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Rose pulled the car into the ambulance loading zone, abruptly throwing it into park, hearing Luisa groan as she jumped out of the car to run around and help the brunette out. As the redhead grabbed Luisa’s arm to help her stand a nearby orderly called out to her, “Ma’am, you can’t leave your car there!”
“The hell I can’t,” she muttered to herself and kept walking.
“Ma’am, move your car now! We will have it towed!” he yelled.
She turned, eyes flashing, and yelled, “Then tow it!”
The anger in her voice was enough to make the man flinch and he remained silent as she turned back, helping Luisa walk. The brunette leaned heavily on Rose as they moved through the door and walked up to the counter.
The nurse behind the barrier didn’t even look up as she asked for Luisa’s name, and Rose took a deep breath, trying not to yell again.
“What seems to be the issue?” the nurse asked, in a bored tone.
Luisa bit her lip and squeezed Rose’s arm, silently asking her to speak for her.
“She’s in pain,” Rose said.
“What kind of pain?”
“The kind that hurts!” Rose snapped, and the nurse finally look up at her as Luisa dug her nails into her arm in warning.
“She’s having severe pain in her lower abdomen and she’s only five months pregnant,” the redhead said as calmly as she could.
“How would you rate the pain on a scale of one to ten?” the nurse asked.
“Well she can’t talk for herself, what number would you call that?” Rose asked, sharply.
The nurse barely avoided rolling her eyes, typed something in to the computer and produced a bracelet that she wrapped around Luisa’s wrist. “I’ll take her over here and get her vitals, you can have a seat.”
“I’ll stay with her,” the redhead said firmly.
“That won’t be necessary,” the nurse said, taking Luisa’s weight from Rose and leading her away. Rose took a breath and moved to a chair that had a view of where they’d set her wife down to take her blood pressure.
Once the nurse finished she gestured to Luisa to move to the waiting room then turned and walked away, leaving the brunette to try and stand on her own. Rose immediately jumped to her feet and grasped her hand, taking Luisa’s weight and leading her carefully to a chair in the waiting room.
“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered to her, and Luisa looked at her with wide, wet eyes. Rose squeezed her hand tightly.
For the next twenty minutes they waited, Luisa gritting her teeth against the pain and Rose getting more and more impatient and angry with every passing second. Eventually she gently squeezed Luisa’s hand, and stood, moving to the counter.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes?” another nurse asked.
“Her pain is getting worse,” Rose said, trying her best to stay calm.
“We’ll get to her, we have to triage based on need,” the nurse replied.
“Well she needs help, something’s very wrong,” the redhead said.
“There are other patients who are a priority and our doctors are currently occupied,” she said dismissively.
“Nobody has even come in in the last twenty minutes!” Rose yelled. She could hear Luisa groan from the chair and knew that her yelling was upsetting the brunette, so tried to reign it in again. “Please. She needs help.”
“And I promise you we will help her, just have a seat.” The nurse turned back to her paperwork, and Rose fought the urge to grab her by the scrubs and make her point more clearly. She turned decisively and moved back to Luisa. She expected a glare from her wife for having lost her temper, but what she saw was much worse. Luisa’s stomach and legs were covered in blood and she was looking at Rose with panic in her eyes.
“Shit. She’s bleeding, will you help her now?!” Rose yelled as she ran to Luisa, kneeling beside her and trying wipe away the blood. As she watched the color drained from the brunette’s face and her eyes rolled back. The nurses and orderlies came running to them, pushed Rose out of the way and loaded Luisa onto a gurney, rushing her into an emergency exam room. When Rose tried to follow a nurse put up a hand.
“We’ve got her.”
“But-“ Rose started but was cut off.
“You’ll just be in the way, we need to work. Please wait out here,” she said with an air of finality, shutting the door.
Rose turned away, panicked, slamming her hand into the wall before slumping into a chair in the hall, her arms on her knees and her head in her hands.
It seemed like an eternity that the door stayed closed. Every worst case scenario was on a loop in Rose’s head. She didn’t think she would ever recover if she lost Luisa, and she wasn’t sure Luisa would recover if she lost the baby. She gave up on staying still and took to pacing outside the door, trying to get any indication of what was happening inside. Finally, the door opened and a stream of nurses and doctors came out.
