new romantics - taylor swift and travis kelce

All of this to say I hope you're okay

-Taylors Pov-

We arrive at the hospital and Travis carries Thea inside while I follow behind. My little girl is crying in his arms and hasn't stopped crying and it's only getting more intense. She has a high pain tolerance, and isn't really a crier, so to see her like this sting. It's like someone is taking a dagger into my heart to see her in so much pain. I don't think I would have been able to drive, so I'm happy Travis has a cold head.

He walks up to the front desk where the lady eyes my crying daughter. "my... her little girl is hurting. We don't know what's wrong, but she is complaining of stomach pain" Travis says, and the nurse grabs a chart.

"follow me" she says and lead us over to a bed in the pediatric side of the ER. The walls are decorated with cartoon animals and the sheets on the beds are too. there are a few other kids here, but there is an available bed for Thea.

When we reach the bed Travis sets Thea down who curls up as she cries. So I pull her long hair away from her sweaty forehead and try to keep my compulsion.

"what's her name?" the nurse asks.

"Dorothea, Thea, swift" Travis is the one doing the talking because I can barely keep it together. there are plenty of questions, some I do have to keep it together to answer myself because Travis doesn't know her medical history. Her non-existent medical history really. She has rarely been sick; never been to the ER other than that one time she fell off the swing and broke her arm when she was three.

"Okay, I'm going to admit her into our system and get a doctor over to you soon. We aren't too busy tonight thankfully" she says with a smile before walking off.

"Mommy, my tummy hurts" Thea whimpers and I slide onto the bed with her, gathering her in my arms and letting her rest her head on my chest. "I know sweetie, I know you're hurting. The doctor is going to take great care of you" I kiss her sweaty head once.

Travis takes a seat on the edge of the bed and rub Theas back while keeping his eyes on both of us. The nurse did pull the curtains around us, giving us some privacy while we wait. I don't want it all over the news that we were here, I don't want to expose Thea like that.

**

I don't know how long we wait before a doctor comes over to us. "hi, I'm Dr. Hartley, the on-call pediatric emergency doctor. I hear you have stomach pain Dorothea?" the doctor says.

Thea nods as I slide out of the bed, so the doctor has more space to check her over. "yes, my tummy hurts really bad" she whimpers and clutches her stomach.

"I'm going to feel your stomach, and you tell me if it hurts more or less, okay?" the doctor says and puts on gloves before palpitating her stomach. He pushes on her lower stomach, off to one side and she screams out. "no, that hurts" she cries.

The doctor takes his hands off her "You were really brave to let me check your tummy, Thea. I think it might be your appendix who is angry. I'm going to call the surgeon because I think it might need to come out" the doctor tells her. I like that he talks to her and not just the adults.

Then he turns to us "An appendectomy is a really easy procedure, doesn't take long. But her appendix is likely inflamed, so it needs to be done before it bursts and causes complications. She doesn't need her appendix for anything, so there shouldn't be any long-term side effects of having it removed" he tells us, and I nod.

"you do whatever you need to do to help her. Anything" Travis says and rests a hand on the small of my back.

"And you are?" the doctor asks. "I'm her... I'm her mother's partner" he says awkwardly, like he wanted to say something else.

"Okay. Well, I'll go call the surgeon right away to get him down here. in the meanwhile, I will order some pain meds for her, so she is more comfortable before surgery" he says and walks out of the curtain again.

The nurse comes back in with an IV kit on a cart and some supplies I don't know the name of. I've watched my fair share of hospital shows, but I obviously don't know the name of everything.

"Hi, sweetheart. I'm going to put this butterfly in your hand, okay? And give you some medicine so you feel better. Then I need to take some blood from you, to test it in the lab" the nurse tells Thea who dutifully holds out her hand for her.

"wow you're a brave girl," the nurse says when Thea doesn't complain as she puts the needle into her hand.

The nurse does her thing, drawing blood and giving her medicine while we watch. I feel so helpless, not being able to help my little girl. I'm leaving her in the hands of strangers, the only people who can help her right now are strangers. I hate not having control, it drives me insane.

"you did so good. I'm giving you a princess sticker since you were such a good girl" the nurse says and hands Thea a Elsa sticker. "thank you" my girl whimpers, ever the polite kid she is.

"you're very welcome sweetheart. The medicine should work shortly, so your tummy won't hurt as bad. And if it starts to hurt more you can pull the red tread behind you and I will come back and give you some more medicine, okay?" the nurse smiles at her and Thea nods.

The nurse leaves us, and I lean into Travis's arms. Him being here... it's everything. He could have left me here to deal with this on my own, she isn't his kid, but that was never even a conversation. He cares for her like I do, like a parent might do. he cares for her in ways Joe never did.

"it's going to be okay" he whispers to me and kisses my temple before giving Thea his full attention, talking to her about how brave she is.

**

The surgeon comes in and introduce herself as dr Galloway and has an ultrasound machine with her. Thea just started crying again, after being okay after she got the painkillers. I have a bad feeling, a feeling that something is wrong.

"Sweetie, I'm going to squirt some jelly on your belly and then I'm going to use this special wand to look inside your stomach, okay? I need to see your appendix" the doctor says as she gets everything ready.

She does as she says, and I look at the screen to see what she sees. Not that I actually know what I'm looking at. To me, it just looks like black and white shapes. I've had this done before, when I was pregnant with Thea, but then you could at least kind of make out that there was someone in there. This picture looks foreign.

"Oh. Okay. Sweetie, your appendix has burst. So we need to get you up to surgery right away" the doctor says, and everything starts happening quickly. Thea is crying and the staff starts to get her ready to move. We are asked to step aside, giving the staff room to work on her.

I feel so helpless, just standing off to the side not being able to do anything. Travis wraps his arms around me, and I take the comfort he offers. He has been mostly calm through this all, being the rock I need.

They wheel Thea away after saying they will give us updates as soon as they are done. It leaves an empty spot in the ER, where her bed was. The room feels colder, I have chills down my spine.

The nurse from earlier comes over "I'll show you to the waiting room where they will come get you when she is done. The surgery usually takes about an hour" she says and leads us into another room.

There are rows of seating here, and we take two empty seats. I rest my head in my hands "This is not how I saw the day going" I say, and Travis rubs my back. "I know baby I know. But these doctors are really good, they are going to take good care of her. It's a standard procedure they do every day. It's going to be okay" he says.

I hope he is right. I hope these are the best people and that everything goes off as it's supposed to go. But I worry it won't. I worry about everything that can go wrong because surgery is never without risk. There is always risk with going under anesthesia, and risk with any surgery. Sure they do these things laparoscopically these days, leaving only three small holes, but it's still surgery.

**

Time passes and I get more nervous the longer it takes. We hit the two-hour mark when the surgeon comes out and takes off her cap as she comes towards us.