In The Safety Of A Lie - COMPLETED!

Chapter 24

The hours had ticked on by. Joey felt someone shaking him awake. His eyes slowly opened. It took him a second to realize where he was. Like a wave crashing onto him, the flood of memories of the last twenty four hours rushed on over him. He jumped up, nearly knocking Doctor Wiley over.

"Whoa now!" The doctor jumped back defensively.

"Sorry about that, Doc." Joey quickly apologized. "How is she? Please tell me that she's alright. Doc, she's gotta be alright."

"She's stable now, Mr. Markes. She's finally resting." Doctor Wiley quickly reassured him.

Joey sighed in relief. It was short lived as the questions flooded his mind. "What was wrong? Why was she in so much pain? Why'd she faint?"

Doctor Wiley rubbed his forehead, clearly exhausted from being on call around the clock. "She had a reaction to taking Ibuprofen and Aspirin. She had followed the directions by spacing them out, but sometimes that doesn't work and her body reacted to those two different OTC drugs. Thankfully, she didn't react as adversely as some do. She could have obtained internal bleeding, or worse, she could have died from it."

Joey's brows knit together. "How is any of that possible? It shouldn't be available over the counter if they can kill people!" His frustration was obvious through his raised voice. He wanted to eliminate anyone responsible for hurting people when it could be avoided.

"Honestly, it shouldn't be possible, but when labels aren't read then things like this happen. Not many people take the time to read the bottles and look up what's safe to mix and not mix. In Evelina's case, she was doing everything right, but it was just an unfortunate technicality." Doctor Wiley shrugged, but he remained tense.

"How's the baby doing?" He could tell the doctor was just saying what he had to. He understood that. There was no time to argue though; he needed to know how his child was doing. He could have smacked himself for not even thinking about asking that right away. What kind of a dad did that make him?

"I think you guys are going to have a strong baby. It doesn't seem like the baby was phased by any of this, which is unusual considering the baby feeds from everything that goes through your fiancé." The doctor seemed genuinely surprised.

"Can I see Evelina?" Joey couldn't stop himself from asking as soon as the doctor stopped talking. He was antsy. He just wanted to see his fiancé. He needed to see her alright to really allow himself to calm down.

"Yes, you can, but she's probably resting." He warned him. "And she needs it, so don't wake her up."

"I won't." He quietly promised, just wanting to be near her.

"Go on." Doctor Wiley waved him on.

Joey hadn't checked the time, but judging by the number of lights that were dimmed, he figured it was sometime at night. He found her room and sat down in a chair next to her bed. Although he was newer to the praying world, he said a prayer for Ev. He passionately prayed for her with his hand on her shoulder, careful not to wake her. He wasn't sure what was going on inside of her body, but he had faith that this new Jesus he knew through her would be able to heal her fully and completely and would work through the doctor's hands. Although worried, he still felt peaceful — which was more then what he normally felt. It was a reassuring change.

He watched her quiet breathing and the peaceful look on her face. Despite the lighting being of poor quality, her soft blonde locks still seemed to glow from it. He stared at her eyes as if willing them to open, but he soon fell back asleep waiting for her to regain consciousness.

"Joey?" He could hear Ev's weakened but still sweet voice.

"What?" He asked as he willed his eyes open. He yawned while stretching from his uncomfortable position in the chair. He stopped mid-yawn and looked over at her. "You're awake!"

Evelina quietly giggled at his expression. "I think so... unless, of course, I'm dreaming. Your crazy morning hair is telling me differently though."

"Yeah, well, you didn't have to sleep in this chair all night." He retorted back, but he couldn't wipe the smile off of his face.

"No, I didn't." A smile played at the edges of her lips.

"How are you feeling?" He pulled the chair as close to her bed as possible and sat down. He held her hand in between his own and waited as if his life depended on that very answer.

"Really, really weak." She offered a small smile and shrugged lightly. "I don't understand why though. I felt fine before."

"Maybe you've just been pushing yourself too much." He commented on her condition. Worry threw a shadow across his face. "Why were you mixing Aspirin and Ibuprofen, Evelina?"

She couldn't stand to see him so serious. A smile ever so lightly lit up her face in an attempt to lighten up the situation. She weakly punched his arm playfully. "I had a really bad migraine, Joey. And, in my defense, I spaced them out. It's not like I tried to mix the two together. What else was I supposed to do?"

He didn't return her smile or her playfulness. "You're supposed to protect our baby."

She sobered up. "Well obviously that's what I'm supposed to do. This wasn't on purpose." Her brows knit together as she struggled to push herself up a little bit. "Are you blaming me for this?"

Slight alarm filled Joey's eyes. "No! No, of course not, Ev. I was just really worried. You scared me."

Evelina's eyes dropped down to stare at the light, hospital sheets. She reached over and rubbed his arm, allowing her body to slide back down under the covers.

Doctor Wiley walked into the room with a clipboard. He looked up at them and gently smiled. "Good, you both are awake. How are you feeling, Evelina?"

"Like I haven't slept in days. I just feel really weak." Ev moaned out to him. There was no need to make herself sound better then how she really felt.

The doctor made a few notes. He sat down at the end of the bed. "I don't know how much of last night you remember, but we had a quick discussion about the dangers of mixing two different OTC drugs. I know you didn't do it on purpose, but if you are ever concerned about taking something then you need to call us to see if it's safe."

"I just don't understand how this happened. I mean I've taken them before in the same day and nothing even remotely like this has ever happened." Her brows knit together in frustration.

"Maybe you spaced them out more or maybe you're having more of a reaction because you're pregnant. It's hard to say, but I strongly recommend not taking them in the same day. At the very least, not less then twelve hours between doses. Also, I'm going to give you something different for that mourning sickness. Most women don't have it still this late on in pregnancy, but there's still some that have it to the end. The medication I prescribe should also help to calm you down a little bit and stop those migraines from coming. At least, that's the hope for it." He gently smiled again, filling out a little bit more paperwork. "Get some rest and you'll be out of here in no time."