Empty Net (49 page)

“I can’t give you that information, sir,” the nurse said, “but Dr. Aquino will be right out.”

Fallon took her parents over to a set of chairs. Without thinking, she jumped up, poured
coffee and brought the two cups back to them.

“Fallon, baby, sit down,” Nora implored, reaching out for her, but she resisted by moving away.

“I need to use the bathroom.”

Leaving her parents, she went in and locked the door behind her, then let out the breath she was holding and crumbled to the floor. How did this happen? Why? Why Audrey? Sobbing, Fallon crawled across the bathroom floor to a toilet and started puking. She held her gut as she threw up, tears streaming down her face for her sister, her heart heavy for Tate. He had already lost everything, and there was a chance that he could lose Audrey.

Pulling herself together, she washed her mouth out and went back to her parents. A doctor stood before them, talking and gesturing with his hands as Fallon rushed up.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Aquino, please start over, my daughter was in the bathroom,” Nora said gently, taking hold of Fallon’s hands.

“Yes, of course, like I said, Ms. Parker’s injuries are very severe. Her face is badly bruised and damaged. She has dental injuries, her two top front teeth were knocked out along with two from the bottom. Her nose is broken, her left eye socket is fractured, and her left ankle is broken. But the injury that mostly concerns us is the swelling in her brain. We have started mannitol to help with the swelling. She is still unconscious and there is a respirator breathing for her. As far as we know, the baby is okay. We have the neonatal specialist coming down specifically to check on the fetus, but so far everything looks fine. We don’t want her waking and moving and causing further damage, so we are keeping her sedated. When you see her, there will be tubes and machines that are helping her and it can be scary, but she is in good hands. We are keeping a close eye on her and the pressure in her brain. We will know more about her
prognosis as the night goes on.”

“Baby, oh my God, there’s a baby?” Fallon shouted.

“Just shush, Fallon,” William said, and then asked the doctor, “When can we see her?”

“Soon. She is being transferred to the ICU. Once she’s there, only two of you can go in at a time. If you want, you are more than welcome to go up there now.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” William said. After shaking the man’s hand, he put an arm around his wife’s shoulders and they started for the doors, Fallon close behind.

“Tate Odder?”

Tate looked up from the cot on which he sat in the corner of the jail cell. He was alone, and he liked it that way. There was no one to look at him as he tried to process what had happened. He still didn’t understand. Who does this? What did Audrey ever do to Levi for him to want to hurt her? He still didn’t even know if she was alive. She didn’t have a pulse when he left her at the condo. She was dying, and with all that blood, she could have passed when he was trying to kill the man who had tried to murder her. Tate felt bruised, beaten, and heartbroken. What was the point of moving or living when there was nothing to live for?

“Yeah?” he asked.

The cop moved from the doorway. “Your bail has been set.”

Tate nodded and moved from the cot. When he’d been escorted to the police car after his arrest, Lucas yelled that he would be there to get him out. He just wished it hadn’t taken four hours. Now, he walked behind the cop like a zombie, going through the motions of life. When Lucas came into view, he looked just as beaten as Tate knew he did. Audrey’s blood was still
under his nails and all over his clothes, but he didn’t care about the way he looked, or the way Lucas looked like for that matter. All he cared about was Audrey.

“Is she alive?” he asked, his heart stopping while he waited for the answer.

Lucas nodded. “Yeah, we need to get to the hospital.”

Tate felt his heart start again.

She was alive.

He began to shake, and when they released him, he rushed out, following Lucas to his truck.

“She is in the intensive care unit,” Lucas said as he made quick time to the hospital. “She has swelling in her brain and severe injuries everywhere else. Fallon was a mess when I talked to her, and her parents are freaking out because, well, they—”

“Lucas, what’s wrong?”

“She didn’t wake up yet, man.”

Tate didn’t respond until Lucas pulled into the hospital lot. Then he whispered, “You mean she is still unconscious, like in a coma?”

Lucas didn’t answer. They both jumped out of the truck then, entered the hospital and were directed up to the ICU. When they reached the waiting room, Fallon spotted them first, her hand clutching her throat as tears rushed down her cheeks. Lucas wrapped her up in his arms as Tate turned to William and Nora for answers. But Nora was crying, her head on William’s shoulder.

“We haven’t heard anything else,” William said, “but the swelling hasn’t gone down any.”

“Can I see her?”

“Not yet,” William said. “They won’t let any of us back in yet.”

Feeling defeated, Tate crumbled into the nearest chair, bracing his head in his hands as tears pooled in his eyes. He needed to see her; he needed to touch her for this to be real. For him to know she was alive and not dead. That her skin was warm and not ice cold like his family’s had been. That she was going to make it. He needed her to make it.

“Tate.”

He looked up at Fallon, standing with the rest of her family, as a man in his early thirties entered the waiting room.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Rivera.” he said to them. “I am Ms. Parker’s doctor here in the ICU. As I told you before, her swelling has not gone down. We are waiting for that to happen before they can do the surgery to fix her ankle and nose. I came out here to tell you all that her tests came back and it appears that she is still pregnant. The Ob/Gyn on call has not come yet to confirm that the baby—”

“Whoa,” Lucas said, interrupting him. “Baby?”

“Audrey’s pregnant?” Tate gasped.

“Yes, Ms. Parker is about six weeks along, from what we can tell right now.”

Tate glanced at William, who was giving him the death eye, and Lucas looked utterly confused, just as he was.

Audrey was pregnant?

I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. But I need you to come home as soon as possible, please
.

Tate fell back into his seat, his breathing again out of control as he braced his head on his hands. Was that what she needed to tell him? That they were having a baby? How, though?

