Suddenly Carrie noticed something, a pile of blankets stacked together on the floor as if they had been piled away for housekeeping to come and take them for washing later. She slowly walked over and lifted one, not knowing why she was paying attention to them but.... A wave of dizziness washed over her at the sight of the blood on the blankets, some of them almost soaked totally. She felt herself starting to sway slightly and she jumped back, forcing herself away from the pile before she could faint. What had....
She shook her head slowly as she started to feel more and more sure
of what had happened. Okay, with how annoyed Lona was with Elmer,
especially after the head incident, she didn't see how it was possible
but.... Of course, that didn't mean that something hadn't happened between
the pair before the little incident with the head, she knew. Would Lona
have actually gone so far as to sleep with Elmer, though?
Suddenly Carrie heard voices somewhere out in the hallway,
distracting her from trying to figure out what the situation was down here.
It didn't sound like Sonny and Louis, of course, but maybe it would be
someone who could help her. She glanced through the glance, a bit
uncertain as to if she should leave or not for a moment before making up
her mind and ducking out of the room. Lona looked seriously ill and if she
had lost all of the blood that was on those blankets, then she needed some
medical attention quickly. Carrie couldn't believe that Hook and Chris
hadn't gotten her moved upstairs and hadn't stayed with her. What were
they thinking?
Carrie sighed with relief when she saw who was in the hallway, Dr.
Havens and Liz. Okay, Liz wasn't the best sometimes when Carrie was
feeling faint but she knew that the older nurse could be terribly discrete
as well as being a good friend of Elmer's dad. Surely she could help with
what was going on and keep it quiet.
"Hey!" Carrie called as she hurried towards them. "Wait a minute"
"Carrie, have you seen Dr. James or Dr. Hook anywhere?" Henry
asked as he looked up from talking to Liz and saw the young nurse hurrying
towards them. As soon as they got the patients back inside it seemed as if
the hospital had reverted to total normalcy when in the case of Kingdom
Hospital meant a crisis every minute. "I need someone to sign off on...."
"I wish I knew where Dr. Hook was. We have a problem with Elmer and Lona. I really, really need your help. Can you come down to the sleep lab? I don't know what to do." Carrie begged.
A minute later, all three were watching through the glass as Elmer fussed over both the baby and Lona.
"Where did he get that baby?" Liz asked quietly as she turned to Carrie.
"He claims it's his with Lona." Carrie told her, disbelief plainly written on her face.
"What?" Henry shook his head. "I just did an autopsy with Lona a
few days ago." Okay, maybe lab coats could hide a pregnancy to a certain
extent but the scrubs worn for autopsies and surgeries certainly wouldn't.
"Lona wasn't...." Could he have missed something, though? Okay, Elmer
could be a bit nutty at times but he didn't want to think that the young
man was that nutty to think he could just take a baby and pass it off as
his and Lona's and expect to be believed. No, after a moment he shook his
head. There was no way that he could have missed a full term pregnancy.
Liz started to speak but then stopped as her eyes fell on the
bloodstained blankets. She walked over and motioned for Henry to join her
as she lifted them slightly, her eyes widening at the amount of blood.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked quietly a moment later,
sorrow for Elmer washing over her as she thought about what had to have
happened. How much could that boy go through? Wasn't losing his mother a
few weeks before bad enough? If Lona had been pregnant and then had lost
the baby....
"She definitely could have been in the early stages." Henry said
as he looked at the blankets. And with Lona's age, the odds that there
would be a problem with the baby that would then trigger a miscarriage were
definitely elevated. He hated so much that it had happened, though.
Although he wasn't sure about Elmer's potential as a parent, especially
considering the stunt Elmer had pulled with the head, Henry felt sure that
Lona would have been a very good mother.
"What can we do, though?" Carrie asked anxiously as she looked
through the glass once more. "Elmer's totally convinced that that baby's
theirs and I don't think we're going to be able to snap him back to reality
that easily. If we can't get that baby back where it belongs soon,
though.... I really, really don't want to get Elmer into trouble."
"He honestly thinks it's their baby?" Liz asked as she watched Elmer.
"He even says its name's Emma." Carrie said with a nod. She just
hoped that between the three of them, they could think of something to do
to fix things quickly. She was concerned about all three of them, Elmer,
Lona and the baby. "And Lona just looks really sick. I think she needs to
be upstairs or something."
"Did you call his father?" Liz asked. She couldn't believe that Hook had left Elmer down here alone under the circumstances. She had warned him that they young man had problems. Apparently he hadn't listened very well, though.
"Sonny went to find him but he hasn't come back yet and I'm getting worried. If Lona lost that much blood...." Liz glanced over at the blankets for a moment before having to turn away.
"Henry, go page Dr. Hook and then go upstairs to maternity, see if
you can get someone who can keep things quiet down here to check on Lona"
Liz told the older doctor after a moment's thought. She knew all too well
about Elmer's problems and knew that they needed to be very careful in how
they handled the situation at the moment. If they weren't careful, they
could push him even further over the edge than he had already slipped.
"I'll see about going and getting that baby away from him."
"Elmer?" Liz said softly as she stepped into the room and moved towards the bed. She shook her head slightly at the sight of Elmer sitting there so obviously wrapped up in both Lona and the baby. He was definitely one hundred percent convinced that they were a family. Liz almost hated to shatter that for him but she knew they didn't have a choice.
Elmer looked up as he heard Liz call his name, surprise to see her
apparent. Well, he supposed that it was good that Carrie had got her to
come down instead of some of the other nurses that he could think of,
though. Even though Liz could be a bit gruff at times, he knew how good
she was. Surely she could make sure that everything was fine with Lona.
"Carrie told me you've had a little excitement down here." Liz thought it would be best although she hated to do it, to just go along with Elmer's fantasy at this point. "Do you want to tell me what happened? Why don't you let me hold the baby for a little bit too?"
Why in the world was everyone so interested in holding a baby all of a sudden? Elmer had certainly never seen the staff making a rush on the hospital maternity ward demanding a baby to hold before. Not that any of those babies were as cute as Emma, of course. Maybe that was it. After a moment, he reached out and slipped her into Liz's arms. Surely Lona would be okay with that. At least Liz didn't have the fainting problem that Carrie did.
"There's not a whole lot to tell. Lona went into labor right
before we got trapped down here by a quake. Luckily Hook and Chris got in
and delivered the baby." Elmer really hated to repeat what had happened,
hated to even think of how easily he could have lost Lona and Emma. "Lona
ended up losing a lot of blood but they say she's going to be fine." She
was going to be fine. Elmer was absolutely not going to let himself think
any differently than that.
Liz nodded. "Okay. Henry went to get someone from maternity down
to check Lona out to be sure. Why don't I just stay down here with you
until they come, alright? It's going to be alright, Elmer. I promise"
Liz had to struggle to keep her feelings hidden as she watched the young
man. It broke her heart to see him like this and to know what had pushed
him into this condition. Where in the world was his father? Elmer needed
him now.