Page 15 of Bedazzled
My beautiful gangster’s body was littered with tubes and wires and bandages. One eye was covered and I prayed that didn’t mean the cut the surgeon mentioned went over-
Stop it. This is not helping.
Yuri had always had an almost offensively good color, like he’d just come back from a relaxing weekend in Ibiza or something. He was so pale now, almost as white as the sheets.
“You know, when I first came in, I was going to do something like pull back the covers and make sure your bedazzled dick remained uninjured. But I can’t imagine anything I could do that would make you laugh right now. Instead, I just keep thinking of how gorgeous you were on the sidewalk under my window, smiling up at me, holding those amazing sunflowers. But since I did not get my bouquet or my evening alone with you, you owe me.”
His hand that was closest to me was terribly bruised, and bandages on two fingers stopped me from trying to hold it. Instead, I dusted my fingertips over his skin, feeling the veins and corded muscles in his forearm.
“When myabuelawas lying in state, as she called it, she told me that a life well-lived was seeing loved ones on both sides of her bed. Family on one side, friends on the other. Babe, your bedside is packed with loved ones. Your room would be stuffed with the people who love and count on you. Probably spilling out into the hallway. Maybe covering the top floor of this hospital, which by the way, I think your brother cleared, just for you. We're all here, sweetheart, just waiting for you to wake up.”
Two days later…
The medical dramas on TV always made the loved ones who hover over the patient look like cast members from The Living Dead. We had set up camp on the top floor of New York Presbyterian and I suspected the hospital administrators were getting worried that we would never leave.
Maksim’s arrangements meant there was a bathroom and shower reserved for our use, a couple of empty rooms where we could switch off with each other and sleep, the catering table stuffed full of food every day which still seemed oddly hilarious to me and helpful “associates” who brought clean clothing and essentials. We could last for years here with this setup.
Ella spent hours reading the surgery notes and going through his chart. After I begged her to give me something to study, something to understand how Yuri was going to possibly recover from this level of brutality, she gave me a long reading list, and we exchanged notes on what we learned.
She had always wanted to be a doctor for as long as I’d known her, but after four years of med school, she found out her scumbag brother had stolen their parent’s inheritance, and she got her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical research instead, because Big Pharma made sure there were millions and millions of dollars in grants available in that field.
After they got married - the second time - Maksim hired some top-shelf physicians to tutor her privately and she was working toward her medical degree. How he pulled this off… Only the uber rich can get away with shit like this.
“Hey Doc, today’s the day, right?”
Dr. Gulianos gave me a tired smile. “Today’s the day, Tania.” She was apparently the best trauma surgeon on the East Coast so she was always exhausted from the constant demands for her expertise. But this afternoon she was all ours.
“Did you ever try those ginseng capsules I gave you?”
She cleared her throat, “Well…”
I laughed, “You sent them to the lab to see if I was giving you fentanyl or something, didn’t you?”
A flush crept up the poor woman’s neck, “Well no, I just-”
“Oh, I get it. Random person handing you random pills. I get them from a custom compounder in Chinatown- Mr. Li Jie Chang? He does a lot of medicinal herbs. The ginseng supplements give you mad energy. This is from a woman who used to drink coffee until I was vibrating for most of the day.”
She gave me a relieved smile. “That’s kind of you, thank you. I’ll have to try them out.”
“Yeah, the ingredients are on the bottle, no extra fentanyl.”
Maksim turned around with a frown as Dr. Gulianos and I stopped at Yuri’s door. “What are you talking about?”
“Ginseng.”
I should probably explain what that means to him but a fist was twisting my stomach in half.
It had hit me that this is the moment. What if Yuri didn’t wake up? What if he has brain damage? I have spent the last forty-eight hours reading about every possible complication with his injuries. But his healing abilities must have been supernatural. All the scars on that poor man? This wasn’t the first time that he should have died.
She was speaking in low tones with the other medical personnel including Ella, all clustered around the bed, monitoring his vitals while Maksim and I stood in the corner. I shifted from foot to foot, whispering “Please please please please please…” until Maksim told me to be quiet.
When Dr. Guilanos looked up at us, she smiled. “You can come over. This is not an instantaneous event; it may take him a while. But the sensory stimulation of having you close can help him.”
We clustered around the bed, Maksim and Ella on one side, me on the other. Like myabuelahad said, loved ones on both sides.
“Come back to usmoya dusha,”Maksim murmurs.
I sat on Yuri’s left side, where his poor hand did not have any fingernails torn off. I slipped my fingers under his lax ones and just waited. For what, I didn’t know exactly, but I wasn’t moving until he opened his eyes.
