Chapter 35 #4
It became chaos instantly. Neighbors were everywhere watching what was happening.
None of them were getting close or tried to help.
Police surrounded David and Karen with guns drawn, David and I yelled that it was her that did this.
Firefighters helped move Charlie and I out of the way so they could work.
Some of them stayed with me, Charlie still in my arms, to make sure he kept breathing.
After what seemed like forever, the ambulance showed up.
Jesus, where did they have to come from, Beaver Fucking County!
They swiftly took David and Charlie into the ambulance white box van, needing to put Charlie on oxygen because of the smoke inhalation and carbon dioxide he breathed in.
He still hadn’t woken up, but had shallow breaths.
I tried to crawl in, but they stopped me.
“Sorry, sir. There’s no room. We shouldn’t even be bringing two of them with us. ” Then he shut the door in my face.
I heard a muffled yell from inside say, “Jim, I’m here. I have him.”
David.
I scanned the crowd. For anyone I may know, when a hand landed on my shoulder and turned me around.
Tom.
“Let’s go. I bet I’ll beat them there,” his tone serious.
When we got to his car, Betty was also waiting. “Where did you both come from,” I questioned. Then it pinged, “Wait,” looking back and forth between the two of them, breaking my emotional turmoil.
Betty planted her hands on her hip and tapped her toe, “Do you want to talk about this, or go see your man?”
I opened the car door and got in the back without another word.
“That’s what I thought,” getting into the front after I got in.
Tom drove away like a bat out of hell, which technically was what it felt like. We got to the hospital in what felt like no time and an eternity at the same time, and Tom still beat them there.
By all of four minutes.
I was waiting by the door when they arrived.
Betty placed her hand around my waist and whispered, “As much as this is going to kill you, I need you to control yourself. I can not have you get arrested tonight for being who you are.” I turned and looked into her hazel eyes.
They were pained. Like it hurt her just by saying that.
I nodded. “Follow my lead. Tom Dear, do as you're told.” He gruffed in response.
Tom acted as his father so we could follow him.
It had been well over an hour and I suffered every second, pacing a trench into the floor.
I was barely able to touch him the entire time because someone was always there.
It made me more emotional. My eyes were burning from unshed tears, and it hurt to breathe.
The air felt like sandpaper in my lungs.
Then I saw a familiar face. The nurse that helped me when I was here over two weeks ago, Nancy.
She made eye contact and rushed over, kicking the nurse out that was in here and drawing the curtain shut.
“What happened?” Nancy picked up the chart and scanned it.
“Oh my God.” She checked all of Charlie’s vitals again, for the umpteenth time.
“The doctor had said it was all up in the air, because of how long he was in the fire, breathing in everything he wasn’t supposed to,” I choked out, a tear finally escaping for the first time since arriving at the hospital.
Nancy waved a hand at me to quiet while looking down Charlie’s throat with a light.
She replaced the oxygen mask and closed her eyes and placed her hand in the center of Charlie’s chest. I watched as his chest rose and fell slowly, her hand with it.
She opened her eyes after several of his breaths, then nodded with a deep exhale.
Clearly, she had been holding her own breath. “He’ll be okay.”
I was standing there hugging myself. If I had nails to bite, I would have bitten them off by now. “How do you know? The doctor said–, and from his tone, he didn’t sound like he had hope,” I sobbed out, having a hard time breathing myself, at that moment.
She came over to me and cupped my face, her thumb swiping under my eye, collecting a tear I hadn’t noticed.
“Because I just do. I promise. He will wake soon. He just needed a long strong dose of oxygen and rest.” She smiled, before adding, “And those doctors are all hogwash. They don’t know an asshole from a mouth most days.
It’s us nurses that do the work around here.
We see and hear all. We know before they do.
” She brought my head down and left a kiss in the center.
“Now. Like before,” she winked. “I’ll keep people out for you, and will warn if anyone is coming.
She walked to the split in the curtain, but as she was going through I stopped her, “Nancy.” She turned with an openness about her. “Thank you.”
“I am glad you both are doing well together,” then she walked away.
I bolted for the side of the bed, not needing further permission, taking his hand in mine. Kissing it over and over in a patterned beat. Like a morse code, hoping he would feel it and come back to me faster.
An hour later, his fingers twitched in my hand, and his eyes opened, coming home to me.