Layla – Present
“Take a deep breath.”
I flinch as the doctor twists my wrist. Pressure builds, then a loud crack echoes through my arm, sending fresh pain shooting up. I fight the urge to yank my wrist free.
“Good,” he says.
I exhale, holding still. He glances over to the nurse in the far corner, gesturing for him to come over.
He pulls out a stool, then gently lifts my hand and begins wrapping it in a cast.
“It’ll take six to eight weeks to heal,” the doctor explains. “I’ll need to see you back before then to check progress.” He moves to a desk and starts writing on a piece of paper.
“When can I see Jacob?” I ask.
“I’m not the right person to ask,” he says. “When Jonathan’s done, you can check with reception, they should be able to help.”
I bite my lip. No one’s giving me a straight answer and it’s starting to get annoying.
“How much longer is this going to take?”
Jonathan meets my eyes and frowns before dropping his attention back to the cast.
“I understand you’re worried,” the doctor says. “But Jacob’s in very capable hands.”
I rest my head against the chair, watching the clock on the wall.
Two hours.
He’s been in surgery for two hours already.
When Jonathan finally says I’m good to go, I bolt for the reception desk. The woman behind it rolls her eyes. I’m convinced they only took me for x-rays because she was tired of my questions.
“Jaco–”
“There’s no news yet,” she cuts me off.
I rest my elbows on the desk, and run my fingers through my hair, then tap my hand impatiently.
“You know we’ve been doing this,” I gesture between us. “For the better part of two hours, and I still haven’t gotten a straight answer from you.”
She eyes me coolly. “I don’t have anything to tell you.”
“So, you can’t find out how my boyfriend’s surgery is going?”
“You’re not listed as his next of kin,” she says. “The information I can give you is very limited.”
“I’m not asking for his medical history,” I say. “I just want to know how the surgery’s going.”
She shrugs.
“Look,” I steady my voice, “I just need to know if he’s okay. That’s all.”
She looks at her screen, then back at me with a blank stare. “I don’t know how many times you need me to tell you that I can’t give out that information, unless you’re his next of kin. And since you’re not…”
She trails off into some long winded explanation of hospital policy that I tune out.
I turn my back to the desk and look at the sliding doors.
There aren’t many people in the emergency room tonight.
A man with a broken foot sits in the corner, a pregnant woman with her toddler, and an old woman with a large cut on her forehead.
I look down at my clothes, Jacob’s clothes, covered in blood that’s not mine either.
I feel my heart start to race. I’m about to turn back around to argue again when the sliding doors open, and Keith walks in.
His eyes scan the seating area before they land on me.
He rushes toward me, pulling me into his arms.
“Keith,” I say, “how did you–”
“I have a friend at the fire station. He rang me fifteen minutes ago when he heard.” He holds me at arm’s length. “What happened?”
I shake my head, holding back tears. “We woke up and there was a fire, Alex had a gun, and Rhett, he…”
Keith curses. “Jacob?” he asks.
“They took him in for surgery two hours ago. They won’t tell me anything else.” I glare at the receptionist.
He stands beside me at the desk.
“Listen,” she says, “I’ve already told her, I can’t give out private information.”
“Yes, you can,” Keith says. “I’m his next of kin.”
She looks between us like she doesn’t believe him, then asks for his name. She sighs heavily before typing it into her computer. Then her entire personality changes.
“Of course,” she says, “I can talk to you privately.” She looks toward me. Keith glances at me and shakes his head. “Anything you tell me, I’m going to tell her, anyway.”
She looks over her shoulder to her colleague, who’s busy chewing on a granola bar.
She ignores me completely as she speaks to Keith. “He’s out of surgery,” she says. “He was taken to recovery about ten minutes ago.”
“When can we see him?”
“You,” she emphasizes, looking at Keith, “can see him once he wakes up.”
“When can I see him?” I ask.
“During hospital visiting hours.” She points to a sign above a door with the hours printed in black ink.
