ACHE (Naked, Book 5) (4 page)

“You know my name, sweetie?”

Caelyn closed her eyes briefly and nodded, then opened her eyes. She needed to keep her strength, as exhausting as the whole thing was. “Help,” she said softly.

“What’s that?” Helen asked, walking closer and leaning in. “Say it again, honey.”

“Help. Me.”

She looked at Caelyn with wide eyes. “Of course I’ll help you. But what’s wrong? Can you tell me?”

Caelyn breathed deeply for a few moments. This was exhausting, and she was running out of energy once more, which was frustrating in and of it self. She couldn’t understand how it could be so hard to do such simple things, but it was.

Finally, she had the energy to speak again. “Elijah. Please. Please.”

“Your friend? The boy in the waiting room?”

Caelyn gasped for air, nodding, her eyes desperate and wide. If the nurse rejected her plea like the others, she didn’t know what she’d do.

But Helen simply nodded curtly. “I’ll be right back. Hold tight, darling.”

And then she briskly moved out of the room, walking with a purpose.

A few minutes went by, and each second was like torture, waiting to see if Helen had merely gone to ask some authority figure if Elijah could visit. If Helen had done that, Caelyn knew it was be over.

Nobody was going to let him visit her in the condition she was in, not as long as her parents were in charge of her care.

But just when she’d truly begun to lose hope of anyone coming back at all, there were voices and footsteps approaching.

“I could get in big trouble, you know. So please—“

“I get it. I’ll never say a word,” the familiar voice replied.

“I can’t be in there with you,” Helen said. “If someone asks, I’ll say you snuck in there against everyone’s wishes. Including mine.”

“Thank you for getting me,” he said. “Thank you so much.”

“Hurry up, and don’t stay too long.”

A few seconds later, Elijah turned the corner into her room. Caelyn couldn’t believe her eyes, and the tears came quickly to them, embarrassing her.

“Thank God, you’re awake,” he said, rushing to her bedside. As soon as he crouched down beside her, she could smell him. His scent was unmistakable, comforting, like a favorite shirt, like a beautiful day that would never fade from memory.

His hand covered her hand and squeezed.

“Elijah,” she whispered, still smiling. Her heart was soaring in her chest, and she wanted to jump into his arms.

Please just take me out of this hellhole. Take me with you, Elijah. Break me free.

Elijah had tears in his eyes too. He swallowed. “I…I thought maybe I’d lost you forever.”

“No,” she said. “N…never.”

He grit his teeth. Then he leaned in and kissed her cheek softly. She could smell and feel his skin, and if she could have, she’d have told him never to move.

Just stay close, like this
, she thought.
Just keep your lips on my skin.

“I’m never going to let anything happen to you again,” he said. “I can’t believe this is all my fault.” He looked down and shook his head, his body coiled with rage and frustration.

He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, and he seemed almost fine, except he had bruises—big, dark discolorations of purple and green and red along his arms and neck and under both eyes. He had stitches along three or four cuts on his face—one on his cheek, another on his chin, and another still across his forehead. Other smaller cuts were healing without stitches.

He still looked beautiful as ever to Caelyn. If anything, the cuts and bruises added a new dimension to his handsomeness. Now she thought Elijah looked slightly wiser.

His eyes studied hers. “You’re tired,” he said.

She nodded slowly.

“You don’t have to stay awake, then. Rest.”

“No,” she whispered.

“Because I’m here?” he asked.

She sighed. “Yesss...”

He took her hand in both of his and kissed her knuckles. “I should stay here all day by your side,” he told her. “That’s what I want to do. But I can’t stay, because if I do, I’ll get that nurse in trouble. And they might kick me out of the whole hospital and then I’ll never get to see you.”

Her heart pounded in fear that he was leaving again so soon. She grabbed his hand tightly with her own, holding on for dear life.

“No,” she said.

“Caelyn, I’ll come back as soon as I can,” he told her. “I’ll wait until I see an opening, when no one’s watching, and I’ll come visit.”

“Oh…oh….kay.” The last syllable nearly killed her to say. She was totally and utterly spent.

He kissed her again, this time on the lips, and she kissed him back as best she could, relishing the smell and taste of him. She tasted salt and cinnamon.

