Dr. Hanson was waiting for her the last time she emerged from the restroom. "Are you all right?" she asked.

Jo shook her head. "I think I'm gonna have to go home. I'm too sick to keep on working."

"I'll give you some Phenergan," Dr. Hanson offered. "But don't take it until you get home. It'll make you too sleepy to drive."

"Thank you," Jo gasped.

Somehow she made it home and took the medication Dr. Hanson had given her, which helped for awhile, but then the vomiting returned. By the time Doug called her, she was so weak and dehydrated that she could hardly talk to him.

"I'm coming right over," he told her. He arrived within moments and rushed her to the hospital, where she was admitted right away and put on an IV. Doug dropped Jamie off at Taylor's house on the way to the hospital.

"You have what is called hyperemesis gravidarum," the emergency room physician told Jo. "You're going to have to stay here for a few days, until we can get your electrolytes back into balance."

"Drat!" Jo complained. "Now I'll have to see whether Jamie can stay with Taylor for a few days."

"If she can't, I could ask Grace," Doug offered.

"But Jamie doesn't even know her!" Jo exclaimed. "And I've only met her once!"

"Well, I've known her for twenty-three years," Doug said. "Clay's been left in her care many times, and nothing's ever happened to him."

"I'd still feel more comfortable asking Taylor's Mom, since I've been knowing her longer," Jo replied. Fortunately, Taylor's mother agreed to keep Jamie until Jo was released from the hospital, so she was able to put that worry to rest.

"Now all you have to worry about is getting better," Doug said as he brushed the hair back from her forehead with his fingers.

The medications they were giving her through her IV were making her very sleepy, so she was only vaguely aware of his presence for most of the evening. He stayed until visiting hours were over and then left, gently kissing her forehead and promising to return after work the following evening.

Jo felt much better the next day. She watched TV all night and then took a short nap, and after she awakened, she began to feel lonely and bored. At last, to her joy, Doug arrived.

"Hey, sweetie!" he exclaimed, giving her a warm embrace.

"I've never been so glad to see you," she murmured, burying her face in his shirt.

"Aw, darlin,'" he chuckled, rubbing her back. "How you been?"

"A lot better today," she told him. "I was able to keep some soup down at lunchtime."

"That's great!" he said.

"So how has your day been?" she asked. In jeans and a checked flannel shirt, she thought he looked ever so cuddly. She wished that she were sitting beside him on the sofa watching TV instead of lying in a hospital bed.

"It was all right," he told her. "I was worried about you all day, of course."

She smiled. "How's Clay?"

Doug sighed. "Still about the same. I told him what happened to you this morning. He didn't have much to say about it." In truth, Clay had made a snide remark about the situation, but Doug wasn't going to tell Jo that.

He stayed until visiting hours were over that evening as well, talking, watching TV, and even playing a card game or two.

"I'm so glad to see you're more back to your normal self again," he told her before leaving. "You were so sick yesterday. It really scared me."

"Yeah. I know," Jo agreed. "It was worse than that time I got food poisoning after eating a salad at K Mart."

"Well, I need to be headin' on home," he told her. "Good-bye, sweetie. I love you." He embraced her and softly kissed her lips.

"I love you, too," she told him.

She did so well the following day that the physician told her she could go home after lunch. She took a cab home and then called Doug's house and Taylor's house and left messages that she was home.

She turned on her computer to find three days' worth of unanswered email, ninety percent of which was advertisements. Once she'd deleted those, she noticed that there were three emails from her mother and felt guilty. She hadn't even told her mother about her pregnancy yet. She'd felt a knot of anxiety twist in her stomach every time she'd even thought about it. She knew she'd have to tell her eventually, but so far it had just been so much easier to keep putting it off.

She was still sitting at the computer wondering what to do when Jamie arrived home, having been driven to the apartment by Taylor's mother. "Mom!" the girl exclaimed, embracing Jo. "Are you all right?"

"I'm a lot better now, honey," Jo told her. "I'm just gonna have to take things easy for awhile."

"I'll do the cooking," Jamie offered.

"Thank you, sweetie," Jo said.

Dinner was a bit crunchy, but edible. Doug called shortly after the last dish had been put away. Jo heard the panic in his voice and immediately became alarmed.

"Clay's gone," he said in a shaky voice. "I can't find him anywhere!"