One of the nurses moved to Rose and rather than providing an update or comfort of any kind simply said, “Do you have contact information for her husband?”
Through gritted teeth Rose said, “She doesn’t have a husband.”
“The father then? Do you know who the father of the baby is?” the nurse asked.
“I’m the father,” the redhead snapped. Something flickered in the woman’s eyes.
“Right,” she said, detachedly.
“Can you please tell me what’s happening? Is she okay? Is the baby okay?” Rose asked, exasperated and terrified.
The woman’s eyes flicked to Rose’s left hand, and seemingly satisfied by the presence of a wedding band, said, “She’s stable. The baby’s vitals are good. The doctor will have to tell you more. We’re admitting her, we’ll be moving her to a room upstairs shortly.”
Rose nodded and moved carefully to the door. Luisa was laying in the bed, frighteningly pale. The redhead moved to her and gently took her hand, and though Luisa didn’t respond, she could see her chest steadily moving as she breathed. Rose pulled up a chair and sat, her eyes locked onto her wife’s face.
Not long after, an orderly came in to move Luisa. He didn’t speak much to Rose, and as he rolled Luisa’s gurney out of the room and the redhead moved to follow, he asked, “Are you family?”
“Yes!” Rose exclaimed. “I am her wife!”
He looked at her for a moment before nodding tersely. Rose followed him through the halls and into the elevator. She crossed her arms angrily as they rose to the fourteenth floor, and stalked after them as they set Luisa up in a room. Rose resumed her bedside vigil as soon as he left, listening to the steady heartbeat from the monitor.
“Lu, when you wake up and feel better we are moving to California. This is the last time I let you talk me into moving to-“
She was interrupted as the doctor walked into the room, seemingly surprised to find someone else in the room.
“Oh. Hello. I’m Dr. Barkley.”
“Rose. Can you tell me what’s happening please?” Rose asked, her desperation evident in her voice.
“Um. You are?”
That was enough for Rose. She knew how upset Luisa would be if she lost her temper, but she couldn’t take it anymore.
“I am her wife!” she yelled. “You are now the third person I have told that to! Do you not have a file you can put it in? Do you not share information? My wife is laying here, unconscious, paler than I have ever seen her, and nobody will tell me why!”
The doctor had the decency to look embarrassed.
“I’m sorry for that. I didn’t know. Our staff sometimes isn’t…I’m sorry,” he said, quietly.
Rose was taken aback, but her mind still moved between panic and anger. “Please just tell me what’s wrong.”
“She’s going to be fine,” he said, calmly. “I know this is going to sound like I got my medical degree from Jones’ Barbecue and Foot Massage, but sometimes this just happens. Sometimes pregnant women have bleeding. We’re going to keep her here for observation and monitor her, but I truly think she’s going to be fine.”
Rose scoffed. “’Sometimes pregnant women bleed,’ that’s really what you’re going with?”
He smiled at her patiently. “Yup.”
“And if I wanted a second opinion?” she asked, bitterly.
“You’ve got mine,” a weak voice said from the bed. Rose’s head snapped down to see Luisa, her eyes barely open, but open nonetheless.
“Lu,” Rose whispered, collapsing to the chair beside the bed and grabbing her hand. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said weakly. “Listen to the doctor.”
The man smiled at them both, nodded briefly, and moved out of the room.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Rose asked, brushing Luisa’s hair from her face.
“I’m sure,” the brunette responded. “Did you have to yell at the staff? I’ve asked you so many times to keep your temper.”
Rose bit her lip. “Yes! They wanted me to call your ‘husband,’” the redhead wrinkled her nose.
“Now is not the time to take a stand against homophobia,” Luisa responded equal parts exasperated and pleased.
“It worked didn’t it?” Rose said in a huff.
“You can’t just go around threatening people; we’ve talked about this.”
“I didn’t threaten anyone!” Rose insisted. “I just made myself very, very clear.”
Luisa sighed, but smiled. “I guess I knew what I was getting into when I married you.”
“Yes you did,” Rose said decisively. “Now hush, the doctor said it was better if you didn’t talk.”
Luisa gasped. “He did not! You just don’t want to be in trouble anymore.”
Rose leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’m always in trouble,” she said softly.