by Marla Monroe
When he pulled into the drive at close to nine-thirty, he noticed that Jim’s truck was still there. True to his word, he was staying to help them. Now that Darla was responding, he was relieved to have the help. Marcus met him at the door.
“How is she?” Marcus demanded as soon as Randall walked in.
“She licked her lips, so I asked the nurse if we could give her some water or something.” Randall filled him in on how he wet her lips with the ice chips and squeezed his hand.
“I told you. She’s getting better. She’ll be awake in no time, now,” Marcus said.
Randall smiled past his brother at Jim. The big man smiled back and headed back toward the living room.
“Do you think she knows us, Randall?” Marcus asked.
“Yeah, I do. She made a noise when I told her you would be there in the morning,” he told his brother.
“What are we going to do if she doesn’t remember us when she wakes up?”
“For one thing, we’re going to tell her the truth. Maybe not all at one time, but I’m not making that mistake again. It almost cost us her life. Not to mention the baby.”
“Any news on the baby?” Marcus followed Randall into the kitchen.
He poured a glass of milk, hoping it would help settle his stomach. There had been too many events lately. He figured he had the beginnings of an ulcer brewing in his gut.
“The nurse said she hasn’t bled any, so that’s a good sign. It’s too early to hear a heartbeat. When you go tomorrow, wait around for the doctors and see what you can find out. I don’t like not knowing what to expect.”
“I will. Surely they will think about moving her out of ICU soon. It’s been almost five days now,” Marcus complained.
“I don’t want them to move her any sooner than they need to. Right now she has nurses around the clock. Once they move her, we will be her main nurses. I’m not sure I’d know what to do.”
“I hadn’t though of that.” Marcus let out a breath and nodded his head.
“We need to get some rest. Have you seen a weather report tonight?” Randall asked.
“Yeah, snow expected starting tomorrow night. Nothing major, but the roads might be closed in some areas.” Marcus leaned back against the cabinet and crossed his arms.
“We’ll see what it shapes up to be, then make a decision about Darla. More than likely you will need to go to town and stay there with her. I’ll have to take care of the ranch. With Dad here to help, we’ll be okay.”
“I can take my laptop and work while I’m there. I noticed they have Wi-Fi throughout the hospital. I can work down in the cafeteria when I’m not visiting her,” he said.
“Good.” Randall stretched. He was exhausted.
“Better head on to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy one for both of us,” Marcus told him.
“I’m on my way there now.”
Since Darla had been the hospital, they’d returned to sleeping in their old rooms. Neither of them wanted to sleep together. Randall figured it was a man thing. Jim wondered into the kitchen and nodded at Randall.
“Everything going okay with Darla?” he asked.
“Yeah, she’s beginning to respond to us.”
“Good. You know your mom is praying for her.”
“I know.”
Jim patted his shoulder and left him and Marcus alone. They smiled at each other then Marcus shrugged and headed for his room. He followed his brother upstairs and after a brisk shower, fell into sleep. The first deep sleep he’d had since the wreck.
* * * *
Darla focused on the voice begging her to wake up. She tried, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. She was so thirsty. She licked her lips. That was easy to do, so she tried lifting her hand. She must have done it because Marcus kissed her hard on the mouth. Why couldn’t she wake up?
She tried to think back to what had happened that she was like this. The more she tried to remember, the harder it became and the more her head ached. Finally, she gave up and concentrated on what she did know. She was in a hospital. The nurses told her where she was and what the date was all day everyday. They were trying to orient her, she realized, but it meant nothing to her right then. All she wanted to do was wake up. Wake up and see Randall and Marcus again. They would tell her what happened.
Marcus’s voice near her ear teased her with what he wanted to do to her when she got well.
“I’ll kiss you all over. From your head down to your dainty little toes,” he told her.
The thought of him kissing her that way sped up her heart. The droning machine that beeped began to beep faster.
“You like that, huh?” Marcus drawled next to her ear.
Yes, she wanted that. She worked at forming the words, but they wouldn’t come. Instead, she got out a garbled couple of words. Marcus responded by raining kisses all over her face. It felt so good, she tried again. This time she was able to say her rendition of Marcus. It had the right number of syllables, but lacked distinction between the letters. Frustrated to the point of screaming, Darla punched the bed with her hand.
Marcus grabbed her hand and carried it to his lips for a kiss. The feel of them against his mouth struck a new round of arousal. She wanted to be able to see them. She worked at opening her eyes, but they felt glued shut. She was tired again. She’d just take a little nap. Then she would work on waking up.
Somewhere in her mind a thought kept threatening to come out. It eluded her though, and she knew for some reason it was important for her to know. She relaxed and let sleep claim her.
* * * *
Marcus arrived in the ICU waiting room with enough time to set up his computer for work. Since the weather predicted another six inches of snow, he would spend the night at the hospital so he could check on Darla. Randall and Jim would handle the ranch. Once again he was thankful for their family living close by. Without their help, it would have been nearly impossible to spend as much time with Darla at the hospital as they had.
