Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Mr. Stoker? We have to do this. If we don’t, she could still have leftover tissue that didn’t pass, and could get really sick. It has to be done.” She explained hesitantly, fearful of my reaction.
The woman was most assuredly young. Too young for me anyway.
She also didn’t deserve to have the shit I’d thrown at her the last four days, but someone had to watch out for those two if they weren’t willing to do it for themselves.
“Okay.” I said, backing away so she had room to move the machine in beside the bed.
“This,” she hesitated. “has to be done internally. Can you step out of the room?”
“How about you try to do it the normal way first.” I said. “Then, if she wakes up, at least she doesn’t have a wand stuck up her hoo-hoo.”
“Hoo-hoo? How old are you?” She giggled.
I pretended not to notice that she did what I asked. Instead, I watched the screen that meant a whole bunch of nothing to me.
“Holy cow,” she whispered eyes wide with shock.
My stomach clinched. “Oh, God. She can’t have surgery yet. He’s not awake.”
I’d obviously missed something that she was seeing though. All it looked like to me was a black and white screen with a bunch of waves on it. Hell, she could be showing me what she ate last night for dinner for all I knew.
“Umm, well,” she hesitated and met my eyes. “I’m not supposed to tell you. I’m only a tech. The doctor will have to read it first and then tell you.”
“No, you’ll tell me now.” I demanded.
She looked incredibly uncomfortable, but broke at the pleading look on my face. “She’s still pregnant.”
Chapter 22
Little girls cry. Big girls say Fuck.
-T-shirt
Winter
“Did you bring me my box?” I asked Tai as he came into the room.
He nodded and came straight to me as I sat up in bed. “Yeah, it’s on Jack’s bed; I found another box in there too, so I brought that one as well.”
Wincing from the pain, I made it to my feet with minimal help. Well, to be completely honest, it was probably more than I was thinking, but I was letting myself tell a little lie.
I felt like complete shit from the tips of my split end hair to the end of my ‘need a pedicure now before I turn into a weirdo’ toes.
I’d woken in the hospital the day before. Ember was there when I woke, and told me about all that I’d missed in the last two weeks.
Which was a shit load, to tell the truth.
At the time, I hadn’t cared about anything until I heard that Jack was all right. They’d told me he’d suffered multiple contusions to his head, a broken left leg, like me, and a lot of bruises and cuts from the explosion. Not to mention the sucking bullet wound in his chest.
The wound had collapsed his lung, broken ribs on entry and exit, and accounted for an insane amount of blood loss.
The first time I’d seen him, I’d almost fainted. His leg was up in the air held in place by some port of pulley system, unlike my casted one. Bruises faded from a purple and black to a sickly yellow, and a clear tube peaked out from underneath a bandage that wrapped his head.
The doctor had explained that, due to the increased swelling in his brain, they’d made the decision to insert a tube that would drain off the excess fluid in hopes that it would help with the swelling. He’d looked at me like I would jump down his throat, until Tai explained about the DNR hours later. I’d worried that Jack had something more wrong with him, and the doctor just didn’t want to tell me, fearful of the repercussions.
Luckily, Tai had gotten the DNR overturned, or I wouldn’t have been going to visit Jack right now. The procedure saved his life, according to the nurses, and I would be forever thankful. Even if Jack was pissy about not having any hair later on.
I walked into Tai’s arms and gave him a fierce hug. “What was that for?” He asked.
“Thank you for saving him, Tai. I love you.” I told him.
His arms tightened around me for a few moments before he stepped out of my embrace and gave me a stern look. “Go wake my brother up.”
Although the worry of brain damage still lurked inside our minds, we were still hopeful that he would pull through. He had to, because I couldn’t do this by myself. Not anymore. Not after Jack helped me realize everything that was missing in my life.
Tai helped me into the wheel chair and wheeled me next door. This time, he’d managed not to hit the wall and the door on his way in, unlike yesterday.
Jack looked just the same as yesterday, minus the tube they told me would be coming out just before lunch today. His head was no longer wrapped, and only had a large piece of tape covering the hole in his head where the tube had once been. Everything else was still the same. Which made me wonder who gave him a bath.
“Can you ask the nurse to bring in some water and soap in about an hour when you leave? I want to wash him.”
He nodded his agreement. “I’ll be sure to send in cold water. He’ll need it if you’re doing that little chore for him.”
The plastic pitcher hit him in the head as he was leaving and his laugh followed him out the door.
Sighing in exasperation at Tai’s antics, I scooted closer to the bed, picked Jack’s hand up, and placed a kiss on it. “I’m going to open this box. I have to. I might need you to hold me afterwards; it would probably be a good time to wake up.”
Shoring up my walls, I placed his hand back down on the mattress and turned towards the box. Well boxes. The first box was the one I’d seen in the bottom of Jack’s closet a few months ago. I set that one aside for later, although I fully intended to check it out after I’d opened mine.