“Please, let me go with my husband.”
“Ma’am, you can’t go back there with him. The doctors have to get a look at him. We need you to fill out paperwork. They’ll probably take him to the cath lab.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, they’ll check him to see what’s wrong with his heart, to see if he needs surgery—”
“Surgery?” Nevvie gasped. That’s when she lost it. Her knees buckled. Sobbing, she sank to the floor as the nurse tried to get her to her feet and into a chair.
She couldn’t even tell him she loved him.
Another nurse and an orderly came over to help. They steered Nevvie into the admitting cubicle. Through her tears she fumbled with Tyler’s wallet, trying to choke back her sobs as she struggled to get the requested items out. She finally handed it to the nurse to pull out his driver’s license and insurance cards.
“You’re his wife, ma’am?”
“Yes. My mother-in-law is bringing all our other paperwork with her, and our son…” Nevvie sobbed again. The nurse, obviously used to dealing with upset family, handed Nevvie a box of tissues and let her cry for a few minutes. They finished the admissions paperwork and Nevvie had almost composed herself again when another nurse poked her head around the corner.
“Mrs. Paulson?”
Nevvie nodded, her soul chilled, certain the nurse would break the worst news possible.
“We’re taking your husband to the heart cath lab. You can see him for just a minute if we go back right now, but he’s not conscious.”
Nevvie leaped from her seat, clutching the admissions paperwork she’d been given, and followed the nurse. She caught sight of a clock—she’d already been there a half-hour. That long? Time seemed to fold and twist. It felt like five minutes ago she’d been standing in the shower with him, and yet hours since Peggy jumped on him to perform CPR.
The nurse spoke to her on the way and Nevvie didn’t understand a word of it. EKG. Echocardiogram. Blood work. Cath lab. Stents. She might as well have been speaking Latin. Inside the room, several nurses and doctors worked on Tyler. He was hooked up to monitors and on a ventilator.
Her tears ran unabated as she leaned over him and kissed his forehead.
“I love you, Ty. Baby, please, you’ve got to pull through for Tommy and me and Adam. You can’t leave us, you stubborn evil genius.” She softly whispered in his ear, “Please, come back to me, come back to your angel. I love you.”
One of the doctors spoke. “I’m sorry, we need to move him.”
“Hold on,” one of the nurses said. She removed Tyler’s wedding band and watch. “Here, ma’am, hold onto these for him. You can give them back to him once he’s in recovery.” She said it kindly, apparently hoping to calm Nevvie’s nerves. It didn’t help.
Nevvie took them, nodding, noting the warmth in the gold band. She slipped it on her left hand and had to put it on her middle finger because of the size. She slipped his watch into her pocket.
They wheeled him out and the nurse guided her back to the ER waiting room. Peggy waited with Adam in his carrier.
“How is he, sugar?” She took the paperwork from Nevvie’s numb hands and looked through it.
Nevvie burst into tears. Peggy turned to the nurse, who filled her in. “He’s going to the cath lab right now, ma’am. I’ll take you to the surgical waiting room.”
Peggy nodded and tried to manage the baby carrier and the bag. Nevvie unfastened Adam and picked him up, carried him in her arms. Nevvie trailed behind while Peggy toted the empty carrier and asked the nurse questions. The nurse brought Peggy up to speed during the walk. Once they were settled in the waiting room, Peggy turned to Nevvie.
“Sugar, do you understand what’s going on, what the nurse said?”
Nevvie cradled Adam and shook her head.
Peggy took a deep breath and put a hand on Nevvie’s leg. “Tyler had a cardiac arrest. His heart stopped beating. I was right there and started CPR immediately so I’d be willing to bet he’s going to be fine. They’ve got to find out why his heart stopped because he had a heart attack. They’ve got him on medication that will help, but they’ve got to do a heart cath on him so they can see what’s going on. Depending on what they find they might do what’s called a stent, or they might have to do surgery. We won’t know for a while.”
Nevvie squeezed her eyes tightly shut and nodded.
