ACHE (Naked, Book 5) (3 page)

“I think that was really hard for her,” Helen said.

“Yes, and a lot of it will be hard in the coming days,” the doctor replied. “Excuse me, I should go discuss her case with the attending physician.”

Caelyn was just happy to finally be able to rest.

Just rest, that’s all I want,
she thought.

But it wasn’t really true that rest was all she wanted. There was something—no, someone—else.

Elijah.

His name was like a prayer.
Elijah.

***

Waking up was different now.

Her eyes popped open to find half a dozen doctors circled around her bed, watching her. One of them, an older man with white hair, reminded her of Albert Einstein. He stepped forward and spoke directly to her.

“Hi Caelyn, my name is Doctor Goldfarb. It’s good to see you awake. Can you hear and understand me? You can answer verbally or just nod if that’s easier right now.”

Caelyn swallowed. She was confused, trying to remember where she was and how she’d gotten there.

Then, after a little struggle to recall the details, it flooded back to her.

I’m in the hospital. I was in a coma and now I’m coming out of it.

And what about Elijah? He’d come to visit once that she knew of, but she hadn’t seen him since.

“Caelyn?” Dr. Goldfarb said. “Can you understand me?”

She tried to speak and found it difficult, so she tried to nod her head instead. It took a few seconds, but then she found her head slowly moving up and down. It took a lot of energy to make it happen.

“Very good, Caelyn,” the old doctor said. He had a habit of rubbing his oily nose as if he had to sneeze and was trying to hold it back.

Dr. Goldfarb began to explain to her that she’d been in a coma, which she already knew. Then he started telling her about the nature of traumatic brain injuries, and how they were very difficult to recover from. He mentioned something about the “Glasgow Coma Scale” and some other scale and test, none of which meant anything to her.

But the other doctors were nodding along with whatever he was saying, so she supposed it must have been important.

“We’re going to have to start with your rehabilitation immediately, Caelyn,”

Goldfarb said, rubbing his nose and then wiping his hand on his lab coat. “Studies have found that the biggest gains come in the first days and weeks following an injury such as yours. We want to facilitate as much healing immediately as is humanly possible. Does that make sense?”

She nodded.

“Your family is very excited about the fact that you’ve woken up, so we’re going to be letting them in to see you in just a moment. Would you like that?”

Goldfarb waited expectantly for her to nod her approval. She didn’t nod, and the doctors exchanged glances.

“Seems confused,” someone muttered.

“Probably just tired,” Goldfarb replied.

I’m not tired
, Caelyn thought.
Well, I am tired. But that’s not it. It’s not my
mother and father—and not Deena—that I want to see.

I need Elijah. Where is he? Why isn’t he here?

She opened her mouth and her voice came out slowly and very weakly, like an old creaky door that was just falling open after years of not being used.

“Eh…Eh….li….”

The doctors moved forward, all at the same time, in order to hear her more clearly. It would’ve been funny if she hadn’t been fighting so hard just to say a simple word.

“El…i..jah.”

“What?” Goldfarb said, stepping closer and leaning next to her mouth. “Don’t try and project, Caelyn. You can whisper it into my ear.”

He turned his hairy ear towards her mouth and Caelyn summoned a deep breath.

“Elijah,” she tried to yell, only it really did come out as a whisper. And after she’d said his name, she collapsed in on herself, once again feeling like she’d been running for hours.

“She said ‘Elijah,’” Dr. Goldfarb announced, straightening and facing the other doctors.

One of the other doctors raised their hand. “Maybe that’s the a name of a relative.”

“No, that’s the name of the guy she was with when she had her accident,” a female doctor said. “I was in his room a couple of days ago. Gunshot wound, minor head trauma.”

“Was he released?” Goldfarb asked.

“I believe he was released after a few days, as the bullet did very little internal damage—no organ involvement.”

“Well, we can see about contacting him,” Dr. Goldfarb replied.

“I think he’s been in the waiting room right now,” another doctor said.

Everyone turned to that doctor.

Dr. Goldfarb looked intently at the physician. “How long has he been in the waiting room?”

