CHAPTER 9
Greg
The ride to the hospital is a complete and total wash. I don’t see a single mile. I don’t feel anything except soul-crushing pain. My family, my reason for living, is beyond my reach, and I wasn’t there when they needed me.
My mind passed rational thinking about ten miles ago. Beck’s words still echo like a badly scratched CD through my mind.
Accident.
It doesn’t look good.
Airlifted.
I can feel the fear taking over. It doesn’t matter how many times I beg and plead, pray and beg some more, I feel like I lost a piece of myself when he spoke those words.
Not knowing and fearing the worst but grasping on to that sliver of hope that keeps bursting through the darkness is the only thing keeping me from crumbling.
That and knowing that Cohen’s going to need me . . . and I’m going to need him.
“We’re almost there, brother.”
Axel doesn’t need me to respond. Hell, I’m not even sure if I could at this point.
The second I see the turn off for the hospital, I sit a little straighter in the seat. When I see the brick of the building pop through the trees, I lift my hand to the door handle. The second I feel his truck slowing, I unsnap my belt. And right when I see the doors to the emergency room, my door’s released and I jump from the cab.
Luckily, Axel had already been slowing when I leaped from his moving truck, so there wasn’t any resistance when I landed and took off at a dead sprint for the glass doors.
I can hear Axel screaming and cursing behind me, but I don’t even pause. My body is driving me since my mind refuses to think. The only thought I’m capable of at this point is finding my boy and then my wife.
The little old lady sitting at the desk visibly shrinks back when I all but break down the wall to get into the hospital. Her eyes widen for a second before she catches herself and wipes her expression clear.
“Can I help—”
“Melissa and Cohen Cage. My family . . . please,” I gasp, not even giving her the time to finish. I can feel the cool air on my wet cheeks, my tears once again flowing freely.
She looks down, glancing back up at me quickly before returning her eyes to her computer.
“Sir, I don’t see—”
I sag with relief when Axel speaks from my side. “Melissa Cage, ma’am. Brought in by helicopter approximately fifteen minutes ago. Her son, also his son, Cohen Cage, should be arriving by ambulance either shortly after her or soon. Please, make the call and find out where he can find his family.”
Even with his hand grasping my shoulder again, I can’t feel it. That solid strength that he’s trying to pass through to me is completely lost to my panic. I look around, praying that I’ll see Melissa and Cohen in one of the many chairs around the room. Praying that this is some sick joke and my family is okay.
“Greg, let’s go.”
“Huh?” I look over at Axel’s concerned expression, realizing that I missed the rest of his conversation.
“Let’s go. Cohen’s already here being seen and this nice nurse here, Lucy, is taking us to where he is.” He points over to the nurse who’s standing next to the desk, looking at me with the same expression of concern that Axel has on his face.
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. The second I hear that I am about to hold my boy, I feel my heart start beating a little faster. Knowing that they wouldn’t be taking me to him if he were badly injured is helping my fear recede some.
I watch the young nurse’s ponytail sway with each rapid step she takes. I keep wanting to run past her and scream Cohen’s name until I find him, but each time my pace gets too heavy, Axel clears his throat and grabs my arm. I feel like punching him in his goddamn arm for making me walk at this ridiculous pace. We should be running—hell, sprinting—through the halls.
“Right in here, Mr. Cage,” Nurse Lucy states, opening the door to one of the emergency rooms.
I take a step toward the curtain that’s pulled closed. I can hear movement, but I haven’t heard my boy. I still feel the adrenalin pumping rapidly through my body, demanding that I rush, but now that I’m faced with not knowing what’s on the other side of this blue barrier, I’m paralyzed in fear.
“Go. Now. I’ll find someone who can give you some information on Melissa and go back out to the waiting room to see if anyone else is here yet.” Axel gives me a shove before walking back down the hallway we just came down.
With a deep breath, I reach out and open the curtain. I couldn’t have helped the sob that bubbles out audibly if I tried.
“Daddy!” His voice wobbles, and his chin quivers.
With one word, my body wakes up and I all but fall to his side. The nurse standing at his side jumps out of my way and allows me to fall to my knees next to the hospital bed that is all but swallowing his small body whole.
“Oh, God . . . Cohen.”
“You can hold his right hand, sir. We’re just about done with his left side.”
I pull my eyes from Cohen’s for the first time since opening the curtain and notice another person in the room working on stitching up part of his forearm. I can’t see much more because of the angle, but I can see the amount of blood surrounding him, and it feels like a knife has just shot through my heart.
I don’t even look up at the other nurse I almost ran over. I pick Cohen’s hand up and press it to my lips, breathing in his scent.
“I couldn’t help Mommy.” His hand squeezes mine tight, his body shaking so hard that he’s vibrating the bed.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. Mommy’s tough. She’s going to be just fine.”
Looking into his eyes, which are normally so full of life, and seeing the pain, fear, and stark, cold terror, I know he doesn’t believe a word out of my mouth. If I’m honest with myself, I know that I sound more like I’m begging than I am reassuring.
