can you stand up?"
Sally nodded and very gingerly, she swung her legs over the side, grimacing as moving slowly did nothing to keep her stomach from yelling in pain. It hurt like hell to move, but she wasn't about to let someone dress her as long as she could do it herself. The nurse went over to a rolling chest that resembled a large toolbox and pulled out a gown, laying it at her knees. "We'll give you a minute to get changed." the nurse said as she and Dr. Anderson walked out of the room, pulling a curtain in front of the doors as they did. Again, she went to stand up and let out a "NGH!" as another bolt of pain shot through her. She undressed as quickly as she could then laid back down and let out a sigh of relief as the pain subsided.
"I'm done." Sally called out, slightly out of breath. When the nurse came back into the room, she was pushing one of the hospital's gurneys into the room, then grabbed a clean bottom sheet and tucked it under the mattress. Ignoring the pain as best she could, Sally gritted her teeth and stood up, transferring over to the new bed once it was ready and the nurse wheeled the other one out into the hall. Dr. Anderson walked over to the side of her bed. "Where were we..." he trailed off then shook his head as he remembered where they had left off. "Oh yes." he said with an uneasy laugh. "You said these pains started about half an hour ago?"
"Yeah." Sally replied.
"Have you had these before?"
Sally nodded. "Yeah. Happened about a week ago, but it only happened once and it wasn't nearly as bad as these have been." The nurse began rummaging through the rolling chest, looking for something.
Dr. Anderson nodded as he reached over to a holder on the wall and grabbed a pair of rubber gloves and put them on. "Can you lift up the front of your gown for me?" he asked. Sally nodded and raised it, revealing her bare stomach. Thank God I remembered to wear underwear. she thought as Dr. Anderson began to gently push on her stomach. "AAH!" she yelled; both Dr. Anderson and the nurse jumped as her sudden outburst cut through the silence.
I didn't even press hard. Could be the appendix. he thought as he set his hands on her again. "Have you had your appendix taken out?" he asked as the nurse wrapped a BP cuff around her arm. "Mm-hmm. When I was nine." Sally replied.
Dr. Anderson nodded. That's out. he thought as he pressed on both sides of her stomach, but this didn't produce the sudden yelp from her again; the nurse reached up and flipped a switch on the monitor and the cuff around her arm began to inflate. Dr. Anderson pressed around a few more times and when he pressed down on the center of her stomach just above her navel, she let out another yelp of pain. Dr. Anderson backed off but held his hands just above the same spot.
"And you haven't had this kind of sustained pain before?" he asked.
"No." Sally said shaking her head.
Dr. Anderson nodded and held his hands over the same spot. He barely made contact with her skin, and very gently began to press down, increasing the pressure slowly. Sally let out a soft moan at first but it escalated to another yelp quickly.
"Sorry." Dr. Anderson said. "I won't be doing that again, I promise."
"Thank you." Sally said breathing a sigh of relief.
Just that made her yell...?
"BP is 91/72." The nurse said as she unwrapped the cuff from her arm and hung it on a hook, then got the IV ready. In less than a minute she had it set and held in place with tape on her arm.
"That's good." Dr. Anderson said to himself as he typed it into a smaller monitor on the wall. "Nurse?" Dr. Anderson said when he turned around.
"Yes?" she said as she threw away the needle's packaging.
"Can you run down and get 30 cc's of Ketacloramide?" Dr. Anderson asked.
"Yes, Doctor." she said with a smile and headed out of the room, leaving them alone.
"Okay, I'm going to order up a blood panel to rule out anything dangerous and the ketacloramide should ease the pain."
Sally nodded. "Any idea what's wrong?"
Dr. Anderson let out a sigh. "Not at this point. It could be anything from a stomach bug to appendicitis to something more serious like a tumor, but I doubt it's anything that serious. Other than the stomach pain, can you remember anything else that hasn't been normal?"
Sally nodded again. "Vomiting and dry heaving. They just come out of the blue. But that hasn't happened in a few days."
Dr. Anderson nodded. "Anything else?"
"No." Sally said.
"All right." he said as he stood up. "I'll go and order up that blood work; they should be in here in a few minutes. Just try to relax and breathe normally." Dr. Anderson said as he got up to leave.
"Thank you. Nnngh..." Sally said, grimacing as another round of pain ripped through her.
Five minutes later
The nurse came into the room along with one of the lab tech's carrying the tell-tale white basket filled with needles, rubber tubing and vials, setting it on the gurney between her ankles. As the lab tech began to get what he needed, Sally saw the nurse had a needle in her hands and was reaching into the chest against the wall looking for something.
"Mrs. Acorn?" the tech asked.
"Ms." she corrected him, moaning slightly as a dull roar ran through her stomach.
"Sorry about that." he said as he slipped a pair of gloves on, then grabbed the vials with her name on them and a needle and laid them on the bed.
