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“The issue is complicated by Blake’s existing brain injury. Surgery is an option, but one we would prefer to avoid if possible. Right now she’s in a coma and under very close observation. We’ll monitor the bleed over the next several hours in the hope that it will subside.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I asked, my words trembling.
“There are several surgical routes we can take,” he replied.
“Brain surgery?” Tom gasped.
“Let’s cross that bridge if or when we come to it. Right now she’s stable and if the bleed does subside, her injuries will not be life threatening. She has severe bruising down her right side, and some bruised ribs which will cause discomfort.”
“What about her brain injury?” Simon asked. “Is this additional head injury going to make matters worse?”
“The only answer I have for you right now is, we just don’t know. Brain injuries are unpredictable. We cannot anticipate the results of this accident until Blake is awake and cognizant. She is being monitored very closely for any swelling of her brain, which would be our biggest worry following the injury she already had. Swelling could lead to something we call S.I.S. – or ‘second impact syndrome’- the result of brain swelling reoccurring too soon after an existing head injury,” he said, and the tone of his voice terrified me.
“And if that happens? If she develops this S.I.S.?” Simon demanded.
“Second Impact Syndrome is rare, but I believe it is a risk in Blake’s case right now, which is why I wanted you to be aware,” the doctor hedged around the answer.
“Can it be treated?” Trent snapped.
“There are options, but in most cases S.I.S. is fatal. The few who do survive are usually left severely disabled.”
“Fuck,” Tom whispered, as my whole world felt like it was beginning to crumble down around me.
“But there’s no swelling so far, right? You’re monitoring her closely and you’ll know right away if that happens?” Grey said, giving us all a tiny kernel of hope.
“The next twelve hours will be critical,” the doctor answered with a nod.
“Can we see her?” Liam asked.
“Yes, but she’s in the ICU, so only two at a time.”
Simon was thanking the doctor as I turned and walked over to the small window across the room. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe, a ten ton weight pressing down on my chest.
“That was just a worst case scenario. The doctor said it’s rare, which means it’s unlikely,” Grey spoke up. “We have to stay positive. She’s going to come through this.”
“He wouldn’t have told us if it was that unlikely,” I ground out through my tense jaw.
“We’re going to lose her, aren’t we?” Tom asked, his words brimming with held back tears.
“We can’t. We haven’t even had a chance yet,” Liam replied, the disbelief in his tone, echoed in my thoughts. How could this be happening? How could she be slipping from us when she had only just come into our lives? When I only just realized how crazy I was for her? It was too unfair. Life could not do this to me, to us! Hailey had already been taken from us and now this. Now Blake. I didn’t think it was possible but my feelings for her were even deeper and stronger than what I had felt for Hailey, and now she was going to be ripped from me too.
A loud growl burst from me as anger and fear consumed me. Without even thinking about it for a second, I threw my fist through the plaster wall before me, just needing some way to get out the rage and fear that had filled me.
“Declan!” Grey cried, but I wasn’t listening. I didn’t care. I was in agony and I blamed it completely on myself. I should have been faster! I should have been watching Blake and the road. If I hadn’t turned toward the twins house I’d have seen the car before I heard it. I’d have gotten to Blake and she’d be curled up in her bed at home in that moment. I pulled my fist free of the sheet wall it had smashed through, and hit out again and again. It was what I was good at – hitting things. It was all I was fucking good for!
“Stop now Declan!” Nan cried. The feel of her slight hand low on my back was what stopped me. I was worried I would hurt her, knowing she was so close to me. As I pulled my fist free of the huge hole I had made in the wall, Nan wrapped her hand around my forearm and pulled until I turned to her.
“It’s my fault,” I told her, my eyes remaining on the ground, refusing to meet hers. “We’re going to lose her and it…it’s all my fucking fault.”
“No, dear boy,” Nan soothed as she took my other hand in her free one and stood before me. “The only person at fault here is the animal driving that car. You couldn’t have stopped this, Declan. What Blake needs from you now – from all of you – is to believe in her, in her strength. Trent said it earlier – she has survived hell. She will survive this, and we’ll all be right beside her every step of the way.”
“Damned right we will,” Trent agreed.
“Grey, why don’t you take Dec and sit with her first? We’ll take turns and switch out every thirty minutes,” Simon suggested.
The notion of seeing her calmed me a little and I looked to Grey for his agreement. When he nodded I squeezed Nan’s hands in my own to thank her, shocked to see my blood covered fist. I didn’t even feel any pain in it, completely numb. She looked up to me with worry, but I just shrugged, released her, and stormed toward the door.
My fear and anger weren’t any less, but a tiny spark of hope had ignited in me that Nan was right – that Blake was strong enough to fight her way through this and come back to all of us. She had to. We needed her, every one of us. She knew that. She wouldn’t leave us without an epic battle and I was determined to be by her side through that battle, every step of the fucking way.
