Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Shit!” Mitch side stepped so he wasn’t in the splash zone. Nadia throwing up wasn’t a good sign. She’d taken a severe hit to the head and instead of taking it easy and having someone look at her, she’d soldiered on and dealt with Buck and the other couple trapped with her.
“I really don’t feel well, Mitch,” she whispered before she swayed again. This time he caught her and swept her up in his arms, holding her tight against his chest. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she burrowed down against his chest.
For a few heartbeats Mitch stood still, savoring the feel of her in his arms. How quickly things change. A few minutes ago, he’d been lost in another PTSD attack and now he was aware of his surroundings. Aware he had a very sick Nadia in his arms. He needed to take care of her.
“Come on, Boston. Let’s get you looked at. I’m pretty sure you’ve got a concussion. You need to be resting not working.”
“I’m fine. Let me just rest my eyes a moment and then I can get back to helping people.”
Sleeping was the worst thing a concussed patient could do. “No. Let me say it again, in case you missed it the first time. You’re exhibiting signs of a concussion. You can’t fall asleep. You know that.”
Mitch strode across the field, his large steps eating up the distance.
He couldn’t believe how far he’d walked while lost in his mind again.
A flash of calling Nadia Boston, while he’d been in the clutches of his attack, worked its way into his thoughts.
Perhaps he hadn’t been totally out of it.
That would be a first, though. Whenever he’d had his attacks, he’d never been able to recall anything from them.
All he recalled was when he became aware of his surroundings again, nine times out of ten he wasn’t standing where he last remembered being.
He wanted to stop and concentrate his thoughts inward to see if he could remember more of the attack he’d just experienced, but he couldn’t. Nadia needed looking after first.
“I’m so tired, Mitch. My head hurts. My ribs ache. And I think I’m going to throw up again,” Nadia moaned.
Mitch had her feet on the ground before she finished speaking and Nadia again bent over and threw up.
There wasn’t a lot that could come out but throwing up twice within the space of ten minutes ratcheted up his anxiety about the seriousness of her head injury.
She’d also mentioned sore ribs too. That would explain the way she’d been holding her side and wincing every now and then when she breathed in.
Once she finished retching, he picked her up again.
They were getting closer to the flashing lights of the first responder vehicles.
Somehow while he’d been working to get the others in the pantry free and working on Cerise, his radio had slipped out of his pocket.
Normally he clipped it on, but tonight, for some reason, he just shoved it in his pocket.
Rookie mistake and one that he regretted, because if he’d had his radio he could’ve notified Gene that he needed an ambulance ASAP.
But no point lamenting what he didn’t have. He was close and Nadia would get the help she needed. He would make sure of it.
Two hours later, Mitch poked his head into the darkened room where Nadia lay. She was sleeping, but a nurse was in the room with her, checking her vitals and prodding her awake.
“Time to wake up Dr. Fletcher.” She waved a pen light over her face and Nadia’s hand came up, swatting at it as if it was an annoying fly.
“Let me sleep,” she grumbled and Mitch chuckled.
The nurse looked over her shoulder and grinned. Nadia’s reaction was probably the same every time the nurse handled a concussed patient. “You’ve got a visitor, Dr. Fletcher, so that’s another reason to wake up.”
“My family wouldn’t visit. They live too far away.”
The nurse patted her arm. “Well, there’s a gentleman here to see you, but I’ll have to send him away if you don’t co-operate.” The nurse glanced over her shoulder at Mitch and winked.
He winked back and stood to the side, just out of Nadia’s line of vision so as not to distract her. The nurse had questions she needed to ask. He was aware of the drill of dealing with concussion patients and he didn’t want to disrupt that.
“Can you tell me where you are, Dr. Fletcher?” asked the nurse.
“Hill Country Medical Center.”
“Do you know why you’re here?”
“Tornado in Hunt and a can of something hit me on the head.”
“Very good.” The nurse checked items off on her tablet. “What month is it.”
“June.”
“Okay good, you passed.”
“Fabulous. Now can I go back to sleep?” Nadia shifted in the bed and Mitch’s eyes were drawn to her slender arm lying on top of the blankets, an IV attached. Her head was covered in a bright white bandage. He imagined her ribs would be bandaged as well.
