Chapter 7
ONE WEEK LATER
I was reading to her when it happened. All I kept thinking was that Waverleigh was supposed to be here. She had been checking in daily about Sevyn’s progress.
Sometimes, I LiveTimed her so that she could see her friend and talk to her. We both hoped that she could hear us while she was in a coma and that it was comforting, but there were no guarantees.
I set my phone aside, forgetting all about the book I had been reading on the Kindle app when I saw her arm move.
Sevyn made a slightly grunting, panicked noise.
The last thing that I wanted to do was freak her out any more than she probably already was by waking up in a strange setting with a stranger beside her.
I chose not to get up out of my chair and frighten her. Instead, I pressed the button on the side of her bed to summon a nurse.
“May I help you, Officer Fullwood?”
“Yes. Mrs. Shields has awoken,” I stated calmly into the speaker.
I watched as almond-shaped, chestnut-brown eyes flitted around the room and finally rested on me.
It was disconcerting at first. The woman had been asleep for the last three weeks that I had been visiting.
I had not really seen much of a sign of life other than the seizure she had the week before, and now she was awake and staring in fear at me.
Those eyes were so beautiful and yet haunting, as though they could see right through me.
It was difficult for me to look away. She had been beautiful before, but now with her eyes opened, she was breathtaking.
A part of me was deeply afraid as she stared at me.
I wondered what she saw when she looked at me.
Did she have flashes of the night of the accident?
Did she see my face so clearly through the rain and in the darkened night?
Had me stepping into the street haunted her nightmares while she had been in her coma?
“Hi, Sevyn. My name is Officer Deuce Fullwood. Uhm, . . . you don't know me, but I have been with you for the last three weeks. I was there . . . the night of your accident. You're safe. The doctor is on the way in to see you.”
The emotional attachment that I had formed with her over the last few weeks paired with her beauty overwhelmed me. I fought the strong urge to run from the room, and instead, I remained at her side until the doctor and two nurses, Kayla and Vivienne, appeared.
“Mrs. Shields, it’s great to see you awake. You have had a team of people rooting for you, concerned about you, and anticipating the day that you would open those gorgeous eyes for good, and I believe today is that day.” Dr. Davenport greeted Sevyn when she stepped into the room.
It took several coughs before she spoke.
“Where am I?”
That was another thing that I always wondered.
What did her voice sound like? I wasn’t sure, but I imagined a dozen different tones, and all of them failed in comparison to the reality.
Her voice was scratchy because of unuse, but there was a natural raspiness to it that reminded me of the singer T-Boz.
It was slightly deep, yet extremely sexy.
I took a step back as the doctor explained to her where she was and asked if she knew the date and time. There was a moment of confusion where she didn’t appear to know who she was.
“Why is the officer here?” she asked.
I had been afraid that she would identify me immediately as the source of her pain, loss, grief, and so much more.
But when she spoke those words, a slight wave of relief washed over me.
She didn’t associate me with any of that, but before I could dwell on that too long, or what it meant, I was asked to step out of the room.
I wanted to rebel against the order, but I knew that I had no right to be here. If Waverleigh had known who I was and why I was really here, she would never have approved me to be on the list.
I pulled my phone out and dialed a number.
“Hello?”
“Frost, it’s me.”
“What’s going on?”
“I’m at the hospital, and she just woke up.”
“The lady who you’ve been sitting with since that night?”
“Yeah. They sent me out of the room so that they could examine her.”
“How’s it look? Did she seem like she was good?”
“She didn’t know who I was, of course. It seems like she might have some memory loss.”
“You can’t take this all on your shoulders, man. You already know that some things were just meant to be. If it wasn’t you, it could have been someone else. It was his time to go.”
What he didn’t say, but I heard anyway, was that just like it was Lena’s time to go. The finality of death could be so crushing, leaving people without hope. But I didn’t want to believe that was Sevyn’s fate. She was still young enough to meet someone, fall in love again, and have children.
My time was running out. I was older, and depending on the woman I met, I might not have had the same opportunities to have children that she did.
“That may be true, too, but it was at my hands.”
“We’ve been down this road, Deuce, and we’re not going back. The only thing that you need to focus on now is helping that woman get her life back.”
“What life, Frost? I snatched that right out of her hands.”
“And yet, that’s why she needs you—to help her build a new life.
No one knows what that looks like except for her, but you’re a key component in helping make that happen.
If what her friend said is true, she has no one but you and that young lady to help her.
Besides, I did some digging and found out that Waverleigh Collins is engaged.
She’s about to have her hands full the next year with wedding planning.
Sounds like the only person that this Sevyn chick has in her corner is you. ”
“Her friend is a good girl. She wouldn’t leave her high and dry like that.” I walked away from Sevyn’s room and headed toward the double doors where the waiting room for this floor was at.
“I’m sure that she won’t. People have great intentions, Deuce.
Life happens, and if she’s about to get married, she will be pulled in two different directions.
I don’t know about most men, but I know me and how I am about Wynter.
You’re a lot like me, little cuz. We’re not about to let anything in our women’s lives be more important than we are.
I’m sure her fiancé will be supportive of her role in her best friend’s healing, but I doubt he’s trying to put his life on hold either.