Keith starts to argue with her when I notice the doctor who took Jacob walking through two large swinging doors on the left.
I go after him.
I push through the doors, calling out for him to stop. I get a few strange stares from the other doctors, but I do get his attention.
“Is everything okay?” he asks.
“They won’t let me see him.”
He looks at me with empathy in his eyes. “He’s with the ICU doctors now. I can make a call and see if he’s awake?”
I nod.
He gestures for me to walk with him to where the other doctors are standing, then lifts a phone and starts dialing.
“The surgery went well,” he says, the phone still pressed to his ear. The other person on the line must answer because he starts to speak into the receiver. He grabs a pen and a piece of paper, jotting down a few things, then hangs up.
He hands me the piece of paper with a name scribbled in barely readable writing.
“He’s not awake yet, and this isn’t exactly hospital practice,” he says, looking at me. “You’ve both been through a lot tonight,” he sighs. “Go to the third floor and take a left. Follow the signs for the ICU, and when you get there, ask for Natalia.”
“Thank you.” He touches my arm before another doctor calls him away, and he leaves.
When I walk back through the doors, Keith is sitting in the reception area, his head in his hands. He looks up when the door closes behind me.
“Where have you been?”
I hold up the piece of paper. “I saw the doctor who took Jacob when we got here. He said I can go see him. Do you want to come?”
Keith smiles gently at me. “You go. I’ll see him when he’s awake.”
I look toward the elevator and sigh.
“It’s going to be okay, Layla.” Keith says, and the doors close.
***
I wait for the numbers on the elevator to rise to three, then get out, looking for the signs to the ICU. I hit the buzzer. The doors swing open, and I walk down a long sterile corridor before arriving at the nurse’s station. The nurse there smiles at me.
“Can I help you?”
“I was told to ask for Natalia?”
She smiles again. “That would be me. You must be here for Jacob? Follow me.”
She rounds the desk and walks down another corridor that twists into a sharp right.
We pass by a room filled with patients hidden behind green curtains before we reach the private rooms. I peek inside the small glass panels in the doors, each patient has a wealth of tubes attached to machines surrounding them.
My heart starts to lose all sense of rhythm as Natalia’s stops outside one of the doors.
“Take all the time you need.” Natalia says. I freeze. She seems to notice because she’s staring at me. She reaches out, and I step back.
“He’s okay,” she says. “He should wake soon. Each patient reacts differently to the anesthesia, some wake sooner than others. He might be a little groggy when he wakes, but that’s all.”
I nod, but I’m not sure I heard what she said.
After she leaves, I open the door.
I rush beside him, sitting on the edge of the bed. I watch his chest move up and down, and then I break down completely. I hold on to his hand. It’s warm. I can’t stop crying. I let go of his hand and cover my mouth. I don’t want the nurses to hear me.
I feel fingers graze my cheek and look up.
“Hey,” he says, his voice heavy with sleep. He moves over on the bed. “Come here.”
I’m still crying as he wraps his arm around me.
“I thought you were…” I can’t get the words out. I’ve been here before, and this isn’t how it ended, I can’t do that again. I can’t live through that twice. I shake my head.
I feel him kiss my forehead.
“I’m okay, Layla.”
“I can’t lose you too.”
“You’re not going to.” He smiles, even though it looks pained. “There’s too much I want to do with you first.”
“Oh yeah?” I sniff. “Like what?”
“Marrying you, for a start.”
He looks down at me, and I press my lips softly against his, careful not to hurt him. His hand moves to hold mine, and he pauses when he feels the cast.
I’m about to kiss him again when Natalia comes through the door.
Her eyes widen. “You’re awake, Mr. Evans.” She walks over to the side of the bed his IV is on and presses a few buttons.
“How’s the pain?” she gestures to his shoulder.
“Fine,” he answers.
She gives him a look, then taps a few more buttons on the machine. “That should help.” She looks over to me. “Are you okay to come with me? The police are here, they’d like to ask you some questions.”
I look at Jacob.
I don’t want to leave him.
