ACHE (Naked, Book 5) (2 page)

At the mention of Caelyn, Elijah grew pale and forced himself to sit up in bed.

His eyes were bulging and the cords of muscle stood out in his forearms as he sat there, staring at the officer. “What do you mean, IF she wakes up?”

The cop licked his lips and glanced around. “You mean…nobody’s told you anything yet about her condition?”

“Tell me,” Elijah said. “Tell me. Please. What’s happening to her?”

The cop scratched his thick head of curly hair. “Jeez, this is tough.” He looked at Elijah and licked his lips again. “I’m sorry to tell you she’s in a coma.”

“No.” Elijah trembled. “Don’t you fucking lie to me.”

“I’m not lying, son—“

“And don’t call me son.” Elijah’s arms were shaking so badly that he fell backwards into bed. “Don’t call me that.”

“Listen, I didn’t want to be the guy to tell you.”

“She can’t be in a coma.”

“I’m real sorry.”

“Can you find out anything else?” Elijah asked, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

“Can you ask someone to come talk to me, a doctor or someone? I just need to know. I need to know.”

“Look, I’ll see what I can do.” The cop started to walk through the curtain that separated Elijah from the other patients in his room. But then the officer seemed to think better of it, and he turned around again. “Hey, I bet I could find out more about your girlfriend’s condition.”

“You could?” Elijah asked, his voice hopeful now.

“Yeah. All you gotta do is jog your memory about who put that bullet in your stomach. You do that and I’ll have her doctor come in here and personally update you on her condition.”

Elijah laughed weakly. “Sure you will. Sure.”

The colors began swirling again, bleeding into one another.

They bled into the darkness, and soon the colors were gone altogether.

***

This time, her eyes popped open, and she could control them.

A white room swam into focus. It was white and cold and there were tubes and pumps and she was lying on crisp white sheets.

There were other people around her.

They were talking. At first, she didn’t even realize what they were saying, because nothing quite made sense.

Finally, her eyes looked over to the three people standing beside the door. They were very familiar. She knew all three of them. The older woman had the saddest way about her, looked as though a slight wind could break her apart completely. And then the older man was only interested in keeping the woman from falling apart.

The young girl had a very angry look on her face, and Caelyn instantly reacted to her.

I know her. I don’t like her. She’s cruel and mean.

The three of them were like ghosts. They were speaking but at first it was almost like they spoke a foreign language.

They buzzed like bees. Buzzzzz….buzzz……

“…never going to wake up,” the younger girl said.

“Don’t talk like that, Deena,” the older woman said.

When the older woman said the girl’s name, Caelyn finally remembered that they were her family. She couldn’t remember all the different things that had gone on between them recently, it was all a blur.

The recent past felt like it had occurred thousands of years ago. In fact, she didn’t know what was recent past.

She was struggling just to make sense of the present.

“They say that every hour that goes by without her waking up, the worse her chances are,” said Caelyn’s father.

But I am awake
, Caelyn thought.

Only, someone’s missing. I don’t even care about these three people. I care
about him.

Who?

Him.

She’d forgotten and remembered him before, she knew that. She’d been in some kind of terrible accident, and she was hurt. Maybe she’d even died and come back to life.

“…we can go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat,” Caelyn’s mom said.

“Can’t we just leave and go to Applebee’s? There’s one right near here,” Deena whined.

“Deena, the cafeteria is fine. We don’t want to be gone for two hours.”

“Why not? It’s not like she’s going anywhere.”

Her father and mother exchanged glances. “Fine,” her father said.

“No,” her mother replied. “We’re not leaving to go to Applebee’s. That’s absurd.

My daughter’s in a coma and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Your daughter? She’s mine as well.”

“Don’t fight over whose daughter she is,” Deena said angrily, “it’s like some pathetic scene from a Lifetime movie. Besides, neither of you were even speaking to her.”

The three of them continued arguing like that as they left the hospital room and went into the hallway.

When they were gone, the room descended back into relative silence. Caelyn was relieved they’d left. Her eyes took in the room more fully now, and she concentrated on trying to speak.

