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“DO YOU THINK SHE’LL wake up soon?” Ralph asks as he pulls a plastic chair to the side of Emi’s bed.
“They started weaning her off the medication this morning. She’ll probably wake up sometime tomorrow.” Six days I’ve been sitting vigil at her bedside, keeping an eye on her as she sleeps peacefully and heals from her injuries. It’s been nine days since I’ve gazed lovingly into her beautiful azure blue eyes.
It’s honestly a miracle that she’s still alive today. There was definitely an angel watching over her while she was trapped in the trunk of that car. Santos stopped by after she was moved to a private room and told me that the fire and rescue team that pulled her out explained the situation to him. They had told him there was a perfect hole that Emi had fallen into in the trunk. When the car rolled, it balled up the body of the car like a soda can, but that perfect little pocket of space that Emi was in had been left practically untouched.
She should have been crushed.
Her injuries should have been worse than they are. As it is, she came out severely dehydrated with a few broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, fractured elbow, sprained ankle, and severe concussion. She’ll be in some pain, and she has a long road of recovery ahead of her, but she’s alive. They’ve kept her in a medically induced coma for the last six days to give her body time to heal. Once the drugs start to work out of her system, she should wake up. All the doctors were expecting to have worse news when they did the CT scan and MRI, but they didn’t find anything. Of course, we’ll have to see what state she’s in mentally when she does wake up. I expect her to come out rough, but I have all intentions of being here with her when that happens.
“Have you been eating?” Ralph asks.
I look up at him and see his hand resting on Emi’s arm. “I have. Not much, but enough that I don’t lose my strength. I can’t bring myself to be away from her for very long at a time.”
“Just keep taking care of yourself. You can’t take care of her if you aren’t at you best for her.”
“I know. This chair folds out into a single bed and the nursing staff have been nice enough to allow me to stay here with Emi. Steve, the doorman at my apartment, came by the other day and brought me some things from my apartment. I thought he was gonna lose it when he saw her lying here hooked up to all these monitors. They’ve gotten pretty close to each other in the last month or so.”
“She needs more friends she can rely on. I hate that I never noticed before how lonely she was or what kind of shape her home life was in.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. There’s only so much you can witness from that diner kitchen.”
“That’s no excuse.” He moves his hand to his lap and lowers his gaze. I can see the guilt washing over him as he takes a deep breath before continuing. “I’ve given my entire life to that diner. I should at least pay attention to the people that work for me.” He lifts his gaze and his eyes lock with mine. His are glistening with unshed tears. “I’m glad she has you now.”
“Me too.” Reaching up, I place my hand on her thigh – one of the few places on her body that isn’t covered with bruises.
Ralph stands and moves the chair away from the bed, leaving it on the wall where he had grabbed it from earlier. “Take care of her.”
“I will.” I watch as he walks toward the door.
He stops with his hand on the door handle and says, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope I don’t see either one of you back in my diner for a long time.”
Chuckling, I shake my head side to side. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of going back to Independence for a good long time. Maybe never to be honest.”
Throwing his head back, he laughs loudly as he opens the door. “I’ll hold you to that,” he calls out over his shoulder as he walks out.
“You hear that, Kitten?” I ask Emi, even though I know she won’t answer me yet. I don’t know if she can hear me or not, but I don’t want her to think she’s going through any of this alone. If there’s a chance she can hear me, I want her to know that I’m right here with her. “Ralph says we’re not allowed to go back to Independence any time soon.” Lifting a hand, I run the backs of my fingers over her cheek. The bruising on her face is lighter in color than it was six days ago, now faded from a dark purple to a faded green color.
She’s still hooked up to so many machines, monitoring her improvement from one day to the next as well as keeping her hydrated and nourished. She has an IV in the back of her left hand, her right arm is in a cast from her bicep to her fingers because of the fractured elbow. They inserted a breathing tube to help relieve the strain on her body, as well as a feeding tube through her nose. It looks more frightening than it is honestly. I was worried about all the machines and tubes when I first saw her after she was admitted. But the doctor explained to me that it was to allow her body to heal itself without the added stress of trying to take care of herself. I haven’t left Emi’s side for longer than to take care of my own basic needs over the last several days and I’ve grown used to the beeps and groanings of the machines.
