Chapter 22 #2
Trey’s return with clean clothes that would fit and a bag of junk food coincided with a call from Mom, who’d stuck around at the hospital to support Joshua’s parents, telling him that Lincoln could finally have visitors.
Dom whooped and dropped his phone when he spun Trey around in a bear hug.
He didn’t even care that he’d cracked the screen.
He could see Lincoln.
They went back to the hospital, and it took a few tries to find the ICU, tucked away down a long corridor.
Hospitals confused Dom at the best of times, so navigating while his adrenaline was up did him no favors.
Dad got them there. Mom was already in the waiting room.
Since Trey had no real reason to see Lincoln, Mom agreed to go with him.
Stupid two-visitors-at-a-time rule.
A very sweet nurse helped them find Lincoln’s room, which was wide open with no actual door, only curtains that could be drawn around the bed for privacy. From their angle, Dom could only see the lumps of two legs beneath a blanket, and the back of the hospital bed.
“He was awake briefly a few minutes ago,” the nurse said. “He was very groggy, though, and not very aware of where he was or what happened. If he wakes again while you’re here, please buzz us.”
“We will, thank you,” Mom said.
Dom clung to her hand, terrified to go further inside.
He didn’t want to see Lincoln banged up in a bed, attached to tubes and wires.
But he needed to see for himself that Lincoln was alive and actually in that bed.
So he let Mom pull him forward, her hand cinched around his, needing the support as much as he did. Lincoln was a part of her family.
Lincoln’s eyes were shut, the skin beneath them gray.
He had a few cuts on his face and a long, stitched gash on his left cheek near the ear.
His left wrist was bandaged, so the IV lines were in his right hand.
Wire leads disappeared beneath the hospital gown, probably creating steady beeps on one of the machines.
The scariest thing, though, was the wide, white bandage on the left side of his head.
His chest rose and fell steadily.
“Hey, babe.” Dom cleared his throat hard. He wrapped his fingers gently around Lincoln’s right hand, mindful of the tubes and shit. “You scared the hell out of me, but you’re going to be fine. Hear me? You’re going to be fine. And the other guys are all fine, too.”
Mom touched Lincoln’s other arm just above the bandage.
“I’m here too, baby. Whatever you need to get better, you know Bob and I will be there.
We adopted you the day your parents put you in the hospital.
You’re family, and we’ll get you on your feet again.
That’s a promise you can take to the bank. ”
Dom adored the mama-bear way she was getting over Lincoln—the way she got over all of her kids when one of them was hurting.
Dom wasn’t sure what else to say. He’d always heard that coma patients hear the people around them.
Lincoln wasn’t in a coma—he was asleep—but maybe the same rule applied, and he didn’t want Lincoln’s mind full of the accident.
“So Trey and I worked things out. He’s been so great this whole time.
I hate that we won’t be going to Unbound this weekend, but part of me’s really excited for him.
If it wasn’t us on that stage, at least it’ll be them. ”
He babbled for a while about nothing important, and when he fumbled, Mom picked up the slack.
A while later a doctor came in and spoke with Mom off to the side.
Dom tried to listen, catching snips of words like “bony fragments,” “titanium mesh,” and “intercranial pressure.” He didn’t care about the details.
He wanted to hear the doctor say that Lincoln would wake up and be okay.
Instead they were basically served the “head injuries are tricky, we have to wait and see” line.
Mom traded out so Dad could come in and visit. A nurse came by and recorded vitals. Then Dad left and Trey took his place. He didn’t talk to Lincoln so much as stand beside Dominic and be a steady presence until a nurse shooed them out for a while.
The afternoon and early evening became a blur of visits and bouts of watching TruTV in the waiting room.
Dom started taking in magazines so he had something to read to Lincoln.
He needed Lincoln to hear his voice and know he wasn’t alone.
As visiting hours drew to a close, Dom’s anxiety over Lincoln waking up increased.
He was in the middle of reading an article about closet organization, with Trey sitting silently nearby, when the cool hand beneath his twitched.
Dom dropped the magazine, his gaze tracking up the hand and arm to Lincoln’s face.
His eyes were moving behind still-shut lids, chapped lips pressing, then parting.
“Linc, it’s Dom. Wake up for me, babe.” He stood, ass sore from the hard plastic. “I know you hear me.”
Trey appeared at the foot of the bed, arms around his middle.
Dom leaned in and pressed his palm flat over Lincoln’s heart. “Open your eyes so I can see those beautiful baby blues.”
Lincoln’s eyelids smashed down, and then rose up. Tiny slits allowed the barest hint of white and blue to peek out. He licked his lips, and the slits grew. He blinked hard a few times before opening his eyes completely. Dom silently cheered and nearly fell over with relief.
“I’ll tell the nurse,” Trey said then skipped out.
Dom cupped Lincoln’s cheek, finally snagging his friend’s undivided attention. Lincoln stared blankly for a long, painful moment. And then recognition set in. A soft, choked “Hey” barely made it past his lips.
“Hey yourself.” Dom kissed his forehead. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“Where?”
“You’re in the hospital. We were in a car accident last night. Everyone else is okay, though. You were the one scaring us the most, but now you’re awake and you’re going to be fine.”
“Head hurts.”
“Well, you slammed it through a window and into a wooden pole, so yeah, it’s gonna hurt.”
Lincoln turned that over in his mind. “Ugh. You okay?”
“I got off easy. Few bumps and bruises and some minor cuts. Tyson fractured his arm and Benji’s got some bad cuts. Joshua was hurt pretty bad but he’s on the mend now. You were the last one we needed to see pull through.”
Trey returned with a cup of ice chips and a nurse in tow.
She checked his vitals while Dom soothed Lincoln’s chapped lips with the ice.
He hated seeing his friend so weak and vulnerable.
But Lincoln was a fighter, and he’d be home in no time.
Home to Dom’s parents’ house, so he could be smothered properly until he was back on his feet.
The nurse did a couple of basic neural checks, which Lincoln passed. She seemed satisfied with her exam. “I’ll let his doctor know,” she said. “Meanwhile, you boys have about five minutes before visiting hours are over for the day. So say your good-nights, okay?”
Dom kind of loved that she hadn’t told them to say their good-byes.
“I’ll go tell your parents the good news, okay?” Trey said. “See you out there. Lincoln, I’m glad you’re okay. I mean it.”
Lincoln offered a weak thumbs-up and a wink.
After Trey left, Dom had the very real urge to bundle Lincoln up into a bear hug and never let go. Only the chance of further damaging his best friend kept him from climbing right onto that bed.
“They’re going to make me leave soon, but I’ll be back in the morning. I’ll bring better books to read when you’re sleeping.”
Lincoln smiled. “You read to me?”
“Yeah. I wanted you to hear my voice. So you didn’t think you were alone. Because you aren’t. Not as long as I’m around. Hell, even if I was gone my parents still think of you as one of their kids. You’ll always have family to love you.”
“I know. Thank you.”
“I love you, man. No matter what.”
“Love you too, Dom.”
He held Lincoln’s hand until the nurse shooed him out.
He left the ICU a bit lighter than when he’d first walked in.
Lincoln was awake, aware, and didn’t seem to have any major side effects from his blow to the head.
Sure, it was still early and the doctor had to examine him, but Dom took that hope and tucked it in close to his heart.
Anything less than Lincoln back at one hundred percent was unacceptable.