I didn’t pay her any mind as we made our way over to triage, focusing on the patient’s chart in my hands.
Once we reached their curtain, I pulled it back. “Hello, Mr. Mitchell,” I greeted. “I’m Dr. Pierce and this is my nurse, Renee. How are you feeling today?”
He scratched his head, taking me in. “I know you. Bobby, I haven’t seen you in years.”
My eyes shifted toward his wife who was standing by his side with concern written all over her face.
“Henry, honey, that’s not Bobby. Bobby passed away. This is Dr. Pierce and his nurse, Renee. He just told you that, remember?”
He grumbled, “Of course I remember, Hazel.” Getting agitated quickly.
“Mr. Mitchell, can you tell me where you are?” I questioned, immediately feeling like the room was caving in on me.
“I’m… we’re… who are you again?”
Renee must have felt my panic, she instantly grabbed the chart out of my hands and faced him. Turning her back to me.
“Mr. Mitchell, I’m Renee. How are you feeling? A little confused, disoriented?”
I backed away, needing some air.
“Breathe, Bailey,” I coaxed on the phone with my girl. “Just remember to breathe, Beauty.”
“Aiden,” I heard Renee from afar.
“Tell me where you are?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know where I am!”
“Aiden!”
“Bailey, is someone around you? Give them the phone now!”
“Aiden!”
“I’m scared! I’m really scared!”
“I know, baby. Stay with me okay? Just stay with me.”
My heart pounded.
My adrenaline spiked.
Sweat pooled at my temples.
As panic set in.
A loud boom came through the receiver.
“Bay? What was that? Are you in a car?”
“Aiden!” Renee clapped her hands in my face, snapping me back to the present. “Holy fuck! Where did you go? Don’t do that to me! I’m sorry, I should have looked at his char—”
My phone rang, interrupting her.
I answered on autopilot, “This is Dr. Pierce.”
“Dad!”
“Jackson?”
“Dad! It’s Journey! She’s… she’s… Camila, is trying to calm her but… fuck! She’s burning up and losing her shi—”
Blood curdling screams came over the phone, followed by gasps of breath from my baby girl, cutting Jackson off.
My heart sank deep into the pit of my stomach.
“Renee, reschedule my surgeries and call Dr. Carver in. I ha—”
“Go! I got this!”
It was only then I realized we were back in my office.
How did we get back here?
“I’m on my way,” I told Jackson, rushing out of the hospital with my mind on one person and one person only.
My baby girl.
Because the alternative hurt too fucking much.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
<>Aiden<>
As soon as I pulled into the garage, I could hear Journey’s ear-piercing wails, causing my blood to run cold and my mind to spin.
I grabbed my medical bag from the passenger seat and jumped out of my car, darting toward the door to get to my baby girl. My heart pounding a mile a minute.
“I know, Little Miss… I know… Daddy’s on his way to make you feel all better, I promise…”
“DA! DA! DA!” she screeched in a high-pitched tone when she saw me sprinting through the door in the kitchen. Her chubby little arms reaching for me like her life depended on it.
Camila spun instantly with a troubled Journey in her arms. Her face was bright red and frightened. I’d never seen her so thrown off course and it stopped me dead in my tracks.
Dragging me back to another place and time.
“Bailey, you’re doing great, Beauty. She’s almost here, our baby girl is almost here.”
“What’s happening?”
“Journey’s on her way to us, baby. The doctors are getting her out now.”
“What? Why? It’s not time.”
“It’s tim—”
Monitors started going off.
“She’s hemorrhaging!” Dr. Stein shouted. “Get the baby out of there now!”
“DA!” Journey screamed, making me feel like I was losing my goddamn mind. She kicked her legs, twisting everyway she could to get out of Camila’s arms and into mine. “DA!” She crudely smacked her in the face, causing Camila to grimace with a pained look in her eyes. “DA!”
“Journey, please…” she begged, holding onto her as best as she could.
“Here, I’ll take her again,” Jackson intervened with a worried Jagger standing right beside him. Both of my boys helping Camila and my baby.
Because of me.
For me…
Journey wasn’t having it, she slapped him too. Grasping only for me from Camila’s arms. “DA!” Throwing her body backwards, she tried to get free. Choking out, “DA!”
I couldn’t take it any longer, my restraint, my sanity, my fucking conscience was burying me alive.
Watching Journey need me, want me, have to have me was enough to break me free from the chains holding