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Chapter Twelve
Simon
It was dark when the nurse woke me. She hadn’t done it purposely, she was just doing her routine vitals check on Em. She smiled at me sympathetically and it was only then I realized it was a different nurse than earlier. Rubbing my neck I peered over at Em, desperate to see any change, anything at all to indicate she was still with me and that she wasn’t going to leave me all alone.
There was nothing, just the occasional beeping of the machines and the rise and fall of her chest to the rhythm of the machines.
“What time is it?” I croaked, my throat feeling like sandpaper.
“Six in the morning,” the nurse smiled. “There is coffee down past the nurses’ station,” she offered as I tried to reposition myself, my back letting me know what it thought of almost twelve hours in this damn chair.
“Thanks,” I said, covering a yawn. I readjusted my hand, laying it top of hers. Did she know I was here? Did she realize how much she meant to me?
“What time does the doctor do his rounds?” I asked the nurse. I strained to read her nametag. ‘Lucy’. I wanted to be sure I was here when the doctor came through. Any new information about Em’s condition I wanted to know about it.
“On a Saturday? Usually around eight,” Lucy replied.
Saturday? Shit. Maddie. Guilt flooded through me as I remembered our plans for the weekend. We were supposed to be taking her fishing and she had been talking about it all week. Thinking of Maddie only made me think of all the people I needed to notify and how that was the last thing, I wanted to do right now. The only place I wanted to be right now, was by Ems side.
She’d been in a coma for twelve hours and I hadn't told anybody?
What the hell was wrong with me?
It was too early to call anyone now and I had no idea how to even reach her parents. Maybe Cass would know. Her parents had been overseas for a few months now and weren’t due back for a few more.
Would they even come back? Of course they would, it wasn’t like she had a cold, she was in a coma. I hated that I’d even considered they might not come back for her.
While Em had been quick to forgive her parents for lying to her, I was less than keen to do the same. The way they had dealt with their daughters’ recovery following her abduction disgusted me. Emma deserved better than the way she had been treated and all that time for her to have a whole other family she didn’t know about…
Maria was someone I’d need to call too. We had spoken quite a few times now and we actually got along really well. I loved that she was part of Em’s life now. Em didn’t know, but I was planning to fly Maria and her family over for our wedding. It was going to be such a surprise for her, but one I was sure she’d love after she got over the initial shock.
My heart ached as I thought about our wedding. Marrying Em was something I’d known I wanted to do since she’d gone into that damn caravan park to try and confront Moosly. That was the moment where I realized I didn’t want to imagine my life without this girl. Planning the proposal had been hard work because if there was ever a person who was suspicious about everything, it was Em. I had enlisted Cass to help me plan it. After I’d gone all out for our three month anniversary, I knew it had to be something pretty special. A romantic candlelit dinner for two on her balcony, overlooking the city lights, had been the perfect beginning to the night. I had been so nervous knowing what was sitting in my pocket, and suddenly learning her favorite song on the guitar so I could serenade her seemed like the most ridiculous idea in the world.
The way Em looked at me when I pulled out the guitar that Tom had loaned me made my heart race. Any woman that can get me singing ‘Real Love’ in front of her has to be pretty special. The feeling I felt when I knelt down in front of her was second to none. As I slipped the white gold diamond ring onto her finger, I couldn’t help but gloat that I’d picked it myself.
The look on her face was something I would remember forever, as was the ‘yes’ that followed.
Sighing, I moved around in the chair again, my hand snaked between the rails holding Em’s hand while my finger tracing the outline of her ring. I’d organize things as soon as it was an acceptable enough time to call people, but right now I needed to be here with Em.
Chapter Thirteen
Emma
The blackness is terrifying. I wanted to open my eyes so badly but I can't. My eyelids are so heavy it feels like they are made of lead and every time I try to open them I can't. I strain to recognize the voices around me.
I can hear them clearly. Someone is holding my hand. I try to concentrate. The smoothness of the skin, the slightly raised freckle on the side of the thumb and the unevenness of the nails.
It's Simon. He bites his nails when he gets nervous, something I am forever telling him off about. A tiny fragment of my anxiety disappears knowing he is here with me.
My heart starts pounding, as I remember bean. I hope she's okay. I can't feel her moving and at this stage I have no way of knowing whether she is still inside me, or even alive. I try to squeeze Simon's hand, but again, I can't. Instead, I concentrate on the sound of him inhaling and exhaling.
Something beeps continuously next to me, almost like a ticking clock, but louder. Something hard and uncomfortable is wedged down my windpipe. It makes me feel like dry retching, but of course, I can't.
By now I've figured out, I'm in hospital. The sounds of the machines, Simon's hand grasped in mine and the distant chatter of other people. There is no other explanation, at least not in my mind.
How long have I been like this? Hours? Days? Weeks?
I don't know and it's the not knowing that scares me, as does the fact that I am aware of what is going on, yet I can't communicate. Every few minutes I hear the vibration of his phone, the same vibration that wakes me up every morning, just as his alarm is going off.
