I woke up in the hospital. I looked around, there were machines beeping, Alex sleeping on a chair next to me. There was no one else in the room except us. My hand was attached to an IV line. My movement caused Alex to wake up.
"Oh, you are awake." She stood up from the chair. "Let me call the doctor." She peeked out of the door. My head felt hard to move. I ran my fingers over the bandage on my head. The headache was still there. It felt like hard and rough. My whole body was exhausted, every muscle ached.
The doctor came in. He was wearing a white coat over a sky blue shirt. He had glasses, behind it was dark brown eyes which was searching through the papers in his hand. His hair was wavy black with a normal length. He looked at me and smiled.
"How are you feeling?" His voice was so soothing, I practically melted in it. He took out a small flashlight and asked me to follow the light. Then my eyes fell on his ID. Dr. Gokul Varma.
"I know you." I said narrowing my eyes. He smiled.
"Of course you will. You broke into my house yesterday." He chuckled. Alex turned to me and gave me the you did what look. Then a nurse came in and whispered something to him, his smile disappeared. He nodded and turned to me. "I will come back later. Have to deal with something. If you need anything you can call the nurse." We both nodded and he left.
"You broke into his house?" Alex asked. I gave her a crooked smile. "Tell me about it girl." She said in excitement, she always gets excited whenever I spill some tea. I smiled and ended up telling her everything that had happened from Salt Lake incident.
Talking to her made me forget about the pain for a while. But it didn't last long. She told me to rest for a while. I nodded and boy it was a bad idea. I lay on the bed and closed my eyes.
"She is resting, we should talk outside." I heard Alex say. I wanted to look who came but exhaustion got the best of me. My eyes remained closed but ears were fully focused.
"Yeah, I think that will be better." This time my eyes flew open hearing the voice. Even exhaustion didn't stand a chance near my rage. I was right, it was him standing there. "I didn't mean to wake you up, Sam."
"You disgust me." I hissed at him. "My name from your mouth sounds like a curse." It was hard for me to speak but the rage made me forget everything.
"I was doing my duty."
"You didn't trust us, Chief." My eyes started to sting. "You were supposed to protect us." My voice broke. His gaze was fixed on the ground. Chief never lowered his head before anyone.
"How is he?" he asked.
"He's fine," Alex blunted out. Her answer didn't sound sincere. Chief nodded at her. When I turned to her she suddenly looked away. "We should head outside." She said looking at chief. He nodded again. She was about to leave when I grabbed her wrist.
"Is he fine?" I sounded like I was straining to speak. She said yes but didn't keep eye contact while saying it. She's lying. She tried to free her hand but I tightened my grip.
"Please Sam, let me go." She pleaded. I slowly shook my head.
"You going to tell him something, say it here. I want to hear it too." I said firmly. I needed to know what was going on.
"Please Sammy."
"Talk, Alex."
"Hey, I know I am not supposed to intrude but, let her hear too." Chief said. There was a sudden change in her eyes. After hearing his words, her eyes raged with anger. Her hand clutched to a tight fist. She exhaled deeply as if trying to cool herself down. "Or you could tell me where his room is."
"Why a sudden care?" Alex said trying hard to suppress her anger but it was spilling out even without her knowing it.
"He is a cop from my department." I could feel her pulse raising. She snatched her hand away from mine.
"And yet you didn't give a thing about what they have to say. You just believed a con woman." Alex snapped. "They both worked for you and look what you did."
"Alex, where is he?" I asked. My heart was in my throat. Something's wrong I could feel it.
"Oh Chief, thanks to your people, he is in the ER" My heart stopped. From what Dr. Gokul said I knew a day has passed and he is still in ER.
"What happened to him? He was alright yesterday." Tear escaped from my eye. Alex looked at me, her eyes filled with worry and rage. "He was walking with Shade."
"Sammy," her tone, I know that tone, Sympathy. She put her hand on mine. "When we came," Her voice broke. "Skyler was only one conscious." That felt like a slap on my face.
"Stop it Alex. I saw him standing. You were there holding me up. I saw him walking out with Shade. And I saw." My voice broke as the whole scene replayed in my head. "I saw Skyler pass out due to concussion maybe."
This time I saw it. Tears flowing down her cheeks. Her hand covering her mouth trying to suppress her sobs. What is going on here? My head was aching so badly. My whole body was aching.
"Oh my god Sammy," her voice was breathy. The sobs making it hard for her to talk.
"I saw it Alex. Everything."
"Sammy, Skyler never passed out." She shook her head. "and Arjun never woke up." More tears traced down her cheek. "When we came." She swallowed hard. Then continued. "The moment we opened the door, the first thing we saw was Hart kicking Arjun oh his head. Jezelle was also with him. Shade ran up to them and knocked him down. When we got to Arjun, he was barely breathing, his pulse was so weak. You were lying next to him, your eyes closed. We tried to wake him up, then I came to you." She let out a deep breath. "You don't know how relieved we were when you opened your eyes. but it didn't even last two minutes, you passed out again." She wiped the tears
The door opened and Skyler was about to run in. He also had a bandage on his head. He stood there holding on the door and scanned the room. "Nope." He turned around and ran out. Chief stared blankly at the door closing behind him.
The door opened again and this time mother walked in. Chief stepped aside so she could reach me. She hugged me, I buried my face into her shoulder and cried my heart out. I heard Alex's footsteps moving towards the door followed by another pair of footsteps. I assumed it belonged to the Chief.
"I want to see him mom" I sobbed. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying. "Mom please." I held her hand close to my heart. "I have to see him."
"I think he is in the ICU." My heart sank. "Shade said he was shifted to the ICU after an operation."
"I want to see him mom"
A nurse came in. Mom walked up to her and talked to her. She looked at me over mom's shoulders. The nurse shook her head first. Then eventually nodded. She then left.
Mom came and sat beside me. "She will come back with a wheel chair." She slowly ran her fingers through my hair. The nurse then came in pushing a wheelchair.
"Dr. Varma usually don't accepts requests like this. Come on." She then, with the help of mom, slowly placed me on the wheel chair. She then started to push me towards the ICU.
On the way I could hear my mom and the nurse talking. Apparently Dr. Varma is in charge of both of us. I didn't hear more as my mind couldn't focus. All I wanted was to see him. When we got near the ICU, I saw a woman sitting outside. Her face buried in her hands. Shade was standing, leaning on to the wall near the door pinching the bridge of his nose. Alex was sitting next to the woman. Skyler was also there. He saw me but hesitated to make eye contact.
The nurse pushed me towards the door of ICU. "I am afraid I could only take you till here." She said. I could barely see the inside. But the whole thing broke me. He was hooked up with so many machines, oxygen masks. There was a nurse inside checking on him every few seconds. Tears flowed down my cheek as I watched him lying there.
I couldn't even cry freely. I felt so empty. It felt like I am paralyzed yet I could feel every bit of pain. I wanted to scream but my voice got stuck in my throat refusing to come out. I wanted to cry but my eyes were dry. I want to hug him tight but we were separated by a door.
He kept his promise. He gave his life to save mine. I was just helpless. Everything happening felt like it had happened before. Déjà vu. Last time when I was in this situation, someone else was in that bed. Someone who was special to my heart. Father!