Trouble In Dixie (20 page)

The driver of the car was standing there
nervously wringing her hands. It was an older lady, and her face
was white and her eyes fearful. "I'm taking her back to Doc
Percival's office," he told her then lifted Katie in his arms and
took off at a swift pace back toward the office. He kissed her cold
face and begged her not to die, as he walked in numb despair down
the sidewalk. When he walked back through the doors, the nurse left
her desk and burst through the door to the exam rooms, then held it
open for him.

"What happened?" she asked him with
concern.

"She ran into the street and a car hit her,"
he said in a choked voice, then walked straight to the exam room
where they'd been earlier and gently laid her on the exam table.
"Can you get the Doc?"

"He was just leaving, let me see if I can
catch him," she said then flew out the door and down the hall
calling for the doctor.

Tommy stroked her pale cheek and tears
burned his eyes, then he said with a choked sob, "Wake up,
baby...talk to me...I can't lose you too."

The doctor ran into the room, frantic and
with his briefcase in his hand. He dropped it on a chair, then ran
around the exam table, and started moving his fingers deftly over
her body, around her skull, then he felt the pulse in her neck, and
gently tapped her cheeks, and said "Wake up, Katie...it's Doc
Percival."

"What happened, he asked Tommy, then walked
around him to fish around in a drawer, before he went back to
Katie's side and snapped a vial, then ran it under her nose. She
coughed a few times, then gagged and he quickly picked up the
plastic trash can beside the table and rolled her over, so her face
was right inside the top. She dry heaved a couple of times, then
her body stilled and she laid back on the table, and put her arm
over her eyes.

"Did you hit your head when you fell,
Katie?" Doc Percival asked loudly.

"No, I don't think so..." she said
weakly.

"Where do you hurt?" he asked.

"Everywhere, but mostly my hip," she told
him with a groan and moved the hand not over her eyes there and
rubbed.

Tommy swallowed a couple of times and
finally managed to croak past the knot in his throat, "What about
the babies, doc?"

"Let's take another look with the
ultrasound, but they're probably fine, they looked pretty cozy in
there earlier," he said with a half-smile.

The doctor left the room, and Tommy stepped
up beside the table, and lifted Katie's arm off her face and laced
his fingers through hers, before leaning down to kiss her forehead.
"I'm sorry, baby..." he told her with misery, fear and a excess of
other emotions pounding through him.

"You say that a lot, don't you?" she asked
him in agitation.

"I'm a fuck up, what can I say, it's my
mantra," he admitted ruefully, then swallowed a couple of times,
before he told her, "I'm sorry for being an ass...I'm...happy about
the babies sugar...I was just in shock."

Shock didn't begin to describe what Tommy
was feeling, his insides felt like someone had sliced and diced him
with razor blades, then poured alcohol over the cuts. He knew that
feeling would wear off, it was already starting to wear off,
because he realized Katie was going to be okay, but it was being
replaced by guilt. That's exactly what he needed more guilt.

"I am in shock too--a little support would
have been nice," she told him flatly. "We can't both be freaked out
at the same time, and it was my turn."

"I know baby...I'm sor--" he started to
apologize again, and she clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Do
not
say that again...it's become
a habit for you, and I don't want to hear it, until and unless you
mean it, and need to say it," she told him, her bright blue eyes
glittering with too many emotions to name. He nodded and kissed her
palm, because he refused to argue with her, or upset her
further.

"I love you..." he said in a low raw voice,
then added, "That I mean with all my heart, Katie."

She dragged her gaze away from his and said
in a trembling voice, "That's yet to be seen...I don't want you
saying that either, because of the babies. Words are easy,
Tommy...try a little action to go along with them, and maybe one
day I'll believe it."

"I do mean it...and I'll prove it to you,
Katie...to you and our babies."

She looked back at him and hesitated a
moment, as if she were trying to corral her emotions, before she
said, "Just because we have kids together, doesn't mean we have to
be together. You can have your life, and I can have mine."

