Page 93 of Beautiful Deceit
It takes me a second to orientate myself and remember which way to go. I rush past a nurse’s station, and a woman stands up and calls out to me. I ignore her and push through the door of Sam’s glass walled room.
She looks almost the same as yesterday. Her skin isn't quite as gray, but the bruises still cover most of her face. The dried blood has been cleaned off, but black clumps remain in her beautiful hair. I'll wash each strand, just so she doesn't have to see it this way.
Her eyes are closed, and a thin blue blanket tucked over her chest with both arms left out.
I grab a chair and place it close to her bed. My hands ache to touch her, to be reassured that she is here, now. My fear of hurting her keeps them fisted on the bed near her hip.
I open my mouth to speak, but the words die on my lips. I don't know where to begin.
I drop my face to the side of her bed.
I let it sink in that she’s here, and eventually she’s going to be okay.
The antiseptic smell from her sheets fills my nose as I draw in heavy pulls of air. The smell overwhelms me when all I want to do is sag in relief.
I won’t sit here feeling sorry for myself.
I marshal my emotions and gently say, "Hey Sweets, I sure did miss your beautiful face. I'm so happy we found you. I need you to come back to me. I promise it's safe here now. No one will hurt you again. Just wake up for me. I know you wanna talk to me. I need to see those gorgeous baby blues."
She doesn't respond. I keep talking anyway, encouraging her to wake up.
The nurses leave me alone with her. I become brave enough to touch the unmarred skin on her cheek. Her eyes flutter, and her lips move, but she doesn't utter a word.
I wait for her to wake up.
It’slate afternoon when a surgeon comes in, introducing himself to me.
“I’m Dr. Parsons,” his cool hand envelopes mine in a firm grasp. “I think it’s time we took care of that arm.” His eyes zero in on Sam, “The threat of infection is riskier than her being put under anesthetic at this point. We can get her fixed up a bit before she wakes up.”
“Are you sure? Is she ready, to be put to sleep, I mean? She hasn’t really woken up yet.”
Dr. Parson nods his head, “Her body is doing exactly what it needs to, what we want it to do. When she’s ready, she’ll wake up. Hopefully, when she does, she won’t need any further surgeries for a while.”
My heart is in my throat as I watch the nurses slowly maneuver her bed out of the room soon after.
Brian showsup after I’m returned to the waiting room, with a big brown bag of food.
"Sorry, I would have been here sooner, but some stuff had to be dealt with." He sounds cryptic. I don't care enough to ask what he's talking about.
He has a bag with clean clothes for me and a phone charger.
"I tried to call you a couple times, but it just went right to voicemail, so I figured it was dead. Your parents have called me a few times. I'm pretty sure they'll be here, after they arrived in New York to find you gone. Thanks for surprising me like that, by the way."
"Shit," I groan.
Brian raiseshis hand in defense, "Hey, I tried to tell her to wait a week, but she wouldn't hear it. You’re lucky she waited this long, especially with Sam being found."
I drag my phone from my pocket and plug it in. Before I can even unfold the sandwich and take a bite, the screen lights up. It vibrates with messages, edging off the table.
We've taken over the small waiting room.
Brian pushes a few chairs together to make himself a makeshift couch to lie back in, “Didn’t get much sleep last night.” I nod, surprised no one else has come in here.
"What floor are we on?" I question, while crunching through a bag of chips.
"The second," Brian answers, not looking at me.
With Sam now in stable condition and my mind able to process I ask, “Where is he? I'm assuming he was in the lead ambulance."
