Chapter 32
Schmidt
“You know, I watched countless videos of your accident, but I don’t think I realize how lucky you were to get out of this car.” I eye the crumpled-up SUV and silently say a prayer of thanks. I'm lucky to have both of my girls. “How did the airbag not go off?”
“I don’t know,” she says softly.
I'm sure seeing her car like this is making it difficult for her. The events of that terrible day are probably playing on repeat in her head.
I offered to come and clean out her car by myself, but she insisted on coming. I don’t really understand why, but I wasn’t about to argue with her.
“Is there a lot you need to get?” I lead her over to the passenger’s front door and open it.
“Not really. I didn’t keep much in my car and the cops got my purse to take to the hospital.”
“The car seat is trash too.”
I lean over the front seat and open the center console. I grab everything inside of it and stuff it into the bag I brought. Then I move to the glove compartment and do the same.
When I'm finished, I shut the door and move to the back seat. There’s less glass back here and it’s generally less affected by the accident.
I grab a small gift bag and hand it to Winnie. I don’t know what’s inside, but if I stick it in my bag, it’s going to get crushed. I climb onto the seat and search the back to see if there’s anything else I missed. Then I open the trunk and grab an umbrella and an ice scraper.
“I think you might have the cleanest car I’ve ever seen.” I chuckle as I hold up the small bag of things I collected from the front of the car.
“I don’t like clutter.” She shrugs, her gaze still on the small bag in her hands.
“What is that?” I nod towards the gift bag.
“Um… It was for you.”
“Was? Am I not allowed it anymore?”
“I'm not sure.” Her brows furrow together as she nibbles on her bottom lip.
“Winnie, what’s going on?” I take a step closer to her and she shakes her head.
“Can you take me somewhere this afternoon?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll tell you after that.”
“Ok.” I watch her carefully, unsure of what she’s hiding, but I'm not pushing her.
“Would it be ok if Liliana watches Tali and you come with me?”
“Yeah, where are we going?”
“I have a doctor’s appointment. And I'm really scared to go.”
We’re led to a small exam room and Winnie climbs onto the table. She keeps nibbling on her bottom lip, making me more than anxious. I’ve never seen her look so scared.
“I'm here for you no matter what, you know that, right?” I take her hand in mine and squeeze it. Then brush my thumb over her engagement ring, reminding her I want to marry her.
She nods her head as her eyes water. I want to pull her into my arms and demand she tells me what’s going on, but I don’t think that will help right now.
There’s a knock on the door and a man walks in with a smile on his face.
“Hey, Winnie.”
He turns his attention to me and holds out his hand.
“I’m Derek Devine.”
He glances down at the chart as he takes a seat on the stool and slides closer to Winnie.
“How are you feeling?”
“Still a little sore.”
“That’s to be expected. It’s only been a little over a week. You have about ten more before you should feel completely healed. You might have some nerve damage from the skin incision, but internally you should be good to go by then. Can you lay back so I can check how your skin is healing?”
He quickly washes his hands, then comes over to check Winnie’s abdomen. I haven’t seen her wound, she hasn’t changed around me and I didn’t ask to see it. I didn’t even think about it.
“Winnie,” I whisper, taking a step closer and stare down at the four-inch incision.
“You didn’t let him see it, huh?” Derek smirks at her.
“No. He didn’t need to.”
“She’s lucky to be alive. If she hadn’t gotten medical attention for twenty or thirty minutes longer, I'm not sure she’d still be with us.” Derek takes a step back and jots down something in her chart. “Scott will be right in.”
“I appreciate him coming here so I didn’t have to go to multiple offices today.”
“Trust me, we’re happy to do it. We both try to help out patients whenever we can.
If he couldn’t come here, I was going to come to his office.
I want you to rest up and get better. You’re going to need the strength in a few months.
Call me if you have any questions. Otherwise, keep seeing Scott when he tells you to.
He’ll probably want to see you more often than normal. And he’ll keep me up to date.”
“Thank you for everything,” I say softly. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
He smiles and exits the room. We’re only alone for a few seconds before someone knocks on the door again and another doctor walks into the room. He’s pulling an ultrasound machine behind him and I frown. Is this to check her spleen for bleeding?
“Hey, I'm Scott McLaren. And you are?”
