The One Left Behind (The One Series) (2 page)

He glances over at me, “Hey, buddy. How are you feeling?”

“Like death.” I rub my head hoping it eases the pain when the fog in my brain finally lifts. “Oh, fuck. Where’s Addison?” I try to jump up from the bed but I’m hooked up to a bunch of cords and monitors. I’m starting to panic. I need to get to her immediately and find out if she’s alright.

Jeremy gently holds me down. “Relax. Let me call the nurse and let her know that you’re awake and I’ll call Addison’s mom and let her know too. She can fill you in on Addison.” Relax? How am I supposed to relax when I don’t know if Addison is okay or not?

I feel sick to my stomach and the only thing I want to do is jump out of this bed and run up and down the halls looking for her. Jeremy didn’t seem alarmed, so maybe that means Addison is okay.

A moment later a short, plump old lady walks in. “Hello, Colin. My name is Betty and I’ll be your nurse. How are you feeling? Would you like some water?”

All I can do is nod. My throat is clogged with the fear that I’m responsible for seriously hurting Addison. She takes my vitals and checks me over. “I’ll be right back with some water. I’m going to let the doctor know you’re awake. He’ll want to talk to you, okay?” Again, I just nod. A few minutes later, she comes back with some water and a straw, but I barely touch it.

What feels like hours later, a man walks in wearing a white lab coat. He looks to be in his fifties, has very bushy eyebrows, gray hair, and brown eyes. He walks up to my bedside and introduces himself.

“Hi, Colin. I’m Dr. Salvatore and I’m your attending physician. Do you know why you’re here?” I nod. He continues, “You were in an accident, which I’m assuming you know.” Again, I nod in agreement. “You didn’t suffer any major injuries. You had a pretty nasty bump on your head, but after monitoring your brain there was no swelling or internal damage. You’ll be sore for a little while, but you were pretty lucky.”

I could care less about my injuries at this point. “Have you seen Addison? Is she okay? Can I see her?” I’m becoming more frantic the longer it takes for me to get answers.

The doctor holds up his hand to halt my line of questioning. “Addison is in recovery. I was just in there before I came to check on you. She’s still unconscious but we won’t know more about possible brain damage until she wakes up. I have to make my rounds to my other patients, but her mother will be in shortly to talk to you about her.”

I think I’ve stopped breathing. Did he say brain damage? I break out in a sweat thinking about what that could mean. I watch the doctor walk out of the room. I want to question him about the severity of the brain damage but the words are stuck in my throat.

A few minutes after the doctor leaves, Addison’s mom knocks on the door and comes in. “Colin, dear. I’m so glad you’re okay. How are you feeling?” Her eyes are red and puffy from now-dry tears.

“I’m fine, Jenna. How’s Addison? I’m freaking out over here and I’m not really getting any answers.”

Jenna looks down and sniffles, “She’s still asleep. They had to do surgery to help with the swelling to her brain. We really won’t know anything until she wakes up. There could be possible brain damage, but no one is for certain at this point.”

I throw my head back against the pillows and stare up at the ceiling. My eyes start to blur from unshed tears at the thought of not having my Addison with me. “I’m so sorry, Jenna. I didn’t even see it coming until it was too late. This is all my fault,” I whisper as I avert my eyes from Jenna’s.

Jenna grabs my hand and squeezes it tight, “Colin, don’t you dare put this on yourself. You did nothing wrong, you hear me? She’s going to be okay.” I squeeze her hand back trying desperately to believe her.

“Can I see her? I really need to see her.” My words come out broken as I try to swallow back the rising emotion.

“Yes, let me talk to the nurse for you and see when you can get up.” She leans over and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Everything is going to work out,” she calls back to me over her shoulder with a weak smile before leaving the room.