Caelyn was drifting again.

Somehow, she was together with Elijah and everything was fine. They were laughing, walking the perfect sandy beach of Siesta Key.

It was so real that she thought it must be happening.

The feel of the sand between her toes. The dolphins swimming in the ocean, the light of the sun glinting off their fins.

Another part of her knew that it wasn’t real.

But someday—someday Elijah and I are going to go to that beach and walk
together. Someday soon.

***

She was ignoring her parents and sister.

They’d come into her room making noise, chatting away and waking her out of a deep and peaceful sleep where she’d been dreaming about Elijah. That had been much preferable to what she’d awoken to, and she just wanted to go back.

Deena put in her headphones and sat down in a chair, listening to something on her iPod. Meanwhile, Caelyn’s mother and father came to her bedside and spoke to her as though she was an infant.

“Hello, my girl,” her mother said, stroking her hair.

Caelyn rolled her eyes and turned her head away, but she couldn’t get away very well.

“She seems agitated,” her father said.

“Well, the doctor mentioned that as a very common symptom with a TBI.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m still having trouble believing it. I mean—brain damage? Is it possible?”

“Clearly she’s very confused,” her mother said in an annoyed tone. “She can hardly even speak.”

Caelyn was going to tell her mother off, but she lacked the energy to do so. If Elijah came back later in the day, she wanted to save her enthusiasm and effort for interacting with him, not people that only wanted to bring her down.

“It kills me to see her this way,” her father said, choking on the words.

“We’ll get her to a good rehabilitation facility and they’re going to get her back to health.”

“Caelyn, we’re going to make sure you’re taken good care of,” her dad said, speaking louder than he needed to.

She puffed out her lips and blew with annoyance. They really had no clue. They actually thought she was severely brain damaged. Maybe she was somewhat damaged, but every hour she felt her mind coming back more and more.

If they weren’t going to take the time to figure it out, that was just fine with her.

Let them assume the very worst.

“We just need to keep
him
out of here,” her mother murmured.

“Listen, that’s not what we should be focusing on,” Caelyn’s dad replied.

“You’ve got this bee in your bonnet about him—“

Now Caelyn’s mother’s voice grew loud. “Because he nearly killed my daughter.”

“Our daughter.”

“The point is, he’s still out in the waiting room, hanging around like some lunatic stalker.”

“We can’t very well stop him from sitting in a waiting room if that’s what he wants to do.”

Caelyn groaned in frustration.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” her mother asked.

Caelyn ignored her question, keeping her head turned away. After a moment, there was a brief knock on the door.

“Hi, there,” a woman’s voice called out.

“Are you a nurse?” Caelyn’s father asked.

“Actually, I work in the physical therapy department of the hospital, and I’m here to meet with Caelyn today.”

“Oh,” Caelyn’s dad said, his voice becoming excited. “We were just talking about rehabilitation, weren’t we?”

“My name’s Monroe.”

“Oh, that’s a pretty name,” Caelyn’s father said.

Caelyn heard her mother make an annoyed sound. “My daughter’s basically still very confused and almost totally non-communicative.”

“I’m just going to say hi and maybe ask her a few questions, see where she’s at.”

Caelyn kept her head turned away. She had no interest in meeting anyone new right now, or answering questions. She wasn’t going to answer anyone but Elijah from now on.

“Hi Caelyn,” the girl chirped from nearby. “Can you turn your head toward me?”

“She’s nonresponsive, as you can see,” Caelyn’s mother continued.

That made Caelyn angry enough to turn her head and look right at Monroe, who was a petite blond girl with pale skin and a bright, wide smile. Her hazel eyes were large and immediately friendly. “Seems responsive to me,” Monroe said brightly.

Caelyn grinned at her. “Thanks,” she whispered.

She saw her parents exchange glances from the corner of her eye. It was almost as though they were disappointed she could speak and understand.

“So, you’ve been through the ringer, huh?” the blond girl said, coming closer and peering at Caelyn’s face. She glanced down at Caelyn’s body. “Can you move your fingers and toes, wiggle them for me?”

Caelyn sighed. She hadn’t wanted this, not now. If she started trying to move, soon she’d be fast asleep again and then she’d have wasted her chance to be alert and awake in case Elijah returned later on.