“Jamie Schmidt.” I shake his outstretched hand. My brows tug together. Jackson’s last name is McLaren. He joined our team last year and he’s an amazing short stop. I wonder if they’re related. McLaren isn't a common name.
“He’s my fiancé,” Winnie adds.
“Ok, great. We’re going to check things again, Winnie. Is everything going well?”
“I think so,” she whispers, sounding so scared.
“There weren’t any issues last week and I don’t expect to find any this week. You know this is just a precaution. I want to make sure.”
She nods her head as the first tear slips down her cheek. I scoot my chair a little closer and brush her hair away from her face. I press a soft kiss to her forehead and try to offer my support.
“I'm going to squirt the gel on your stomach so we can see if we can get a good view.”
I watch his every movement carefully. I want to ask a million questions because I don’t know what’s going on, but I'm saving them to ask Winnie later. She’s clearly terrified and I don’t want to make it worse.
I frown as Scott presses the ultrasound wand into the lower abdomen. Her injury is in her upper abdomen, why would he…
My mouth falls open as I see a little bean shaped image fill the screen and the unmistakable woosh of a heartbeat.
A slow smile spreads across Scott’s face as he checks a few things. He presses some buttons and takes measurements, then he’s printing out a few pictures.
“Everything looks great, Winnie. I want to continue checking on the baby every two weeks. Normally, I say once a month, but I want to continue being cautious, though I don’t think there will be any issues.
The baby is small enough to still be protected by your body.
If your altercation or accident had happened a few months further into your pregnancy, this could’ve been a very different outcome. ”
Baby.
The word keeps playing on repeat in my head. I can't seem to wrap my head around her being pregnant. She didn’t say a word to me about it. How could she keep this to herself?
Because she didn’t think you wanted her anymore.
My brain screams at me to not take this personally. She was doing what she needed to do and I can't judge her for it. I gave her more than enough reasons to walk away.
“Thank you,” she whispers through her tears.
“Hey, if I thought there was something to worry about, I’d tell you.
” Scott squeezes her hand. “I promise I really think the baby will be fine. He or she is growing nicely and I don’t see anything that causes worry on my end, but I’d rather be cautious and check the baby out more often than normal, ok?
I want you to call me about anything you have questions on.
If you need to call me twenty times a day, I’ll happily answer all twenty times.
I know this is your first pregnancy and you don’t know what to expect, but that’s what I'm here for. Actually…”
He trails off and grabs a sheet of paper from the chart. He rips off a strip and jots down a number.
“Derek’s going to be livid I ruined his chart.
” He chuckles. “Here’s my cell phone number.
That way you don’t need to deal with the office or after-hours staff.
Just text me or call me with any issues or questions.
I’m up all hours of the night with calls and work so you aren’t bothering me.
Plus, I can answer texts a little faster between patients, but call if it’s an emergency. ”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure she’s taking care of herself and the baby.”
I meet Winnie’s gaze when I mention the baby and she pinches her lips together as a fresh wave of tears comes.
“That would be great, Jamie. It was nice meeting you. You can contact me too. Otherwise, I’ll see you in two weeks.”
As soon as the door shuts behind him, I turn back to Winnie. She’s bracing for my anger, but she won't be getting any.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whisper, placing my hand gently on her stomach.
She barely has any sort of bump. Unless I was here and saw the baby on the ultrasound, I'm not sure I would’ve believed she was pregnant.
“I don’t know. I planned to. That was the gift we got the day of the accident… But then…”
“But then I screwed up everything.” I nod my head, squeezing my eyes shut. “Would you ever have told me?”
“Yes. I wanted to make sure there was still a baby to tell you about. What would be the point of telling you if I lost the baby?”
“Because then I could be there for you. I could’ve helped you through it.”
“I didn’t want you to feel that sort of pain when you didn’t already know about the pregnancy, especially if we were splitting up.”
“Winnie, when I found you sitting on my porch, were you planning on ending things?”
She blinks up at the sky, trying to get rid of her tears, but it isn't working. She’s too emotional right now, but all of this suddenly makes sense.
The entire accident and altercation with Oliver Sinn would be even more difficult to deal with when she’s being flooded with pregnancy hormones.
It’s bad enough to deal with even without the extra hormones.