~ Mine ~

Hard Candy Christmas

"Ba?" Shawna whispered as she entered the dark bedroom, creeping over to her step-mother's king sized bed.

"Hmm?" Reba groaned lightly in response, turning her head slowly in Shawna's direction.

"Feeling any better?" Shawna sympathetically questioned as she knelt down beside her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Shaking her head no, Reba closed her eyes once more, too tired to keep them open any longer. Shawna had been with her since seven o'clock that morning, right after receiving a call from Brandon, who had been extremely worried about the fact that Reba had been ill all of the day prior.

"I made a house call, so Dr. Saura should be here real soon." She whispered back, trying not to talk too loud, in fear of making Reba's migraine any worse. Along with vomiting any and everything her body could force out of her system, Reba had complained of an agonizing headache, causing Shawna to try a remedy of both cold and hot washcloths; nothing had worked.

"I hate seeing you like this..." She whispered sadly as she resumed to lightly mess with the red hair that was sprawled out on the pillow Reba was resting on.

Pausing, she continued to watch in silence as Reba's chest steadily rose and fell to the rhythm of her breathing, the dim moonlight pouring in from the window behind her, casting a small shadow on her face. In the near forty years that Shawna had known Reba, she had maybe seen her like this once or twice before. Waiting a moment longer before getting up and heading back out the bedroom door, Shawna quietly crept down the staircase towards the front room, checking to see if the doctor had arrived.

"Thank you so much for coming." She greeted in appreciation, thirty minutes later, as she opened the door swiftly, immediately inviting the doctor in.

"Certainly." Ezra sincerely replied, with a small nod. Motioning for him to follow her, Shawna urgently led him up to the third floor where Reba's bedroom was located. Once making it to the third floor, Ezra continued to follow closely behind Shawna, pulling his briefcase closer to him, in order to make sure and not accidentally bump any of the decorative tables in the long hallway.

"When did you say the vomiting began?" Ezra questioned quickly as they made their way to what appeared to be the front door of Reba's bedroom.

"She's said that her morning sickness had been off and on for the last couple of weeks but last night was when it became this severe."

"She's maybe eaten three crackers and had less than half a glass of water in the last twenty-six hours," Shawna informed carefully as she slowly began to turn the knob of the dark room, entering quietly. Making his way through the room behind Shawna, Ezra set his briefcase down on the table, near the far end of the bed that Reba was on.

"If you don't mind pulling the cover's back a bit, I'll need to check the baby's heartbeat as well as hers," Ezra instructed in a whisper as he quickly began to piece together his travel monitor. Walking over to the other side of the bed, where Reba was still peacefully sleeping, he quickly went to check her heartbeat and blood pressure, as well as the baby's. Standing out of his way and to the left, Shawna carefully watched behind as he gently examined Reba.

Clearing his throat a while later as he turned around, he gently pulled the comforter back all the way over Reba and walked a few steps over to where Shawna was standing.

"Just by her blood pressure and heart rate, I can already tell that it's extreme dehydration that has caused her condition to escalate." He informed quietly, causing Shawna to sigh a bit in relief. Thank god it wasn't anything far worse.

"I'd like for her to come back in on Sunday."

"Even though the baby's heartbeat is steady it's still a little slower than I want it to be." He explained seriously, causing Shawna's relief to be short lived.