Looking For Trouble (12 page)

"Who put you in charge? You don't even know
for sure she's your daughter, do you? Your name isn't on the birth
certificate, I haven't said she's your daughter, have I?"

"You don't have to...she has my hair,
dimple, and that cute little banana-shaped birthmark on her butt, I
have it too. But if you want to go there, we'll have DNA tests. I
just didn't want to put her, or you, through all that
unnecessarily."

"You can't stop me if I want to take her to
Nashville," Jess told him belligerently. He couldn't, Angel was her
daughter, she'd take her wherever she damned well pleased. This is
exactly why she wasn't ever going to tell Wade about Angel.
Complications, her life was a big ball of them now, and this man
was at the center of it.

"Oh, yes I can, and I will. He lifted a
piece of paper from the center console and shook it at her, and she
saw Travis's face flush, then his hands tightened on the wheel.
Leaning forward, Jess jerked it from his hand and saw it was a
faxed copy of a temporary custody order, giving him full legal
custody of Angel Sparks Roberts, pending a custody hearing, and
giving Jess supervised visitation, as stipulated by the custodial
parent, Wade Roberts.

Her whole body went numb, and the words on
the paper blurred, then a buzzing started in her ears. A wail
worked its way up her body from her toes, and she let it go into
the cab of the truck, as her heart felt like someone was ripping it
out of her chest. Jess couldn't breathe, as hard as she tried to
suck in a breath, she couldn't, then dark spots formed in front of
her eyes, and then closed in around her, before she felt herself
sliding off of the seat.

"She passed out," Jazzie shouted and shot
him an accusing glare.

Could it get any worse? Wade hadn't meant to
dump it on her like that, but her mouth just wouldn't stop. He was
kicking himself for unloading on her, because not only had he
devastated her, he'd probably just made communicating with her
about their daughter impossible. His intention had been to talk to
her calmly and explain how things were going to be, but that was
out now. She could be having a fucking heart attack or something
back there, and she probably hated his guts now.

He kissed Angel's forehead and she was
hotter now than she had been when they'd left the bus station.
Swallowing hard against the guilt that poured through him, he
looked over at Jess's brother then said, "Hurry up, Travis...run
red lights, do what you have to."

When Travis pulled the truck up in front of
the emergency room a few minutes later, Wade opened his door and
ran inside with Angel, while Travis and Jazzie went to the back to
help get Jess out.

Seeing a nurse at the nurse's station in the
E.R., he ran up to her, and said in a choked voice, "My baby is
sick, she's got a high fever, and I think she's dehydrated, please
help her," then handed her to the surprised nurse.

The nurse felt her forehead and her eyebrows
shot up, then she took her into an exam room, and Wade followed
behind her. The woman put a thermometer in her ear and when it
beeped, she read it, then looked at him and said, "We've got to get
her cooled off quick. Come stand here, I'll go get the doctor."

Tears burned behind his eyes, as he walked
over to the table and held onto Angel, so she didn't fall off the
table. He stroked her hair and face, and cooed to her, then
wondered why the nurse wasn't back yet. Even though she'd only been
gone thirty seconds, she needed to fucking hurry, because Angel
wasn't looking good at all.

CHAPTER SIX

A white-coated female doctor rushed into the
exam room, and over to them, and Wade stepped back to give her and
the nurse room to work. The doctor looked over at him and asked,
"How long has she been like this?"

"At least four or five hours, I guess," he
estimated, because Jess hadn't really been sure.

"Vomiting?" she asked him.

"Her mother said she spit up, yes," Wade
told her, then swallowed hard when emotion clogged his throat. "Is
she gonna be okay?"

"Kids run fevers...we just need to find out
what's causing it. She's dehydrated that's for sure, so we're going
to start an I.V. of fluids," the doctor said then looked up at the
nurse, who nodded.

She put a tongue depressor in Angel's mouth,
which made her gag, and Wade flinched. Then the doctor looked in
Angel's ears, and she started wiggling on the table and crying. He
fought the urge to go and grab her up and cuddle her. "Has she been
given Tylenol recently?"

