"What, Will? What did they find?" Hailey raised her voice at the ginger doctor, desperately wanting to know what was wrong with her friend.
"Hailey," Will sighed, trying to calm the blond down before giving her the rest of the news. "Hailey, Katie was pregnant, that's what they found."
"What?" Hailey asked, not knowing how to respond to the shocking news, "The baby's okay, right? The baby has to be okay, Katie's always wanted to be a mom, you have to tell me that the baby is okay." Hailey frantically pleaded with Will, even though she knew what she was most likely going to hear next.
"Hailey," Will sighed before continuing, "There was too much trauma to her abdomen. She was only about a month along, maybe two, the baby was too small, it never would've survived, and even if it did survive, it would've caused more complications for Katie. I'm sorry, I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but there was no way the baby could've survived that trauma. Do you know if Katie knew about it?"
"No, I don't think she did," Hailey choked out, knowing that her best friend would be devastated when she heard the news, "she didn't know, but it's still going to crush her anyway. She's going to think it's her fault, she'll never forgive herself. Will, you have to let me tell her! I have to tell her, she won't be able to handle it if anyone else tells her, it has to be me, please Will!" Hailey pleaded, knowing that she would be the only one able to calm her friend down after she heard the terrible news.
"She's not going to react very well, Hailey, I don't know if you're going to want to see her like that, she looks really bad right now, she's hardly recognizable and the only reason she can form any coherent sentences, words even, is because of all the meds that she's on. Hailey, I really don't think you want to be the one to tell her." All Hailey did was send Will a pleading look through the tears that were streaming down her face, Will sighed, "alright, you can tell her, just be careful, she's in a bad spot Hailey." Hailey nodded in response and got herself ready to tell Katie the news.
A few minutes later Hailey had readied herself to tell Katie the news. Not knowing how she was going to react, Hailey had agreed to let Will come in with her, and to let a nurse wait outside the room with a sedative, just in case Katie did over work herself or her emotions did end up being too much for her. Taking a deep breath, Hailey knocks on the door, not waiting for a response from Katie before walking in.
Hailey never, ever expected to see Katie in the state that she was in when she entered the room. Katie was sat up, leaning against the back of the bed to support her, she had an oxygen line running under her nose, she had cuts on her cheek and her forehead that were closed with butterfly closures, and her arms were also bruised, and that was only what Hailey could see. Under the blankets Katie was even more battered and bruised, she had broken ribs and a collapsed lung, making it hard to breath, there was swelling around her spine because of all of the hits that she had taken to her back.
"Hey Katie," Hailey announced softly, not wanting to startle her friend as she entered the room, "how are you feeling? Do you need anything?"
Katie slowly turned her head to face her friend before quickly responding, "Tatum, Where's Tatum? Is she okay?" Katie started to ask, frantically wondering what had happened to her daughter.
"Hey, Hey, it's okay, you need to calm down," Hailey said, wanting to prevent her friend from overworking herself before she told her the news, "Tatum is perfectly fine right now, she's out in the waiting room, having fun with Grandpa Hank and Uncle Kevin. But I need you to tell me how you're feeling right now so Will can help you out a little bit." Hailey finished and Katie nodded.
"I feel kind of icky, everything just hurts, but my legs are numb," Katie responded, slightly worried that she couldn't feel her legs.
"Well, you have swelling around your spine Katie, you're going to have moments when your legs are numb every once in a while until you recover completely," Will spoke this time, "as for the rest of the pain, I'll give you some morphine now, but you won't be able to have some for another couple of hours." Will finished up, walking across the room to get the meds out of a drawer so she could put them into Katie's IV.
"Hey Katie," Hailey sighed, knowing it was the right time to tell her the news, "I need to tell you something," Katie didn't say anything, but just nodded, signaling for her friend to continue, "Katie, when they went to stop the bleeding in your stomach, they found something, Katie you were pregnant."
"Wha- What?" Katie asked, a fresh batch of tears rolling down her face.
"Yeah Katie, you were pregnant," Hailey continued breaking the news to her best friend, "You were a month along, maybe two at the most, the baby was pretty small, and it couldn't handle all of the trauma, the doctors tried everything to save it, but they just couldn't. There was a very, very small chance that the baby would've made it, and if it did it would've caused even more complications for you and there would have been long term effects, nothing could've been done to save it, I'm so sorry Katie."
"I- I lost my baby?" Katie asked through sobs, "I didn't even know I was pregnant, I don't know how this could've happened. It's my fault, isn't it? It's my fault my baby died. I couldn't protect it like I should've been able to. My baby's dead because of me." Katie cried in between heartbreaking, painful sobs.
"I know Katie, I know, it hurts but none of this is your fault, you have to understand that," Hailey said, sitting on the bed next to her friend, pulling her into a hug, " The only person at fault in any of this, is Noah, he should've never hurt you in the first place, this is all on him, Katie." Hailey finished, as she rocked back and forth holding her friend, doing her best to comfort her friend until the sobs died down, and her breathing evened, and that was how they sat for the next few hours, holding one another, comforting one another, and Hailey telling Katie that everything was going to be ok and that it would all work out in the end.