"That's
not
why I said it," he told
her gruffly with anger in his tone. "I want to be with you..." he
finished, hoping his words would penetrate her thick skull. Her
being alone to raise his kids was not an option he was willing to
accept, her being with someone else was an even less acceptable
option. She was his, and he wasn't letting her go...he'd figure out
some way to make her believe him.

She didn't say anything, but her flattened
her full lips into a line, and huffed out a frustrated breath. He
reached a hand up and smoothed her beautiful red hair out of her
eyes, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. Doc Percival pushed
the ultrasound cart back into the room, and Tommy moved aside, so
he could set it up. "Can you unzip your shorts again, Katie?"

She reached for the zipper, and lifted her
hips to push her shorts down, and she flinched. Tommy slid his
hands under her butt to help her lift up, and then eased her back
down on the table. He swallowed down the guilt that punched him in
the gut when he saw the huge purple bruise already forming on her
left hip. Gently, he ran his fingers over it, and then leaned down
and kissed her there, and she whimpered.

When Doc Percival turned back around with
the ultrasound wand and some lube in his hand, Tommy moved to the
other side of the table and held her hand. Katie didn't pull away,
so he took that as a good sign, and watched as the screen lit up
and his two little peanuts showed up there.

"They look just like you, darlin'" he told
Katie and with a grin. Reluctantly, she smiled and squeezed his
hand.

Relief swamped him when the doctor turned on
the audio and two distinct swishes filled the room. Tommy heard
another fainter swoosh, and groaned, "Oh god, tell me that third
one isn't another baby..."

Doctor Percival chuckled and said, "No,
that's Katie's heart beat...it's slower, hear it?"

Tommy smiled down at her and said,
"Yeah...it's the one I want to worm my way into," then snagged her
gaze and held it.

"I didn't get to print you out a picture
earlier, because we had other issues to deal with at the time and I
forgot, but I'll shoot you one out now," he told them and pressed a
button. The machine whirred and then a small black and white strip
printed out what was on the screen. "Everything looks fine from
what I can see...bring her to the hospital if she starts spotting,
or cramping," he told Tommy seriously, then handed him the
strip.

"If you have more pain, I can write you a
prescription for Lortab...it won't hurt the babies," the doctor
told her reassuringly.

"Nah, I'll skip it, I'm tough...I rode in
the rodeo for ten years, so I know what pain is," she told him with
a snort.

"You rode in that rodeo two weeks ago,
pregnant," Tommy told her then groaned, suddenly realizing it. He
sent up a silent prayer of thanks that she hadn't fallen, or gotten
hurt then.

"Well, no more riding young lady...it's too
dangerous, especially with you being a high risk pregnancy," the
doctor told her.

Tommy squeaked and repeated, "High risk
pregnancy?" Fear sliced through him again and his heart wobbled
around in his chest.

"She's high risk because she's carrying
multiples...I gave her the name of a specialist. As long as she
takes care of herself, and doesn't over do it, she'll be fine. The
chances are she'll deliver them early however, even though she's
young and in perfect health, so they may be preemies. Her doctor
might even put her in the hospital for a few weeks in her last
trimester to try and delay the birth...the specialist will give you
the run down."

"Is her life at risk?" Tommy asked
nervously.

"Not really..." he said and patted Katie's
shoulder. "She's perfectly healthy, and should have a normal
pregnancy if she follows the doctor's orders."

"Oh, she will," Tommy assured him fiercely,
then looked down into her eyes with purpose. He was going to make
sure of she followed the doctor's orders implicitly. He was
bringing her back to the Rockin' D and she was going to sit on her
pretty ass, until their babies were born...and he was going to make
her love him, that was all there was to it.

Katie groaned and put her hand back over her
eyes, and asked "How are you going to explain this to Dixie?"

