Chapter Twenty-Three
Hadley
I can hear Luca speaking softly in Russian in the corner. I turn my head toward his voice and open my eyes. His suit is wrinkled, his eyes are tired, and I can see the worry written all over his face.
My poor Luca.
When he hangs up the phone, he closes his eyes. I watch him take a couple deep breaths and leans his head against the wall.
“Luca.” My voice is rough and my throat is dry.
He quickly turns to me, giving a small smile and comes over to me. “Are you okay?” He pushes a strand of my hair away.
“Yes. I’m assuming you were on the phone with Mama and Papa.”
He nods. “They’re on the way. Mama pretty much hung up on me once I said Valeria was here.”
I laugh, but it hurts too much.
“Do you need anything? Here, have some water.” Luca puts a straw in front of me and the cool liquid soothes the burning in my throat.
“Luca, you need to get back to the team.”
“No. I need to be here.” His tone is one not to argue with, but that’s never stopped me.
“You can’t stay here for four months. You’ll lose everything.”
“I only need Valeria and you.”
“And hockey,” I remind him.
Luca opens his mouth to argue but Dr. Jones and another man comes into the room.
“Hadley. Luca. I want you to meet Dr. Craigson. He’s the head of the NICU and will be taking care of your little girl.”
Dr. Craigson is in his forties with wavy dark hair and green eyes. Not a bad looking guy, but he doesn’t look like a head doctor either as I notice his stone wash jeans peeking through his long white coat.
He shakes both of our hands. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
“How’s our baby?” I ask.
“I agree with Dr. Jones when she said that she’s a fighter. She doing well. Her heart is strong and vitals are as well as can be expected. If she keeps this up, she’ll be home by New Year’s.” He smiles at both of us.
“Let’s talk about you, Hadley,” Dr. Jones jumps in.
“Me?”
“When we took your blood this morning, your iron is still low. I’m going to give you couple more units of blood. I’m also going to order another ultrasound to check your uterus. I want to make sure that there’s no additional bleeding.”
“If there is?”
“Then we’ll repair it.” She tries to sound hopeful.
“I could lose my uterus, though.” My heart drops. It’s not the fact that I wouldn’t be able to have any more kids, but I wouldn’t be a full woman anymore.
“Let’s not borrow trouble. First, the ultrasound and then we’ll go from there. Okay?”
I nod and the doctor leaves.