If the weather didn’t pan out or was lighter than anticipated, Randall would drive to town to visit with Darla while Jim handled the ranch for a couple of hours. Randall insisted that Marcus would stay overnight regardless. He didn’t want to chance that someone wouldn’t be there for her when she woke up.
The clock above the water fountain showed he had five more minutes till they would announce visiting hours and let them back. He fingered the book in his hand. It was one of hers. It looked well worn, so he hoped it was a favorite one. He planned to read to her from it, thinking it might help her to come back to them.
The minute they announced visiting time, Marcus was in line for the sink to wash his hands. He couldn’t wait to see what Darla might do today. She had been steadily improving for the last couple of days. He just knew she would open her eyes soon.
He still worried she wouldn’t remember them. The doctor had warned them she might have various levels of amnesia. She could remember everything, or nothing, or something in between. Depending on how much it upset her, they were to help her remember simple things at first like their names, where she was, and things about her life. Marcus figured it was going to be a testimony in patience and discretion. They would need to hold off telling her all the details of why she had been leaving until she was strong enough to handle it. Maybe they were just putting it off because they were afraid of what she would say.
Marcus walked into her room to find her sitting up in bed. It appeared that they had washed her hair and brushed until it shined. The bandage was gone now. He could easily see the stitches on her temple where she’d hit the driver’s side window. Still, she looked great as far as he was concerned. He smiled and kissed her.
“Hey, baby. You look beautiful.”
To his astonishment, she opened her eyes and smiled back at him.
Chapter Sixteen
Randall could hardly wait to get to the hospital that day. This was the day they were going to move Darla to a private room. Marcus was already there and had been
with her almost every day since.
They figured out that she remembered everything up until the day before the wreck. They hadn’t told her anything concerning it yet. He planned to tell her everything in a couple of days. She had the right to know. If they didn’t tell her, and she remembered later, it would be the same as if they’d had her investigated all over again.
He almost ran down the hall to the ICU when a nurse shook a finger at him. He grinned like an idiot and slowed his pace. When he entered the ICU visitor’s waiting room, there was no sight of Marcus or his “temporary office” he’d set up. Panic threatened to close his throat. He pulled out his phone and glanced down to see he’d missed a call. He punched autodial, recognizing the phone number as Marcus’s.
“Hey! Where have you been? They moved Darla to her room early,” Marcus told him.
“Damn, I didn’t feel it vibrate to answer it. What room are you in?” he asked.
Marcus filled him in, and Randall walked as he talked. When he reached the nurse’s desk that covered the set of rooms where Darla was located, he checked the room numbers and hurried toward room two fifty-two.
Without saying anything, he hung up on his brother and eased the door to her room open. He could hear Marcus calling his name into his phone. He grinned, even knowing it was childish, but he was so happy right then he felt like a child on Christmas morning.
“I’m here, Marcus,” Randall whispered as he walked into the room.
Marcus shook his head but smiled. They both turned toward the bed when they heard a quiet little laugh. Darla was awake and had witnessed the joke. Randall smiled at her.
“Hey, baby. I’m so glad to see that pretty smile again,” Randall said.
Darla blushed. He had worried he might never see her pretty face suffused with pink again. But there it was. He leaned over the bed and gave her a soft kiss. He so wanted to lay his hand on her belly knowing that their child was there. Marcus seemed to know what was on his mind.
“All her tests are normal so far.”
He emphasized all, so Randall figured he was including the baby as well. That was welcomed news. “Darla, our mom and dads are coming this afternoon to see you. I know you haven’t met them yet, but you have spoken to Mom on the phone.” Randall watched her face for any signs of panic or discomfort.
She didn’t look particularly worried about the prospect of meeting their parents. That relieved him. He wasn’t sure how he would have asked them not to come, but if Darla had looked panicked or upset at it, he would have. He didn’t want her upset if they could avoid it. The time was coming when they would confess their sins to her and that was soon enough.
“It will be nice to meet them,” she said with a nervous looking smile.
“You’ve been practicing, haven’t you?” Randall asked.
“Marcus has been helping me,” she said.
“Really, it’s all just coming back to her in bits and pieces,” Marcus said. He elevated his eyebrows in a silent message.
Randall deciphered it to mean they needed to come clean soon, or she was going to remember on her own. They needed to talk to the doctors today. Randall would make sure they caught them. She was aware of herself and them and remembering more each day. It was time.
* * * *
Darla watched the two men talk together. She knew them and remembered how she’d come to be living with them. She even remembered that they called her their fiancée and said they loved her more than anything. What she didn’t remember was the wreck and why she had been driving in such dangerous conditions? She wasn’t a stupid person. She would never have put her life in danger like that.
“Hey. What are you looking so serious about?” Randall asked her.