Several hours later I’m being pushed down the hall in a wheelchair on my way to Addison’s room. I’m trying to brace myself for what I might see, but am still unprepared when I finally get there. I look at her and feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. She looks so frail and small lying in the bed. Her head is wrapped up, her blond hair falling down around the bandages. Her face is slightly swollen and I notice her arms have some bruises on them. I grab her hand with both of mine as I stare at her face. Her full lips are parted but I’m unable to hear her breathing above the sounds of the various monitors scattered across the room. Looking at her battered body has images of the accident that landed her in this bed flashing through my mind.

Flashes of white lights fast approaching keep appearing in my head as I sit and stare at her. Each time I see it, a new wave of guilt consumes me. I should have done something, paid better attention, anything. I can’t help but feel that had I done something none of this would have happened and she wouldn’t be hurt right now.

My poor Addison. I kiss the back of her palm and hold our joined hands up to my forehead. “Please, baby, come back to me. I’m so sorry this happened to you. Just wake up and we’ll figure out the rest, okay?” I whisper to her. I kiss her on the lips and have to fight down the lump in my throat. I can’t lose my shit here. I need to be strong for her.

3 days later

THE THROBBING HEADACHE yanks me away from blissful sleep. That’s funny because I don’t remember what I did the night before that could have caused such a horrible headache. As my eyes are adjusting to the bright lights and begin to focus better I notice two things. One, I am not in my condo. And two, I am at the hospital, only I’m not working my usual shift as a nurse. Instead I am the patient. I look around in confusion searching for a familiar face. Sitting in the chair in the corner is my best friend, Colby. She’s reading something on her phone and her long blonde hair is partially covering her face. She suddenly looks up and her large green eyes meet mine. She jumps out of her chair and makes her way toward me.

“Addison? How are you feeling?” I stare blankly at her as I bite my lip. “Addison, I said how are you feeling?” she says really slow and loud as if I’m deaf.

“Uh, I’m fine, Colby, but why am I here and what happened?”

She has a sad smile on her face as she says, “Look, let me go get a nurse and tell her you’re awake. Your parents just went to get some coffee and should be back shortly.” As Colby leaves to go get a nurse to check my vitals, I wait in total confusion and am slightly alarmed. Why the hell am I in the hospital?

One of my coworkers, Ariana, comes in, my parents shuffling in after her. My mom immediately starts to break down and cry. “Oh, honey! I’m so glad you’re awake! You gave us quite the scare. I was so worried when I got the call that my baby was in the hospital.” My mom was always a bit on the dramatic side. My dad leans over and gives my hand a squeeze.

“Hello pumpkin, how are you feeling? How’s your head?” he asks.

Ariana finishes checking my vitals and tells me everything looks good and she is going to get the doctor to let him know I am awake. I give Ariana a smile as she leaves the room.

“Mom, Dad can someone please tell me why I am in the hospital?” My dad, mom, and Colby all look at each other like they are trying to figure out whether or not I am going to break by hearing the answer.

“Pumpkin, you were in a car accident,” my dad responds in a low, gentle tone. His eyes hold some sadness and sympathy as he looks at me waiting for my reaction.

Huh, I definitely was not expecting that. “Okay, so I’m assuming that it was a bad one since I’m here in the hospital with a massive headache.” As the reality of what my father said hits me, I feel frozen in my place, unable to move as my chest starts to tighten.

The constant throbbing in my head brings me out of my frozen state. I reach up to touch it as Dr. Salvatore comes in and says, “Ah, I’d leave that to the professionals, not that you aren’t an excellent nurse here.” This can’t be good. If Dr. Salvatore, head of Neurology, is my doctor that means I must have some kind of head trauma. I tell myself not to panic as I feel the color drain from my face. “Addison, can you tell me how your pain is on a scale of one to ten?” Although my head is throbbing I know if I say ten my mom will freak.

“It’s about an eight, eight and a half.”

Dr. Salvatore gives me an understanding smile since he knows how my mother is due to many late night conversations while at work. “Well, an eight is still pretty high for my liking, so I’m going to send Ariana in with some pain medication. Tell me what you remember about the accident.” I think back to the night before but I can’t remember it for the life of me. I’m beating my brain trying to remember any piece of information to shed light on what happened to me. I’m clenching my jaw and finally let out a sigh in frustration since I keep coming up empty.

