Chapter Twenty-Nine
Nina
“He’s not going to make it,” I heard a woman whispering.
My eyes fluttered open as I heard a very slow, beeping sound. Only a dim light filled the small room I was in. One wall was entirely made out of glass, and I could see a woman in pale pink scrubs standing across the hallway.
She looked on as a couple of other people, also wearing scrubs, stood inside the other room. That’s where the slow, beeping sound was coming from.
The door to the room I was in stood wide open, and it was made of glass too. I moved my arm. Or I tried to, anyway. I stopped trying to move it when I felt something tugging at it.
My head turned slowly, and I found I was hooked up to some clear lines. It seemed I was in the hospital, and apparently in bad shape. But I couldn’t recall just why that was.
When the beeping sound went from slow to one constant beep, I knew the person in the other room had died. My brain was in a fog, but even with the haze around it, I wondered if Ashton had been with me when I was hurt.
And then I wondered if that was him in the room across the hallway. Wondered if it was him whose heart had stopped beating.
“Help,” I croaked out. But no one heard me.
“Call the time,” one of the women in scrubs said.
“Two-fifteen a.m. is the official time of death,” another woman said from inside the room. I couldn’t see her as she stood behind the curtain, which had been pulled across the majority of the glass wall.
I could see the foot of the hospital bed, though. In that bed, some person had just died, and I lay there, helpless to find out if it was Ashton or not.
Closing my eyes, I tried not to think that it was him. I couldn’t take it if it was him. If I lost him, I had no idea what I would do. I had never loved anyone as much as I loved him, and I knew I would never love anyone else that way ever again.
I was sure my heart would give out too if it was Ashton who now lay lifeless in the bed across the hall.
“You can call the nursing home to let them know Mr. Sandstone won’t be coming back,” someone said with a hushed voice.
Mr. Sandstone?
My eyes flew back open.
It’s not Ashton!
I was elated to hear the lady say a name that I didn’t know at all. And then I felt terrible for being so happy when a person had just died. And one so close to me.
Well, I didn’t actually know Mr. Sandstone. We weren’t mentally close, but physically, we were only a few feet away from each other. I needed to show more reverence, I thought.
Hell, he was probably floating away, looking back at us all and thinking that I was a pretty heartless bitch to be looking so happy and smiling so big when he’d just passed away.
“Sorry, Mr. Sandstone. Rest in peace,” I offered.
The nurses began to leave the room as some men came in to deal with the dead body. And one of them spotted me looking at them. “Hi there, Nina.” She waved to get another person’s attention. “Look whose woken up.”
Three of the nurses came into my room. One went to check the machines, as the other two gave me wide smiles. I could see their last names were on the tags they had on their shirts.
The woman closest to me had Gonzales on her tag. “Nurse Gonzales, my throat hurts, it’s so dry. Can I have something to drink?”
The other nurse ran off. “I’ll get her some water.”
“Everything’s looking good here,” the last nurse said.
Nurse Gonzales leaned over me, flashing a small light in my eyes. “Normal pupil dilation. Well, normal for being on morphine.” She put her hand on my shoulder as she held up two fingers. “Can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?”
“Two,” I answered. “Now, can anyone tell me what the heck has happened to me?”
Nurse Gonzales took the lead, as the other nurse excused herself to go check on the others. Whoever the others were. “Someone drove their car into a crowded sidewalk. You were hit by a pretty big truck.”
“Damn.” I was glad to see the other nurse coming back to my room with a little pink cup in her hand.
“Here you are,” Nurse Sloan said as she handed me a drink with a small straw in it. “Now, take little sips. It’s been awhile since you’ve had any liquid down your throat.”
I sipped it and had to stop myself from chugging it down. My throat was bone-dry. “How long have I been here?” I asked, when I’d drunk my fill.
“Two weeks,” came Nurse Gonzales’ reply. “The incident happened two weeks ago. You were one of the first ones brought in.”
I had been out for two weeks and hadn’t even known it. The next thing on my mind had nothing to do with my injuries. “Has anyone been coming to see me?”
“Your family has,” Nurse Sloan told me. “And your coworkers too.” She smiled at me as she went to the bottom of the bed, picking up one of my feet and massaging it as she lifted it up. “They wanted to fill this room with flowers and balloons and such, but that’s not allowed in ICU. You’re allowed one visitor at a time and for only five minutes. And that’s only once an hour, for a few hours in the morning and a couple in the evening. That’s why no one is here with you. It’s not because no one cares about you; it’s just the policy at our hospital for patients in Intensive Care.”