Peggy worried more about Nevvie’s state of mind at that moment than she did Tyler’s health. At least if Tommy was here she’d have a solid rock to lean on. Without him, she was a wreck.
“We’re gonna call Tommy in a few minutes,” Peggy said. “But not yet. We need to make a couple of other calls first. I need you to get Bob on the phone for me, okay?”
Nevvie fumbled Tyler’s BlackBerry with one hand. She finally found Bob’s number in the contact list and hit the send button before handing the phone to Peggy.
Peggy stepped out to the hall to talk to him. She briefly explained the situation.
“Oh, no. How’s Nevvie and Thomas?”
“Nevvie’s near collapse. Tommy’s out of town, doesn’t know. We haven’t had any problems with the hospital yet. If we do, Nevvie’s in no state of mind to handle them. Can you come?”
“Where are you? I’ll be right there.”
When Peggy finished with him, she found Pete’s number and called him next. Pete met her news with a brief stunned silence.
“Is he gonna make it?”
“I don’t know. Can you and Eddie get over here? Right now? I’ve still got to call Thomas and tell him. Nevvie’s not doing good.” Peggy peeked around the corner and watched as Nevvie stared at the floor, rocking in her chair, the baby in her arms and a stunned look on her face.
“We’ll be right there.”
“Thank you.”
One more call, dialed from memory. Karen answered her cell on the third ring. “Momma? Why are you calling from Tyler’s cell phone?”
More shock once she broke the news. “Can you come down?” Peggy asked.
Karen’s stunned voice nearly finished Peggy. “Yeah. I’ll call the airlines and see if I can get a flight to Tampa. Otherwise I’ll drive. Momma, is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know, sugar. If we lose him, Nevvie and Thomas are gonna need all the support they can get.” She gave Karen the hospital information.
“I’ll let you know once I get a flight.”
“Okay. Call April and the others.” She knew she didn’t have to say not to call Em.
Peggy returned to Nevvie. “We need to call Thomas, honey. Do you want me to do it?”
Nevvie looked at her, her eyes red and glazed. “I’ll do it,” she whispered. She finally handed Adam—who was asleep, miracle of miracles—over to Peggy and used her own BlackBerry to call.
She dialed and Peggy held her breath, waiting for her son to answer.
Nevvie shook her head. Peggy knew that meant his voice mail picked up. “Tommy, it’s Nev. I need you to call my cell as soon as you get this. Please. It’s important.” She hung up and looked at Peggy, then burst into tears again.
Peggy laid Adam in his carrier and put her arms around Nevvie. “Shh, honey. It’s okay. He’ll be okay.”
Twenty minutes later, Pete and Eddie raced into the waiting room and rushed to Nevvie’s side. Upon seeing them she broke down again and the friends clustered around her, holding her as she sobbed.
* * * *
Thomas felt his phone vibrate but with all the noise on the site he couldn’t hear well enough to talk. Seeing Nevvie’s number, he silenced it and returned to the conversation with the site manager, going over the project blueprints. He needed to focus on what he was doing so he didn’t make a mistake. A half-hour later it rang again and he silenced it before glancing at the screen. Two voice mails.
A vague feeling of unease settled over him. If it was an emergency wouldn’t Nevvie keep calling back until she got him? Or send him a text message?
Wh
en it rang again fifteen minutes later he looked at it. Nevvie. With the heavy equipment running he couldn’t hear even if he did answer. He ignored it, then a few minutes later decided he’d better find out what was up.
“Glen, I need to make a call. I’ll be right back.” Thomas retreated to the air conditioned construction office trailer to call Nevvie.
* * * *
A nurse dressed in surgical scrubs walked in. “Mr. Paulson’s family?”
Pete and Eddie stood up and the nurse walked over to them. Pete pointed to Nevvie. “She’s his wife.”
The nurse knelt in front of her. “Dr. Robertson will come out and talk to you in a few minutes, but we have to take Mr. Paulson into surgery.”
Nevvie sobbed and leaned into Peggy, who hugged her. She looked at the nurse. “Tell me—I’m a nurse.”
