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The Sound of a Heart Breaking
Maggiecamebackto herself in pieces. She smelled bleach and some other antiseptic and wrinkled her nose. Sun was beating onto her closed eyelids and her head was throbbing. She moaned and reached a hand up to her head finding a bandage at her forehead. It slowly came back to her. She was in the hospital. Someone had attacked her at the Mama Tried.
“Zane?” she asked without opening her eyes yet. “Can we shut the blinds? My head is pounding.”
He didn’t answer her, but she felt a shadow fall over her face and the brightness dimmed. She carefully cracked open her eyes. She blinked a few times to bring everything into focus and saw Dani and Levi standing over her bed.
“Hey, Mags, how’re you feeling? Do you need some water?” Dani said softly to her.
She started to nod but then stopped abruptly when pain shot through her skull with the movement. She raised her hand to her head again. “Ow. Yes please.”
Levi poured her water from a plastic pitcher next to her bed and handed a cup to Dani. She held the straw up to Maggie’s mouth and she sipped greedily. When she was finished, she put the cup down and sat on the edge of the bed, taking one of Maggie’s hands in her own. “That’s a pretty good goose egg you’ve got there but the doctor says you can go home today as long as you promise to rest for the next week.”
Maggie closed her eyes to the florescent lights in the room. “Good. I hate hospitals.”
Dani smiled. “Most people do, though I kinda miss it, but I’m crazy like that.”
Maggie tried to smile and opened her eyes. She looked around again now that her vision was clearer. “Not that I’m not happy to see y’all but where is Zane? He was here when I fell asleep.”
Dani cut a look at Levi who nodded at her. They’d decided on the way to the hospital that they had to pull off the band aid quickly and let Maggie know up front what was going on.
“He left, sweetie,” Dani started. “He called us to come get you and take you home and he left.”
Maggie’s forehead creased in confusion. “Did he get called in? He wasn’t supposed to be on call this weekend, but I know they’ve been shorthanded.”
“No, Mags, he...” Dani blew out a hard breath. She didn’t know how to get the words out. She hated Zane right now for making her break her friend’s heart.
Levi came and sat by her other side and looked at her with such tenderness in his blue eyes, she started to tear up just seeing it. “He feels like he needs to protect you, darlin’. He thinks it’s his fault this woman came after you and, if he’s not around you anymore, she won’t bother try to hurt you again.”
She stared at him, her brown eyes going round as she tried to process what Levi was telling her. She looked to Dani whose face was a mask of anger and sympathy warring for dominance. “He left me?” she asked in a small voice. “What does that mean? He’s breaking up with me?”
Dani nodded and wiped angrily at her cheek where a stray tear had dared to fall. “I’m so angry with him right now I can barely see straight,” she spat out, “it’s all a bunch of noble bullshit, Mags.” She squeezed Maggie’s hand tight. “He’ll come to his senses. I’m sure of it. He loves you to pieces.”
Maggie’s headache pounded in rhythm to her racing heartbeat. “He left me,” she repeated, this time not as a question. Tears started to fall silently in large droplets down her cheeks. She’d let herself believe in his love and he’d disappeared when she needed him most. She’d really started to believe he was ‘the one’ and was dreaming of a future with him and now he was gone. She should have known better. She wasn’t enough.
Dani pulled her into a hug, but she sat unmoving, unable to take hold of the comfort that was being offered to her. “Don’t worry,” Dani whispered fiercely in her ear as she held her tight. “He’ll realize what a mistake he’s made and come crawling back with his tail between his legs, begging your forgiveness. I know it. Don’t let this break you.”
Maggie stayed silent and Dani let her go, straightening the covers and fixing her pillows. She could practically feel the wheels turning in Maggie’s head. She knew her friend needed a little time to process everything. “Breakfast ought to be here soon,” she announced in the brightest voice she could muster. “Levi and I are just going to run over and pick up your car so you’ll have clothes to change into when they spring you from this place. Will you be okay for a few minutes?”
Maggie didn’t look at her but nodded slowly. Her hand shakily finding its way to her forehead again with the pain of the movement. “You’re going to have a pretty good headache for a few days,” Dani told her. “I’ll ask the nurse to bring you something for pain on our way out. We’ll be back in a jiff.”
Dani watched Maggie’s eyes close as she lay back on the starched, white pillowcase. She grabbed Levi’s hand tight in hers and gave him a worried look before they turned to leave. She stopped by the nursing station and spoke to Felicity as they made their way to the elevator.
“Hey, Felicity, can Room 221 get some pain meds? Her head is pounding,” Dani asked. She'd known Felicity when she’d been worked here before she had moved back to Gladewater.
Felicity glanced at the time. “Sure, she’s due some and the breakfast carts just arrived too so that’s good timing. Obviously, you know this stuff can mess up your stomach if you don’t take it with food.”
“Thanks. We’ll be back in just a few minutes. We’re going to go get her things so she’ll be ready to go when they get her discharge completed.”
“So, you’re going to be driving her? I’m sure that’s a weight off Dr. Rutledge’s mind. I know he wouldn’t let her drive herself in her condition. That was a nasty bump.”
Dani nodded. “It was. I can’t believe it happened to her.” She paused and lowered her voice. “Have you heard from Dr. Savage since he left last night? Has he called to check on her?”
“I haven’t talked to him if he did,” Felicity answered honestly. “But wait! He did give me a note to give to her before I left this morning. I was going to take it to her with her breakfast tray.” She drew a folded piece of paper from one of her scrub pockets.
Dani held out a hand. "I can give it to her when we get back," she said, wanting to be there for her friend when she read whatever Zane had to say.
“Sorry, Dani. He asked me to give it to her directly,” Felicity said, tucking the note back in her pocket.
