Resolution (Saviour #2)(43)

Next thing I think that I remember are more voices but again, I don’t know who they belong to, I force my eyes to open but the light is so bright it hurts my eyes and my head, someone takes hold of my hand.

“Lauren, baby open your eyes.”

I try, I really try but it’s like I’m being dragged down a tunnel, a long, black tunnel, I don’t want to go, I want to go where it’s light and I can feel and smell, where I can hear that voice saying my name, but I can’t, I just can’t hold on and everything just slips and slides into blackness again.

The alarm goes off and I lie still for a minute, I haven’t had an alarm that sounded like that for years, actually, I don’t think I have ever had an alarm that bleeped like that. Shit, is that the smoke alarm, f*ck, where are the kids, where’s Jason? I open my eyes, wide, the room is far too bright and I squint, I sit up as the bleeping grows louder. God my head hurts, where the f*ck am I and what the f*ck am I wearing, I know I love my fluffy jarmies with cows and pigs on them but there is no effing way I would wear a nightie like this thing. I look around the room, oh my god, I’m in hospital. The bleeps are coming from the machines I’m hooked up to, why am here? Where’s…Fuck.

“GABE!!!!” I scream as loud as I can but my throat is dry and scratchy, I get out of bed and I instantly hit the floor as my legs give way.

I am in a complete and utter blind panic, all I can think to do is call his name, again and again. The door flies open and there are nurses everywhere, trying to sooth me, putting me back into bed, I am sobbing, beyond hysterical now

“Gabe, where’s Gabe, what happened, why am I here, Let go of me, where is he?”

I’m actually lashing out now as they try and hold me down.

“Someone better tell me what the f*ck is going on, nowwwww!”

They shove a needle into the cannula in my arm and I can feel myself slipping away within about thirty seconds, not before I manage to smack a male nurse right under the jaw. Shit, who put my arm in a cast?

I don’t know how long it is before I start to wake up again but this time I’m a little more calm, I know I’m in the hospital, I know my arm is in a cast, I just don’t know why, and where is Gabe, Oh God, where is Gabe? I can smell him and I close my eyes and dream of his hands on me and the sound of his voice. Something brushes my lips.

“Lauren, its Gabe, it’s okay baby, open your eyes.”

My eyes fly open as I realise I’m not dreaming, it’s really him, he’s really here.

I lift my eyelids to meet his beautiful blue eyes, but instead I’m met but a very different pair of eyes, they’re Gabe’s but they are different – grey and bloodshot, he looks terrible.

“Hey baby, you scared me there for a while.”

He’s crying, why is he crying?

All I can manage is “Gabe” and then I burst into tears.

“What happened, why am I here? I was so scared, I think I hit the nurse, I’m so sorry, where were you?”

He climbs up on the bed and holds me; I’m disconnected from all the machines now so he has easier access. I bury my face in his chest as he holds me tightly to him, one arm around my shoulders, the other stroking my hair.

“What happened?” I look up at him, I can feel his body tense underneath me.

His eyes dart between my eyes, my lips, all over my face, he pulls me in and kisses my hair. “Fuck Lauren, f*ck,” now he’s crying hard and I’m so scared, I can’t remember, what happened.

“Gabe please, you’re scaring me, what’s wrong, what happened? Please tell me.”

I turn around as best I can with only one arm for leverage and in the end decide the only way I can see his face properly is to straddle him but the room spins as I try to move so I take my time. He’s crying softly as he finally looks up at me.

“What do you remember about Saturday?”

“Saturday, I don’t understand, I don’t…Saturday?”

“We were up at the lake.”

“Shit yeah Saturday, we were on the water, on the Jet Ski’s. Shit Gabe what happened?”

I remember it all now, we were out on the water and going to head back in for a quickie while the house was still quiet. What day is it now then? Before I can ask a door opens and a nurse comes in.

“Ahhh Lauren, good you’re awake and a lot calmer by the looks of things, let’s just take your blood pressure and then I’ll call the doctor to come and check you out.”

I go to move off of Gabe but he holds me tight and shakes his head, I look from him to the nurse, mortified at my earlier behaviour and I need to apologies to the nurse, Andrea, it says on her badge.

“I’m so sorry about earlier, I don’t know what happened, I just panicked, I feel really bad.”

“No worries darl, you’ve been out of it for a couple of days, you were bound to be a bit confused” she says as she puts the cuff around my arm, totally ignoring the fact that Gabe is propped up on my pillows and I am straddling him, whilst wearing just a hospital gown and it would seem, nothing else. My belly rumbles, loudly. She raises her eyes to mine.

“You hungry darl?” I shrug, am I?

“I’ll organise you a sandwich and a cup of tea, okay?”

She looks at Gabe, “And what about you handsome, is there anything I can get for you?”