Chapter 5

              She was guided into a brightly lit room and felt as if she was having an out of body experience. People were whirling around her and giving directions to one another. Her head was spinning. She laid down on the small table and closed her eyes. When she opened them she didn’t know if she had passed out or just blocked out whatever had happened. She felt like she had been lying there for hours, when in reality it was only a few minutes. There was doctor in the hall giving instructions to a nurse. He turned to look in the room and saw that Liz was awake.
         “Well hello. I’m doctor Ruben. How are you feeling?”
         “I feel alright. The baby. Oh god, did I lose the baby? I was arguing with a nurse at the hospital and I started bleeding”.
         “You were at the hospital? Why did you come here if you were already at a hospital?”
         “Please just tell me. Did I lose the baby?”
         “No the baby is fine. We were able to stop the bleeding.”
         Liz breathed a sigh of relief. She looked down and put a hand to her womb. It was all becoming so much more real now. She couldn’t believe she was doing this alone. Tyler had to wake up. She couldn’t do this all by herself. She looked up to see the doctor was still looking at her, waiting for answers.
         “I just found out I was pregnant about a week ago. I haven’t told anyone except my boyfriend and now he’s unconscious in the hospital. We were making plans and then he was in an accident and I just never got around to seeing a doctor yet. We were supposed to tell his parents that night but…” She trailed off and looked away.
         “Well we ran some tests and things seem to be progressing normally. The bleeding was probably brought on by stress or anxiety. From the little amount of information you just gave me I’d say that was the reason. You said your boyfriend was in an accident?”
         “Yes, just a few days ago. He hasn’t woken up yet.”
         “Well with all that going on I know it will be hard, but you need to limit the amount of stress you expose yourself to. And you need to get established with a doctor so they can monitor the progress of your pregnancy. We have some literature that offers ways and advice on how to tell your family that you’re pregnant. I can have the nurse bring it in.”
         Liz just nodded. She wasn’t ready to tell her family. She wanted to wait until she and Tyler could do it together. The nurse came in with the literature and escorted her to the front desk to check out. She put the charges on her credit card. She was grateful that credit card companies had sent her applications right after high school so she could get her own credit card. She still had her parent’s card but that was for emergencies. And even though this would qualify as an emergency, she still didn’t want her parents knowing she was pregnant, and finding a charge from Planned Parenthood on their credit card bill would certainly peak their curiosity.
         Liz went home and was thankful that her parents weren’t home. She changed her clothes and made herself a snack. She knew she needed to rest and relax but she was so worried that Tyler would wake up and she wouldn’t be there. She decided to go back to the hospital for a little while. She had promised her mom that morning she would be home for dinner that night and she knew her mom wouldn’t let her go back to the hospital after. She had a feeling that tonight’s dinner conversation would be about school and how she hadn’t gone since the accident. She would have to figure out what to do about that. Her education was important to her, but being there for Tyler was her number one priority right now.
Much to her delight there weren’t any nurses at the nurse’s station when she arrived a few minutes later. She walked into the waiting room but didn’t see any of the Denny’s. That’s odd she thought. Maybe they were downstairs in the cafeteria. As she turned to go look for them she saw the nurse from before coming her way.
         “Miss, what did I tell you before? Only family is allowed up here.”
         “She is family. At least she will be soon.”
         Liz turned to see Val and Robin behind the nurse.
         “Our son is in room 301. This is his fiancée, Liz. She’s allowed anywhere our other family members are.”
         “Oh, well ok. Why didn’t you just say so before?” The nurse looked at Liz suspiciously but chose to walk away and dismiss her intuition that what this boy’s parents were telling her was not the whole truth.
         Robin put her arm around Liz and led her into the waiting room.
“We overheard the nurse talking to you earlier and decided we would tell a little fib so you wouldn’t have any more problems getting up here. Besides, it’s practically true anyway.” Robin smiled down at what she hoped would someday be here daughter-in-law for real. “Tyler would want to see you if…when he wakes up.”
Robin looked up at Val. A silent look passed between them. They booth new the odds were stacked against their son. It was just a matter of time before they would have to come to terms with reality and admit that life may not return to normal as they’d hoped. But right now they would put brave faces on for their younger son and for Liz. Robin didn’t know what it was but something was going on with Liz. She didn’t seem herself. Then again, maybe it was just all the stress of the accident. She’d have to make a point to sit down with Liz and make sure she was doing alright. She knew Liz’s parents were caring, loving people but they didn’t always understand Liz and her feelings for Tyler. Robin remembered what it was like to be in love at that age. All that joy produced Tyler, even if it didn’t have a storybook ending.