CH 4 of 5 TODAY ...
(12/7/2019)
CHAPTER 69
Katy drove the children towards Abigail's café.
"Where's mommy?" Eve asked from the back.
"She had to go to the hospital because she fell over and got hurt."
"Why?" Eve asked.
"Because she fell over in all the hurry when you had to leave school."
"Why was everyone crying when they saw us?" Halley spoke up.
"They were just worried about your Mom."
"Why?" Eve asked again.
Katy pulled the car into a parking spot before she turned to face Eve to reply.
"Because she got hurt but she's okay. Shane is with her at the hospital until your Daddy gets there."
"Daddy's coming?" Katy watched as all three girls' eyes lit up.
"Yes, he's coming home and going straight to see your Mom. Now how about we go and see Abigail and get you all something to eat?"
There was a chorus of agreement from the back of the car. As soon as the six children and Katy got inside she saw a few school parents had the same idea, trying to distract the children from what had happened.
"Katy! How are you?" Abigail said as she rounded the counter.
"Hi Abigail. We're fine."
Abigail looked behind her to see Eve, Grace and Halley.
"Why do you have the Thornton girls?"
Katy turned to the kids. "Go pick a booth and I'll be there in a minute."
The five girls ran off while Katy still held Phillip in her arms. When they were out of earshot, Abigail continued.
"I heard someone say there was a hostage taken."
"Yes, it was Elizabeth."
"No!" Abigail's hand clasped her mouth.
Katy put her hand on Abigail's shoulder. "She's okay but no one's sure what happened to her so she's gone to the hospital."
"Where's Jack?"
"Hopefully he's almost there. Shane is with her now."
"The girls don't know?"
"They know she's in hospital but that's it."
"Okay, I'll bring out their usuals. Same for your kids?"
"Yes, please."
Abigail rushed off and within five minutes, she reappeared with six plates of food and six milkshakes for the kids and a cup of coffee for Katy. The kids all dived into their food. At least they all still had their appetites, Katy thought.
Elizabeth had been laying on the hospital bed unconscious for almost two hours now. Shane had been permitted entry, although no one was telling him anything since he wasn't a relative.
Elizabeth had a canula put in her arm and she was given fluids for hydration. Her wrist had been bandaged and was awaiting an x-ray, while she had what appeared to be a fetal monitor attached to her belly. The rapid heartbeat on the cardiotocograph was enough convincing for Shane.
He had continued trying to reach Jack although his calls kept being diverted to voicemail. Another hour later and he finally got through.
"Shane! Is she okay?" Jack's voice was frantic.
"She's alright Jack but still unconscious. She's in Emergency."
"I just landed. I'm about 30 minutes away. Tell her I'm coming if she wakes up."
"She's being monitored at this stage but they are waiting to speak to you."
"I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm in a taxi now. Where are the girls?"
"Katy has them. They're all fine. Just worry about getting yourself here."
"I'm coming!" Jack said angrily before hanging up.
Jack didn't think he had been more terrified in his life as he had been in the past few hours. Time had gone slowly on the airplane and he found his knee bouncing up and down erratically as his mind turned to Elizabeth. When the plane finally touched down, Jack sighed in relief that he could finally get to his wife.
He turned his phone back on and when he was finally able to flee the plane, he rushed to a taxi. Only then did he notice his phone vibrating in his pocket and Shane's details flashed on the screen.
After speaking to Shane, Jack knew he had snapped at Shane out of frustration and desperately tried to calm himself down knowing he would be no use to anyone at that moment. The remaining thirty minutes remained tense as he watched the taxi manouver through the traffic toward the hospital. When the building appeared in site, he grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket and the second the taxi stopped he was thrusting a note in the driver's hand to cover the charge and he ran toward Emergency.
Jack rushed forward only to find Shane standing there waiting for him.
"Shane!"
"Jack! She just woke up."
Shane turned and led him back through Emergency. He waved to a nurse behind the triage desk who immediately buzzed the two men through the secure door. As they approached Elizabeth's bay, a male nurse appeared in front of Shane.
"Is this Mr Thornton?"
"Yes."
