Chapter 22
twenty-two
IVY
“You just have to go big on everything, don’t you?” Ivy said as soon as she found Nathalie and Greer. She raised an eyebrow at Nathalie and looked her over. She really did look like shit. Ivy should have gone to see her sooner and check just how bad it was. “This is all your fault, you know that right?”
Nathalie’s lips did twitch upward at that—a good sign that she was still alive under that sickly figure. She’d lost so much weight too. Ivy didn’t like it. “Hardly.”
“Well, you put yourself in this situation. In multiple ways.” Ivy bit her tongue. From what she knew, Greer didn’t know, and this wasn’t her place to tell anything that Nathalie didn’t want shared. And from Nathalie’s pinched look, she had been right to stop herself. “What are we going to do with you?”
“They’re admitting me,” Nathalie said, lifting her arm to show the IV. “Apparently I need fluids.”
“No joke.” Ivy sat on the edge of the bed and put her hand on Nathalie’s leg. “Is that all they said?”
Nathalie flicked her gaze to Greer. “Would you go to the waiting room?”
“Yeah. Sure.” Greer picked up her things and shoved her phone into her pocket. “Just let me know when you want me back… if you want me back now that Ivy’s here.”
Ivy frowned, trying to get a good look at Greer. Was that hurt crossing her features? “I’ll be right back,” Ivy said to Nathalie, and she stood with Greer, walking with her. As soon as they were out of earshot of Nathalie, Ivy stopped her. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” Greer tried to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and it wasn’t anything like Ivy was used to. “It’s just been a long week. She did test positive for the flu, though. In case she doesn’t tell you that.”
Ivy frowned. “I’m sure she’ll tell me. She doesn’t usually hold back.”
Greer nodded, and that same pained look as before crossed her features. Is that what the problem was? Greer was purposely being shunted out of the room and out of the information and yet she’d done the bulk of the care work. “Good. I’ll uhh… go pick up Alaric from school. She said that she wanted you and Lachlan to talk to him.”
“Okay?” Ivy frowned again, still questioning what had happened that she didn’t know about. She touched Greer’s elbow and pulled her in closer. “Really, what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Greer stepped back and away from Ivy. “I’ll see you at the house when you’re done.”
“Greer!” Ivy pulled her back, shaking her head. “Talk to me. Don’t shut me out.”
“Really, I promise you, I’m fine. I’m just tired. It’s been a long week, and she’s not exactly an easy patient.”
Ivy chuckled at that. “No, she’s not.” Ivy would venture to say that Nathalie might make the worst patient, especially when she was stuck with someone she didn’t want to be stuck with. That might very well be the problem. How much bullying had Greer endured in the last week? “I’ll make it up to you. I promise you.”
“There’s nothing to make up.” Greer looked directly into Ivy’s gaze. “I was doing what anyone would do.”
“I’d venture to bet that you went above and beyond, Greer. Don’t discount what you do simply because it’s caring about someone else.” Ivy lowered her voice. “I’ll order us something for dinner tonight, okay? You and Alaric will stay with me.”
“Alaric can.”
“ You and Alaric. Sometimes you have to let someone else take care of you, too.” Ivy was going to insist on that. They needed to set off an antiseptic bomb in Nathalie’s house, and she was going to call in some people to do a deep clean before anyone went back in there.
“I’ll see you at the house,” Greer responded and pulled away. She walked down the hallway and headed out the same way Ivy had come in a few minutes ago.
Ivy watched her the entire time until she disappeared around the corner. “Damn it, Nathalie. What’d you do now?” Ivy hated the way that Greer had left, because she hadn’t figured out what was wrong yet.
Nathalie was sitting up in the bed, her knees propped up as she leaned back against the pillows. She eyed Ivy as she came in, staring at her directly. “I don’t want her to know.”
“Know what, exactly?” Ivy asked, crossing her arms, although she was pretty sure she knew exactly what Nathalie was going to say.
“That I’m pregnant. I’m not ready for that. Not yet.” Nathalie breathed heavily, shaking her head back and forth. “I can’t tell anyone yet.”
“You’re twelve weeks. There’s no reason to tell the world right now, but Greer deserves to know why you’ve been so sick lately.” Ivy held her ground on this one. Greer felt left out, there was no other explanation for the hurt that Ivy had seen, and she was being left out—purposely. “Greer is more than some random stranger on the street.”
“It’d be easier if it was some random stranger—or a nurse.” Nathalie nodded toward the curtain as if there was a nurse about to show up as soon as she said the word. “It won’t matter to them.”
“You can’t protect everyone.” Ivy softened her tone and sat back on the edge of the bed. She gripped onto Nathalie’s foot and held onto her tightly. “And Greer isn’t Alaric. She’s not going to be as hurt by this as he is.”
“I haven’t told him. I can’t. He’s already so worried that I’m going to die.” Nathalie’s eyes watered up and she looked toward the ceiling to try and control it.
Ivy had seen her do that so many times throughout the years, each time they’d come back that she was having another miscarriage, each time that she got the test results that she was positive because she swore on all things holy it’d just be another miscarriage, and she’d been right. Every single time except this one. Ivy had a good feeling about this one.
“You can’t hold it back from him forever.”
Nathalie frowned. “No, I don’t plan on doing that.” She wiped her fingers under her eyes and then cursed when the IV got in the way and made it that much more difficult. “I’ll tell him soon. But he’s so worried already.”