“Stop worrying,” he tells me. “I’ll be right here when you get back. I promise.”
Natalia smiles, then walks back to the door and holds it open.
“You better not go back to sleep,” I warn him.
I lean down, intending to give him a quick kiss because Natalia is still standing there, but he pulls me closer to him, drawing it out and making it all the more difficult to leave him.
We end up back down on the floor I left Keith on. The reception area is filled with more people now, and Irena is sitting next to Keith.
Natalia uses her card to swipe open two doors on the far side.
“Layla,” Keith says, “how is he?”
Natalia lets the doors close and stands a few feet away from us.
“He’s awake,” I tell him. “He’s okay.”
Keith’s shoulders instantly relax.
“Layla!” Dad strides over to me. I try to push down the shock that he’s here, that he even cares enough to make sure we are okay.
“Have you spoken to the police yet?” he asks, ignoring Keith.
“That’s where I’m going.”
He looks at Keith, seemingly annoyed that he’s here.
“Be careful,” he says.
My eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”
“What you say matters, Lays. Rhett–”
“Don’t finish that sentence, Dad.”
I look at Natalia. She hits her key card on the door again, opening it. I go to leave with her. Dad steps in front of me. Natalia lets out a large, over exaggerated sigh beside me and places her hands on her hips.
“He didn’t have anything to do with this, and you know it. Your anger at me doesn’t need to be directed at him.” He holds eye contact as he speaks. “Rhett would never do anything to harm you. He loves you.”
I don’t know what comes over me, but I laugh, and it’s not a quiet, timid laugh either.
Natalia gives me a strange look.
“Jacob just had surgery for a bullet wound because Rhett shot him. He’s in the ICU right now, and you’re seriously trying to tell me to lie for him?”
“He didn’t bring the gun!”
“I don’t care!” I scream at him.
“You need to calm down!” he shouts.
“I think you should leave, Mitch.” Keith says.
Dad glares at him.
“We both know Rhett was only protecting you, Layla. He saw the fire, he knew you were in there, and he stopped to check on you. Rhett would never harm you or Jacob.”
“I’ve had enough of this.”
I look at Natalia and push past him. He grabs hold of my arm, the one without the cast, and I flinch. He looks down and drops his hold.
“I thought family mattered to you Layla.”
“It does.”
I follow Natalia through the doors.
This part of the hospital is decorated differently. It’s more modern, clearly recently refurbished. We stop outside a glass door. It’s frosted over so I can’t see inside.
“They are waiting for you,” she says. “I’ll make sure your dad isn’t there when you get out.”
I smile at her, thank her, and open the door.
***
I ended up answering questions for close to an hour. By the time I got out, changed into the new clothes Irena gave me, and went back to the ICU, they had moved Jacob to the ward.
He’s propped up on the hospital bed, talking to Keith in the chair beside him. He catches my eye and smiles.
“The nurse must have had enough of your dad,” Keith says.
“She told me she’d make sure he was gone when I got out.”
He nods. “She had him escorted off the premises.” Keith is clearly trying not to smile, but he fails miserably. “It was quite a scene.”
“Was your dad checking in on you?” Jacob asks.
I shake my head. “No. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to tell them about Rhett.”
Keith watches us as we talk, leaning back slightly in his chair.
“I told them the truth.” I sit on the end of Jacob’s bed. “That, to no surprise it’s all your fault.”
Jacob’s foot nudges me, and he grins. “I’d expect nothing less.”
I smile.
Keith shakes his head. “I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll get that sorted out for you in the morning,” he says to Jacob. “I’m glad you’re okay, kid.” He smiles, but there’s a lot going unsaid between them.
When Keith leaves, I climb right back to where I was before, next to Jacob. I lean my head against his chest.
“You should sleep, Layla.”
“I’m not leaving you to sleep.”
He smiles. “I didn’t mean leave, I meant you should sleep right here next to me. You’re not allowed to leave.”
“Good. Because even if you wanted me to, you’re stuck with me.”