“We have to prep him for surgery. His vital signs are strong, he’s doing very well.” She looked up as a doctor walked in. “Here he is.”
The doctor walked over and introduced himself. “Mrs. Paulson?”
Nevvie nodded against Peggy’s shoulder. The nurse whispered in his ear and he addressed his comments more to Peggy than Nevvie. “I expect the surgery to take around four or five hours, possibly less, sometimes more. If it takes longer don’t be alarmed, it doesn’t mean anything’s wrong. From looking at his chart and what I saw in the cath lab, I think he’s going to do very well. I don’t know if he’ll need an implanted defibrillator or not but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He explained what he had to do while Peggy asked questions. Nevvie didn’t understand any of it.
With tears streaming down her face, Nevvie cried against Peggy’s shoulder. Peggy stroked her hair and looked at the doctor. “How much damage did you see?”
“The rapid response saved his life. There’s some damage, of course. He’s going to need a cardiac rehab program and medication, but once we get him through the first few days I think he’ll do well. He’s relatively young, in otherwise good health, he doesn’t seem to have any pulmonary problems, so that’s very encouraging. He’ll probably be in the ICU for a few days. From there we’ll move him to a telemetry unit until we’re comfortable discharging him.”
“What does that mean? What’s a telemetry unit?” Nevvie asked.
“It’s not as intense as the ICU, but he’ll be hooked up to monitors and closely watched for any problems.”
Nevvie looked at Peggy. “Mom, if you hadn’t been there, he would have died.”
“Shh. Don’t even think about that. He’s gonna be fine, sugar.”
He glanced at the wall clock. “I need to get back there. I’ll send out updates on his condition. It’ll be at least an hour before the first update, so if you need to go eat—”
Nevvie shook her head. “I’m not leaving,” she insisted. “I won’t leave him. They didn’t leave me when I was hurt. I won’t leave him.”
Peggy looked at the doctor. “Thank you, Dr. Robertson.”
Nevvie’s BlackBerry rang.
* * * *
Thomas borrowed the site manager’s office, closed the door for privacy and played his voice mails. All from Nevvie, the first sounding very strange. By the third his heart pounded and he knew something was horribly wrong.
He called her back and tried not to crush his phone as he waited for her to answer.
“Nevvie, sugar, what’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer him at first. When she finally did her voice sounded flat and soft. “Tommy, you have to come home. Right now.”
“Baby girl, you’re scaring me. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
Again she paused. “Tyler.”
“What? Honey, tell me. What’s going on?” He fought to control his voice and heard her choked sob, then a noise that sounded like the phone being dropped. His mother came on the line.
“Thomas, sugar, I need you to sit down.”
He stood up. “Momma, dammit, what’s wrong with Tyler?” He couldn’t control his fear and his voice rose in agitation.
“Sugar, he’s going to be okay but he’s in surgery right now.”
“What? Momma, what the hell happened? What’s going on?”
“Baby, he had a heart attack this morning. They’re doing surgery on him.”
His legs failed him. Stunned, he collapsed into the chair. Ty?
“Oh my God.”
“Now, you need to stay calm. He’s gonna be in surgery for at least four hours the doctor said, maybe longer. Can you have someone drive you, or rent a car?”
He still couldn’t feel his legs. “What happened?”
“Hold on.” It sounded like she moved to a quieter location. Her voice also dropped. “He wasn’t feeling good. He was standing in the kitchen with Nevvie when he collapsed. I started CPR and the ambulance took him to the hospital—”
“CPR? His heart stopped?”
“Sugar, you need to settle down. I’m having a hard enough time keeping Nevvie calm. She needs you, and she needs you back here in one piece. Don’t you dare drive that bike back here. You get a car or you have someone drive you.”
“Where is he?”
“Tampa Community.”
Thomas closed his eyes. That’s where Nevvie was taken after Alex stabbed her. It was also where Adam was born. “How is Nevvie? How’s the baby?”
“The baby is fine, you leave him to me. I called Bob for you already, he’s on his way. I have the folder of paperwork here for y’all. I also got Karen coming down, and Pete and Eddie are here. But I need you here for Nevvie. She’s not doing good. She needs you.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“You need to keep it together on the phone with her or I won’t. Promise me?”