But she didn’t want to give her parents more reason to claim she was a confused, brain dead victim.

So she tried her best to wiggle her fingers and toes.

She was able to, in a fashion. A five year old would have been embarrassed at how poorly she did it. But the point was, she did move her hands and feet a little bit.

“Wow, that’s awesome! I’d give you a high five, but that might be asking a bit much,” Monroe said.

Caelyn nodded weakly.

“She hasn’t done anything like that in the time we’ve been here,” Caelyn’s dad said. “Why’s she doing it now?”

Monroe looked from Caelyn to her parents and back again. Caelyn felt her own face growing hot with annoyance and bitterness. Her eyes narrowed and she turned her head away.

“Well,” Monroe said, “it could be a lot of things. This is a very tricky time, when a patient first comes out of a coma. She’s probably confused, sad, worried, and very tired. It takes a lot of effort for her to do simple tasks, but that doesn’t mean she can’t do them. And from what I’m seeing, Caelyn does have a lot of verbal function. Whether it’s all intact, we can’t know yet. But we’ll work to find out.”

Caelyn turned and looked at Monroe again. “Thank…you.”

“You’re very welcome.” She brushed a strand of hair from Caelyn’s face. “And you tell me what I can do to help you. Okay? If you need anything—“

“Elijah,” she said, her voice more controlled and powerful now.

“Excuse me?” the girl asked.

“Oh, for goodness sake—“ her mother practically yelled.

“Now, calm down,” Caelyn’s dad replied.

Deena had finally taken her headphones off. “Did she just ask for him again?

That’s like all she knows how to say now. Broken record, anyone?”

Monroe stared at Deena with a shocked expression. “Sorry, I’m unaware of who this person is. She’s been asking for Elijah?”

“He’s the guy who did that to her,” Deena said, pointing at Caelyn.

Monroe’s jaw dropped open. “He—he gave her a TBI?”

“Well, I don’t know what a TBI is—but, yeah, he basically turned her into a vegetable. That’s why my mom gets so upset when she hears his name.”

Monroe put a hand on her hip. “Did the man beat her? I thought I’d read that she was in a car accident.”

Caelyn’s mother shook her head. “No, he didn’t beat her. But he was involved in criminal activity and he drove into a street pole. He should have been arrested for something, but they haven’t charged him yet and he’s still loitering around the hospital, stalking our daughter.”

“Wow, that’s very…strange,” Monroe said. “By the way,” she told Deena, “TBI stands for traumatic brain injury.”

“Whatever,” Deena said. “I’m going to go to the cafeteria, okay Mom?” Deena walked out, putting her phone to her ear and already starting to talk to someone loudly as she left.

“So this Elijah person that she’s asking for, you’re certain that it’s bad for her to see him?” Monroe said. “Because normally in this type of circumstance, I would make sure to bring the person around. It’s very important that someone who’s had this kind of injury be around people that give them comfort and motivate them.”

“No, no, no,” Caelyn’s mother said, shaking her head. “He’s a convict. He’s literally out on parole, and he’s violent and dangerous.”

“But he’s in this hospital?”

“Yes, he sits in that waiting room, almost as if to taunt us that we can’t stop him.”

Monroe sighed. “Listen, I’m not aware of all the intricacies of Caelyn’s situation.

But I’ve seen lots of scenarios where people who don’t get along at all are forced to spend time together in the hospital.”

“Well this isn’t one of those scenarios.”

Monroe met Caelyn’s mother’s gaze with a firmness that was a little surprising, coming from such a sunny, innocent person. “I think this actually is one of those scenarios, Mrs. Murphy.”

***

To call it awkward was an understatement.

Monroe had explained to Caelyn’s mother that it was time to let Elijah into the hospital room. She’d told Caelyn’s parents in no uncertain terms that their daughter was expressing firmly that she wanted Elijah to visit. Unless they proved to a court that Caelyn was no longer mentally competent, they couldn’t stand in the way of her having him in the room.

Not long after, Elijah came back for good.

Caelyn’s family basically ignored him. Well, Deena didn’t ignore him exactly—

she made her little jabs and comments to try and get under his skin.

Elijah didn’t seem to care.