Page 218 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two
“Oh, my God, let me get the doctor!” Shae’s voice comes from my side, and I tell my eyes to focus, but it’s too bright, too white in here.
I’m in heaven?
But if I’m in heaven, that’d mean Shae’s dead, too, and?—
“Shhhh—” I grunt when I can’t even fix my lips to shout her name.
I try again, groaning when I fail, and decide I need to go find her.
Except my legs don’t move when I tell them to.
I attempt to look down at my lap, pieces starting to come together about where I am—not Heaven—when I spot the rough white blanket covering my lower half and the medical tape pinning an IV to the back of my hand.
“—ae,” I try again, panic swirling in my chest.
I’m in a hospital.
And something is very, very wrong.
Pounding footsteps get louder, and right when I start hyperventilating, Shae slams back into the room. I try to reach for her, but my body’s so weak, I can barely crunch my abs to bring my shoulders off the bed.
“Shhh, Storm, it’s okay! Everything is okay,” she says. She moves inches from my face with a broad smile, but tears course down her cheeks, too.
“Wh…are…you…cr—ing?” I say the words slowly, trying to get as many syllables to come out as possible.
“Baby,” she says, bending over my stomach as she breaks into sobs. I want to hold her, bring her close, but nothing is fucking working.
Fuck!
“Calm down,” she says, sniffing when one of the alarms behind my head goes off. “Take some deep breaths.”
“Why?” I ask, still not letting go of why she’s crying. My throat sears from trying so hard.
“You’ve been… You’ve been asleep for almost two weeks, baby. They had to put you under for some time, so you were on a ventilator. They weaned you off all the meds to keep you asleep and took your breathing tube out yesterday. I was starting to worry because you should have woken up by now, but?—”
She blabbers, blubbers as she explains what’s happened over the last two weeks, but I cut her off.
“Tems…Rai… Safe?” I pant out, and she nods vigorously.
“Yes, they’re with my mom and Yennifer. Axel and Riale came back almost an hour after everything…happened.” Darkness comes over her expression then. “Everyone is safe.”
I try to breathe in slowly, but it’s hard with this thing on my face.
“What’s wrong…legs,” I say, sweat rolling down the side of my face when I tell my legs over and over to move.
Shae’s face changes then, sadness coming over her.
“I… There were some injuries when you fell,” she murmurs. The alarm goes silent for a few seconds before picking up again. A loudbong, bongstarts up, and I hear a few people moving in the hallway from the open door.
“I’ll let the doctors explain,” she adds, kissing my hands. “It’s all gonna be okay.”
She doesn’t let go of my hands when three doctors come into the room. One of them looks familiar.
“Doc…tor Swan…son?” I ask, looking at Shae and the other providers who flood the room.
“Yes,” Dr. Swanson says, winking. “Yourwifehere demanded I leave my practice in California to treat you. But you’ve become my favorite patient, Storm, so it hasn’t been a chore.”
The way she says “wife” is like she’s in on a joke no one else is.
