Wife to the Boss (Managing the Bosses Series, #6) (14 page)

“Christine?” The darkness was almost eerie around the living room, though she'd grown up in the place. She turned and walked down the hall, flipping on lights as she did. “Christine? Hey... it's me. Where are you?”

The bedrooms were empty and it almost seemed like no one was there, but Christine's car was out front. Jamie rounded the entrance to the kitchen, thinking maybe that her sister was sitting out back. They'd spent a lot of time out there as kids, swinging on the porch swing that her dad and she built one summer.

She stepped into the kitchen and tripped over something, catching herself as she plowed into the kitchen counter. “What the hell?”

Christine was sprawled on her stomach across the kitchen floor.

“Oh no! No... no... no... Please no!”

J
amie called her parents as she rode in the ambulance next to Christine. She'd already called Alex, freaking out once she got the EMS on the way.

“Hey, Pumpkin. What's going on now?” Her dad's voice was friendly, but had a twinge to it that told her he was over her calling for the evening. She ignored it entirely.

“Dad. I went to the house, and Christine was on the floor in the kitchen. She overdosed on some type of medication. I'm in the ambulance with her. We're headed to the hospital. They think they got it in time, but I don't know.” Jamie let out a soft sob as she tried to hold herself together.

Christine looked like death as she lay on the gurney in front of her. The EMS guys were moving about and talking rapidly to each other as her sister panted softly but wouldn't open her eyes.

“What the hell?! Are you serious, Jamie?” Her father's tone changed drastically.

“Yes, Dad. I'll see you at the hospital. You and Mom should head up there now.”

“Of course. Is she going to be—”

“I honestly don't know. I'll see you there, and I won't leave her until they make me.” Jamie dropped the call and reached out to squeeze Christine's hand. “I'm here, Christine. Stay with me, okay? Nothing’s going to happen to you. We'll get you taken care of. I'm not leaving your side.”

Memory after memory of playing together as little kids rolled over Jamie, and it was all she could do to keep the hot ball of regret lodged in her throat and not spilling all over the tiny metal box they raced through the city in.

She closed her eyes and breathed through her nose as the EMS radioed in that he needed a doctor to meet them at the entrance to the hospital. Her blood pressure was dropping, and they were going to lose her soon without the proper equipment to get her stomach pumped, and possibly an electric shock to bring her heart back on-line.

Jamie glanced up as the ambulance came to a screeching halt.

“Move!” The EMS looked at her as the other pulled the door open.

“She's flat-lining. Let's go, Jack”!” The other yelled as Jamie scrambled out of the ambulance and turned to empty her stomach on the ground behind her.

It seemed only a few weeks before that she was with Alex as he was bleeding profusely from the gunshot wound Stephen caused. They had more drama than a soap opera.

Was this her life? Really?

The ambulance attendants raced past her, pushing Christine’s gurney as fast as they could to the Emergency entrance. Jamie pulled back from her self-pitying thoughts and jogged toward the ER, only to be stopped by an orderly. “You need to give us some information on her, if you're here with the woman going into the ER on the gurney.”

“I am. It’s my sister. Our parents are on the way now.” Jamie ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head.

“Okay, but we still need some info on her. Come over here and help us fill out the information that you can.”

“Okay, yeah, sure.” She followed the woman back to a row of desks and dropped down, but kept her eyes on the door. Her parents and Alex would be showing up any minute, or so she hoped.

The image of seeing Christine on the floor sent her heart racing. She couldn't seem to shake the idea of her sister dying over her depression. If only she had stayed on the phone with her earlier, or offered her a little of comfort instead of cutting her off. After so many years of putting up with her being wishy-washy in her attitude toward being a family that cared about each other, Jamie was tired, raw. It seemed as if she'd chosen the worst time in the world to give up. Thanks to her, Christine was now in the ER, fighting for her life.

“Fill out what you can, dear.” The woman slid a packet of stuff toward her.

“Okay.” Jamie glanced up to see her mom and dad rush into the door to the ER. “Mom. Dad.”

“Jamie.” Her dad moved toward her, grabbing her mother's arm and pulling her that way, too.

