Page 91 of Theirs to Take

“Millie, it’s time to wake up,” Ranger insisted.

“Just five more minutes,” she begged. “My head hurts.”

“Shit,” Ranger grumbled. “Millie, you need to wake up now, honey,” he said.

“Can’t open my eyes,” she grumbled. “Hurts too much.”

“That’s it,” he said, “I’m taking you to the hospital.” He pocketed the key that her neighbor gave him and picked Millie up, noticing her belly. She was really pregnant with his baby andthere would be no denying it now. He cradled her against his chest and walked with her out of her apartment. Ranger shut and locked her front door and carried her to his pickup truck. He got her settled, making sure that she was buckled in, and then rounded his truck to get into the driver’s seat. He programmed the closest hospital into his GPS and pulled out of the parking lot.

“We’ll be to the hospital in just ten minutes, honey,” he promised. “Just hold on.”

“Head hurts,” she repeated.

“I know, Millie,” he said, taking her hand into his own. “We’re going to get you all fixed up.” She seemed so helpless, all he wanted to do was take care of her. He planned on going into her place, apologizing to her, and then asking her a million questions about why she left without telling him about the baby. She was all alone in the world, and she didn’t have to be. Instead, he found her in pain and all he wanted now was for everything to be all right with both her and the baby.

He found the entrance to the ER and pulled right up to the front door. He got out of his truck and shouted at the security guard manning the front door. “I have a pregnant woman here and she’s in distress. I need a wheelchair or a bed.” The guard disappeared into the building and came back out with two other people who Ranger assumed were nurses or doctors, and a gurney.

“Let’s get her up onto the gurney and we’ll take her from there.” He panicked thinking that they might not let him go in with her.

“Can I be with her?” he asked. “I don’t want to leave her. The baby is mine,” Ranger said. Saying those words out loud for the first time really threw him off kilter. He was going to be a father and seeing Millie made that all too clear.

“You can come in with her, but you might not be able to stay for all of the tests that we have to run. Right now, we need to take her vitals. You can park over there and come in to join her. What’s her name?”

“Her name is Millie Jenkins,” he said. “Please, help her.”

“We’ll do our best,” one of the nurses promised. He parked his car and then followed them into the ER. They wheeled her into a cubical that barely fit the gurney in, let alone him, two nurses, and a doctor.

“Millie, I’m Dr. Drew. Can you open your eyes for me and tell me what’s going on?” They were hooking her up to a bunch of machines and suddenly a loud whooshing sound filled the room.

“What’s that?” Ranger asked one of the nurses.

“It’s the baby’s heartbeat,” a nurse said. “It’s nice and strong” That was one less worry, but Millie still looked so frail.

“Head hurts,” she mumbled.

“She said that it hurts to open her eyes,” Ranger helped.

“Check her blood pressure, please,” the doctor ordered one of the nurses. She strapped a cuff around Millie’s arm, and he could tell by her face that it wasn’t good.

“It’s 180/110,” she whispered loud enough that Ranger could hear her.

“Okay, we need to get that blood pressure under control. I’m betting that’s the cause of her headache,” the doctor assured. He gave instructions to the nurses as to what to give Millie and promised to check back in on her in a few minutes. One of the nurses drew some blood and assured him that she’d be back just as soon as they got the results. They were all gone in a matter of minutes, and he was left wondering what was going to happen next. Ranger did the only thing that he could. He sat down next to her on the gurney and pulled her hand into his own.

“We’re going to be all right, honey. All three of us,” he promised. Ranger just hoped that it was a promise that he wouldn’t have to break to her.

They got back from the hospital late that night and he was dead on his feet. He knew that Millie had to be feeling even worse than he was, given the fact that she was carrying around another human inside of her. The doctors said that she had hypertension and assured her that it was quite normal during pregnancy. Millie had to be on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy and she didn’t seem very happy about that fact. Honestly, she didn’t seem very happy that Ranger was there either, but if he hadn’t barged into her apartment, she might have had a stroke. When the doctors told her that, she calmed down a bit.

They had driven home in near silence, besides him asking her if she was all right and her nodding her head at him while staring out the front windshield. When he parked in front of her apartment building, she turned and thanked him for the ride, effectively dismissing him.

“That’s not how this is going to work, honey,” Ranger said. “I didn’t drive all this way to be your chauffeur. I’m going to come in and we’re going to talk. Then, I’m going to sleep on your sofa because I want to be able to keep an eye on you both.” She rolled her eyes at him and sighed, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her theatrics.

“Why did you come here, Ranger?” she asked. “You’ve ignored me for months now and all of the sudden, you want to talk about everything. Well, guess what—I’m not interested.”

“You don’t have to talk,” he assured. “In fact, I’m the one who should be doing all of the talking here. I came to apologize to you for the way that I acted.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, “I’m listening.”

“I’ll explain it all, but I need for you to get into bed. You just got out of the hospital and you’re on bed rest now.”

---