“Sure, you can sleep, but then you’ll miss seeing your visitor.”
Mitch stepped further into the room now that the examination was over. “Hey Boston, how you doing?”
“Mitch? What are you doing here?”
Mitch hooked his leg around the metal chair resting against the wall, and dragged it closer to the bed. The plastic covered cushion hissed loudly when he sat down. “I came to see how you’re doing. You were a bit spacey when the doors were closing on the ambulance. How are you feeling?”
“I’d be feeling better if they’d let me sleep. I’m so tired,” she grumbled.
A smile stretched his lips, and his muscles protested a little at the action. It had been a long time since he’d spontaneously smiled. “Doctors always make the worst patients and you know why they have to keep waking you.”
“I’m fine. My head doesn’t even hurt that much now.”
“I’m sure they’ll let you out soon enough.
But as I said you weren’t making any sense when the paramedics were treating you.
” Mitch had had to fight the desire to climb in beside her and hold her hand while they settled her in the ambulance.
He couldn’t go with her though, he’d been needed to help extract some others who were trapped.
He had a job to do, and people were counting on him and his team to search for missing or injured loved ones.
He was grateful his parents were safe he couldn’t imagine what some of them were going through not knowing if the person that completed them was safe or not.
Was Nadia that person for him?
Where the hell had that thought come from? No way was he in any shape mentally to consider a relationship. Although twice she’d pulled him out of his attacks. And she hadn’t kicked him out of the room yet.
“How are you doing, Mitch? Are you okay?” She asked and beneath the white bandaged covering the cut on her head, her brow furrowed and her eyes darkened with concern.
Even lying in a hospital bed she was worried about him.
He got up from his chair, this time the cushion squeaked, the medical center really needed to get new chairs.
Leaning forward he pressed his lips gently over her wound.
He then kissed her cheek before finishing with a brief brush across her lips.
What possessed him to kiss her like that? Like he cared, he had no idea, but he had to admit it seemed right. There was no awkwardness. It was like he was meant to be in this room, right at this moment with her.
Mitch sat back down and picked up her hand, being careful not to dislodge her IV.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry for how I acted coming out of my attack.
I remember now that I kissed you, not the other way around.
” Even lost in his mental fog he’d sought comfort from her.
It seemed that her touch and her presence soothed the attacks and made them not so scary.
“I’m glad. Have you seen anyone about them? Do you know what triggers them?” The more she asked the stronger her voice got.
How many times had Gene said the same thing to him?
His parents as well. He could talk to her further about them, but in a hospital with her recovering from a severe concussion and seriously bruised ribs, wasn’t the time or place.
“Boston, now’s not the time to talk about it, but,” he held up his hand to stop her from protesting.
“I’ll talk to you when your head isn’t hurting so much. ”
“Promise, because that would mean a lot to me.” She yawned and he could see her energy was waning.
“I promise. Now go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake.”
With his promise and declaration, he’d made the commitment he was going to see her again. Surprisingly the thought didn’t freak him out as much as he thought it might. Or should.
Nadia surfaced back to consciousness but kept her eyes shut.
Her mouth felt like she’d been sucking on a big wad of cotton wool.
The ache in her head was still there but faint.
She shifted but her movement was limited due to the taping over her ribs.
Not broken, just bruised. They’d taped them as a precaution anyway.
The tape would probably come off when she was discharged. Now that was going to be painful.
A warm hand brushed the side of her cheek.
Mitch.
She was becoming to recognize the gesture and his touch. Opening her eyes she looked into his blue ones. “You’re still here.” When he’d said he’d be there when she woke she hadn’t quite believed him.
“I said I would. Do you remember being woken up a few times after I arrived?”
“Vaguely.” The interrupted sleep had been annoying at the time and even though she grumbled about it, she understood the reasons for it.
It’s what she would’ve recommended had a patient arrived in the ER presenting the same symptoms she had.
Memories of before waking in the hospital room formed in her mind.
“Oh my god, I threw up in front of you, twice.”
Mitch laughed. A deep and throaty laugh that sent fissures of electricity zooming through her. “Yes, you did.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she groaned and closed her eyes, wishing she could turn the clock back and not throw up in front of him.