“You’ve been really sick.” Ivy ran her hand up and down Nathalie’s leg. “You should have told us how sick you were instead of hiding behind the fact that Greer was taking care of you.”
Nathalie shook her head, but she didn’t say anything either. They sat there in silence for a while until Ivy picked up where she left off.
“We do need to talk about Greer, though.”
Nathalie scoffed. “What about her?”
“She deserves some respect after what she did this week. She didn’t have to take care of you at all—or Alaric when he was sick for those few days. She could have just wiped her hands of it and said it wasn’t her job.”
“She’s not like that.”
“No, she’s not like that.” Ivy looked pointedly at Nathalie. “And she deserves to have you recognize that.”
“I recognize it,” Nathalie fired back.
“She doesn’t know that. She needs words, not sarcasm and resting bitch face.” Ivy pointed at Nathalie because true to Nathalie, she still had that angry look on her face that seemed to permanently be there.
Nathalie sighed and threw her head back into the pillow. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”
“I don’t think you get a choice, because it’s not like you can get up and walk out of here.”
Nathalie pinched her face. “I don’t like you right now.”
Ivy chuckled. “Of course you don’t. I’ll talk to Lachlan about everything when I get home, but we’re not going to let you treat Greer like the hired help anymore.”
“I don’t—” Nathalie sat up sharply and cringed. “I don’t do that.”
Ivy hummed. “That one got you going. Before Greer left, she said something about Alaric staying with me while you’re here?”
Nathalie pursed her lips but rested back again. “Yes. Because she’s not the hired help and doesn’t need to be watching him when I’m not home.”
“Right.” Ivy rubbed her lips together and looked around the small room. “What are they really admitting you for? Because it’s not just dehydration.”
“They’re worried I might be losing the baby.” Nathalie sighed heavily. “So they want me on bed rest—strict bed rest—for a few days before I go home on light bed rest, assuming the baby sticks.”
“Have you had bleeding?” Ivy wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to that question. They were trying to remain as positive as possible, but it was so hard, especially because Nathalie didn’t really want to talk about it.
“Yes.” Tears leaked from under Nathalie’s closed eyes. “A bit.”
“Oh, Nathalie.” Ivy leaned forward and pulled Nathalie into a hug. “You can’t keep doing this alone. You know that.”
Ivy could feel Nathalie nodding against her shoulder, but she didn’t say anything. Ivy held her until Nathalie started to pull away and then she let go.
“And Greer should know. I won’t tell her, because you don’t want me to, but you really should tell her sooner rather than later. She deserves to know what’s going on in all our lives when it’s big things like this.”
Nathalie frowned. “I’m not ready.”
“That’s fair.” Ivy sat back slightly. She raised her gaze upward before sighing. “I’ll stay until they get you admitted and then I’ll go home to be with Alaric. I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of questions, especially after last year.”
“He already does.” Nathalie frowned. “I did tell Greer about last year. Kind of.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I had an emergency surgery and was hospitalized for a few days.”
“Well, that’s the understatement of the century.” Ivy rolled her eyes. “And it fits my point exactly. You should tell her. She might be more supportive than you think she will be.”
Or perhaps that wasn’t why Nathalie was holding back. Perhaps she just wanted to keep more distance between them. Which would also be right up Nathalie’s alley because again, she couldn’t just admit that she couldn’t do life alone. She needed people on her side.
Ivy was there for three more hours before they finally had a room ready. She stayed with Nathalie long enough to get her situated and her phone plugged in and charged so she could video call with Alaric later that night. He’d no doubt want to see her. But Nathalie was insistent that he not come to the hospital that first night. It meant Ivy was going be dealing with a very stressed little boy when she got home. And probably a very stressed nanny.
Way to put her in the middle of all this, Nathalie , Ivy thought as she left the hospital and got into her car. It was a good thing she didn’t have the boys right now. Then again, maybe Alaric would appreciate having them around to play with and distract him from what was going on with Nathalie. Texting Lachlan, Ivy told her to meet her at Ivy’s with the twins and to plan for a sleepover. They all needed a bit of respite right now.
And since Nathalie was finally taking care of herself and the nurses wouldn’t let her avoid things like food and water, it left Ivy to take care of everyone else at home. The drive home was quick, but when she pulled into the driveway, she checked her phone and cringed. Abagail had sent her a million emails already, and she’d have to get to work on them first thing in the morning. The stress of that job wasn’t working out to be worth it, not in the long run anyway. She might just have to find a new job somewhere else.
But that was a problem for another day. Today, Ivy just had to focus on home and taking care of the people that she cared about. And she wouldn’t lie, she cared about them—Greer included. Seeing her hurt at the hospital had in turn hurt Ivy, and she’d wanted to fix it and take care of everyone around her.
Then again, that was her go-to, wasn’t it? To take care of everyone around her so that she could avoid taking care of herself. She wasn’t that unlike Nathalie in that way. Neither was Lachlan for that matter, or Greer. Perhaps it was the one common thread amongst all of them.
Ivy looked at the house, seeing Nathalie’s Suburban that Greer drove parked in the driveway and not in the garage. She really hoped that Greer had listened and brought Alaric to her house. She didn’t have the energy to be chasing people around today. She could do this. She could walk into that house and take care of everyone. And she could hold the boundary lines that Nathalie was begging her to hold.
She just had to get out of the car first.