"I don't know...probably not," he told her,
thinking that her fever wouldn't be so high, if Jess had given her
any. "Let me go check," he told her then added, "I'll be right
back."

The doctor nodded, and he headed out the
door to find Jazzie. Jess wasn't coherent...or cooperative...so he
wasn't going to ask her. He found Jazzie in an exam room with Jess
and Travis. Jess was awake now, but inconsolable still, she was
curled in a fetal position on the bed and sobbing uncontrollably.
"Jazzie, can I talk to you outside for a second?"

After she shot him a heated glance, and
studied him for a second, she nodded with her lips tight then
stomped past him out into the hall. "How's Angel?" she asked him
shortly.

"The doctor is examining her...they're
staring an I.V..." he said then narrowed his eyes accusingly,
"Because she's
dehydrated
."

"Look, babies get sick...this is
not
Jess's fault!" Jazzie yelled, then took a step closer to him, and
put a finger in his chest. "Jess is a great mother, so don't you
start with that, or I'll kick your ass! You have no idea what she's
been through this last year! She was in the hospital a week after
the baby was born, they weren't even sure she was going to make it
herself!"

Wade hadn't known that, and the thought of
Jess almost dying made his heart tweak in his chest. "I'm sorry, I
didn't mean it that way...I'm just worried about Angel."

"That's
exactly
how you meant it,"
Jazzie told him fiercely, then hissed, "What you did to Jess is
horrible...she loves that baby."

Hot fury surged up inside of Wade, and he
was going to set this fiery little woman straight right now. "No,
what she did to
me
is horrible! First, not telling me about
Angel when she had a chance, then taking off with her, so I
couldn't ever see her,
that
is what's horrible, ma'am.
She
set the pace on how this thing would go, I'm just trying
to keep up, so don't you go blaming me."

Jazzie huffed out a breath then said,
"You're right, I'm sorry, Wade. I'm worried about
her
too...she's really bad. I've never seen her this way before and
it's scaring the shit out of me."

Wade shoved a hand through his hair, then
said, "I care about her too, Jazzie...I didn't do this because I
wanted
to...I
had
to do it. She's not going to keep
Angel away from me again. I'm trying to help Jess and take care of
my daughter, and by god, she needs to let me."

Shaking her head, Jazzie told him, "I
know...I'll try to talk some sense into her."

"Thank you," Wade said then shoved a hand
through his hair, and asked what he'd come to ask, "The doctor
wants to know if ya'll gave Angel any Tylenol recently."

"Jess gave her some on the bus, but that was
probably four hours ago, so she's probably due for another dose,"
she told him, then asked, "The doctor say what's wrong with her
yet?"

"No, I'll keep you know when I hear
something...let me know what's up with Jess too, okay?"

"Yeah, I will...go, take care of Angel,"
Jazzie said then leaned up on her toes and gave him a kiss on the
cheek, "I know you're just trying to be a good daddy, Wade, and I'm
sorry all this is going down like it is...Jess is just scared."

With a frustrated sigh, Wade nodded, then
turned and went back to the exam room and Angel. When he walked
back in the room, a younger guy in green scrubs was taking blood
from her tiny arm, and she was whimpering. There was an IV in her
other arm, and she was restrained on some kind of board. Fear
clenched his heart, and emotion clogged his throat. He couldn't
even hold her, comfort her, and it pissed him off.

With every little weak wail Angel made, it
felt like a nail was being pounded in his heart. He couldn't watch
anymore, so he walked out of the room to go find the nurse or
doctor, who'd been in the room a minute ago.

The nurse was at the station writing on a
chart, so he walked up to her and demanded, "Where's the
doctor?"

"With another patient," she told him
distractedly, which pissed him off. Wade slammed his hands down on
the desk, which got her attention and she looked up at him.

