Page 54 of Snowed In with My Best Friend's Dad

"The baby is fine too."

"Thank God." Peter sank down into his chair as if his legs had given out on him. Then he wept, surely tears of relief.

"What happened?" I had to know for sure if the vile things I'd said to Miranda were the reason she was here. The reason she and her baby were at risk.

“We found two issues. While we need to watch them, we do believe that her and the baby's health should be fine."

For the first time since I got a call from Lindsay, I felt my heart beat again. She would be fine.

“She has a subchorionic hematoma, which is when blood collects between the wall of the uterus and the chorion membrane. We also found a cervical polyp. In most cases, each of these resolve themselves, but we will monitor them."

“What if they don’t resolve?” I asked, not sure I was happy with the wait-and-see approach.

“They don’t have to fully resolve. The only issue if whether they cause problems—”

“She’s here now. That’s a problem,” I growled.

The doctor wasn’t fazed by my outburst. “Right now, neither of these issues are impacting the baby’s health. We’ll monitor to see if they reduce in size or fully resolve. If they don’t, if they get worse, then we’ll discuss treatment options such as medications or surgery to remove the polyp.”

"Would that be safe for the baby?" I asked.

The doctor nodded, cocking her head at me, probably wondering who I was. She looked at Peter.

"Whatever you do, Doc, just make sure they're both safe,” he said.

She nodded. "Of course."

“What about the bleeding?” Lindsay asked. “That can’t be good.”

“Both of these issues can lead to bleeding, but we were able to see that the baby was fine through the ultrasound. The heartbeat was exactly as it should be."

Whatever Peter had in his knees swept through me, and I sank down onto the chair. The idea of hearing the baby’s heartbeat brought the reality of the situation crashing in around me.

"You can hear the heartbeat this early?" Lindsay asked.

"Yes. We can usually detect the heartbeat anywhere from six weeks with a vaginal ultrasound, but in this case, since she’s eight to ten weeks, we picked it up through fetal doppler.”

A knot formed in the back of my throat. Either Miranda didn't know how far along she was or she lied about being six weeks pregnant. I had a flash of anger about that, but it was quickly doused by the fact that I couldn't blame her for wanting to lie. When I wasn’t fucking Miranda, I was a cruel and dismissive bastard. All because of the way she made me feel, the loss of control because of the hold she had on me. That wasn't her fault.

Peter managed to stand. "Can I see her?"

"Yes, but just for a few minutes. We’re still doing some monitoring and she needs to rest."

"Can we all go?" Lindsay asked. She looked at Peter. "I mean, if that's okay with you."

He nodded. "I'm not so good in hospitals, myself. It would be good to have you there with me." He looked over at me. "And you too, Mr. McKinnon. Her guardian angel."

Bile threatened to come up at the way Peter looked at me like I was some sort of savior. I was fully the opposite of that. An angel would've declined to go with them, knowing I had no right to see her, but I was no angel, so I followed them toward Miranda’s room.

"We’ll be moving her to a private room shortly. We’ll make sure she’ll get the best care possible,” the doctor said as we followed her up the hall.

"Yeah, only because my dad is here to pay for it," Lindsay murmured.

"Linds."

She came in step next to me, leaning closer, and in a harsh whisper said, "It's not right, Dad. She should get the top care no matter what."

I nodded. "But that debate is best left for another day. Let's not antagonize hospital staff."

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