“I noticed him earlier and asked about him, because I thought it seemed strange.

He’s been in the waiting room every day for hours, sitting there, I suppose, until she woke up.”

Caelyn couldn’t believe it. Elijah had been there waiting for her all along.

Emotions welled up inside her chest and she felt a damn burst and then there were tears streaming down her cheeks.

“She’s crying,” someone said.

Dr. Goldfarb came towards her, his face a mask of concern. “Don’t worry, Caelyn, it’s going to be okay. You’re safe here.”

“Elijah,” she whispered. It was difficult to do, but she needed them to know how important he truly was to her.

Dr. Goldfarb straightened, rubbing his nose briefly before deciding. “Okay, we’ll have this Elijah person brought to her room right away.”

“Doctor, I believe there’s an issue with the parents—“

“She’s of age, Doctor…”

They all gathered closely together and began conferring. But Goldfarb smiled down at Caelyn when they were finished. “We’ll be back in a moment,” he said, and patted her hand. “You just rest.”

She didn’t want to rest. She wanted Elijah.

Caelyn felt the urge to scream, to thrash about and have a tantrum. If Elijah was in the hospital waiting to see her, then they had to bring him in. It wasn’t fair to leave him in the waiting room, especially not when she’d asked for him.

The doctors left the room and Caelyn waited, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

After what seemed like hours, someone approached the room. Caelyn heard footsteps coming closer and her heartbeat began to speed up in anticipation of Elijah coming in and seeing her awake.

She couldn’t wait to look into his eyes and smile, let him know that she was aware of the sacrifices he’d made. She wanted to show him that she loved him no matter what happened.

Have I ever even admitted that I love him?
She wondered.

Well, I’ll tell him now if I can.

Only it wasn’t Elijah that walked into the room. It was her mother and father and Deena.

They wore anxious expressions on their faces. Her mother saw Caelyn and burst into tears.

Deena tried to console her, but Deena’s face was pinched and her skin blotchy with anger.

Of course, Caelyn thought—Deena hated when someone else was getting attention. “Mom, it’s okay. It’s going to be fine,” Deena consoled.

“My baby,” her mother cried out, and then ran and threw her arms around Caelyn.

She buried her head in Caelyn’s shoulder and sobbed into the cloth of her hospital gown.

Caelyn’s eyes shifted down to watch, but she could only see the top of her mother’s head—the fine hairs, the scalp beneath—and then her mother looked up at Caelyn through runny mascara.

“You’re really awake,” she sniffed. “Baby, you’re alive.”

Caelyn licked her lips.

“I think she’s going to talk,” Caelyn’s father said.

Her parents watched her with bated breath, while Deena rolled her eyes skyward and made a face like she’d just been forced to eat a spoonful of dirt.

“Elijah,” Caelyn said.

“What?” Her mother flinched backwards as if she’d been slapped.

Caelyn’s father was mortified. His jaw trembled.

Deena looked positively triumphant. “She just said
Elijah
. Can you believe she’s asking for him? After everything that’s happened?

“But why? Why?” her mother said. “I can’t understand why she would say his name, out of all the things she could say to me.”

“Maybe she hates you,” Deena said.

Caelyn’s mother and father looked at Deena, who just shrugged.

“She doesn’t hate you,” Caelyn’s father said, rubbing her mother’s shoulders.

“She’s hurt, confused—she just came out of a coma. She’s hardly in any frame of mind to know what she’s saying.”

“I think she knows,” Deena said.

Caelyn took a breath and forced more air from her lungs and into her throat.

“ELIJAH,” she said again, and this time she practically yelled his name.

“I can’t listen to this,” her mother said.

“Elijah,” Caelyn replied. The monitor for her heart rate was beeping faster and faster. “Elijah.” She took another breath. “Elijah!”

Deena pulled out her cell phone. “Will someone shut her up?”

A nurse entered the room. “Is everything okay?”

“No, it’s not,” Caelyn’s mother said. “Quite frankly, we need to explain to the staff here that there’s a dangerous young man that my daughter keeps asking to see.”

The nurse looked to Caelyn. “She’s asking for someone? Isn’t she comatose?”

