I watched in fascination.
Meanwhile, my confused girl didn’t care that I watched.
It was as if she’d accepted me as her person and knew instinctually that I was supposed to be there helping her through this.
I was glad.
I didn’t want to go, and I didn’t want her to make me go.
Something inside of me visibly recoiled at not being able to be at her side.
Then again, that likely had to do with the horrific accident that we’d come upon with her being trapped inside the upside-down car.
If that sheriff didn’t die, he would wish he had by the time I was through with him.
It might not be today, or tomorrow, or even next month. But one way or another, he’d forfeited his life today.
And I would make it hurt.
I would make him wish he’d never been born, let alone been alive long enough to do what he’d done to Simi.
“That’s extremely uncomfortable,” Simi announced when the woman, Yennifer, did her thing with the wand.
I felt my insides go molten.
I didn’t like her feeling uncomfortable in the least, especially when it came to something like that.
I reached out and took her hand, hoping that now I wasn’t the one making things uncomfortable.
She instantly latched on, her hand squeezing mine so tight that she let it be known, without words, that she didn’t want me letting go.
“You can turn around, good gentlemen,” Yennifer said. “All privates are now covered.”
I snorted, as did Keene.
“And here’s the baby!” Yennifer declared.
I blinked at the screen, which all four of us were now looking at, and couldn’t see a goddamn thing.
“No offense, ma’am, because I’m sure you’re more than capable of doing your job to the fullest, but what the fuck am I looking at?” Keene said what we were likely all thinking.
Yennifer snorted. “Language, kind sir.”
“Sorry,” he muttered.
Yennifer pointed at the screen and said, “This wall is the uterus. This is the placenta attached to the uterine wall, and this,” she paused at a blob with a blackish circle in the middle of it, “is your baby. Head. Body. Little arm buds. Heart.”
I felt my stomach drop to my knees.
Because now that she’d pointed everything out, I could definitely see what she was talking about.
Though it still resembled a blob more than a baby.
“Holy shit, Kissimmee,” Keene said. “You’re going to be a mother!”
I snorted at his words, but it was Simi who turned and leveled her brother with a stare. “And apparently, Keene, you’re going to be an uncle.” She paused. “Is Kissimmee my full name?”
My heart dropped again at the reminder that she couldn’t remember a thing.
“Yes,” Keene said with less excitement. “We all have stupid names.”
Yennifer turned to look at Keene and said, “Keene isn’t a stupid name.”
We all noticed that she agreed that Kissimmee was stupid, which made my eyes narrow.
“Then again,” she said, “at least you have a unique name that is somewhat easy to pronounce and guess how to spell. You’d never believe how many times a day I have to spell my name and then respell it because people don’t understand ‘Jennifer with a Y.’”
“Try Coffey with a Y on the end,” I said.
“Ys are stupid,” she agreed. “Now, the heartbeat right now is a hundred and sixty-eight. That’s perfect. Everything looks good. No abruptions in the placenta. No trauma that I can see at all,” she pressed a few buttons, and then the sound of a heartbeat filled the room.
The hand still holding mine tightened as she squeezed harder at the sound.
“Holy hell,” Simi said. “I’m having a baby with a man I don’t know.”
I felt my lips quirk.
Because mostly, she was right.
We didn’t know each other. At least, not past what we’d told each other on the first night that we’d been together. Though she couldn’t remember that night all that much, we would have many more nights to get together.
And, if my usual hunches were correct, this was going somewhere beyond just a “get to know you” into a “know you forever.”
“All right,” she started printing, then gestured at Keene to turn around. Keene did, and she removed the wand, which was rather large, from inside Simi. Simi grimaced before hastily covering herself up.
Yennifer backed away just to bend over the machine and start ripping off small squares of paper. She turned and offered all of us one.
I didn’t let go of Simi’s hand to take it.
Instead, we each grabbed it with our free hand and studied it some more.
“I’m gonna have to hang this one up on the fridge,” Keene declared. “Holy shit, sis. This is surreal.” He paused. “And we’ll talk about you knocking up my sister and then letting her leave another time.”
I scratched my head.
I didn’t know Keene well, but I could tell that he was a little disgruntled at the news of Simi’s pregnancy.
A throat cleared, and we all looked at the doctor we’d not heard throughout all of the sonogram.
“Everything looks good means that we can release you,” he said, his eyes going to Simi’s wrists. “The only thing I want you to watch closely is the swelling on those hands and wrists from the handcuffs when the car rolled. Then, I want you to also wake her up once every three hours to ascertain her mental status.” He eyed her head then. “I would suggest a neuro consult, but we are a small hospital. We literally have two floors. The ER and the medical hold unit that is there for those people that just need an extra day or two in the hospital, not any interventions. We could transfer you, but since other than your memory, your head looks fine, I would suggest a trip to see a neuro guy or gal that can help if the confusion and memory loss doesn’t clear up in a day or two.”
I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket with my free hand, then reluctantly let go of Simi’s hand to fold the photo up and place it in there between a stack of hundred-dollar bills.
Simi handed me hers, and I did the same with hers, only putting it at the front and not the middle so we could tell ours apart.
There was movement outside the door as the doctor left after telling us he would be sending discharge instructions in via the nurse, then Yennifer followed in his wake seconds after, allowing me to see the two deputies standing there talking in their huddle.
I stood up to head out there to see what was going on and watched out of the corner of my eye as Simi stiffened.
I bent down and caught her face in my hand, turning her eyes to look at me.
Four of my fingers rested on her cheek while my thumb guided her face to where her gaze was pinned with mine.
“I’m going to go outside and get some information,” I told her. “If you need anything or just need me, don’t hesitate to yell, okay? I won’t go farther than the doorway right outside.”
She visibly wilted underneath me.
She’d thought I’d been leaving, and she hadn’t liked it.
“Okay,” she replied softly.
That happy rush of endorphins at being needed by her was enough to make my heart rate pick up.