I need to say something. I need to know if I even can say something.

That thought frightened her. What if she remained locked in her body without ever being able to communicate her awareness to the rest of the world?

They would assume she was a vegetable, brain dead. They would treat her as such.

Caelyn fought to try and move a muscle. First her feet, then her hands, and failing that, she blinked. The blink reassured her that she could at least move something somewhere on her body.

Next, she tried to move her lips.

I just need to be able to speak, even a whisper will do.

And then she thought about Elijah. Elijah. His picture floated to the surface of her struggling mind, like a magic eight ball.

Try Again Later.

But she couldn’t, no she had to do this now. What if Elijah thought she was brain dead too? What if he gave up on her?

He’ll never give up on me
.

But eventually she knew he would. It was impossible for anyone to stand by a person they no longer thought even existed.

The fear caused sweat beads to break out on her forehead. A low, low, moan escaped her lips.

Just then, a nurse walked into the room with a basin and a washcloth. The nurse wasn’t even paying attention to Caelyn. She was short and squat, with fiery red hair that was nearly orange. She had pale skin and freckles, but Caelyn thought she looked friendly.

Something about the woman’s motions comforted Caelyn.

“Got you a washcloth, dear,” the woman said, looking at Caelyn’s chart as she slung the basin down nearby. “You always like getting a nice cool cloth on your face, don’t you?”

Caelyn didn’t actually recall ever getting a washcloth on her face from this woman, but it sounded nice. She watched as the nurse filled the basin with water and then dipped the cloth in it, wrung most of the water out and then came to Caelyn’s side.

“Oh, my, you’ve got your eyes open today, dear.” The nurse smiled brightly at her.

Caelyn opened her mouth and a low moan escaped.

The nurse stepped back in shock, her mouth registering wide surprise. She stared at Caelyn. “Are you really awake? Can you hear me?”

Caelyn tried to nod or make a movement, but nothing was cooperating. Although, suddenly, through sheer force of effort, she did feel her big toe flinch. But it was too small a movement to gain the nurse’s attention.

“It’s okay, you can talk to me. I won’t bite, I promise.” The nurse came closer again and patted Caelyn’s forehead with the cloth. It did feel nice, and Caelyn felt her mouth tremble into a smile.

“Why, I do believe you’re seeing me.” The nurse looked perplexed. “I have to tell someone, because this is very big news. Do you know that?”

Caelyn tried to say yes. All that came out was another moan. Even her moaning was barely audible.

The nurse turned and waddled quickly out of the room.

Caelyn waited.

I’m really awake this time
, she thought. She blinked twice. This was the longest she’d been awake in a while—she wasn’t sure how long.

She did feel exhausted, however. She was already wanting to go back to sleep.

But she knew that if she did that, it could be bad. That nurse had gone for help, and if Caelyn wanted anybody to believe that she was alive and conscious, she needed to at least keep her eyes open.

But with each passing second, Caelyn found herself struggling to remain awake.

Sleep was tugging at her, beckoning.

Her eyes eventually closed, but she snapped them open again.

Finally, the red haired nurse returned with another woman who seemed very annoyed, like she’d been pulled out of doing something very important to do something she thought was unimportant.

“You understand that often times a comatose patient will open their eyes, even make noises, and it doesn’t mean that they’re actually awake and aware,” the uptight woman said.

“I do know that,” the redheaded nurse said. “But this is different.”

The annoyed woman had short dark hair and a mole above her lip. She sighed with impatience and went to Caelyn’s bedside, peering down at her. “Caelyn? Do you hear me?” She snapped her fingers in front of Caelyn’s face and then to the side.

Caelyn’s gaze followed her fingers to the new area where she snapped. The nurse’s eyes narrowed. Then she moved her hand and snapped again. Caelyn’s eyes followed her hand. “Well, you were right to bring me in here, Helen.”

Caelyn realized that Helen must have been the name of the red headed nurse.

The uptight nurse took a little penlight out and flashed it in Caelyn’s eyes, moving it back and forth.

