Chapter
21
A
few minutes later, the door opened again, and in walked Dr. Bradley. “Sonny’s been taken down to ICU,” he said to
Heidi. “Do you want me to take you to
see him now?”
Heidi
nodded and stood up. She turned back to
us. “Do any of you want to come with?”
she asked.
“Not
right now,” I said softly. I didn’t
think I could handle seeing anyone like that right then.
“Go
ahead, Heidi,” AJ spoke up. “You’re his
wife. You deserve a chance to be alone
with him.”
“Okay,”
Heidi said. “See you guys later.”
I
offered her an encouraging smile and watched as she followed Dr. Bradley out of
the room.
***
A
few minutes after that, one of our cell phones rang. It turned out to be Brian’s. He picked it up and pressed ‘talk’, putting
it to his ear.
“Hello?”
he asked. He paused. He looked confused at first, but then a small
smile spread across his face. He
nodded. “Yeah… how are you doing? …okay,
I guess…yeah… really?… that’s cool… uh-huh… yeah… so are you coming down here?…
okay… okay… great… thanks… okay… okay, see you then… yup… okay… bye.” He finally closed his phone.
“Who
was that?” AJ asked curiously.
“You
remember Officer Kessler? The cop that
was in charge of our case six years ago?” Brian asked.
“Yeah,”
AJ said. “That was him?”
“Sure
was,” Brian said. “Apparently, he’s
friends with one of the cops down here that you and I talked to earlier
tonight. So, he’s coming down here to
help out with the case and help find Hope.”
“Cool,”
AJ replied.
“Hey,
Bri,” I started. “Do you think there
could be any connection between what happened tonight and what happened
then? I mean, with Justin and all?”
He
sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, wasn’t Justin locked up in some
asylum in Mississippi?”
“Yeah,”
I said slowly.
“Well,
hopefully there’s no connection at all.
Maybe it was just a coincidence,” Brian said. Flashbacks of the horror they went through
those many years ago flared through his mind, and he shuddered, praying that
they would never have to go through anything like that again. More importantly, he prayed that Hope was not
going through something so horrible at that very moment.
***
Meanwhile,
Heidi stepped slowly into Sonny’s room in ICU.
The room was small and dim, and the beeping and hissing sounds that
filled it scared her. It reminded her of
seeing Nick in the hospital six years before, but this time, it was worse, for
this was Sonny, her one true love, her husband.
“Don’t
let all this equipment scare you,” Dr. Bradley said, approaching Sonny’s
bed. He pointed to various machines and
explained what they were for. “This is a
respirator,” he said, pointing to the tube coming out of Sonny’s mouth. “It’s to help him breathe. But don’t worry, we should be able to take
him off it soon, maybe sometime tomorrow.”
Heidi
nodded, trying desperately to keep her cool in front of the doctor. She was relieved when he finally left, giving
her some time alone with Sonny.
“Oh,
Sonny,” she whispered, pushing back her fears and taking a seat next to his
bed. She rubbed her hand gently over
his, which was cool and pale. “Baby, I
love you so much.” She smoothed his
thick brown hair off his forehead, and planted a light kiss on his colorless
cheek. “Please, Sonny, please be
strong. I… I need you, and I…” She stopped, letting her sentence trail
off. Then she began to cry silently, fat
tears once again rolling down her cheeks.
***
In
the waiting room, Sammy sat curled up in a chair, hugging her knees to her
chest, her gaze on the TV in the corner, although she was not really watching
it. Memories of Megan flooded her mind,
and they refused to leave her alone.
She
glanced at Nick, who sat beside her. He
was resting his chin his hands and staring at the wall.
“Nick?”
she asked softly. He slowly turned to
her, but didn’t exactly focus on her face.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” she asked.
“Why
didn’t you tell me?” Nick asked, looking hurt.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Sammy asked.
“About
what you just told us all,” Nick specified.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
Sammy
shifted uncomfortably. “Well… I don’t
know, Nicky… I just… didn’t think you needed to know… I mean, it’s been ten years since Megan
disappeared. I don’t talk about it to
anyone really. There was just never the
right time to tell you, and what would it have mattered anyway?”
“Well,
Sammy, I love you, and I think we need to be completely honest with each
other,” Nick said. “I would have cared
to know. I care about you, and I had no
idea you’d been through so much.”
“Well,
Nick, it was in the past. We didn’t even
know each other then,” Sammy said.
“So? I still would have liked to know,” Nick said.
“Nick,
please, this is a stupid thing to be arguing about,” Sammy said, sighing.
“Well,
sorry! I just didn’t enjoy finding out
that you were raped and had a kid when you were a teen and then never told me
about it,” Nick said.
“Nick! Come on, will you grow up a little? Did you really expect me to come up on our
first date and tell you the story of my life?” Sammy cried defensively.
“No!”
Nick said, pouting. “But after a year, I
would have liked to know.”
“Well,
look, Nick, I’m sorry, ok? Get over it,”
Sammy said sarcastically.
“Sammy,
I…” Nick started to say, but she turned quickly away from him and examined her
fingernails instead, ignoring him.
He
sighed and turned back to face the wall, scowling.
***
Finally,
after so long a wait, Dr. Coleman came back into the room.
“How
is he?” I asked immediately, jumping to my feet. My heart pounded.
Dr.
Coleman smiled wearily at me. “He’s been
taken to ICU now,” he said. “There’s not
much more I can tell you. He’s in critical
condition right now.”
I
nodded, my shoulders slumping. “Can I
see him now?” I asked.
Dr.
Coleman nodded solemnly. “Come with me,
and I’ll show you to his room.”
“Ok,
thanks,” I said, offering him a weak smile.
We walked down the hall together until we got to the ICU.
I
followed Dr. Coleman down the hall to a closed door. Dr. Coleman opened the door and held it open
so I could go in.
“Take
all the time you want,” he said. “And
just hit the call button if you need anything.”
“Ok,”
I said. “Thank you.”
Dr.
Coleman nodded. “You’re welcome,” he
said. Then he left.
As I
got closer to Josh’s bed, in the center of the room, my breath caught in my
throat. As a doctor, I had seen people
like this before, hooked up to life support in the ICU. Since I was a pediatrician, most of the
patients I had seen like that were children, which was the worst. But seeing my own husband like this was even
worse than that.
“Oh,
God, Joshers,” I said, slowly sitting beside his bed. I wanted to crawl into the bed next to him
and just hold him, but I knew that was not allowed. It wasn’t like I could do it anyway, for his
entire torso was layered with bandages, and he was hooked up to all kinds of
medical machinery, measuring his vital signs and helping to keep him alive at
that point.
I
took a hold of his hand, squeezing it within my own. My tears ran freely down my cheeks, falling
onto my shirt and the covers of his bed.
I made no attempt to brush them away.
Suddenly,
a dull ache ran through my stomach once again.
I placed Josh’s limp hand against my stomach. “Come on, Josh, you have to make it. Not just for me, but for our baby, you got
that?” I said tearfully, yet firmly. “I
can’t raise a child without a father.”
I
held tightly to his hand, hoping for a squeeze from him, a blink, or any other
sign that would let me know he could hear me.
But I got nothing.
***
