While I Was Away(39)

“Sorry, I didn't mean to ... habit,” he apologized. She shook her head.

“No, don't be sorry. It's nice. I'm sorry I'm not ... not like how I used to be. I know this is all strange, and I should try harder to be ... to be ... normal. Nice. But I just ...” she let her voice trail off.

“Don't worry about any of that, just concentrate on being healthy,” he insisted, and she felt his hand rub up and down her shin.

“You're really amazing. I bet you're doubly glad we split up – now you can have a girlfriend who isn't broken,” she tried to joke. He didn't laugh.

“You're not broken.”

“I'm so broken I can't even be put back together.”

“Stop it,” he insisted, and his fingers squeezed tight around her leg. “You went through an incredible amount of trauma, and then you were unconscious for four months straight. You're alive, Adele. That's good enough for me. You could walk out that door tomorrow and never speak to me again, and I'd still just be thankful you're alive.”

The tears started again, but at least this time, they were silent. Just warm saline, moving over her skin.

“That's part of the problem,” she whispered.

“What?”

“I don't think I was alive.”

“Excuse me?”

She took a deep breath.

“I don't think I was alive. I think I was in Heaven. I was in Heaven, and I got to meet an angel, and now I'll never see either ever again.”

Adele started sobbing so hard she had trouble breathing. Sobbed hard enough that Charlie, her boyfriend from a former life, finally moved across the mattress and held onto her. It was a comfort because when one person holds another, it's comforting. But there was no feeling of love or security or faith in his arms.

It was just one stranger holding another while she suffered through an endless waking nightmare.





21




Adele walked down the hospital's entrance, pressing her fingertips hard against her forehead. A headache had started when she'd pulled into the parking garage, and now it was blossoming into migraine territory.

Great. First a coma. Then I wake up crazy. Now I probably have a tumor.

A few hours earlier, she'd been at the hospital for an appointment with her psychiatrist. It wasn't till after she'd gotten all the way back home that she'd realized she'd left her phone there. A quick call told her that she'd left it in a bathroom, and maintenance had turned it into the ICU nurses station – she could pick it up there.

Adele had spent four months in ICU, but had only spent a couple days awake in it, so she was unfamiliar with the area. She got turned around a couple times, going down the wrong hallways, and it was almost nine o'clock when she finally reached the station.

The hospital was fairly quiet, and a gaggle of people were behind the counter while a lone nurse leaned against the front of it, facing away from Adele. They were all laughing about something, completely unaware that a person had approached.

“Excuse me,” Adele sighed in a weary voice, stopping at the very end of the counter. “I was told my phone is here?” No one responded at first, and as they all erupted in laughter again, she faked a loud cough. Finally, one of the nurses noticed her and walked over.

“I'm sorry, did you need help?” she asked.

“Yes. My phone. I was told my phone was here, I lost it earlier today,” Adele managed to explain as the pressure behind her forehead increased.

“Hmmm, give me a second, I didn't hear anything about a phone. One moment,” the nurse said, then she moved around the area, checking in drawers and under paperwork. “Can you describe it?”

“It's a Samsung,” Adele's teeth were clenched together, her words coming out as a hiss. “Gold case. Picture of three guys on the screen.”

“Not seeing anything. You guys, anyone get a call about a missing cell phone?”

As the nurses all started to turn towards her, Adele dropped her head into her hands, rubbing her fingers around her temples. There was a chorus of voices saying no, they hadn't heard anything. Then one of them piped up.

“You were here earlier, Lund, did you hear anything about a lost phone?”

Adele wasn't sure why, but the name “Lund” sounded familiar to her. She started to lift her head at the same time whoever Nurse Lund was responded.

“Uh uh, but there was a code in room eighty-three, so I was gone for a while.”

There was a sharp ringing sound in Adele's ears. She gasped for air, but her lungs wouldn't cooperate. She knew that voice. A voice that had been her only salvation in a very dark place.

She lifted her eyes to look at the person who spoke, but her vision was blurring on her, turning everything into doubles. She managed to lock on to the employee ID tag hanging from his shirt pocket, and though it was blurry, she could still read “LUND” in large, blue, capital letters.

“I ... I ... I ...” she was still searching for oxygen.

“Are you okay, miss?” the male nurse asked her. His voice pierced through her mind like a gun shot. She winced at the sound of it.

“I ... I know you,” she finally managed to breathe at the same moment she looked him in the eye.