"All right." the nurse said as she wiped the IV sticking out of her arm with an alcohol pad. "This should ease the pain and help you relax." the nurse said as she inserted the needle into the IV's rubber cap and pushed down on the plunger. Sally tensed up as the injection began to burn as it entered her vein, but it was over in ten seconds as the nurse pulled the needle out, capped it and tossed it into a biohazard container on the wall and left the room.
The tech walked around to the left side of her bed and grabbed her arm and began looking for a vein, not an easy feat when dealing with a Mobian. He tapped two fingers on her arm and smiled. "There you are." he said as he dropped her arm, then reached over and grabbed the vials and the needle then picked her arm up again. Taking an alcohol pad from his shirt pocket, he wiped the area down and did his job, getting three vials in less than a minute and a half.
As the tech began to clean up, Sally felt the medication she had been injected with go to work and she smiled as any pain she had disappeared and she began to feel better than she had in days. "Thank you." she said, a wide smile on her face and her eyes half closed. The tech nodded, gave a "You're welcome" and left the room.
A few minutes later, a nurse came in carrying a small paper cup and handed it to Sally. Inside was a thick, viscous lime colored liquid. "What's this for?" Sally asked, looking at the cup.
"It's for your stomach. The injection we gave you can cause an upset stomach so this is just to counter it before it happens." the nurse said. The thickness of the liquid reminded her of paint as she put the cup to her lips and swallowed it. It had a slight chalky mint taste to it, but all in all wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. The nurse took the cup from her and threw it away.
"Do you know how long it'll be until I get my test results back?" Sally asked, smacking her lips gently to get rid of the chalky after taste.
"Let me-" *ring ring* The nurse stopped as a phone started ringing from underneath Sally's bed. The nurse walked over and bent down and retrieved it from underneath the bed where the paramedic had stashed it. "Sorry about that." Sally said as she took the phone and silenced the ringer. The nurse just smiled. "Let me check that for you." she said as she walked around to the other side of the bed and over to the intercom on the wall and pushed the button.
"Nurses station." A woman's voice said a few seconds later.
"This is Mary in exam 4. How long until the blood work for the patient is finished?"
"Checking." the voice said. After a short pause she said, "About five minutes."
"Thank you." Mary said and released the button.
"There you go." Mary said. Sally thanked her and she walked out. Alone again, she checked her phone to see who it was that had called and saw that it was Shadow. Should I call him back? she thought as she continued to stare at her phone. Nah. she thought as she turned it off and set it on the table beside the bed. She wanted to, but she decided to wait until she knew what was wrong with her before she called him or the others. If it turned out to be nothing, she didn't want to worry him or have the others rush down there all worried about her for something as simple as a stomach virus or something that wasn't serious.
"I'll check again, ma'am." the nurse said over the intercom as Sally tossed the bed's intercom down beside her. Another twenty minutes had passed now with no word from either Dr. Anderson or the nurse on the results of her blood tests. "Ridiculous." Sally muttered under her breath and went back to the 'Worm' game on her phone.
"Sally?" she heard a male voice say a minute later as Dr. Anderson finally came back, holding a paper file in his hands this time.
"Hi." she said, trying to hide the annoyance in her voice. "So what's the verdict?"
Dr. Anderson walked over to the left wall and grabbed the little stool and sat down. "Sorry that took so long. We had to run them three times until we were sure we were right. But, we figured out what's been going on with you the past couple of weeks." he said as he opened the file, read for a few seconds then looked back up at her. "You're pregnant." he said with that bluntness he had used with her and Sonic before, although there was a smile on his face as he told her the news.
Her mouth dropped open and for a second, she couldn't move or breathe as the words "You're pregnant" rang in her head. "A-are you sure?" she asked, her hands shaking.
He nodded and flipped over to another page. "Oh yes. We ran the tests three times. At first we ran a few simple tests to rule out any viruses, colds and anything life threatening. Then we found you had a high Inhibin count, which is produced by the fetal placenta. After that we ran tests for esterol, another placenta secreted hormone and found higher than usual levels along with an Alpha-retoprotein screen, a plasma protein test and a Mobian Chloronic-sondadotropin panel, all of which came back positive or with high levels as well as low iron, calcium and vitamin A, D and K levels."
Sally didn't say a word as Dr. Anderson continued to speak.
"Of course, I'd like to do an ultrasound to check for the presence of a fetus just to be sure the tests weren't false." he said.
Sally nodded and let an almost silent "Sure." escape her lips.
"All right. I'll be back in five minutes." Dr. Anderson said as he stood up.
"Wait." Sally said before he walked out the door. "Yes?" he said when he turned around.
Sally held her breath then let it out. "Nothing." she said.
A few minutes later
"Ready?" Dr. Anderson asked as he readied the ultrasound's wand over her exposed belly. "Mm-hmm." she said with a nod of the head. The nurse working the controls hit a switch and turned a few knobs, then Dr. Anderson squirted a small amount of that cold gel on her and she jumped. "Sorry." he said as he gently moved the wand around.
