Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3) (32 page)

He saw that Karlie was crying and his heart pinched and he told her, "I'm going to be fine, sugar...don't worry."

The nurses wheeled him inside and a doctor met them and examined his arm
,
then started spouting orders that included anti-venom, drips and other stuff that didn't really register in Gabe's dazed brain.
  They didn't bother helping him take off his t-shirt, they cut it
from hem to collar, then
yanked it off,
before
a nurse started sticking him with a needle in his right arm.  The next thing
Gabe
knew he was fading off to sleep,
with the image of
Karlie's scared face and tears
the last thing he saw
.

Ka
rlie couldn't watch them poke and prod Gabe, she was so damned worried he was going to die.  People died from rattlesnake bites, and if the one that bit him was like the one he had in the trunk, it was a big one. 
S
earch
ing
her pockets
, Karlie
couldn't find her cell, so she found some change and ran to the pay phone bank on the wall, then
dialed Cole's house.  She was sure he wasn't at the station.
  It took a few rings, but a sleepy Sabrina finally answered and Karlie blurted out, "Gabe's been bit by a rattlesnake, we
're
at the hospital in Henrietta!"

After a
momen
t of silence,
Sabrina
repeated in a lethargic and slightly confused voice,
"Bit by a rattlesnake?  Cole said you guys were headed to the cabin."

"Jake put two snakes in the cabin
, and one of them bit Gabe
. 
He
killed one, but the other one was in the closet and he didn't see it!"

"Okay, calm down Karlie...I'll get Cole.  One second, he's sleeping..." she heard Sabrina lay the phone down.

A couple of minutes later, Cole answered the extension, "Karlie what's going on?"

"We're at the hospital in Henrietta...Gabe was bitten by a rattler."

"
What the fuck!?!
" Cole shouted
incredulously
into the phone and she heard covers rustle as he evidently sat up in the bed.

"There were truck tire tracks in the driveway, big knobby tires like Jake
has on his
truck. 
Jake
put those snakes in the bedroom of the cabin.  Gabe killed one, but there was another
one
in the closet he didn't see and it bit him."

"How's he doing?" Cole asked in a worried tone.

"Not too good, they just gave him pain medicine, and the doctor is trying to get anti-venom, I think.  He was trying to hide it, but he was in pain and nauseated, and his arm was swelling fast."

"We're on our way..." Cole said then hung up the phone.

Karlie walked down the hall and back outside to the cruiser, and shut the door, then got in and cut off the sirens and lights.  She put it in gear and found a parking spot, then just sat there and put her head on the steering wheel.  Tears hot and steady poured down her cheeks, and
pressure
built in her chest. 

When a tongue licked her shoulder, Karlie jumped and gasped then looked into Sarge's sad brown eyes.  He had his paws on the back of the seat, but couldn't reach her, because of the grate between the seats.  She felt awful, because she'd totally forgotten about him being back there in all the confusion.

"I'm sorry, Sarge.  I seem to be letting everyone down these days," she said then got out of the car and opened the back door.  Grabbing his leash off the seat, she clipped it on his collar and then took him to a grassy patch on the other side of the parking lot, so he could do his business.
 

After they got back to the car, she got his water bowl out then walked found a spigot
on the side of the building and
filled it up for him
, then
let him drink his fill.  Wanting to get back inside to check on Gabe, Karlie picked him up then walk-ran back to the cruiser and put
Sarge back in the car
.  Although she hated leaving him alone out here in the hot car, she didn't have much choice.
  She got back in the cruiser quickly and cracked the back windows to let in some air, then locked it up and ran back to the entrance.

When she got back inside,
she found a nurse and asked about Gabe's condition.  The woman wouldn't tell her anything, and she got pissed, then told her she was Gabe's fiancé, and that his sister would be here shortly.
  The woman finally told her they'd received anti-venom and had started him on it, and that he was 'resting comfortably'. 

Yeah right, he'd been bitten by a snake, his arm looked like it was rotting off,
he was in terrible pain,
but he was
resting comfortably
.
  Some of the things these people said, made her wonder if they got their
medical
licenses in a Cracker Jack box.

Karlie
went to the room where they had him
,
and saw him attached to all kinds of tubes and wires
.  With a sob, she wa
lked over to the bed.  Gabe was asleep, but she leaned down and kissed his cheek.  "I love you, baby," she whispered near his ear, th
en squeezed his uninjured hand,
before she went to
sit in a plastic chair against the wall.
 

Karlie
knew she must smell like a horse, she hadn't even had time to shower, and she was so exhausted she felt like she was floating. 
Easing her butt down in the chair, she leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. 