“She can’t have kids,” Tate whispered, looking down at the floor through his tears. He
felt someone sit down beside him, and when a pair of manicured hands appeared on his biceps, he knew it was Fallon.

Tate crumbled against her. Fallon wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight as he cried through the pain that was ripping him apart. His beautiful, sweet, amazing Audrey was bruised and broken, in a coma, and there was nothing he could do to help. As if that wasn’t already troubling news, she was pregnant with his baby. A baby he might never get to hold because he might lose the woman he loved more than anything in the world. The one who brought light to his darkness, who he knew he was going to marry and love for the rest of his life. They should be celebrating the miracle that was their child, but instead he was in an ICU waiting room, finding out that not only was he going to be a dad, but that the swelling in his love’s brain hadn’t changed.

This was not supposed to be happening. He was supposed to come home, ravish the hell out of Audrey, only to wake up and do it all over again.

Why?

What the hell had he done to God to make this happen? Why was he losing everyone he loved? Not only could he lose Audrey, but he could lose their unborn child. How the hell was that fair? Clutching Fallon, his body shook as he cried. He hated crying in public. There was only one other time he had, and that was the day he put his family in the ground back home, the same home he was supposed to visit with Audrey in a couple months.

He heard someone clear their throat, and both he and Fallon looked up at the doctor. He was gripping Audrey’s file and looked nervous as he said, “I understand that this has come as a shock to some of you, but as soon as the Ob/Gyn comes and I know more, I’ll make sure to relay the message to you. I also wanted to let you know that you all can see her now. Only two at a
time, and only for a few minutes, since visiting hours are coming to a close. One person can stay overnight in the room with her, while everyone else is welcome to stay out here. So whoever is first, please follow me.”

William and Nora popped up and followed the doctor. Fallon ran her hand down Tate’s back, and when he looked over at her, he saw the tears rolling down her face.

He felt like killing Levi Moss all over again, but knew he would never get his hands on him. He was already in custody, and wasn’t coming out unless someone posted the seven million dollar bond. Tate wanted to post it just so he could beat the shit out of him, but what good would that do? It wouldn’t make Audrey better; it wouldn’t keep his child and her alive.

When Nora and William returned, Fallon kissed his cheek before she and Lucas went into the room. Nora came over, then held onto Tate as she cried against his shoulder.

“Everything is going to be okay, Tate,” she whispered. “I just know it, she’s going to pull through. She was always the strongest of all of us.”

Tate swallowed loudly as he watched his tears fall onto the ugly green carpet of the waiting room. His palms were sweaty and itchy, and he felt as if his throat was closing shut. He was beyond worried, scared, or nervous. He was broken, and until Audrey looked into his eyes and told him she was okay, he knew he wouldn’t be able to think straight. He knew that it was wrong of him to always think of the bad, but that was all he knew.

“Tate.” He looked up. It was Fallon, her face red from crying. She was hiccupping as she said, “You can go in.” Tate looked over at Lucas, and for the first time he saw tears rushing down his friend’s face.

Oh, this is going to be bad, he thought as he moved out of Nora’s arms and past Lucas and Fallon.

Audrey’s room was the first to the left of the waiting room, and when he reached it, he stood there, frozen, as he looked in at the woman he loved. Her face was unrecognizable. With the blood cleaned off, he could see that her two eyes were swollen shut, her nose was crooked and bruised, and her lips were split in half and held together by a dark black thread that was visible under the ventilator tube. Her hands were at her sides and covered in dark black and purple bruises. Tears gushed down Tate’s face as a sob tore through him. He had to brace himself against the door to keep from crumbling to the ground.

She looked just as Matilda had when he saw her lifeless body in the morgue.

It was horrible, and just as before, Tate found the nearest trash can, which was in the hall, and threw up into it. He couldn’t do it all over again; he couldn’t lose someone else who was his world. After wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he washed his hands at the nearest sink and then went back into Audrey’s room and next to the bed to hold her hand.

Tate pressed his lips to her knuckles, feeling her warm skin. His tears wouldn’t stop. They ran down his cheeks and landed on her bed. He brought her hand to his cheek, and placed his other, shaking, hand on her stomach, on top of their child. Looking at her face, he bit down hard on his lip as he willed himself not to scream out in pain.

Leaning over, he gently kissed her forehead, then leaned in close and said, “Baby, please, I need you to come out of this. I need you to wake up, look at me and tell me you love me as much as I love you. I need you to tell me we’re pregnant and when you are due. I need you to tell me what you want, a boy or a girl, because we never discussed that. I want a girl, someone as beautiful as you, with my humor, or maybe your humor, because I think you are funnier than I am. I need to know, baby. I can’t do this world, this place, without you. I need you. Please, please, come out of this. Please. I love you. I do, Audrey, so fucking much. I love you. I hope
you can hear me and know that I do. I do, so much.”

His tears splashed along her skin as his heart broke into pieces. He didn’t simply want her anymore. He needed her. He needed her smile, her laugh, her commentary during their shows. He needed to taste every cupcake she created. He needed to taste her lips after a long day on the ice or after a long road trip away from her. He needed to feel her naked scrumptious body against his every single day. He needed to make her his wife. He needed her to grow their baby, so that he could help her nurture it when she brought it into the world. He needed her to know he was going to love her with his whole being, every day, for the rest of their lives.

He needed her.

Placing her hands back down, he sank into the chair next to the bed and watched as her chest rose and fell with the sounds from the ventilator. Running his fingers through his hair, he gripped the strands and pulled, welcoming the pain while feeling like his world was ending.