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The ride to the hospital takes ages. With every second that passes, the nurse riding in the back of the van with me looks more concerned. Pandora looks deathly pale. Her lips are almost blue, translucent. I can barely make out the rise and fall of her chest.
"Am I going to lose her?", the words escape my lips before I even realize I asked the question.
The nurse gives me a long look. "I'm not going to lie to you, Mr. Booth. It doesn't look good."
My hands tighten into fists. I spent the rest of the ride in silence, thinking about Lily Anna and what I'm going to do to her when I get my hands on her. They're going to have to hold me back so I don't fucking kill her. I have a feeling the only thing that will dissuade me from putting a bullet in her head is the knowledge that I'll be locked up if I do. I can't leave Pandora alone again. Can't risk the distance between us. I need to stay by her side and do what's best for my toy.
We're rushed into the hospital while an alarm blares through the hallways. Despite my insistence to stay by Pandora's side, the doctors shoo me out of the operating room. I pace the hallway outside when my phone buzzes with a call from Emilian Oakes.
"Did you fucking find her
?" I bark into the phone. "Tell me you have that bitch."
From his long pause, I can tell he doesn't have any good news for me. "I'm sorry, Dexter. We did our best, but she's just... gone. Gone without a trace."
"Unacceptable." I want to fucking punch something, but there's a kid with his mom in the same waiting room, and I don't want to scare her, so I force myself to hold back. "You got someone trying to find her? People tailing her? Eyes all over town?"
"We do," Oakes reassures me. "I'm coming to the hospital now. How is Pandora?"
"She's not doing well." Admitting it out loud threatens to break me. But I hide the shakiness in my voice well. I cover it up with barely held back rage and tell Emilian to get there as soon as he can before ending the call.
Emilian arrives what feels like hours later. We sit in the waiting room together, and he brings me a plastic cup of stale coffee every hour while the doctors fight for Pandora's life.
That's what I'm assuming they're doing. We've been here for hours, and no one has come out of that operating room. As much as I hate being kept in the dark, I'm grateful for the professionals who've made saving Pandora their priority.
We wait for ages before the double doors of the operating theater finally open. Oakes and I are instantly on our feet despite our tiredness, approaching the exhausted doctor who lifts his hands to ask us for some space. He's tired and worn out just like we are. I fucking shake anticipating the news.
"How is she, doctor?" Emilian asks.
"She's..." He glances between us and I feel my heart stop for a brief moment. "She's not stable yet. She's in critical condition."
"But she's alive," I mutter.
"She is," he nods. "We believe the operation we just performed saved her life. We had to stitch her up—she was bleeding profusely. It seems the birth had some complications. She really should have been in the hospital for it."
My nails dig into my palms. Lily Anna will pay for this.
"When can we see her?" I ask.
"Not until she stabilizes," the doc says. "But we'll be moving her to a private room and you'll be able to see her through the glass. But you need to be prepared."
"Prepared for what?" Emilian furrows his brows.
"Because of Miss Oakes' critical condition..." The doctor shifts his weight, obviously wary of our reaction. "We've had to put Miss Oakes in a medically induced coma."
"What?" I hiss.
"It's for her own good," the doctor follows up. "This way, she's the safest. And we'll be waking her up in three days. Hopefully she'll be stable by then. We have her on blood transfusions now. She's lost a lot of it."
"Fuck," I mutter, fighting the urge to slam my fist into the wall. Again.
"I'll keep you posted with any kind of information," the doc adds, hesitating before he speaks up again. "Regarding the baby... I have no reason to believe it's been harmed during the birth."
"Good," Emilian nods gravely. "We're doing everything in our power to bring the baby back home."
The doctor nods. "You should. Miss Oakes will be distressed when she wakes up. Seeing her child back safely in her arms would help."
He leaves us standing there. I can't even move. I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. I want Pandora here, to console her. But she's in a deep slumber just like Sleeping Beauty. It's up to me now to save our family.