“Knock, knock.”
Looking up, I see the night nurse Jessica walk into the room. “Shift change already?” I ask as she steps into the room and closes the door behind her.
“Yep.” She smiles sweetly as she walks to the side of Emi’s bed. “Just coming by to check up on our girl.”
I watch silently as Jessica plugs information from Emi’s vitals into her tablet. Once she’s done, she places the tablet down on the side table and begins gathering supplies. She fills a glass container with water and uses it to fill the biggest plastic syringe I’ve ever seen. Connecting the tip of the syringe to the end of Emi’s feeding tube, she pushes the water through the tube, effectively flushing it and clearing it of any remnants of the liquid diet being forced into her for the day.
Standing from my position at Emi’s side, I help Jessica to move the pillows. We work in tandem to rearrange Emi from laying flat on her back, to leaning slightly to the left. This takes the pressure off her back and puts it more on her left hip and side – the nurses explained to me the first night we were here that this constant change in position will prevent her from getting bed sores. I hold onto Emi to angle her in my direction while Jessica fluffs up a few pillows and wedges them in behind her.
“Get some sleep,” Jessica says when she’s finished cleaning up. “I’m guessing tomorrow is going to be a big day.” She smiles before turning and walking toward the door.
I kiss Emi softly on the forehead. “Goodnight, Kitten,” I whisper before turning to arrange the pull-out bed for myself. It’s the hardest, most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever had to sleep on, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s no way I’m leaving to sleep somewhere more comfortable when my Kitten is still stuck in this hospital bed.
I KNOW THE NURSES CAME into the room throughout the night. They always do. They come in every two or three hours to check vitals and make sure nothing has changed. I never thought I would get used to them coming and going throughout the night, but surprisingly, I slept all through the night. Maybe it’s the knowledge that my Kitten will be waking up soon that allowed me enough peace to rest. Or maybe it’s my body knowing that I need to be fully rested for what today will hopefully bring.
Thankful that I was able to get Emi into a private room, I make use of the facilities to take a quick shower and brush my teeth. Steve was more than happy to go into my apartment the other day, while on the phone with me at the same time of course, to gather some things for me so I don’t have to leave the hospital. I’m just finishing rinsing my mouth out when there’s a knock on the door. “Come in,” I call out as I dry my mouth and hands on a towel.
“Good morning.”
Stepping out of the bathroom, I see Officer Santos standing just inside the door to Emi’s room with two cups of coffee in his hands. He’s dressed in street clothes today, looking more casual than I’ve seen him since high school. “Is one of those for me?” I ask with a smile as I reach out a hand in his direction.
“Yep.” He holds a cup out for me, and I take it gladly. “It’s from a vending machine down the hall so don’t get too excited about it. I’m sure it’s shit.”
“As long as it’s caffeinated,” I chuckle before taking a sip. I wince at the bitter taste before swallowing it down.
Santos laughs before taking a sip of his own bitter tasting coffee. “So,” he starts as he walks over to the plastic chair on the other side of the room. “Any changes?” He rests his cup on his knee as he turns his gaze to Emi.
“Nothing yet.” Walking closer to the bed, I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly – a soft, reassuring touch. I’ve done the same thing every time I approach the bed just to let her know I’m here. “They started weaning her off medication yesterday though. I’m hoping to see something today that shows she’s coming back to me.”
“She’s a tough one,” he says with a nod of his head. “There’s no way she would have survived that accident otherwise. Not to mention everything else.”
“She’s been through so much.” My head shakes slowly as I pull the chair closer to the side of her bed, ready to take up my vigil for the day. I helped the day nurse, Stephanie, turn her already to her other side so she’s now facing more toward where Santos sits. They’ll be coming back in a few hours to move her again so she’s lying on her back.
