Chapter 51: Will Things Ever Change?

Hearing a commotion outside the door, I begin to worry that the perpetrators are here now. Freaking out a little, I pause when someone knocks at the door. I immediately grab Arabella and lead her behind my red Maple desk before making her climb under it. That way if anything happens when I answer the door, at least she will be safe.

“Knock”

“Knock”

With the knocking continuing, I hurry over to the door and cautiously open it only a fraction of an inch. When I see who is standing directly in front of it, I hesitate to open it further, because low and behold Omega Kelly is the one waiting impatiently to get in. Do I really want to give her access to Arabella right now?

For all I know she is behind all of this, even though I doubt it. That girl is as dumb as a box of rocks and has a way with men apparently. Hesitating, I decide it is just not worth it and shut the door in her face. After I bolt it again and make sure it is secure, I walk back over to Arabella and check to see if she is alright.

The minute I see her face, I lean down and scoop her up into my arms. She is crying and I don’t know why. As she stares up into my face, she cries out, “It hurts.” And then she clutches her stomach.

“Is it time?” I quickly ask her excitedly, while searching her face for an answer.

When she opens her mouth, she cries out instead of answering my question. “Ow.” She yells and then her face turns a paler shade of white than she normally is.

A thought runs through my head as I rush to the door with her and fight with the lock to open it. Once I get it open and we are on the way to the doctor’s, it runs through my head again, “Is it time or is she about to lose the pups because of the excitement?”

Worrying, I hurry faster until I reach the doors of the hospital. When I walk inside the door, I watch as the doctor looks up and then rushes over to me. “What has happened?” He asks, sounding concerned for her wellbeing.

“There was an explosion and then a few minutes later, her stomach started to hurt badly. I don’t know if she is giving birth, or something is wrong with the pups?” I reply as I follow behind him to the back of the hospital.

“Place her here.” He states while pointing at the bed.

Scared beyond belief that I am about to lose them all, I do as he says and then once she is on the bed, he begins to examine her. Turning around to face me a few minutes later, he has a strange look on his face and says, “I will have to run some more tests. She seems to be in the process of giving birth, but they haven’t even dropped into the birth canal yet. Perhaps something is wrong. However, I won’t know until I get a scan.”

Staring into his face, I can tell he is more worried than he lets on and that causes me to believe that there might be something wrong with the pups this time. As I watch him test her and do the scan, I wonder if the reason why they are coming out now is the stress from the explosion or because of yesterday. If it is because of Omega Kelly, I will never be able to live with myself.

Waiting patiently, I stare out the window till I hear Arabella cry out again, “Julian, it hurts.” She says because the pain medicine must be wearing off.

Gazing into her pale face, I just want to collect her up into my arms and take all the pain away, but right now I can’t because we don’t really know what is wrong. Instead, I must satisfy myself with leaning down to kiss her softly on the lips, and then I whisper, “Arabella, I love you so much. I would do anything for you. If I could, I would take your pain for you and make it mine instead. Now, hold my hand tightly if you must. Hopefully, it will help.”

I force myself to smile and kiss her lips again before I stand up and wait for the doctor to get back with the results. While waiting, I rub her hand and it seems to help, because her eyes start to close for a moment. Then he walks back in and takes me aside, before he states in a quiet tone, “We need to do surgery now. She is bleeding internally, and we don’t know why. If we don’t, she won’t live to see tomorrow. It could be that the placental barrier has a tear in it, but if we act now, we can save them all.”

Looking between the doctor and Arabella, I nod my head quickly and say in a hushed tone, “Do it.”

Then when the doctor rushes off to get everything ready, a nurse walks in right when I am kissing Arabella on the lips and then telling her what is happening. “Arabella, my love. The doctor said he is going to do surgery. The best way to get the pups out is to do a c-section.”

She looks up at me with that scared little girl look and asks, “Are they O.K.?”

“Yes, yes of course. They are just causing problems and don’t want to come out themselves.” I rub her hand while lying to her, because if she knew that she was internally bleeding she may get to upset and hurt herself even more.

Right after I tell her, the nurse grabs a few things and then starts an I.V. on her. “Hi, I am Omega Nancy. I will be your nurse for the surgery. Hold still while I put in the line, so I can give you some nice pain meds and calm you down. It will help with anxiety and then the doctor can push in the anesthetic when the time comes.” She smiles as she says it softly and then I watch as she produces a large needle.

Nancy taps her skin and then sticks it right in before Arabella cries out in pain. “There, there. It’s alright. See, that wasn’t so bad now, was it? In no time at all those pups will be out, and you will be able to hold them.” She smiles again and then walks out of the room.

When I turn back to Arabella, I see that the medicine is already working, and she has gone to sleep.