“I can’t remember.” Queue the water works. My mom starts sobbing into my father’s chest as he tries to calm her down.

“That’s perfectly normal not to remember a trauma and to be expected.” I’ve seen this type of thing plenty of times while working, and I try not to worry. But I am. My mom finally calms down, which is a huge relief to me. All her dramatic sobbing is hurting my head even more.

“Addison, honey, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up.” I feel bad knowing I put my family through so much worry. How long was I out?

“It’s okay, Mom. Besides, you left me in the best of care.” I shoot Colby a weak smile and she winks back at me.

“Well, had I known you were going to wake up, I wouldn’t have gotten the coffee or stopped to call Colin to see how he’s recovering.” I am a little confused at the mention of Colin’s name. Oh my god, did I hit someone else with my car? My stomach starts to churn at the thought of injuring another person.

I take slow breaths to bring down my anxiety, but fear takes over as I worry that I’ve hurt someone. “Mom, who is Colin? Did I hurt him in the accident? Is he okay?” I didn’t think it could happen twice in one day as my mom starts to lose it with tears again. “Okay, can someone please tell me what’s going on? I’m about to freak out, and Mom, for the love of god calm down!” I press my fingers to the bridge of my nose and close my eyes as I wait for my mother to get a hold of herself. Her added dramatics are not helping the situation or my understanding of it.

Dr. Salvatore looks up from my chart. “Addison, what do you remember?”

I’m shaking my head as I say, “I don’t remember the accident, Dr. Salvatore, but you said that’s normal right?”

“Yes, completely normal. What can you tell me about before the accident?” I try my best to remember but can’t seem to come up with anything. I start taking deep breaths again before I answer him.

“Nothing, I remember nothing,” I say quietly.

“Addison, the accident you were in caused pretty extensive injuries. Your fiancé, Colin, was driving and you were in the passenger seat.” Hang on, did he just say fiancé? I feel my blood pressure instantly spike at the word
fiancé
. “You were hit by a drunk driver. You were T-boned going through an intersection and the car flipped and rolled three times. I had to go in and operate to stop some bleeding that occurred in your brain. There was a lot of swelling and we won’t know long term effects right away. We knew there would be a possibility of memory loss, but there was no way of knowing until you were awake.”

I feel dizzy. “And how is—what did you say his name was? Colin?”

“Yes, normally I can’t tell you about other patients, but since he’s your fiancé that gives you the privilege to know.” There is that damn word again. Fiancé. “Colin suffered pretty minor injuries. He has some bumps and bruises and was unconscious for a couple days, but he’s fine.” I stop him there. Who is Colin and why does everyone keep calling him my fiancé? The last I remember, I’m single. Everyone seems to think I have a fiancé and it’s starting to freak me out. So much for not panicking.

I swallow hard before saying, “Excuse me, Dr. Salvatore, but who exactly is Colin?” My mom loses it and I can’t take it anymore. I’m about to snap with the realization of having a fiancé I can’t remember and my mom carrying on like I’m dying. “Dad, will you please take Mom out and calm her down. I have a terrible headache and I’m trying to make sense of all this.” My dad looks apologetic and says, “Sure, pumpkin, we’ll be right outside if you need us. Coming with us, Colby?”

“No!” I say instantly, “Colby, would you mind staying? I have a couple questions for you.”

“Are you sure, Addy?” I know I need to talk to my doctor and get everything figured out, but I need someone with a level head to clear up a few things. I’m obviously not going to get any answers from my mom since she can’t stop crying for more than five seconds. My biggest concern is the fact everyone but me seems to know I’m engaged.

“Yes, Colby, it would mean a great deal to me,” I plead with my eyes hoping she gets that I really need her here. She pulls the chair up by my side as Dr. Salvatore finishes his exam.