“Well...” he starts as he stands and throws his coffee cup into the trash under the sink. “I just wanted to stop by and let you know that Melodee’s trial starts today.”
“They don’t need Emilee to testify?” I furrow my brows in question as my head cocks to the side.
“No. We have enough evidence against her that it should get to that point. There’s no reason to make her relive any of it if we don’t have to. She’s been through enough as it is.”
“I agree.” A wave of relief washes over me, knowing that she can put all this behind her when she gets out of here. Charlie and Amber are both dead.
“Besides, she’s going to have enough to deal with.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“I think you know what I mean.” He turns toward me and places his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “She’s going to need more healing than just physical. There’s years’ worth of trauma that she’s going to have to deal with. Are you ready for that?”
“I will be,” I admit, determined to do whatever I have to do to get her through this. I know there’s going to be possible PTSD associated with not only what happened recently, but over the last several years. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, and I internally chastise myself for not even bringing it up, but she’s been dealing with Charlie for years. Then the death of her mother on top of it. She probably hasn’t even had time to really mourn the loss of her mother because she was too busy just trying to survive every day.
“Okay. You’ve got my number if you need anything.” He walks toward the door to leave but I don’t follow him. “I’ll keep you posted about the trial. This is a pretty high-profile case, so I expect it’ll be televised if you want to watch. As much as it sucks, this is the most interesting thing to happen in our little community in quite a while.”
“Yeah,” I start as I thread my fingers through my hair. “I have no intention of watching it.”
“I don’t blame you.” Chuckling, he opens the door. “I’ll be in touch, Landon.”
I watch him as he walks out the door before it closes behind him. Turning my attention back to my Kitten, I place my hand back on her shoulder softly. “Did you hear that, Kitten?” I say softly as my hand begins to move slowly up and down her arm.
I’m not paying much attention, so I almost miss it at first – a slight movement beneath my hand. Moving my hand back to her shoulder, I still my movements and wait for something else. It takes several minutes before I feel it again, a lump of emotion forming in my throat as I realize that I hadn’t imagined it.
Pressing the nurse call button, I walk around to the other side of the bed and grab Emi’s hand. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.” I lean over and whisper lovingly into her ear, repeating the same thing over and over again. “I’m here. I’m here. It’s okay, I’m here. You’re safe, Kitten. I’m here.”
Nurse Stephanie walks into the room right as the machine at the head of the bed starts squealing loudly. I lift my gaze in alarm and watch the nurse approach the bed. She reaches up where her name tag hangs from her scrub jacket and presses a button. I hadn’t realized she had a small black object hooked behind her name tag until now – similar in appearance to a pager, which is something that I haven’t seen in years.
“What’s going on?” I ask, my own heartrate increasing in concern at the sound of the alarms and beeps going on around me.
Stephanie looks up at me and smiles as she pulls the pillows from behind Emi, allowing her to lay flat on her back again. “She’s waking up and she’s fighting the breathing tube.”
I’m confused why she’s smiling at her fighting her breathing tube, that doesn’t seem like something that she should be happy about. “Fighting her breathing tube?” Leaning over the bed, I place my hands on Emi’s cheeks. “Emi, baby. It’s okay.” I don’t know what to say to get her to stop fighting the breathing tube – it’s helping her to breathe right now and I’m terrified that if she fights it, she’ll stop breathing. I don’t know anything about these machines other than the fact that they are helping her to stay alive and heal.
“It’s completely normal. I paged the doctor to see about getting it removed. He should be here any minute.” So that’s what the button was that she pushed. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. Keep her calm until the doctor gets here.”
“Kitten.” I kiss her forehead lightly and swallow around the lump in my throat. “It’s okay, Kitten. I’m here. I’m here waiting for you to come back to me. I miss you so much, baby.”
It’s like my heart has waited until this very moment to start beating properly again. My eyes are burning as my vision begins to blur and I breathe out a sigh of relief when Emi stops fighting and her heart rate begins to slow down again. Then she does something that I’ve been waiting for her to do for the last seven days since we found her.
She opens her eyes.