Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 43
Early March 2005.......
"Cut!" the director yelled.
Britney rolled her head around and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Let's call it a night!"
"Thank God," Britney said under her breath.
Her co-star looked at her and chuckled.
"Tired?" he asked.
"Just a little. Mackenzie has had the flu the last couple of days so she's very clingy once I get home. It's cute yet tiring."
"Well, I hope she feels better," he told her.
"Thanks, she'll be fine," she said pulling her hair up into a ponytail. "See you tomorrow."
"Later."
Britney walked with her bodyguard to her trailer. "I'm just going to wash my face and get my purse," she told him.
When she climbed onto the trailer her cell phone beeped so she glanced at it and noticed that there were three messages and ten missed calls.
"Good Lord," she mumbled before turning up the volume and pressing the button to dial voicemail.
She walked over to the sink and grabbed a clothe to wash her face with.
She pressed the correct codes to hear the messages while she smoothed cream on her face.
"Hey baby, I got an appointment with Dr. Laura at three today so I'll let you know how it goes. Mackenzie's temperature hasn't gone down so she wanted me to bring her in. Love you, bye."
Britney deleted the message.
"It's me again.....I hate waiting rooms. Mackenzie and I are bored so I thought I'd see if I could catch you but I guess you're still filming. I'll call you back in a few. Love you, bye."
She smiled as she deleted that message.
"It's me again. I'm at Cedar Sinai. Dr. Laura said Mackenzie was getting dehydrated so we're here in the pediatric ward...." Britney stopped and stared at the phone as she held her breath. "They're getting fluids into her but she keeps throwing them up. I'm calling from a pay phone because I can't have cell phones on in here. Call the hospital and we're in room twenty-oh-five. I love you."
"Oh my God," Britney said before quickly wiping the cream off of her face.
She grabbed the phone and her purse and headed out.
"Tom, I have to get to Cedar Sinai quickly.....Justin's there with Mackenzie," she said, rushing past him to get to the car.
She started dialing information.
"Yes, hi, can you connect me with Cedar Sinai Hospital? Thanks."
Tom rushed to catch up to her.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
"I hope so," she said while it dialed the hospital's number. "I can't believe Justin didn't try to get a hold of me," she said, trying not to get upset.
They got in the car and finally she got through.
"Yes, room two-oh-oh-five please."
She started biting her nail as Tom started the car.
"Hello?"
"Hi," Britney said. "How's my baby?"
"She's fine," he said in a hushed voice. "She's sleeping right now. The doctor was just concerned that she wasn't getting enough fluids. Most likely we'll be able to take her home tonight."
"Good," she said, letting out her breath. "We're on our way right now."
"Okay."
"Justin, why didn't you try to get a hold of me?"
"I've only been here about an hour. I had decided that if you hadn't called by six that I would try to get someone to get you."
"Okay....but I wish I had known. She's probably scared."
"She is a little but I've been by her side the whole time. We've been entertaining each other."
"Is this something we could have seen? I mean could it have been prevented?"
"We did all we could do. She just wasn't keeping anything down. Sweetie, she's going to be fine. We can't beat ourselves up over this, okay?"
"I know but she's my baby and I don't want to see her hurting...."
She started to cry a little now.
"I don't either. But the key thing is that we're getting her better before anything really happens, right?"
"Yeah," she sniffled.
"Okay....how far are you?"
"We just left the damn parking lot," she mumbled.
Justin kept talking to her, to try to keep her distracted. Plus he was bored waiting at the hospital.
"We just pulled into the parking lot. I'll see you in a minute."
"Okay," he said. "See you."
He hung up the phone and as soon as he did it rang again.
"You lost already?" he chuckled.
"Lost where?"
"Oh, hi mom," he smiled.
"Hi, who did you think it was?" Lynn asked.
"Britney. We just had hung up."
"Oh...no wonder it's been busy for the past thirty minutes," she chuckled.
"Yeah...I was trying to distract her so she wouldn't get upset. You know how she is when it concerns Mackenzie."
"The same way I was when it concerned you."
"Yeah, I guess all mom's are that way," he smiled.
They chatted for a few minutes before Britney walked into the room. Tom parked himself outside the door.
"Has she woke up yet?" she asked as she rushed to the bed.
"I'll call you later mom. Love you too, bye."
He hung up the phone and stood next to Britney. He put his arm behind her back and began to rub it.
"Not yet. It's good that she gets sleep."
She leaned into his side.
"Look at the tubes hooked up to her," she said, looking at the IV stand.
Justin leaned down and kissed her temple.
"It's only one for the fluids. She didn't even cry."
"She's a brave girl," she nodded. "I'm tired of looking at the inside of a hospital room," she said, looking around.
"We'll be home tonight."
"Good."
"You look tired. How was your day?"
She looked up at him. "It went fine. I think the lack of sleep is catching up with me. I was hoping to go to bed early tonight," she said as she stifled a yawn.
"So much for that, huh? Why don't you sit in the chair and take a nap? I'll wake you as soon as she's awake."
She turned into him, wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek against his chest so that she was still facing Mackenzie.
"I might - right now this feels good, though."
He wrapped his arms around her back and kissed the top of her head.
"You can stay here as long as you like."
"I just feel so helpless standing by seeing her this way," she said, choking back tears.
"I know."
While they were standing there the nurse came in to check on Mackenzie. She smiled at the couple as she saw them with their arms wrapped around each other.
"I'm just going to take her temperature," she said.
Justin nodded while Britney closed her eyes.
Once she was done she looked at it.
"Good, it's come down a tiny bit since last time. Looks like the antibiotics are working."
"Good to hear," Justin said.