"Why isn't she with my daughter? Did she
figure out what's wrong with her? I found out the last Tylenol she
had was over four hours ago."

"She has other patients to see too. When the
results of the blood work come back, she'll come in and talk to
you. We gave your daughter another dose of Tylenol, so her fever
should be coming down soon, hopefully. The doctor's preliminary
assessment is that it may be an ear infection, but she's ordered
blood work to make sure something else isn't going on."

Wade huffed out a relieved breath, but he
was still worried, because the explanation didn't make a whole lot
of sense to him. How could an ear infection cause her to be so
sick? Vomiting, and high fever? He wasn't a doctor though, so all
he could do was wait, and take it that the doctor knew what she was
talking about.

"Okay, I'll be in the room with her..."

"Perfect, I'll let the doctor know," she
told him with a tight smile, then she shoved a clipboard at him,
and said, "You can fill this out while you wait".

He looked down at the patient intake form,
as he walked back to the exam room, and his jaw got tighter and
tighter, because there were so many questions he couldn't answer
about his daughter. Knowing he was going to have to either ask Jess
or maybe Jazzie to help him, he headed down the hall, instead of
into the room with Angel.

When he walked into Jess's room, there was a
nurse in there giving her a shot, and she didn't even seem to
notice him, she was staring at the wall, not moving, not
talking...just breathing. Jazzie was standing against the wall, her
face pale and drawn, and Travis was beside her looking the same
way. The nurse stood up and looked at him with concern, then walked
around the bed, and put a hand on his arm, then said softly, "Maybe
you shouldn't be in here."

"I have to be, I have to ask her questions
to fill out this form." He waved the clipboard at the nurse,
frustration and worry warring inside of him.

"She probably won't be much help right now,
and she'll be going to sleep in a few minutes. I just gave her a
sedative."

"I have to try..." he told the nurse, and
she shrugged then shook her head and left the room.

"I can probably answer most of them, Wade,"
Jazzie told him then pushed away from the wall. "Have they said
anything yet about her condition?" Worry pinched between her dark
brows and her black eyes were glassy.

"Doctor thinks it might be an ear infection,
but they're doing blood work to make sure that's all it is."

She reached for the clipboard in his hand
and he pulled it back, "Thanks, Jazz, but I really want to talk to
Jess for a minute, before she goes to sleep." He had to try to get
through to her, make her believe that she hadn't lost her baby,
that he hadn't taken Angel from her. "Can ya'll give us a few?
Close the door?"

Jazzie shook her head and glanced at Jess
then said, "I don't know Wade...she's not in a good place right
now."

He grabbed her shoulder with one hand and
said, "I have to try, Jazzie...for Angel. Let me see if she'll
listen to me."

"Go forward at your own risk, then..."
Jazzie told him with a forced chuckle, then she waved at Travis and
they walked out shutting the door behind them.

Wade swallowed down the fear that pushed up
into his throat, and walked to the bed to sit down beside Jess. He
took her hand in his, and she pulled it back, then looked toward
the far wall.

"Jess, talk to me, baby..." he said softly,
then told her, "I'm sorry about the custody thing, but you didn't
leave me a choice..." he told her and she sucked in a deep breath
then tears slid out of the sides of her eyes, and she rolled over
on her side away from him.

"I'm not taking her away from you,
sugar...you're still her momma, you've got to help me here...the
doctor needs information to help her."

He saw her stiffen, then she croaked out in
a raw voice that sounded nothing like her rich silky voice, "What
do you need to know?" He went down the list of questions, and she
answered them, in short one word answers, where she could, then she
told him quietly, "Now, leave me alone..."

"She needs you, Jess...come with me to go
see her. We've got to work this out between us, darlin'...for
Angel." He reached over and stroked her cheek, then leaned down and
kissed her there, and she flinched. Wade flinched too, because he
didn't want to see the strong, vibrant woman she'd been a year ago
in this shape. He'd done this to her, and he felt guilty as hell.
"You need to be strong, sugar...for her."