“So, I’m in bad shape then,” I surmised from my situation. “But I don’t feel any pain.”
“You’re on a morphine drip. That’s why you’re not feeling any pain,” Nurse Gonzales filled me in. “But we’re lowering the amount of that morphine hourly. We wanted you to wake up. And by later on today, around noon or so, the morphine will be taken away.”
The other nurse looked at me with a little frown. “And then you will feel a bit of discomfort.”
“Great.” I thought about what I’d said and how I’d sounded. “That was whiny. I shouldn’t be like that. I should be happy that I’m going to feel things again. I should be happy that I’m alive.”
“Yes, you should.” Nurse Gonzales took a seat in the large rocker next to my bed. “You had some pretty bad internal injuries and one to your brain, too. Thank goodness the one to your brain was minor. But your organs took a beating. Your liver had a laceration. Your kidneys were so badly bruised, they shut down for a few days. Your heart just kept on ticking though. You’ve got yourself an amazingly strong heart, honey.”
And that heart was feeling a little down in the dumps as I looked at my left hand to find my engagement ring was gone. From what I could recall, I had just gotten proposed to. Ashton had slid a big diamond ring on my finger. Or had that just been a dream while I was under?
I had to ask them about him. “Has there been a man who has come to see me?”
“You’ve had a few come to see you,” Nurse Gonzales said. “Lots of staff members from the network have been stopping by to say quick hellos to you.”
“But no man in particular has come by to see me more than the rest?” I asked, losing hope fast.
Ashton might’ve taken off the ring himself. He might have been freaked out by my near-death experience. Hell, he may have flown the coop, for all I knew.
“Honey, the way you’ve been kept this last couple of weeks, no one has had much access to you,” she told me. “Your momma is about the only one we all know by name. She’s the main one who’s been keeping up with your progress and passing that information on to everyone else who cares about you.”
“Now that I’m awake, is there any chance that I’ll get to have visitors for longer amounts of time?” I crossed my fingers, hoping she would say yes.
Her lips quirked up to one side. “Well, not a ton of time, but it will increase to fifteen minutes. The amount of visits per day will stay the same until you’re put into a regular room.”
“How long will I be here?” I looked up at the ceiling, feeling somewhat desperate.
“Well, there’s just no telling, Nina.” She looked at me with a vague smile. “You’re getting better, but there are never any certainties with internal or brain injuries. I don’t want to give you any number of days right now. But the doctor who’s taking care of you will come in around seven this morning, and he might be able to give you some more answers.”
I was already coming up with questions I needed to ask him. But the number one question on my mind was where Ashton was. I knew she didn’t have an answer for that.
The nurse got up and handed me the remote to the television. “You can watch some TV, if you want to. That button there will call us if you want anything. Don’t hesitate to push it if you there’s anything you need.”
I thought for a moment. “Should I call one of you guys if I have to use the bathroom?”
She laughed. “You’re not getting out of that bed, sweetie. We’ve got you taken care of in that department. Just chill out. Sleep, watch the tube, and most of all, let your body heal while you rest. Think of this as the ultimate vacation. People are here to wait on you hand and foot. You won’t have to lift a finger while you’re in ICU. Not even to bathe yourself.” She winked at me. “You’re getting the five-star treatment, my lady.”
Leaving me with a wave, I liked her already. “Hey, thanks for taking care of me, Nurse Gonzales.”
“Thanks for being such a great patient.” She gave me another wink. “But so far, you’ve been an unconscious one. Let’s hope you’re a great patient when you’re awake too.”
“I’ll try to be.” I watched her leave and felt a little weird.
I was all alone now. And in a hospital, of all places. I had no idea if I was still an engaged woman or not. I had no idea if I was even still in a relationship with Ashton. I had no idea about anything.
This much I knew for sure: Ashton would not be handling this well. Worst- case scenario, he’d see this as a sign. Maybe even think he was cursed or something.
One fiancée died in a crash, and one was nearly killed in an attack. What are the freaking chances of that happening?
Yeah, I could totally see Ashton thinking that he had some type of a curse going on.
He might have pulled the ring off my finger and retracted the proposal just because he thought that might save my life. And maybe it had.
I lay there thinking about Ashton, and as I did, I overheard one of the other nurses talking to someone, “Yeah, she died once on the operating table and once right there in that bed. We had to bring her back twice. She’s a real miracle, that Nina Kramer.”
Oh, shit!
Maybe Ashton is cursed!