Maybe she could just nap a minute, she thought and dozed off.  Sabrina woke her up a few minutes later, her eyes filled with tears and fear. 
Karlie
vaulted up out of the chair and looked around and
saw
Gabe wasn't in the room.  "Where's Gabe," she asked in a broken whisper.

"I don't know, we just got here..." Sabrina said with a sob,
then grabbed
Karlie
in a tight hug.

"They were giving him anti-venom...maybe they took him for some other test or something
," she mumbled into Sabrina's shoulder, then told her, "
I'm sorry I fell asleep."

"Honey, you need to sleep...both of you were up all night,' Sabrina told her and put her arm around her
waist, and told her, "
Let's go ask the nurse where he is..."
t
hen led her out the door.

"Where's Cole?" Karlie asked looking around. 

"He went outside to make some calls to try and get Jake Johnson picked up
,
"
Sabrina told her and Karlie breathed a relieved sigh, a little of the tension in her shoulder easing.

"Good, I hope they catch him...before someone else gets hurt," Karlie said quietly then dropped her chin, she couldn't look at Sabrina, as guilt surged through her.

Sabrina put a finger under her chin and lifted it to look
in her eyes. 
"This is not your fault, Karlie.  Repeat it--
now
," she commanded
holding her gaze
intensely.

Karlie shook her head,
and refuted Sabrina's words,
"It is my fault...I brought Jake Johnson and his meanness here.

"You came here to get away from him...he followed you...that is not your fault," Sabrina grated, then finished, "Stop fucking feeling sorry for yourself, Karlie, find your backbone and stand up to the bastard
. 
Gabe needs you to do that."

Karlie didn't realize that
's
what she was doing, but maybe Sabrina was right.  Her feeling guilty certainly wasn't
helping
Gabe.
..or anyone else, including herself.  She remembered how she was before she met Jake Johnson,
she
had
a backbone
then
and
s
tood up for herself
, and met
the world head on. 
That certainly wasn't what she was doing now, and she
did
need
to go back there and find
that girl
again, and stop her whining.

"I'm sorry..." she told Sabrina and she truly was.  She was also embarrassed for acting so weak and pitiful.

"And I don't want to hear that phrase come out of your mouth again!  Just stop it!" Sabrina put her
fists
on her hips,
framing her baby belly.  She looked like a little general, and it made Karlie want to laugh.

"Yes, ma'am..." Karlie drawled with a little smile.

"That's better...now let's go find my brother and make sure he didn't kill that snake
with his meanness
when it bit him!"

Sabrina led them to the nurse's station where she cornered a younger nurse and demanded to know how her brother was, and where they had taken him.

"They took him to another room, so a surgeon could evaluate the tissue damage from the snake bite, and then they're taking him up to ICU to monitor him," the nurse told her after
Sabrina
identified herself as his next of kin.
The nurse looked at Karlie then and asked,
"
You're his fiancé aren't you?  I was looking for you to give you an update
."

"
Um...yeah,
what did the surgeon say?" Karlie took a step forward and asked
,
feeling blood rush up her throat to her face, as she felt Sabrina's gaze on her
.

"You did good getting him here so fast, so it looks like there's only minimal
tissue
damage, and he won't need surgery.  The anti-venom seems to be working well too, according to the doctor. 
It wasn't a dry bite, but the doctor
thinks the envenomation was
nominal
."

"Oh thank, god..."
Karlie
said huffing out a relieved breath
, her knees feeling week
.

Sabrina grabbed her arm and said near her ear,
"His fiancé?
  Something you want to tell me, sugar?
"

Karlie felt
her face get hotter
,
then
held up her hands and shook her head
.
 
Sabrina
tugged on
her arm and dragged her down the hall to the elevator
, and said with a chuckle, "
Don't explain, let me bask in my euphoria for a few minutes, before you bust my bubble," she told her with a chuckle.

Oh, god, Karlie hoped Sabrina didn't say anything to Gabe...she didn't want him to think she expected him to propose or anything.  They might have talked about her moving into his cabin with him, but nothing was decided, and that certainly didn't mean they were ready to get engaged. 
They'd been through a lot in the short time they'd known each other, which meant they got closer than 'normal', faster than usual, but they weren't ready for
that
step yet.
 

Karlie
wasn't even a hundred percent certain she wanted to move in with him yet. 
She
had just gotten out of living with someone, and even though Gabe was miles apart in temperament from Jake, moving in with him still meant giving up a certain amount of control...and she wasn't sure she wanted to do that just yet.

When
she and Sabrina
got off the elevator at the ICU floor, Karlie ran to the nurse's station and asked about Gabe.  The woman told her they could only visit a few minutes, and one at a time.
  Sabrina shoved her to go ahead, and walked to the waiting room the nurse had pointed out to them.