“She’s following,” Helen cried out joyfully.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s out of her coma. We need to do more extensive testing.”

The uptight nurse left, and Helen stayed by Caelyn’s side, stroking her hair.

“She’s a little bit of a jerk,” Helen whispered, grinning. “But she’s pretty good at her job.”

A few minutes later a doctor entered the room. He was very young—he looked just out of high school. “Hi, I’m Dr. Amit Ramachandran,” he said.

“I’m Helen, the Nursing Assistant.”

“Hi, Helen,” he said, hardly looking at her. He was studying Caelyn with his large, brown eyes. His dark hair was slicked back, but a few strands hung over his forehead. “So, it seems like we’re thinking that Ms. Murphy is starting to awaken from her coma. Is that right?”

“Yes, I noticed she was watching me, and she seemed to be vocalizing a bit when I spoke to her, as if she was trying to communicate with me.”

“Uh huh.” Amit came closer and leaned towards Caelyn. “Can you hear me, Caelyn? Say yes, if you can.”

She was exhausted. Her eyes wanted to close, but she knew that it was important she stay awake. Otherwise they’d really believe she was still in her coma. She tried to say yes, but it was so difficult to even make a noise. She tried, though. Mustering the last of her energy, she attempted to push out the word “yes.”

All that came out was a murmur, a sigh.

But the doctor’s eyebrows rose when she made her noise.

Helen smiled knowingly. “I told you, she’s awake.”

Amit looked back at Caelyn, his expression more intense now. “Caelyn, we’re here to help you. You’re at Boston City Hospital, in our critical care unit. You’ve been in a coma for the last few days, but you have the best doctors in the world looking after you.”

“And nurses,” Helen added.

“Excuse me?”

“You said that she had the best doctors in the world. She also has some of the best nurses in the world looking after her.”

Amit’s lips puckered into something resembling a smile. “Yes, Caelyn, the best medical professionals in the world are here to make sure you have a full recovery as possible. How does that sound, Caelyn? Is that good?”

She wanted to nod her head, but she only blinked. She just needed to sleep now.

They believed her—they knew she’d awoken from her coma.

“I need to run a few tests, Caelyn,” Amit said. “I’m sure that you’re confused and tired, and perhaps a little scared that some of your motor functions have not yet returned.

This is all perfectly okay. You’re in the very beginning stages of this thing. You had a traumatic brain injury and you’re very lucky to be alive. So now it’s going to take some time and effort to begin the healing process. Do you understand me?”

She wanted him to just stop talking, but it was comforting to hear him say those things. She tried to say yes. And once more, all that came from her lips was a whisper of a moan.

Helen clapped her hands. “She’s trying to answer you!”

Amit clasped his hands behind his back. “She certainly seemed to be trying to speak.” He glanced down at her hands. “Can you move a finger for me, Caelyn?”

Caelyn swallowed. This was torture, wasn’t it? Just keeping her eyes open was like running the last mile of a marathon, and here this man was telling her to actually move an entire finger! But she put her mind to it.

Just move your finger, Caelyn. It’s easy. A baby can do it.

She focused all her attention on her left hand, the one that was visible to the doctor. And it was as though an enormous weight, a boulder, had fallen on her hand, crushing it beneath its weight.

Just make a little movement for the doctor, that’s it, and then you can stop.

Sweat broke out on her forehead. Her pulse was picking up, evidenced by the beeping from the monitor starting to increase.

Helen noticed it. “She’s straining,” Helen said.

Amit glanced at the monitor and then back to Caelyn. “Just one finger and we’ll stop for now.”

She could feel herself trembling inside from the strain of it. But with the promise of being able to stop pushing so hard if she accomplished what was asked of her, Caelyn made the extra effort and put everything she had towards moving her index finger off the bed.

Just when she thought she would have to give up, just when she was certain that nothing would move after all, her index finger started to rise. Before she knew it, Caelyn had lifted her finger so that it seemed to be pointing towards her feet.

“Beautifully done,” Amit said.

Her finger dropped to the bed, and she closed her eyes.