Besides, you said she's running in and out of town trying to take care of her mama. She doesn’t have a lot of time on her hands. ”
“What’s your point?”
“Buckle in. You’ve got some soul-searching to do. That woman needs you.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I peered into the window of the doors that led back to the patient rooms. Seeing no one leave her room, I turned around and faced the other way again.
“What?”
“Getting in too deep. Catching feelings for her. I was walking a very fine line with Lena. You know that I don’t believe in adultery.”
“Neither do I, but your circumstances are different.”
“Yeah, I know, but it still doesn’t make it right. If anyone had found out about Lena and me, we could have been kicked off the force, definitely separated. Not only were we committing adultery and sneaking around behind our lieutenant’s back, but we were having a child.”
“Sounds like you’ve got regrets, son.”
“No regrets. I could never regret my child, and I didn’t regret the woman I loved. She loved me with everything she had, and she risked her life for that love.” I turned back and stared through the window again.
“Now it’s time for you to figure out what’s next, Deuce. I can’t even imagine what you’re feeling, but you can’t even mourn the woman you love openly. You’ve got some things to figure out is all I’m saying, and maybe Sevyn is the key to that.”
“Yeah, well, maybe she is and maybe she isn’t.
Problem is I tend to care too deeply. I don't have room in my heart for anyone else at this point. I’ve got a few things to figure out along the road.
Not just what to do about Sevyn, but other things as well.
” I peered through the door again and saw Doctors Kim and Davenport conferring outside of her room.
“You do that. But don’t drag yourself over the coals, Deuce. We’re all human. You’re not infallible. We’re flawed, and the reality of that is we’re gonna fuck up.”
“Yeah, I know. Listen, I gotta go.”
“A’ight. Hit me up if you need me, kid.”
I ended the call and rushed back down the hall as the doctors were parting. “Is everything okay?” I asked, approaching Dr. Kim.
“She’s going to be fine. We will have to take things slow, and everyone will need to exercise some patience with her, but I predict that she’s going to be fine in the long run.
I’m going to order some tests now so that I can see what we’re dealing with.
I don’t like jumping the gun, but it’s looking like dissociative amnesia. ”
“What’s that?”
“In simple terms, she cannot recall important personal information. There are gaps in her memory that I believe were created to block the trauma of losing her husband and grandmother on the same day.”
“She doesn’t remember that?”
“I’m afraid not, nor the accident that led her here. We told her the first time we pulled her out, but her reaction didn't go well. It endangered her health and recovery, which is why we placed her back in a coma. She doesn't recall any of that.”
“Should we tell her?”
“No. I don’t want to force the memories on her. That’s why I mentioned that we would have to be patient. We will allow her to retrieve her memories through a natural process, though we may guide her. But forcing memories upon her could be as traumatic as the accident itself.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“And she doesn’t recall who you are either. Just make sure that as you familiarize her with you, make sure that it’s not traumatizing, too blunt, or too much at one time. Go slow.”
“Yes, sir.”
I nodded and walked back into the room where Nurse Bethany was attending to Sevyn. I stood back and watched as Sevyn’s eyes rested on me again warily.
“All right, Officer Fullwood. I’m almost finished here,” Nurse Bethany stated.
“Who is he? Is he a volunteer?” Sevyn asked in a voice low enough to be intimately between her and Nurse Bethany, but loud enough for me to hear.
Nurse Bethany turned around and flashed a warm smile at me. “Yes. Mr. Fullwood has been taking out time to sit with you daily since your arrival. He reads to you, tells you funny stories, exercises with you, and I believe that he prays with you.”
“I uhm, . . . the night of your accident . . .” I started, but Nurse Bethany subtly bobbed her head to the door.
“We’ll be right back, Mrs. Shields.”
I glanced at Sevyn briefly before I followed the nurse into the hallway.
“I’m not sure how much the doctors shared, but we don’t want to overshare and overwhelm her too much right now.
She’s having a difficult time recalling details and doesn’t recall anything about the accident.
If we submerge her in a flood of memories right away, we might risk further damage or trauma.
Just take your time. If it comes up, and she asks about it, then proceed with caution. ”
I shouldn’t have felt the relief that I did, but it was there. Relief that I wouldn’t have to tell her about the part I played in her accident right off the bat. Relief that I wouldn’t run the risk of further alienating her before I got the chance to know her.
“That’s fine. I can do that.”
“Good. Maybe read to her for another ten or fifteen minutes, and then the doctors want her to rest for a while.”
“Okay.”
I called Waverleigh, but I received her voicemail. I left her a quick message and headed back into the room where Sevyn appeared to be drifting off to sleep. But her eyes immediately flashed open upon seeing me again.
“What’s your name?” she asked with renewed interest.
“Deuce. Naeem Fullwood the second, but I prefer Deuce.”
“What have you been reading to me?”
“Mysteries mostly. Some of the newer releases on Kindle.”
She smiled at me. “I think I used to like listening to audiobooks.” Her smile slowly dropped as she looked at me with sad eyes. But then she perked up again. “Will you read to me?”
“I would be honored to read to you.”