Chapter 23 – Archer
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ARCHER
Waiting and fucking waiting. I would take waterboarding or someone ripping my fucking nails out instead of this torture. I want to bang on the door to the operating theatre and scream at them to wake her up, to make her fucking better and bring her back to me.
“Will you stop pacing? You’re giving me motion sickness,” Eden complains.
“I can’t. What if her heart stops beating again? What if she doesn’t fucking come back to us?” I rant.
“She will, and pacing around isn’t going to bring her back,” Eden counters, rubbing her temples.
“Enough. We all want her back. Eden, stop being a snappy bitch,” Bernie chastises.
Eden huffs and sits back. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I mutter back.
A deep voice clears his throat behind me, and I spin around and see the doctor standing there in his scrubs, a smile on his face. “Doc?” I ask with desperation.
“All is good. She did have a slight infection, but it wasn’t just that.” He sighs, and his face turns serious. “My colleagues had left the bullet in.” I open my mouth to yell, but he holds up his hand, halting me. “Sometimes if it is deemed safer to do so, they will leave it in.”
“He said he removed it, didn’t he?” I ask, turning my attention to Mor and Eden.
“He definitely made it clear that he had helped her in some way or another, but in reality, he had just patched her up,” Mor seethes. If I were that doctor, I would be on the run, because if Mor doesn’t get her hands on him first, then I fucking will.
“What I am here to tell you is, I removed the bullet. I’ve cleaned the area, and I’ve stitched her back up.
She is still on the machines for now and on strong IV antibiotics, but I don’t see why she can’t ease off the machines in the next few days.
However, I will be overseeing this myself from now on. ”
I exhale a breath. There is a chance, a good fucking chance, that she will come out of this okay.
“Now obviously, I don’t need to tell you that things can still go wrong, but I feel confident they won’t,” he declares.
I grab the doctor’s hand and shake it vigorously. “Thank you.”
“Anything you need or want, Doc, just say, and we will sort it for you,” Mor promises. The doctor looks a bit taken aback by her offer. He simply smiles and nods before he walks out of the room.
I crumple to the floor, unable to support myself any longer, a strangled sob ripping through my chest.
“Fuck!” I rasp.
I feel hands come around me, and as I look up, it’s Mor and Eden wrapping me in their arms. They sob as hope fills our hearts.
The sound of people coming has me looking up to see them wheeling Betsy back in.
I stand with my arms draped over Mor and Eden.
As we step back, allowing them space, seeing her still makes my heart lurch, but now we have hope that my little gremlin will come back to me.
Three days pass, and she still isn’t waking up.
It had been eighteen days since I had seen her beautiful eyes, heard her voice, and seen her smile.
The doctor was coming in today to see how she responds to switching off the machine.
Mor and Eden were coming in later. Something to do with the club had happened, and they couldn’t ignore it.
“Good morning. So, let’s see how she is doing.
” The doctor smiles as he checks her thoroughly and reads over the past notes.
A nurse at his side switches off the machine, and I stand there watching, waiting.
My heart feels like it’s about to eject from my chest with how rapid it’s beating.
We watch as her chest moves up and down on her own, the machine tracing her heart beeping strongly with a steady rhythm.
The doctor looks at me and smiles proudly.
“And now we wait to see when she’s ready to bless us with her presence.
” I grab the doctor in my arms and hug him, slapping my hand on his back.
“Thank you.” I choke back the emotion before stepping back.
The doctor, now red-faced, just nods. “No thanks needed. I will be by to check on her again tomorrow. The nurses will also be by regularly to check her vitals. “If anything happens, press the call button,” he says before walking out of the room. The nurse gives me a small smile, finishing what she is doing before she then scurries off. There are still tubes everywhere, but this time she’s breathing on her own for herself.
I walk towards her and take her hand in mine, placing a kiss on her palm as tears sting my eyes. “You’re nearly there, baby. You’re nearly back to me,” I choke.
“What’s the verdict?” Mor asks breathlessly as she runs in with Eden hot on her heels. I cough, clearing my throat.
“She’s breathing on her own.” I smile.
“Fuck, yeah! That’s our girl!” Mor cheers, and her and Eden hug each other tight with wide smiles on their faces. I can’t stop the smile spreading across my face as I join them in the good feeling.
“Let me call Bernie and tell her,” Mor says excitedly. She will want to tell the rest of the club. She walks out of the room, and Eden stands there smiling with tears running down her cheeks.
