Chapter 7

It was 2am and the room was dark only lit by the street light that shone through the blinds in the window. The constant beeping of the machines that monitor Steph's vitals was drilling a hole in Ranger's brain.

The chair that he had been sitting around the clock for the last ten days has begun to sink and the springs were bulging out and digging into his ass. There were 32- 16x16 rectangle tiles on the roof and 48 vertical stripes on each wall. He had read three books, worked on business contracts on his laptop, completed two crossword puzzle books and watched more TV than he had EVER had. But he would never think of leaving this room until she woke up.

He had only stepped out daily for an hour to shower and dress. But most of my time he spent it just staring at her, holding her hand and caressing her cheeks. Which is what he was doing right this minute.

All of a sudden he felt her move her hand in his. He looked frantic and saw that she was trying to open her eyes.

"Babe?" He whispered. "I'm here its ok. Open your eyes for me."

She started to rub his hand. "Come on baby, try to open them, I want to see those beautiful blue eyes."

She slowly fluttered them open. His heart was pounding in his chest. His palms were sweaty.

"Hey there, how you feeling tiger?" He asked in the sweetest whisper.

"W… hmmm … water." She said in a husky voice. He reached over the table and poured some ice chips in a cup and filled it with water. He pressed the straw on to her lips and she took a few sips.

"Hey slow down, He don't want you to get sick. You haven't had anything in your stomach in to weeks."

She nodded. "I'm just thirsty." She was staring. Those beautiful eyes were looking at me and they were filled with confusion and pain.

"Let me get the Dr. or the nurse, they should know you're awake." He opened the door and softly got the nurse's attention without stepping out of the room. He didn't want to leave her alone, not even for a second. The Dr. came in right away.

"Nice for you to join us Ms. Plum, everyone has been worried sick about you." She cooed. "How do you feel?"

"Sore, achy, I have a headache, the right side of my torso hurts and I have cramps. Other than that I'm just peachy." She smiled. God it was good to see her smile.

"Ok. Well let me examine you. Mr. Manoso could you excuse us?"

"Its ok if he stays. He's a friend of mine, and I rather he stay." Steph looked at me and my heart thumped harder.

"Yes of course. But I do have to do a pelvic exam, are you both comfortable with that?"

"Its ok with me, you don't have to stay if you don't want to Ranger." She said with pleading eyes. A pelvic… oh lord. But she wanted him to stay.

"No, I'll stay here." At this time he realized he was holding her hand because she squeezed it.

"Thank you" She whispered.

"Ok, well Ms. Plum you suffered severed injuries. Starting with a broken right arm, three broken ribs which punctured your lung, broken collar bone, internally you also suffered some damage to organs which were repaired with surgery. Now… He was informed you know about the miscarriage." At this Steph's eyes began to tear and she squeezed his hand harder. He used his other hand to caress her cheek.

"I'm sorry Ms. Plum but it was instantaneous. By the time you arrived at the ER it was too late."

Steph just looked at the Dr. but she didn't say a word. He couldn't imagine what he could say.

"I'm going to have to perform a pelvic exam and an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok down there." Steph turned her face away from us and He could see her chest tremble as she cried.

"Hey… you're going to be ok. The Dr. has to do this, but I'm sure it's going to be fine." He said and she turned and he wiped the tears away.

The Dr. explained to them what she was going to do. As she started he could feel Steph's body tense and more tears started coming.

"Ms. Plum everything seems fine… I don't see why you should not be able to have normal pregnancies in the future." Steph didn't respond.

"Thank you Dr. we'll call you if we have any further questions." He said as the Dr. walked out of the room. He turned to look at Steph.

"Hey Babe…" He said giving her the full two hundred watt smile.