“Where is she?” her mom called out loudly. “Where’s my baby? The staff here better not let her die! She’s not dying because of some pills. There’s obvious a mistake going on here. My baby’s not depressed. Where the hell are the doctors?”

Tears lined her mother's face, but, try as hard as she could, Jamie couldn't force any empathy for the woman. She was so full of shit that it was stifling. Where there was no doubt that she loved Christine, her antics were over-exaggerated and completely focused on gaining attention.

“She's in the ER getting her stomach pumped, Mom.” Jamie turned to her dad, who pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“How are you? You must be terrified, having to see all of that.” He squeezed her tightly.

“Why would Jamie be terrified? It's Christine who's fighting for her life.” Her mother huffed loudly and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Mom, give it a rest. It's both of us. I found her face first on the kitchen floor. Excuse Dad for wanting to make sure in the trauma of having to come face to face with all of that shit that I'm okay.” She barked at her mom, not willing to back down. There was too much at stake for her mother to steal the show, as she did no matter who was around, or what it might do to anyone. She shouldn’t be doing it in public, but at this point she didn’t really care.

“Are you going to let her talk to me like that?” her mother barked at her father.

“She's a grown woman. If she feels the need to express herself to you, then, yeah, I am.” He pulled back and looked down at Jamie. “Give me the details. Tell me what you know.”

“Someone needs to fill out paperwork.” Jamie moved back. “I don't know half of the things on the forms.”

“Well, why don't I just do it? You two are ganging up on me anyway.” Her mother grabbed the papers and dropped down in the seat Jamie was sitting in moments ago. A loud sob left her as Jamie's dad put an arm around her shoulder and walked toward the lobby.

“She's upset, but she's overdoing it. I'm sure you knew that.” Her dad glanced down at her and shook his head. “As soon as this stuff is over with Christine and we have her back home, I'm leaving. I can't stand another minute in that house.”

“Christine is going to be okay, right?” Jamie stopped and glanced up at him. “Right?”

“Yes, Pumpkin. This isn't the first time she'd done this.” He averted his eyes. “I shouldn't have left tonight. She's just gotten so good at faking the fact that she's doing okay when she's not.”

“She's done this before? OD'd on drugs?” Jamie pulled back and narrowed her eyes. “When?”

“Right before we came to see you. That's why she was so out of it that night. She had just gotten released the day before. She's having a really hard time with the situation with Stephen. We should have gotten her help. This is all our fault.” He ran his fingers through his hair and glanced around. “I swear I feel like I'm going to crack in half any minute.”

“Well don't, please. We already thought we were going to lose you. This place should know us by first names at this point.” She stepped up to wrap her dad in a hug. “It's going to get better, but we need to get Christine some help, and get you out of the house with mom.”

“Agreed. Christine first, of course.” He moved back. “Alex just walked in.”

Jamie turned and jogged toward him as he opened his arms to her. “Damn, baby. How many nights are we going to end up here?”

“Right?” she whispered and pressed her face against his chest.

Mark's voice sounded beside her. “I'm sorry, Jamie. We should have stayed with you. If you had told us you were going out to the house, we could have taken you. The last thing you needed to see was your sister like that.”

She nodded and turned to face him, keeping her cheek against Alex's chest. “I know. I wasn't going to go, but something kept nagging at me. I'm glad I did now. She wouldn't be alive otherwise.”

“Very true.” Alex kissed the top of her head. “She'll thank you for it when she's back to full health.”

“I don't know about that.” Jamie pulled back and turned to find her dad over by her mother. He'd taken over filling out papers, and her mother was bitching about something loudly beside him in between loud, ugly sobs.

“Come on, Jamie. No one is that much of a bitch.” Mark reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

“I know, but she called yesterday and I should have talked to her. She was being bitchy and angry over Stephen, and I just couldn't take it. I should have listened to my intuition. She was reaching out for help. I knew it, and yet I didn't want to help.” Tears burned Jamie's eyes. “This is my fault.” She felt silly. This wasn’t about her, but she felt she could have stopped it.

