Worthy

Chapter Twenty Six

It was our one month anniversary of buying Beau Terre and I had spent almost the whole afternoon cooking up a feast for Thor and I. He was out for the day in the fields with the guys working to expand the western fence line which allowed me to get everything ready. I had spent days finding recipes online and planning things out. Thor arrived home as I was putting the apple tart in the oven. He pulled me in for a kiss and then dashed upstairs for a quick shower before dinner.

It was the first real heatwave of summer and the kitchen was sweltering. I was worn out and sweating more than I had in ages but I powered through trying to get things set up at the dining room table before he came back down. I was more than ready for our meal. The whole house smelled divine and it was driving me insane. I hadn't eaten yet due to a mild nagging nausea that plagued me most of the day. By the time it subsided enough for me to be hungry I was wrapped up in cooking and didn't have a chance to stop.

I heard Thor's heavy footsteps on the stairs, "I think I'm going to buy a truck." he called out.

"What kind?" I asked heading back to the kitchen for the salad bowls.

"Just something to drive around the farm. All the other guys have them and it would be convenient."

"Okay, I'll have to teach you how to drive though. I promise you it's not as easy as it looks." I tugged at the neckline of my dress, it was stifling in the kitchen.

Thor was standing in the doorway to the kitchen as I carried the bowls towards him. I heard him saying something but it sounded like he was underwater. I strained to hear him but he wasn't making any sense and the last thing I saw before the world faded away was his wide eyed expression and his lips yelling my name.

I woke up sometime later on the floor surrounded by the spilled salad and broken bowls, my head laying in Thor's lap. I had a splitting headache. He looked like he had aged a decade and his voice wavered as he spoke, "The ambulance is on it's way. Hold on love."

"What happened?" I asked groggily, trying to get my bearings.

Thor sniffed and I realized he had been crying, still was in fact. "You passed out. It was out of nowhere and I didn't move fast enough to catch you and you hit your head pretty hard on the tile. You're bleeding and I... I called 911 because I didn't know what else to do. I don't know where the hospital is closest to here and I couldn't drive you there and you were just so still and cold. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get to you in time to catch you..." he was rambling, on the verge of hysteria.

I fought through the pain in my head, he needed to calm down. "Okay, it's okay love. You did the right thing. I think I'm fine though. I just need to eat something, I wasn't feeling great today and got distracted making our dinner." I caught the scent of burnt sugar in the air, "Shit. Thor, go turn off the oven and take the tart out. I think it's burnt."

"I don't want to let you go."

"I'm going to sit up, you are going to go take care of the tart so we don't start a fire. Get me a glass of water while you're up."

Thor scowled but helped me sit up and then attended to the oven. He was handing me the water when the paramedics arrived. Thor hurried to the front door to meet them, "She's in here." he directed them to me.

I was sitting up, still on the floor, and gave them a little wave. "Hey guys. Sorry to have called you out here for this. I passed out making dinner and my fiance got worried."

A young hispanic woman came over to kneel down next to me, "Hi, I'm Lucy. Can you tell me your name?" she asked.

"I'm Mia." I answered her knowing she needed to do her job.

"Where are you from Mia?"

"I'm Sojuran."

"Ah, that explains the blood. I have some questions for you Mia." She ran through a series of questions to ensure I was fully coherent and I answered them all easily. Her partner, an older man stood off to the side talking with Thor.

"How long was she out for?" she called over to Thor.

I looked over and saw he was wringing his hands, looking absolutely petrified. I noticed I had bled all over his shirt and pants which were now stained a mix of red and blue. "Six minutes." he said barely loud enough for us to hear him.

Lucy started packing gauze against my head and instructed me to hold it tightly for her. "That's more than just a little bump and you have a good sized gash back there, Mia. We're going to take you to the hospital with us so you can get stitched up. We have to make sure the concussion isn't too severe too. We'll run some tests just to be sure but it seems like heat exhaustion and low blood sugar to me."

"Can he ride with us?" I asked nervously.

"It might get a little cramped but yeah, he can come along too. Dave, can you go get the stretcher please?"

The older gentleman nodded and headed out. Lucy asked me a few more questions as Dave brought in the stretcher and the two of them lifted me onto it. They started wheeling me out and I noticed Thor was standing in the doorway, frozen. "Thor, come on, we've gotta go." I called to him. My voice snapped him out of whatever thought he was lost in and he scrambled to catch up. The ride to the hospital was only 15 minutes and I got a room right away since we came by ambulance. Thor was silent the whole time but never let go of my hand.

The nurses came in and ran my vitals, taking a few vials of blood as well just to be safe. The poor nurse was quite shocked when my blood came out vivid blue instead of red. "I'm Sojuran," I told her, "We are are very close in physiology to humans and not quite. Our blood doesn't react to oxygen right away like yours does. It will take a few minutes for it to turn red." The nurse apologized and hurried off with the vials. The doctor came to examine my wound and agreed it would need a few stitches which he did himself. Thor paled watching the doctor stitch me up but didn't leave my side. The nurse came back back in with a glass of orange juice as the doctor was finishing up.

"Okay, Mia. I need you to drink this orange juice for me and eat a packet of crackers." the doctor instructed, "Your blood sugar was in the crapper when you came in and I think this was a simple case of hypoglycemia and heat exhaustion. We'll get your blood sugar up and you'll be on your way. The swelling from the concussion isn't severe but you'll need to keep an eye on it for the next few days. I sent your blood work out to the lab just to be safe and they'll call you tomorrow with the results."

I thanked the doctor and started sipping the orange juice under Thor's watchful eyes.

"Sweetheart you're going to have to stop looking at me like that." I tried to sound teasing but I was tired and just sounded sad.

Thor winced, "I almost lost you. You were so small and there was so much blood. I couldn't help you. There was nothing I could do and you weren't waking up."

"I'm fine now. It was just me being stupid and not eating all day. I think I'm coming down with something, my stomach has been off. I'm sorry I scared you so badly."

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself trying to make such a big elaborate dinner if you were not well. I do not need that, I need you to be safe."

"I am safe. I am perfectly safe and you made sure of that. And I wanted to do something nice for our one month anniversary at Beau Terre. It's special damnit."

That brought a fraction of a smirk to Thor's lips but it didn't reach his eyes, "Well we can enjoy it tomorrow. I'm getting you home and to bed, woman."

The discharge nurse came in shortly after to check my blood sugar and have us complete the paperwork. Much to Thor's annoyance, we had to call a taxi to take us home.

"I need to learn to drive. I would have been able to get you here myself. I can't even get us home." he grumbled after calling for the taxi.

"I'm going to teach you, and we'll get you the truck you were talking about earlier. It'll be okay, love." I told him.

By the time we arrived home I was exhausted and Thor insisted on carrying me straight up to bed. He sat with me while I fell asleep, promising to go put away the dinner as soon as I was out. It didn't take long until I fell asleep holding his hand and hoping I hadn't scared him too badly with the whole ordeal.