Jack raced toward him. "Is she okay?"
"She just woke up a few minutes ago. I'll send the doctor in now that you're here."
Jack rounded the corner and saw Elizabeth propped up on a bed, her head down looking at her hands, where one wrist was wrapped in a brace. Viola stood beside her, her hand on her shoulder trying to console her. Jack saw Elizabeth wipe tears away from her face.
"Beth" Jack said as he rushed to her side.
Elizabeth's head snapped up and Jack saw the bruising on her face but his focus was on her. Viola stepped away from her and as Jack got close enough he wrapped his arms around Elizabeth pulling her into his chest. He felt her sob against him, her whole body shaking.
"You scared the hell out of me, baby."
Elizabeth cried harder. "I was so scared, Jack. I didn't think I was going to see you again."
Jack felt Viola pat him on the back as she left them.
"Are you okay? Is the baby okay?" he asked quietly, still holding onto her firmly not wanting to let go.
"I don't know. They were waiting until I woke up."
Jack pulled back slightly, his hand cupping her cheek. "It's okay. So long as you're okay, we're good, alright?"
Elizabeth nodded, tears still rolling down her cheeks. Jack leant in and kissed her briefly on the lips.
"Okay, how about you relax back and we can try and speak to someone?"
Elizabeth did as she was told, still clinging to Jack's hand. He stood to move away from her to get the attention of a doctor, when he felt Elizabeth's grip tighten on his hand.
"Don't leave me, Jack."
"Of course not, Beth. I'm right here. I'm just trying to get the doctor's attention."
Elizabeth nodded and he pulled away toward the entrance to the bay and waved to the nurse who just showed him in.
"Is the doctor around?"
"Yes, he will be right with you."
Jack went straight back to Elizabeth's side, sitting beside her on the edge of the bed. One of his hands entwined with hers while the other ran gently down the side of her bruised face, pushing the hair away from her eyes.
"What happened?"
"Cassie's ex. He's crazy. He showed up at the school with a gun."
"But why were you there? It's Tuesday."
"I covered for her because Bailey was sick. He obviously anticipated that she would be there but none of it makes any sense. He's not right in the head."
"How did you get caught up in it?"
"He came to my classroom looking for her. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Did he hurt you?"
"Not at first and I thought it would be okay but he just got really angry at the end and then … he hit me in the face and then he took me back into the room and then …"
Elizabeth stopped talking, the tears now rolling down her face.
"What Beth? Tell me what happened."
"He went to hit me in the stomach and I did my best to avoid the blow. As soon as that happened there were gun shots and I thought it was him shooting me and I was so scared but it turned out to be someone shooting him."
Elizabeth began sobbing again and Jack leant over her, her hands coming up to pull him closer.
"Ssssh you're safe now. I'm not leaving you again."
"It wouldn't have mattered if you were here or not. You couldn't have saved me. It was actually better that you weren't otherwise how would you have stood back and watched him holding me like that."
"I don't know. It would have been difficult but at least I could have been there as soon as it happened."
A throat was cleared behind them and Jack pulled back to see a man in a white jacket with a stethoscope around his neck.
"Mrs Thornton and I presume Mr Thornton. I'm Dr Andrews."
Jack stood up and turned to shake the doctor's hand. "Jack Thornton and my wife, Elizabeth."
The doctor nodded as Jack moved back to Elizabeth's die and took her hand. Dr Andrews moved over to the cardiotocograph and pulled off the paper reel and took a closer look.
"So to start, probably most importantly for you, we've been monitoring the baby now for a little over an hour and everything appears to be okay. The heart rate is strong and stable so there appears to be no harm caused so far but we will continue the monitoring for another hour to be sure. Since waking up have you had any abdominal pain or cramping?"
"No. I've just had some pain when breathing in my ribs."
"Right. Can you show me exactly where you were injured?"
Elizabeth pointed out where she was hurt. The bruise from the edge of the teacher's desk was evident on her stomach and where the gunman's boot had landed on her side near the base of her ribs.
"And your wrist?"
"Yes, I tried to block his foot."
