Chapter
43
“Honey, I’ll be right back,” Josh said, awhile later. “I’m going to get some coffee, okay?”
“Sure, sweetie,” I said.
“Hey, could you see if there’s any news on Sammy while you’re at it?”
“Sure, baby,” he said.
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay, honey. Thanks,”
I said, smiling weakly at him. Then I
watched as he left the room.
***
Another hour passed before Josh was back. When he finally did come back, I looked up at
him in concern. “What took so long,
honey?” I asked.
“Well, I’ve got updates on everyone now,” he said. “Sammy’s in surgery right now. I hung around in the surgical waiting room
with Nick and Megan and everyone else up there for awhile.”
“How serious is it?” I asked.
“Nick told me her doctor said the bullet hit her left lung
and heart, almost like what happened to him last year, but worse.”
“Oh no,” I said. “Do
you think she’ll make it?”
“I don’t know,” Josh said.
“We just have to wait and see how her surgery goes.”
I nodded. “So, who
else did you check on? Brian?”
“Yup, I went and saw Brian.
He’s pretty banged around and shaken up, and he’s got a broken leg
that’s going to require surgery tomorrow.
He was more worried about everyone else than himself. I told him about Sammy, and he was real
worried about her, and then he asked about you too.”
“Aw,” I said.
“That’s just like Brian.”
“Yeah,” Josh said, smiling slightly. “I told him what was up with you, and he said
to tell you he’s praying for us. He wants
his doctor to let him come down here and see you, but I don’t know if that’s
going to happen. He’s pretty weak right
now.”
I nodded, touched by Brian’s concern.
“Then I went to see how Kevin and Aaron are doing,” Josh
continued.
“How are they?” I asked.
“Well, Kev’s got a concussion. He regained consciousness, but he’s still
kinda out of it. His brother, Tim, told
me that they’re going to keep him overnight for observation. And Aaron’s fine. He’s got a broken nose, but that’s it. They just cleaned him up in the ER, and he
just got discharged. He and Angel were
going to head back to their hotel for awhile.”
I nodded. “I’m glad
everyone came out of it so well,” I said.
“It could have been much worse.”
“Yeah, I know,” Josh agreed. “Oh, and yeah, I asked about Justin too. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital
instead of this one, and they’ve got him in the prison ward.”
“Good,” I said. “How
bad was he hurt?”
“Not too bad. He has
a concussion too, from Kevin whacking him on the head. I think they’ll probably keep him for the
night too and then transfer him straight to prison,” Josh said.
I sighed. “I hope this is finally all
over,” I said.
“I hope so too, baby,” Josh said, leaning over to kiss the
top of my head. “I hope so too.”
***
As a couple more hours passed, my contractions grew more
and more painful and closer together. I
knew that with each passing minute, I was getting closer to giving birth. I had been moved from the ER into a private
room on the maternity floor, and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I would
be moved into the delivery room.
Josh stayed with me most of the time, only leaving to check
on Sammy every now and then. He was
great about keeping me posted on her situation. But every time he came back, the news was
the same: Sammy was still in surgery, and there hadn’t been any update on how
she was doing.
It had been over three hours since Sammy had gone into
surgery, when I heard a knock on my door.
“Come in,” I called. A moment
later, the door opened, and in came Heidi.
“Hey!” I cried, smiling.
“Where have you been?”
“Up with everyone else in the surgical waiting room,” she
said.
“Oh,” I said. “Have
you heard anything new on Sammy?”
“Yeah, she’s out of surgery,” Heidi said.
“Oh, that’s great,” I said.
“How did it go?”
It was then that I realized something was wrong, for Heidi
did not look the least bit relieved, and I suddenly realized that she looked as
if she’d been crying.
“Well, she made it through, but the surgeon said there were
a lot of complications during surgery and that they weren’t able to fix all of
the damage. She’s too weak to go back
under so they can try again now,” Heidi explained sadly.
“So, will they wait a couple days and then put her under
again?” I asked.
“They’re not sure she’ll live that long,” Heidi said, and
tears filled her brown eyes. “She’s not
in good shape at all, and her heart and lungs are weak.”
“Oh, God,” I whispered.
I shook my head sadly, blinking back tears. It couldn’t be. After all of this, Sammy couldn’t die
now. She had so much to live for: her
daughter, her fiancée, everything.
Josh came over and put his arms around me, letting me cry
into his shoulder. But it did little to
comfort me. Suddenly everything was
wrong. I could lose not only my unborn
baby, but one of my best friends too.
The baby thing was no one’s fault.
It was just something that had happened, something no one could
change. But because of Justin
Timberlake, Sammy’s life was on the line.
How could anyone hate so much to kill?
That was something I had never understood and never would, as long as I
lived.
***