"We have time, sugar...we'll figure it out.
She'll be thrilled to have two babies to play with..." he informed,
then his voice filled with wonder as he told her, "Dixie will love
being a big sister."

Tommy never thought he'd have more kids...he
thought Dixie was going to be it for him. Life was just filled with
surprises though, he thought, and the first blossom of excitement
penetrated the numbness inside of him. This time, he'd do it right,
and make sure that both the babies and Katie were protected and
made it through alive.

Katie was beside herself, because Tommy
refused to let her walk from the doctor's office to the truck. He
carried her every step of the way, and didn't even set her down
outside the truck, he opened the door with one hand then sat her on
the seat and put on her seat belt. With a kiss on her forehead, he
smiled sweetly, then shut the door and bounced around to his side
of the truck.

His mood was certainly a shift from what it
had been earlier, and she loved the lighter, happier side of him.
Although she'd refused the pain meds the doctor offered her, Tommy
insisted he give him the prescription, then stopped at the
drugstore in town to get it filled for her on their way out of
town.

He drove them to Gabe and Karlie's cabin,
then parked out front and carried inside. Smiling down at her, he
kissed her tenderly, then carried her to the bedroom she'd been
using where he gently laid her on the bed, and pulled off her boots
and socks.

"You should probably take off those shorts
too, sugar, that material is rough and will rub that bruise," he
suggested, then went to the dresser and searched through a few
drawers, before he found a pair of terry cloth shorts and pulled
them out, holding them up like a trophy. "These won't hurt," he
said and grinned at her, then walked over and unsnapped her shorts.
She sucked in a breath when his fingers brushed her belly and
tingles skittered along her skin.

He pulled his hands back and looked down at
her with alarm, "Did I hurt you, baby?"

She shook her head and his hands trembled as
they moved to slide the zipper tab down, before he lifted her hips
and slid the shorts down her legs. He stopped halfway down and
kissed her thigh.

"God, you're so beautiful, sweetheart...I
could look at you all day," he said in a rough voice, and sucked in
a couple of uneven breaths. Katie swallowed down the moan that
pushed to her lips, and laid still as he finished sliding the
shorts off her legs.

Tossing the blue jean shorts to the floor,
he pushed her feet through the terry cloth shorts and then slowly
slid them up her legs, holding her gaze with his glittering eyes.
When he had them up, he leaned down and kissed her again, tasting,
testing and asking. Katie moaned as he feasted on her lips and she
nipped and sucked his. His breathing was short and sharp when he
pulled back from her, his eyes heated with desire. With a sigh, he
asked, "You hungry, sugar?"

"Not for food," she told him and her eyes
traveled over his broad chest up to his eyes.

"Well, you've had a rough day, so don't even
go there," he growled and pulled his shirt over his head, then
knelt on the side of the bed, before he crawled over her body and
settled himself on the other side of the bed. Once he was settled
beside her, he pulled her into his arms and snuggled his chin into
her hair, then told her in a gruff voice, "Let's take a nap, I just
want to hold you for a while."

She snorted then told him, "You get my motor
running, and then you just want to hold me? That's not fair..." She
nipped his collarbone, then trailed her lips up his neck where she
kissed him and pleaded, "I need you, Tommy...it has been a rough
day, for both of us." With a nip to his earlobe, she chuckled then
murmured, There's probably more adrenaline running through me than
all the bull riders in Texas."

He groaned and pulled her tighter to his
side. "Me too...I thought I was going into cardiac arrest when you
got hit by that car...don't ever scare me like that again," he told
her gruffly.

"I didn't mean to do that...I was
just...freaked out," she said then slid down his body and kissed
his chest. Her hand slid down the other side of his chest and her
fingers flicked over his nipple, and Tommy sucked in a sharp breath
then covered her hand with his. She moved a little farther down his
body, then added, "It's not every day a girl learns not only is she
pregnant, but she's carrying twins. That's a bit of a shock to the
system."