"We're organising an x-ray for your wrist now that you are awake. It shouldn't be too long. We won't be able to x-ray your ribs though because of the proximity to your baby. Considering there is no fix for broken ribs anyway beside pain medication, there is no advantage of performing an x-ray in your case. So sit tight, we'll get the x-ray done soon and then we'll decide what's happening but we will likely keep you in the hospital overnight to be sure."
"Thank you doctor."
As the doctor walked away, Jack realised his hands were clenched at his side in fury.
"Jack? … Jack?" Elizabeth's voice came back to him and he turned toward her.
"His foot?"
"Yes" she answered quietly.
Jack sat back down beside her, pulling her body toward him in an effort to calm his nerves. Elizabeth must have realised and relented, letting Jack cradle her to his chest.
"I'm okay, Jack. We'll be okay."
The following day, Elizabeth woke feeling battered and sore all over. Despite the low dose of pain medication, it seemed to do nothing to dull the aches in her body. When she mentioned it to the nurse, they came to the conclusion it was from the stress of the whole day and would go away with time and rest.
Elizabeth was due to leave the hospital that morning with a cast on her wrist as soon as the sonographer on duty had managed to perform an ultrasound, despite the baby's heart rate being monitored most of the previous night.
"It's just to make sure we haven't missed anything. Purely procedure" the doctor assured her.
Jack hadn't left her side all night except to make a few calls to check on the girls. Viola had ended up going and picking them up from Katy and Shane's place and taking them home to her place. Jack had spoken to them briefly on the phone to let them know that Elizabeth was okay. They didn't seem to be too upset since all they cared about was watching movies and eating ice-cream with chocolate sauce. At least that made Jack feel less guilty for not taking them home himself.
Jack had gone home briefly to get a change of clothes for Elizabeth and make sure that Rip was fed and okay but then he had raced back to the hospital, neglecting himself fully in the process.
As Jack stepped outside to call Viola and check on the girls, the female sonographer arrived, wheeling the ultrasound machine in and positioning it beside her bed.
"Elizabeth Thornton?"
"Yes" Elizabeth answered.
"I'm Tracy, a sonographer. It was requested that I perform a routine pregnancy scan. Is that correct?"
After going through Elizabeth's personal details, she was positioned on the bed with the cold probe positioned on her belly. As Tracey, pressed the probe down, an image appeared quickly and Elizabeth could straight away see a flicker of the baby's heart beat and felt her body relax.
"Are you finding out the baby's gender?"
"No. We want another surprise."
Tracey nodded and continued gliding the probe across the surface of Elizabeth's abdomen.
"I guess it was a surprise when you found out."
Elizabeth looked at her unsure as to what she was referring to. Then assuming she meant that her file indicated she already had three children, she nodded her head.
"Yes, we weren't exactly expecting it. My husband was over the moon though."
"They usually are when there are twins. They take all the credit for it until they are born" Tracey said with a chuckle.
At that moment, Jack walked back into the room and Elizabeth lost her train of thought for a second before she registered what Tracey was talking about.
"Is the baby okay?" Jack asked as he came to stand beside Elizabeth and stare at the screen.
Tracey looked up at him with a slightly confused look on her face before answering.
"Which one? They both seem fine. The heart beats are strong, placenta is still attached, there doesn't appear to be any bleeding or rupture of the embryonic sac."
Jack didn't appear too phased with this response but Elizabeth's mind was whirling.
"Hang on a moment" Elizabeth said, her voice coming out panicked. "There is only one" she directed her comment to Tracey. Confusion was evident on everyone's faces at that point.
"Aah …" Tracey continued gliding the probe around and Elizabeth watched the black, grey and white blobs morphing on the screen but she couldn't make out much.
Tracey placed the probe down. "I'll be back in just a minute. I will just see if my supervisor is available." Tracey handed Elizabeth some tissues and walked out of the room shortly after.
Elizabeth sat there after cleaning off the cold goo, twisting her fingers together.
"What's going on, Beth?"
"Nothing. It's fine. Just let's wait until she comes back."
"Is there something wrong with the baby? She seemed to leave suddenly."
"No, they may have just found more than we bargained for."
"What?"
To be continued …