“I’m so happy she’s going to be okay,” she breathes, sniffing back her tears. I get up and pull her into my arms, hugging her tight as she hugs me back.
“I’m sorry for being an ass,” I mutter.
“I’m sorry, too,” Eden mumbles back.
I look down, smiling at her, and she grins up at me. We both step back and turn around to face Betsy. “Now we’ve just got to see how long she’s going to make us wait,” I point out.
“Yeah, I bet she’s dramatic about it,” Eden jokes.
Mor and Nyx walk in. Nyx was busy parking the truck, and we sat and talked about throwing a party to celebrate when she’s better, which she would hate.
Later, Eden, Nyx, and Mor go home. I promise to call as soon as she wakes.
Moving closer to her, I prop myself up on two chairs and close my eyes, drifting off to sleep.
“Archer.”
I sigh.
“Archer.”
I frown and blink a few times.
“Archer.”
My eyes widen, and as I sit up, I look across to Betsy and see her awake. I leap off the chairs, knocking them over with a loud crash, but I don’t care. I cup her face in my hands.
“Fuck, fuck. You’re awake.” I press my mouth to hers softly, scared that if I kiss her too hard, I will hurt her. Tears stream down her pale cheeks. “Don’t cry, don’t cry. You’re safe, I’ve got you,” I assure her, my voice breaking.
“I, I…” Her voice croaks, breaking.
“Shhh, let me call the doctor,” I assure her.
I press the button, and the room alarm beeps.
The door swings open, and I step back, my eyes never leaving hers as nurses rush in to check her over.
“Let me call Mor and Eden,” I tell her. Stepping out of the room, and once I’m down the hall, I break.
A sob tears through me as the relief, the utter fucking relief that she came back to me, thunders through me.
I run my fingers through my chest and take a deep breath before calling Mor.
“What is it?” she answers, panicked.
“She’s awake,” I choke out.
“Oh my god. We are on our way,” she sobs and disconnects.
I slide my phone back into my back pocket and wipe my face before heading back into the room. As soon as I step in, her eyes snap to mine, warm relief flooding through them, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
The nurses finish whatever it is they are doing and leave her with a cup of ice chips. “Go slow on those, and we will sort you out your first meal tomorrow,” the last nurse states before walking out following the others.
I take the cup of chips with a spoon in them and perch myself on the bed next to Betsy and feed her a spoonful, followed by a kiss.
She smiles against my mouth. “I missed you,” she whispers, her voice sounding weak.
“You have no idea how much I’ve dreamt of this fucking moment,” I confess, closing my eyes as I rest my temple against hers.
“Each day I dreamt of seeing your eyes again, hearing your voice, feeling your touch,” I add, pressing my lips to hers again.
I can’t help but want to touch her and make sure she is really here with me.
“How long has it been?” she asks.
I look at the clock. “Nineteen days, as of two hours ago. Do you remember what happened?” I ask her, unsure if I should bring it up or not.
“I remember chasing her.” She frowns. “I remember getting off the bike and standing before her, and you leaning over me,” she says.
I feed her another spoonful of ice chips. “She shot you. You stopped breathing, and they had to bring you back. You then got an infection because they left the bullet in your chest. They didn’t think you would wake up,” I admit.
“Oh.” She blinks. She lifts a shaky hand to my jaw, and my eyes close at the feel of her delicate fingers on my face.
“I’ve missed this.” She smiles. “Touching you. I dreamed about it, about you, but I could never quite touch you. It was more of a nightmare than a dream. Being so close to you, but unable to touch or kiss you,” she admits.
“I was living a similar nightmare. Unable to see your eyes, your smile. It was torture.” I press my mouth to hers, leaving my lips to linger there for a moment.
“Betsy!” Mor and Eden shout.
“Excuse me! It is the middle of the night! We don’t allow visitors here. Patients are sleeping,” the nurse chastises, following Mor and Eden into the room.
“Alright sister, calm your tits. We aren’t seeing anyone else, just our friend. Goodnight.” Mor slams the door in the nurse’s face.
I lean back and look at the both of them.
Sighing, I get up off the bed, knowing they will want their time with her, and I’m not making the mistake of getting in the way of Mor.
Nyx already warned me of that. They both run at her, wrapping Betsy carefully in their arms, sobbing and wailing in high-pitched tones that only cats and dogs would understand.
“Fucking good to see that,” Nyx says, coming to stand beside me.
I smile, a rich, deep smile, the first and only smile I’ve done in weeks. “Yeah. It really fucking is.”