“Nothing really. Just trying to remember what happened that day to make me run off like that.” There, she’d hit the nail on the head.
Both men looked worried. They were keeping something from her. She just wasn’t sure what it was yet, but she would remember eventually. Right now, all she remembered was how loved she’d felt with them. They pampered her despite the fact that she was also their cook and housekeeper. She supposed as their fiancée she wasn’t technically their cook and housekeeper anymore.
“Marcus, you probably need to work on your accounts. I don’t need you here all the time to babysit me. I can call the nurse if I need anything. I just push the button…” She trailed off, feeling lost.
Where was the button? What did it look like? She couldn’t remember. Damnit, why couldn’t she remember? Frustration brought tears to her eyes. She seemed to cry over every little thing.
“Here you go, baby.” He handed her the button that was clipped on the bed next to her.
She looked at it and still didn’t recognize it. She didn’t let on that she didn’t that she didn’t understand. It upset Marcus when she couldn’t think of a word. She did pretty good most of the time, but sometimes the littlest thing would stump her.
“I brought everything I need with me so I can work here with you,” Marcus told her.
“Oh, okay.”
He looked at her oddly, and she wondered if he’d told her that already. Damn, why was she having so much trouble with the little things? She could sit up and talk and eat without help, but she hadn’t known what to do with the brush he gave her. Why didn’t she know it was to brush her hair? Even now, knowing that, she couldn’t picture what it looked like in her head.
“Have your doctors been in yet?” he asked her.
“Um, I don’t think so. It’s so hard to keep up with the days now.”
Randall looked stressed to say the least, Darla thought. She knew that she was the reason for it, and it troubled her. She also knew they were keeping something else important from her. Was it that she would never fully recover? Would she always have trouble remembering things? She didn’t think she could live like that. Someone would always have to be close by to help her if she forgot how to do something. Tears built up in the back of her eyes. She blinked to keep them at bay.
“I think I’m going to take a little nap now,” she told them. If she pretended to sleep, or if by some miracle she fell asleep, they couldn’t see how confused she was right then.
“You go right ahead. We’ll be quiet,” Randall assured her. He took a seat in the straight back chair while Marcus stretched out in the lounge chair next to the bed.
She closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep. She was tired and knew there was something she was missing that was important. If they didn’t tell her what was going on soon, she would start asking questions. Right now, she wanted to sleep and hide from whatever had made her run because deep down, that was what she knew she had done. Run from them.
* * * *
Marcus worked on his accounts, all the time keeping an ear open for Darla should she wake up and need anything. Randall was asleep in the chair opposite them. He usually snored, but this time, it wasn’t him he could hear sawing logs. It was Darla. He loved her quiet, little snores. They were delicate, just like she was.
He and Randall were of the same mind. She had to know the details and fast. He could tell she was already beginning to remember enough to ask questions. In his mind, they weren’t going to ask the doctors if they could tell her. They were going to tell them what they were going to do. He wasn’t risking her thinking they were holding something back again. The only question now was if they told her before or after their parents came to see her. His vote was for afterwards. He hoped Randall would feel that way, too.
A knock at the door startled him. The door opened and two of Darla’s doctor’s walked in. The shorter of the two was the trauma doctor who took care of her when she first came in. The man next to him with the thinning brown hair was the neonatologist. So far, Darla hadn’t read his name tag to know what he did. Would this be the time she did? He hoped not. They needed to make her comfortable before they told her she was pregnant with their child. And that they had deceived her.
Randall woke up when th
ey knocked and ran a hand over his face before standing up and holding out his hand.
“Nice to see you again,” he said.
“How is our patient doing today?”
“She’s doing fine, and she’s awake,” Darla answered him.
Marcus hid his smile behind a cough. She was feisty all right. That hadn’t changed about her at all. He and Randall loved that she was like that, but it might cause some problems down the road, Marcus realized.
“Well, let’s take a look at you. Gentlemen, would you step out?” A nurse appeared and shooed them out while she remained to assist the doctors.
“Don’t let them get away,” Marcus said. “We need to tell her tonight.”
“I agree. She’s smart. I think she has some of it already figured out,” Randall added.
They remained outside Darla’s room until the two men stepped back outside. They motioned for them to follow them a little down the hall so that Darla wouldn’t be able to hear them talking.
“How is she doing?” Marcus asked right off the bat.
“Much, much improved. I dare say with outpatient rehab she could go home in a few more days,” the trauma doctor said.
Marcus looked over at Randall and smiled. That was very good news.
“What about the baby?” Randall asked the other doctor.
“Right now, I would say she is going to be able to carry the child. All of the preliminary tests show the baby is viable and growing appropriately. She needs to see her own OB doctor as soon as possible. I’ll send all her files to whomever she chooses. They are going to want to follow her very closely.”
Marcus smiled. So far there was nothing but good news. The two doctors turned to leave, but Randall stopped them.
“We are going to tell her everything tonight,” he told them.