Beyond Broken(125)

And as the pain became more acute and spread to her back and shoulders as another hour ticked by, she started to realize that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Saliva filled her mouth and she felt like she was on the verge of vomiting. It felt like she was being repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen, on her right side, and it was only when tears were streaming down her face and she was gritting her teeth against the pain, that she fumbled for her phone on the night stand. She didn't even know if she could make it down the hallway to her mom's room.

As she sobbed, she dialed Caleb's number, wanting nothing more than for him to be here right now and feeling so incredibly scared.





* * *





Caleb jerked out of sleep like he'd been dreaming he was in a free fall and his eyes darted to his phone, vibrating and chirping loudly, on the night stand. The alarm clock read 3:09 and dread stole his breath when he saw Maddie's name flash on screen.

"Maddie?" he answered. "Maddie! What's-"

His blood turned to ice when he heard her crying. "C-Caleb, something's w-wrong."

"What is it?" he demanded, already jumping out of bed to pull on clothes. He'd been sleeping in the master bedroom, mostly because the sheets still smelled like her and it comforted him.

"I-I don't know. My s-stomach and my back," she sobbed. "I'm scared, Caleb."

He fumbled with the button on his jeans. He tried to be calm for her, even though he felt a rising panic the likes of which he'd never experienced before. "Try and relax, princess. Where's your mom?"

He heard a sharp inhale of breath. "Down the hall."

"Maddie," he started. "You need to go get your mom, okay? Can you do that?"

A sob was his answer and Caleb gritted his teeth, frustrated and feeling helpless that he wasn't there with her right now. All of his worst fears were coming true. If something happened to Maddie …

No. He couldn't think like that.

"I'll try," was her response. 

Caleb heard her bed squeak as he stabbed his arms into a shirt and then he was heading out of the bedroom and downstairs. Maddie's mom lived near his old house, but that was almost twenty minutes away. Maddie would be able to get to hospital quicker if her mom drove her there immediately.

Fuck, fuck fuck!

On the other end of the line, Caleb could hear her ragged breaths and he talked to her as she made her way to her mom's bedroom, but every step she took seemed to cause her tremendous pain. A little relief swept through him when he heard a door open and her mom's groggy voice, which then turned alert when Maddie told her what was wrong.

"Which hospital, Maddie?" he asked, quickly scribbling out a note for Peter before making his way out to his car.

She was still crying and then he heard her mom tell her to give her the phone.

"Caleb," Maddie's mom said, "I'm going to take her to Contra Costa. Do you know how to get there?"

"Yeah, I know where it is," he said. He'd met her mom a couple times before when Maddie had invited the older woman over for dinner. She'd always been polite and friendly towards him, even though he knew that Thomas had probably painted him in a less than favorable light, but Caleb could sense that she still didn't trust him completely. "How does she look?"

There was a pause and then she lowered her voice, "She doesn't look good, Caleb."

Swallowing hard, he started up his car and backed out of the driveway. It was pitch black outside, all the houses on the street dark. "I'll meet you guys there. Can I talk to her real quick?"

The phone was passed back to Maddie. "C-Caleb?"

"I'm on my way to the hospital, princess," he murmured, accelerating towards the freeway, hoping that there were no cops around. "I'm going to try and call Dr. Cochrane and then I'll call you back. Everything will be fine, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered.

"Maddie," he started, wanting to tell her so many things. But words felt so inadequate. "I'll see you soon."

Once he knew that they were on their way to the E.R., he dialed Dr. Cochrane's number. The doctor picked up on the fifth ring, but Caleb felt no guilt whatsoever that he'd interrupted the man's sleep. Once he explained the situation, Dr. Cochrane said, "It could possibly be preeclampsia, but they won't know for sure until they take urine samples and take her blood pressure. Have you noticed if her hands and feet have been swelling more than usual?"

Frustration ate at him because he hadn't seen her in almost two weeks. "No, she didn't tell me that anything was out of the ordinary."

"Ah, I see," the doctor said and Caleb hated the knowing lilt in his tone. "Well, the problem is that these symptoms can come on very suddenly. At the last check-up, everything was normal."