“Yes, just let me speak to her.” He felt too numb to be upset.
After a moment, Nevvie came back on the line.
He took a deep breath and tried for what he hoped sounded like a strong, steady tone. “Honey, you let Momma and Pete and Eddie and Bob take care of you. I’ll be back in a few hours. Hang tight. Are you okay?”
There was a long pause. He almost thought the call had dropped. “No. I’m not.”
Thomas closed his eyes, struggling with his tears, fighting to keep his voice steady. “You know as well as I do that he’s strong, he’s tough. Our boy will make it just fine. If Momma says he’ll be fine, he’ll be fine. Right?”
“Tommy, I love you.”
“I love you too, sugar. If you get to see him before I get there, you tell the evil genius I love him, okay?”
“I will.”
“Okay. Put Momma back on the phone for me.”
There was yet another pause before Peggy spoke. “Tommy, take your time coming back, you hear me?”
“I’ll be there in about five hours. I’ll come straight to the hospital.”
“You’re not driving that bike.”
“Don’t worry. Please take care of Nevvie for me.”
* * * *
Thomas waited a moment to try to stand but ended up crying with his head on his arms on the desk. Dammit, he couldn’t lose Tyler. He should have been home, should have sent Kenny down here for this. He should be there for Nevvie and his guy.
It took him time to compose himself. When he finally did he walked to the outer office where Glen waited.
“I’m sorry Glen, I’ve got to go. I’ve got a family emergency.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Tyler had a heart attack. He’s in surgery.” He grabbed his bike gear from the chair he’d left it in and pushed out the door, Glen on his heels. “Call Kenny, please. Tell him what happened. He can come down tomorrow and work with you.”
“Don’t worry about this. You go take care of your family.”
Tom’s hands shook so badly he almost couldn’t zip his jacket. He finally managed it, pulled on his helmet and gloves and mounted the Harley. Now he wished he’d taken the truck instead. No, he had to be a fucking stubborn asshole and not let his mom tell him what to
do.
Thomas cranked the bike then waited a moment for his nerves to settle before pulling onto the highway.
Emotionally numb, he returned to the hotel he was staying at and quickly packed what little he’d brought. He checked out before making his way to the interstate and heading north on I-75. When he stopped for gas near Punta Gorda, he called to check on Tyler. Bob answered Nevvie’s cell.
“What’s going on? Where’s Nev?”
“It’s okay, Tom. Your mother and Eddie finally talked her into going to the cafeteria. She hasn’t had anything to eat all day. I’m here with Pete and the baby in the waiting room.”
“How is he?”
“They just gave us an update, everything’s going fine, his vital signs are stable and strong, that’s all we know right now. Where are you?”
“Punta Gorda.”
Bob hesitated. “Are you on the bike?”
“Yeah, but don’t tell Momma or Nevvie, okay? I didn’t want to screw around waiting for a car. I need to be up there for them.”
“Don’t get yourself killed, Tom. Take it easy. I already paid a visit to administration and have been assured there will be no problems.”
“Thanks.”
Thomas pulled onto the highway. Yes, he remembered. Alex had stabbed Nevvie, putting her in the ICU. A nosy, self-righteous prig in administration was upset by their unconventional relationship and tried to convince Nevvie she was being mentally abused by them. Bob got the bitch fired.
If the hospital wanted to give them trouble about their relationship, they could. Bob did all he could legally with paperwork—powers of attorney and the like—to hopefully prevent any issues. But if someone wanted to really be an asshole it could cause them problems.
Tom tried to focus on the traffic, not worry about Tyler or stare at the phone clipped to his gear bag on the tank. He needed to focus. Nevvie needed him.
His guy needed him.
Mile marker signs flew past at increasing regularity. By the time he reached Brandon, he’d tied a knot in his last nerve and was barely hanging on. Resisting the urge to floor it, it kept the Harley at seventy and silently chanted, “He’ll be okay. He’ll be okay.”