“No, she’s out of her coma.”

“And crazier than ever,” Deena muttered.

“ELIJAH!” Caelyn yelled. Her heart was racing. Sweat beads dripped down her forehead. She’d never expended so much energy over such a small thing as speaking someone’s name.

It seemed like she might actually die from talking, that’s how hard it was.

But anger was a wonderful fuel.

The nurse took in the scene and turned her attention to Caelyn’s family. “Can you all step outside with me for a moment, please?”

The four of them walked out, leaving Caelyn alone, straining, tears coming from the corners of her eyes.

Some time went by, and then Caelyn’s mother came in alone. She looked older, frailer somehow, as if she’d aged a decade in the last few days. She walked to Caelyn’s bedside and stared coldly down at her. “We’re going home now, Caelyn. Obviously you don’t want to see us at the moment. But you’re my daughter and I’ll do everything in my power to protect you. I explained to the nurse that Elijah is dangerous and that you’re not capable yet of being fully understood. As such, we’re still in charge of your care, and it’s my decision that he not be allowed to visit with you.”

Caelyn began to shake as she watched her mother’s unforgiving face.

How dare you
? She wanted to scream.
How dare you make that decision when
you know how badly I want to see him?

But she couldn’t actually say any of that. Her mouth strained to speak. She moaned, her lips shuddering as she attempted to form a full sentence.

Her mother patted her shoulder. “I think you should just try and rest, Caelyn.

We’ll come back tomorrow. Everything’s going to be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”

***

The time passed slowly. A crawl was much too fast to describe the nature of time passing while lying in a hospital bed.

Even when Caelyn was sleeping, time didn’t seem to move in the same way as it had previously.

And when she woke up, it became even more tortuous. Seconds ticked by, and her room was so silent. Sometimes a nurse would come in to fiddle with Caelyn’s IV.

She also had a feeding tube, and they often told her that life would be much more pleasant when she started eating solids.

The frustration was building. She started making noise and moving her hand instead of just her finger, even though every little thing she did took a tremendous amount of energy away from her.

She lay in bed, sweating, moving her hand and moaning, occasionally saying Elijah’s name.

The nurses cooed and soothed her, telling her that it was all right and not to be so upset.

Late at night, things got frightening.

What if this is as much as I can ever talk
? She wondered. Her thoughts were dark and the room around her reflected the darkness somehow. Everything was greenish, tinted and distorted.

What if I’m never allowed to see Elijah again? They’re keeping him from me—

keeping us from one another. Just when I need him the most, he’s not here.

She thought of him, of his smile, and his kind eyes, the way he looked at her—the way he kissed her.

She thought of Elijah and the tears came down, and she moaned like a beaten animal.

***

The next morning, one of her nurses came in to check her vitals, smiling happily.

“Hello beautiful, I see you’re awake bright and early,” the woman said.

Caelyn lifted her hand and began flapping it, the best she could do to show her exasperation. She took a deep breath and lifted her head slightly. “Elijah.”

The nurse stopped in her tracks. “The young man who you were in the accident with?” she said.

Caelyn swallowed, dropped her head to the pillow and nodded in relief that she’d made herself clear.

“We’re under instruction not to let anyone but your parents and sister in to see you.”

Caelyn wanted to roar her disapproval but it was impossible. Her hands curled into fists and she beat them against the bed.

“Listen, you need to calm down. You can’t get worked up like this. We’re going to give you some Ativan to relax you a little, Caelyn.”

She licked her lips, anxious now. “Please,” she whispered. “Help.”

But her voice wasn’t strong, and the nurse was determined to view her as some kind of pathetic, brain dead basket case.

A moment later, the nurse was giving her something through her IV—it must have been Ativan.

Not long after, Caelyn fell asleep again.

When she awoke, the red headed nurse was back—the one who had initially discovered that Caelyn had come out of her coma. She was humming, carrying the basin with the washcloth.

“Helen,” Caelyn said.

Helen dropped her basin with a little yelp. “Oh my God!”

“Helen,” Caelyn said again, trying to keep the power in her voice.