“Miss? Is there any way I can get some information on his mother? My wife? She was in the accident as well.” I look into Cohen’s scared eyes, thankful that he’s here and keeping me from tearing this hospital to the ground until I find Melissa.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information on the other person in the vehicle. Let me go see what I can find out.”
It feels like an eternity while I sit there with Cohen, watching them stitch up different parts of his left arm. From what I can see, the worst of his injuries seem to be the millions of little cuts on almost every open surface of skin on his left side. He seems tired but otherwise just really banged up.
I take the first real breath I’ve breathed since I got Beck’s call earlier.
Now I just need to know that Melissa and the girls are okay. It is literally killing me with each second that audibly ticks away from the clock in the corner. Without knowing, every single one of those seconds begins to feel like hope flying farther and farther away from my grasp.
It isn’t long after they finished cleaning all his cuts and stitching up the deeper ones that Cohen fell asleep. I know it’s the crash from the adrenalin and the pain medication that they gave him, but I hate it. I want to be able to see his eyes and know that he’s okay.
I keep one hand around his and the other placed lightly on his stomach so that I can feel his breaths causing it to rise and fall.
And I wait.
I almost jump out of my skin when the door finally opens again and a forty-something doctor enters. His expression doesn’t give anything away as he walks farther into the room, stopping at the foot of Cohen’s bed. I stare into his dark blue eyes, both praying for the best and fearing the worst.
It isn’t until I look down and notice ‘OBGYN’ on his white jacket that I feel something akin to terror crawl down my spine.
“Mr. Cage?”
I nod, afraid to speak.
“I’m Dr. Lowery. I know you’re asking about your wife, and I apologize that I don’t know more. About two hours ago, I performed an emergency Cesarean section on your wife. My job was to quickly deliver both of your daughters safely, and the last I heard, your wife is still in surgery. Both of your daughters are stable and in the NICU. Mr. Cage, I know you and your wife were told about the possibility that she wouldn’t make it to term, but it’s going to be a long road ahead for your daughters.”
I close my eyes, feeling my despair fall one tear at a time down my face. I listen to every word that Dr. Lowery speaks. Steroids, feeding tubes, antibiotics, nasal CPAP, and monitors. I hear the words, but I don’t understand them. My girls shouldn’t be here yet, and no matter what he said earlier about Melissa being in surgery, the only thing that I can focus on is that if my girls had to be removed from their mother early, how badly is she injured?
“ . . . see your daughters shortly.”
“I’m sorry?” I have to force myself to look back up into his knowing eyes.
He smiles kindly and takes another step into the room. “I spoke with your son’s doctor before coming in. He’s lucky, and they’ll be discharging him within the hour. We’ll get you up to see your daughters shortly, Mr. Cage.”
I just nod my head and watch him turn and leave. My mind is refusing to make sense of everything that’s happening around me. The only thing keeping me from running through this whole damn building until I find Melissa and my daughters is the little banged-up boy sleeping in front of me.
With a deep breath and another silent prayer, I wait again.
With every minute that passes and still no word on Melissa, I feel more and more of my soul being stripped from my body. That hope I had earlier has become so small that I almost can’t feel it anymore.
In the last hour, I’ve had nurses come in to check Cohen and Axel come back to update me on who is here and to tell me the same thing each time—no one will tell him anything. I’ve filled out a million and one pieces of paper, and now I just keep staring at the two bracelets the last nurse attached to my wrist.
I finger the bracelets, watching them spin around my wrist, and once again fight the urge to take off on a hunt for my family.
My daughters . . . My girls are here and fighting in some cold and sterile room. They’re fighting to live and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to protect them. Every instinct in my body is telling me to go into protector mode.
My wife, my beautiful and loving wife, is somewhere within these walls, and the unknown is tearing me apart.
“Daddy?” Cohen’s soft whisper has me dropping my hands and looking over at him. “Will Mommy be okay?” His chin starts to tremble slightly.
“C-Man, can I tell you a secret?” He nods his head, a few tears slipping past his lids. “I’m going to teach you a trick. Remember when I told you that we always protect the women we love? Well, Mommy and your sisters need a special kind of protection. They need us to keep strong and share our strength with them. Every time you think about your mommy, you give her just a little more strength. And when you tell her you love her, it’s even stronger. So right now, we’re going to sit here and we’re going to talk about every single thing we love about your mommy. And when we finish with that, we’re going to talk about every single thing we can’t wait to show your sisters. Then it won’t be long before they have so much strength that they just can’t help but get better.”
And that’s just what we do. I hold his little hand and we talk about every single thing we love about Melissa until they finally release Cohen from their care.
I hold it in, but deep down, I feel the bone-deep fear that I have no control over the outcome.
With my son in my arms, we walk out of the exam room and follow the nurse up to the NICU, where I’m told a doctor will find me shortly with news on the babies and Melissa.
My heart is somewhere in this hospital, and I can only hope and pray that everything will be okay.