He glanced down at Britney and noticed her eyes were closed so he scooted over to the chair and sat down, pulling her onto his lap. She snuggled up closer to him.
After a little while Britney woke up from taking her nap on Justin's lap. He moved his head a little to stretch it after she lifted hers up.
She rubbed her eye and when she opened it she smiled at her first sight.
"Hey," she said groggily.
"Hey yourself," he chuckled.
"This is a nice sight to wake up to.....especially so close," she said, touching his cheek.
He gave her a quick kiss.
"Has she woke up yet?" Britney asked, looking over at the bed.
"She's been stirring a little. I think she's about ready. The doctor did say that the medicine is making her groggy. And, the good news is that she hasn't thrown up since about thirty minutes before you got here."
"That is good news," she said, slowly standing up and then stretching. She leaned over the bed and gently caressed Mackenzie's cheek.
She caught Justin moving his neck around out of the corner of her eye.
"Stiff neck?" she asked, walking behind him and gently massaging his neck and shoulders.
"Yeah....I sorta had to sit in a weird position," he chuckled.
"Awww, I'm sorry. But thanks for letting me sleep on your lap, I needed it," she whispered in his ear.
Finally Mackenzie's eyes fluttered open. She turned her head to the other side and realized she was in an unfamiliar territory so she started to cry a little.
"Ma ma," she said.
"I'm right here," Britney said, rushing over to the bed.
Mackenzie held out her arms for Britney to pick her up.
"I can't baby....you have to stay in the bed," Britney said. It was breaking her heart.
Justin stood behind Britney and smiled down at Mackenzie.
"Hey angel," he said.
"I wonder if I can pick her up if I'm careful?" she asked Justin.
Justin looked at the IV hooked up to her.
"You'll have to sit on the bed. Hold on," he said, gently pushing her back.
He lowered the railing to the bed and went around to the other side and gently lifted Mackenzie up.
"Slide in," he said, so Britney did.
When she was settled he lowered Mackenzie down onto her lap and Britney wrapped her arms around her and kissing her forehead.
"You're such a brave girl, aren't you? Daddy says you've been so good," she said with her lips against the baby's skin.
Justin smiled and gently brushed Mackenzie's hair back.
"Oh I see mommy made it," Dr. Laura said as she came into the room with a nurse behind her.
"Yeah, I've been here a little while. She just woke up."
"Good. Sounds like she got a good nap, just what she needed."
"Do I need to move?" Britney asked.
Dr. Laura shook her head and read the chart.
"No, you should be fine. We'll take her temperature one more time and then I'll take the IV out of her and see how she reacts to drinking something. You might not want her on your lap at that point," she chuckled. "Just in case she doesn't keep it down."
"I don't care. She's done worse on me before," Britney smiled.
Once the IV was out the nurse handed Britney a sippy cup.
"There's juice in there."
"I'll check on you in an hour and hopefully I can release her," the doctor said before leaving.
Mackenzie rested her cheek against Britney's shoulder as she sipped her juice. Justin was sitting in the chair flipping through the channels on the TV.
"What time is it?" Britney asked.
"Almost nine," he said, looking at his watch.
"God, I won't want to get up tomorrow morning and go to work," she moaned.
"So call the director and let him know what happened. He'll understand."
She glanced over at him. "I don't want to slow production down."
"Just call him, he might be able to work around you."
She rubbed her forehead. "Maybe."
"Do you have his number?" Justin asked, standing up.
"In my purse."
He rummaged through her purse to find her Palm Pilot and scrolled until he found the director's name. He picked up the phone and started to dial.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Shh," he said as he put the phone to his ear.
When it started to ring he handed her the phone.
"Justin," she said. "Oh, hello? Hi Dennis, it's Britney. Yeah, I am calling from the hospital....Justin took Mackenzie here today. No, she'll be fine, just dehydrated but we won't be able to take her home for another couple of hours. Yeah well I was wondering if it didn't involve too much rearranging if I come in later tomorrow.....or not at all," she added quickly.
She bit her nail as she listened.
"Uh huh," she nodded. "Okay, well let me know, please. Yeah, Cedar Sinai and we're in room twenty-oh-five. Thanks Dennis."
She handed the phone back to Justin. "He's going to make a couple of calls and see what he can do."
"Good. Sounds like he'll at least try."
Britney nodded and looked down at Mackenzie.
"I can't believe how big she's gotten. She used to fit right here on my lap. Now look at her sprawled out on my lap and down my legs."
"Well, she's almost one," he said with a smile. "The year has gone by fast, huh?"
"Just think about the next year. She's going to learn so much," she said, stroking her daughter's cheek.
Mackenzie was done with the sippy cup so she let it fall.
"Da da," she said, holding her arms out.
"Come here, baby," he said, taking her from Britney.
He rested her on his hip while she looked at the room around her. She pointed to something on the wall so Justin walked over to it and they both looked at it.
After an hour went by, Dr. Laura came back into the room.
"Okay, this is my last stop of the night. I hope it's a good one," she said smiling at Mackenzie who was sitting on Justin's lap in the chair. He had been reading to her.
"She has kept the juice down," Britney told her.
"Good," she said putting the stethoscope against Mackenzie's chest. "It sounds like her lungs are clearing up nicely. I'm going to write out a couple of prescriptions. If she starts to throw up again just make sure you get some kind of fluids into her, even if it's putting ice to her lips and making sure she licks them."
Both Britney and Justin nodded.
The doctor signed something on the chart and pulled out a prescription pad.
"The directions are on here. Now, take your baby home," she smiled at them.
"Thank you," Britney said taking the sheets from the doctor.
After she left Justin looked at Mackenzie. "You here that? We get to go home."