“It's not at all your fault.” Alex leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. “And you're going to stop telling yourself that. You have two little babies inside of you who need you healthy. This situation tonight probably put more stress on you than you can handle. The minute Christine is okay, we're going home, and you're going to let me take care of you. Understood?”

She nodded and sank back into Alex's hold. “Okay.”

“Wow. I thought I was getting ready to see one hell of a marital fight.” Mark laughed and walked to a long row of chairs. “Not that I want you guys fighting, but you know.”

“We don't really fight.” Jamie moved away from Alex and sat down next to Mark. “He gets testy and we have sex. It works pretty well.”

Alex shrugged. “I try to get testy a lot. Works out well for me.”

“I'm not sure whether to be disgusted or hella impressed.” Mark laughed and closed his eyes. “Everything’s going to be okay. It has to be. We’ve been through far too much lately. This shit has to turn from bad to good before too long. Shit eventually turns into fertilizer.”

Jamie nodded, but wasn’t sure whether to hope too much for his words to come true. They all needed it, and yet every time it seemed that things were getting better, another bomb hit.

*

F
our hours passed before a doctor finally came walking toward them. Everyone was sitting together, most of them in a zombie-like state when the tall African-American woman stopped in front of them. She had a nice smile, but from the weariness that sat around her eyes it was obvious that she’d been putting in too many hours for far too long.

“Are any of you Christine Connor's parents?” She glanced around at everyone, before stopping on Jamie’s dad.

Jamie's mother and father rose to their feet. “We are.”

“She's doing much better, and is resting right now. We were able to pump her stomach and pull out most of the sleeping drug she ingested. We'll be moving her to a room for observation overnight, and then we need to talk with you and her about treatment. Attempted suicide is a serious situation, as I'm sure you're aware. We need to get this young woman help and now. We almost didn't get to her in time. I had to bring her back twice on my OR table.” The woman shook her head. “She's going to have to go to rehab, and I would even think about taking about putting her into a mental health facility so that the staff can keep an eye on her twenty-four-seven until the threat passes.”

“It will pass though, right?” Jamie's father's voice broke, and Jamie stood up, moving up beside him and slipping her hand into his.

“It will, but it takes some time and lots of counseling, sir. Be prepared for a long road ahead of you all.” She glanced at everyone else. “Everyone is going to have to help this young woman. If life isn't worth living, then the people living around you have to remind you of the small things and bring color back into your grey world. Between your love and involvement and some medication to help her until she heals, we have a good chance of bringing her though this darkness.”

“Can I see her?” Jamie's mom stepped up, the woman far more docile than Jamie had ever seen her.

“You both can, but everyone else is going to need to wait until the morning. She's extremely tired, as you might imagine.” The doctor turned. “Follow me.”

Jamie gave her father a quick hug as her mother darted down the hall after the doctor, asking her a million questions and leaving Jamie there without another word.

“Go home, Jamie and Alex. We’re here with Christine now. There’s nothing you can do tonight. You’ve done more than enough, Pumpkin.”

“I love you, Dad.” Jamie tried not to yawn, but it escaped her anyway. “Call if you need anything. I'll come see Christine tomorrow, or I'll come to the mental hospital or whatever.” Jamie ran her hands over her stomach before cupping it. “I need to get some rest for these little ones.”

“Okay, Pumpkin. I love you, too.” Her father hugged her before shaking hands with Alex and Mark. “Take care of my girl, please, and my precious grandbabies. Both boys, right?”

“That’s where my bet is, and of course I’ll take care of Jamie. That’s something you’ll never have to worry about.” Alex put his arm over Jamie's shoulders as they walked out into the parking lot. He squeezed softly and rubbed her upper arm. “You holding up okay, baby?”

“I've been better, but we'll get through this like we have everything else.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and let out a long sigh. “I’m just ready for something to relax me. I need to chill out for a while.”

Mark moved up beside her and pressed his shoulder against hers. “Beer and sex?”

She chuckled before glancing over at him. “That sounds like a great remedy, but I just meant by putting one foot in front of the other. It seems like it's been nonstop lately.”