Even after hearing that she was pregnant, Sally still hadn't been able to wrap her mind around it. She couldn't. How can I raise a baby without a father? she thought as Dr. Anderson continued to look for signs of life inside her. He's not going to find anything. she thought as he continued. He can't. Her eyes glued to the screen. "Increase the yield to 6." he told the nurse who was working the controls and he turned a knob on the panel.
There's no- "Bingo." Dr. Anderson said, pointing to the screen. "You're pregnant."
"Congratulations." the nurse said with a smile.
"Wha..." Sally trailed off, looking at the screen. She didn't see anything that looked like a baby. "Where?"
Dr. Anderson pointed to a blob on the screen. "There. I'd say he's about four weeks along. Or she. We can test for the sex at a later date, but..." he trailed off as he wiped the gel off her stomach with a towel. "that's looks like the reason you've been having all that sickness and stomach pain lately." Dr. Anderson rolled up the wand and hung it on the machine as the nurse got up and pushed it out of the room.
Sally barely heard anything he said as she was still struggling to accept this new information. "Have you been eating well?" Dr. Anderson asked.
Sally barely heard him but she shook her head no in response. How do I raise a child without a father? she thought as Dr. Anderson continued.
He shook his head. "If it wasn't for the baby, not eating enough foods that keep your iron count up could cause the sudden pain you've been having. The fetus does absorb a lot of the nutrients the mother takes in so it's a good idea to eat foods that have extra iron and protein. You should be eating..."
This can't be right. I'm not pregnant. I'm not even showing for God's sake. she thought as her mind raced with questions, her face emotionless.
"...other than that, that's about all I can do for you for now. I'll go ahead and get your discharge papers ready." he said, then left the room.
He was back in less than five minutes, holding the yellow discharge orders in his hand. "Well, you're free to go now. I want you to take it easy for the next few days, nothing too strenuous. In case you start feeling sick, you can get some of those alkaline seltzer tablets and crackers, those should ease your symptoms. I've also written down a list of foods I want you to eat at least three times a week."
He jotted down something quickly on a pad and ripped the page off, handing it to her. "And just in case, I've written you a prescription for some Pink Bismuth and Cloratine; it's great for nausea."
Sally took the prescription and stuck it in her purse and nodded. "I'm also going to set you up an appointment at my office in two weeks. I'll have my office give you a call. Last thing to do," Dr. Anderson said as he reached over to the dispenser on the wall and grabbed a pair of rubber gloves and slipped them on. "is get the I.V. out of you."
He peeled the protective film that held it in place and with little resistance, the tube came out and he applied a cotton pad to the wound and tape to hold it in place.
"Thank you." she said as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed the spot on her hand lightly. "I'll see you in a couple of weeks." Dr. Anderson said and pulled the curtain around the bed closed. As she began to take off the thin gown, Sally peeled the little electrode pads off her body which wasn't pleasant and tossed them into the trash, then grabbed her phone from the bedside table and headed toward the nurses station.
As she made her way down the deserted hall, she still couldn't accept what Dr. Anderson had told her. Maybe he was wrong. Sally thought as she walked passed the nurses station and out the door. Tests can be wrong. Besides, he didn't look too sure himself. she thought as she walked toward the parking lot. Yeah. The tests were wrong. As she reached the edge of the lot, she looked around and remembered her car was still in Metropolis. Letting out a long sigh, she turned around and headed back to the front entrance. She thought about calling Tails or Cream for a ride, but killed the idea almost immediately. No. They don't even know I'm here and it wasn't that serious. No need to worry them with something like this. she thought as she walked toward the front desk where a security guard was working. "Hi." he said, a smile on his face. "Can I help you?"
"Hi." Sally replied, leaning against the desk which came up to her chest. "You wouldn't happen to know the number for a cab, would you? My car isn't here and I can't get anyone to give me a ride."
"Just a second." the guard said. He opened one of the drawers of the desk and plucked a small business card up and handed it to her. "Here you go." he said with a smile.
"Thanks." Sally said and turned around and headed back outside. Once outside, she took her phone out and dialed the number.
"First Street Cab." A man's voice said.
"Hi, can I get a pickup from Station Square General?" she asked.
There was a short silence, then he spoke. "Next cab I have'll be there in fifteen. That OK?"
"That's fine. Thanks." she said and hung up.
While she waited for the cab, she could still see the image on the ultrasound in her mind and laughed. She was looking at the same thing as Dr. Anderson had and she saw a lot of black and white static, but nothing that resembled a baby. Pregnant. *heh* she thought, letting out an audible laugh. I'll go get my car, pick up a pregnancy test and get this whole thing straightened out. As the cab pulled up to the front and parked, she walked over to it and climbed in. *heh* Pregnant. This should give everyone a laugh.
"Where to ma'am?" the driver asked, his body turned halfway toward her.
"Metropolis. Wilson street."
He didn't say anything for a second, then nodded his head. "You got it." he said and turned around and flicked the meter on and pulled out of the parking lot.