When He Returns

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  “I hope so, but I feel bad she’s not here with the rest of us.”

  “She would have been if someone had been paying attention to her,” Dalton muttered. “By the time JD, Dani, and I got here, she was already gone.”

  The time between updates seemed to stretch longer and longer, and Dalton wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign. Mitch had come out of surgery after a couple of hours, and he was in recovery already.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was the surgeon who made an appearance. He didn’t offer any false hope but seemed to be cautiously optimistic. From what Dalton could understand, Ethan wasn’t completely out of the woods, and the next twenty-four hours would be an indicator of where things would go. It sounded like they were going to keep him in a medically induced coma until the swelling in his head decreased, and that he still might need more surgeries.

  When Makayla asked if she could see him, the doctor agreed to allow her to spend a few minutes with him in recovery. After she disappeared beyond the automatic doors leading to the recovery ward beyond, the rest of the family waited yet again. It felt as if they had endured the longest day since the one that had followed his mom’s aneurysm.

  Still, there was no word from Sierra. Dalton was starting to get frustrated with her. Didn’t she think that they might be worried about her? Or was she thinking that they were so wrapped up in Makayla and Brooke that they weren’t concerned about her too?

  What was most concerning was that she wasn’t even reading his texts. They sat unread on his phone screen. He would almost have rather had her read them and not respond because then at least he’d know that she was aware that they were worried about her too.

  When Makayla came back out, she looked absolutely worn out. Her emotions were clear on her face, and she all but collapsed into their parents’ arms.

  “They said I might as well go home because he won’t be waking up anytime soon. They said I need my rest for the coming days after he regains consciousness. Plus, I need to tell the kids what’s happened.”

  Bennett and Grace offered to take her home, and she quickly accepted their offer. About twenty minutes later, Brooke reappeared from another visit with Mitch. Her face, though worn and tired, also held relief.

  “He was able to talk to me a bit more this time,” she told them. “But he’s disoriented and doesn’t remember what happened. The doctor said that’s not uncommon with swelling in the brain like he has. Apparently, it’s not terribly severe, but it’s enough that they want to keep an eye on him.”

  “Are you going home now?” his dad asked her.

  Brooke nodded. “They said there’s nothing more I can do tonight. I’ll be back first thing in the morning, and they said he can have other visitors tomorrow.”

  Though Dalton saw the relief on his parents’ faces, he knew that the night ahead would be a sleepless one for them. Until they could see for themselves that Ethan and Mitch were going to be okay, they wouldn’t rest easy.

  None of them would.

  After spending the first hour as she waited for an update curled up on the couch in the staff lounge, Sierra knew she needed something to keep her busy. While there was no way she could fulfill her duties as a nurse while being so distracted, she managed to convince her supervisor to let her take on some of the tasks of the nurses’ aides and the janitorial staff.

  That meant she could deliver food and drinks to patients. She could clean up bedding, if needed. And she could talk to the patients. That was the part of her job she loved the best anyway. As bedtime came around, she was able to talk quietly with a few. She said prayers with a couple of the kids and their parents who were open to it—people who had, at one time or another, seen the cross necklace she sometimes wore and opened a dialogue about it.

  In the end, she managed to find quite a few things to keep her busy. It soothed her to be able to care for the patients the way others were caring for Ethan. Rather than being glued to her phone while waiting for updates, she left her phone in her locker and relied on her supervisor to pass on the updates each time they came.

  It was past the end of her shift, but Sierra stayed on, and the next shift head nurse had been more than willing to receive the updates from the surgical team. When word finally came that Ethan had made it out of surgery and would be moved to the ICU after being in recovery for a bit, Sierra felt relief wash through her.

  She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that he was out of the woods yet. Being a nurse and understanding the severity of what the doctor had said was wrong with him meant she knew he had a long road of recovery ahead of him, and things could turn bad at any point along that road.

  Still, she clung to the hope that it was God’s will that Ethan live. That his purpose on this earth had not yet been fulfilled. He was involved in the church, leading men’s Bible studies, and taking the kids with him to help at the homeless shelter downtown. Surely God would see that there was still so much good Ethan could do for His glory on earth.

  Even as she thought that, however, the knowledge of all the good people God had taken “before their time” sat heavy in her stomach. Sometimes God called people to Heaven even when it seemed to everyone else that they could still do so much good on earth.

  “Sierra?” The shift supervisor came to where Sierra sat at the desk organizing the files for patients that had been discharged that day. “I just got a call from the ICU that Ethan has been transferred there from recovery. Give them about half an hour to get him settled then you can go see him for a few minutes. Just remember that he’s heavily sedated.”

  “I will.” She set the files aside and got to her feet. “Thank you so much for bearing with me today. I know it was a bit unusual.”

  “It was,” the woman said with a nod. “But you’re always so helpful around here, going above and beyond what you need to do. It was our privilege to help you out when you were dealing with such a difficult situation.”

  “Thank you.” Emotion surged through Sierra, but she didn’t take the time to analyze it. “I’ll just go get my things together.”

  The woman nodded. “And remember that your shift is covered for tomorrow, so you don’t have to worry about coming in.”

  Right then, Sierra was relieved at the thought she didn’t have to come to work the next day, but she wasn’t sure how she would feel when the next twenty-four hours would likely involve a lot more waiting than she wanted to do.

  After she’d retrieved her belongings from her locker, she headed in the direction of the ICU. She wanted to rush, but since they had asked for time to get him settled, she kept her pace slow and steady, relieved that the shaking in her body had calmed, for the most part.

  He was still alive.

  When she finally reached the ICU, one of the nurses guided her to Ethan’s side after she’d washed and gowned up. Sierra felt the pain well up inside her again as she looked at her brother. If they hadn’t told her it was him, she wasn’t sure she would have known. His face was swollen and bruised beyond recognition, and the part of his chest that she could see was also swollen and bruised. A blanket covered the rest of him, but the wires and tubes that poked out from all parts of his body were alarming.

  Moving carefully, she placed her hand against his face, reveling in the warmth that meant that he was still alive. Oh, how she wanted him to open his eyes and look at her. She blinked to clear away the tears that gathered.

  “I’m here, Ethan. Keep fighting. We all need you to keep fighting.” Sierra’s voice wavered, and she had to swallow in order to continue. “Everything is going to be okay. We just need you to keep fighting. We love you and will be praying so hard that your body heals the way it needs to. Just don’t give up.”

  She moved her hand to slide it into his and closed her eyes. “Heavenly Father, please place Your healing hand on Ethan. Knit back together the things that have been broken within him. Give him the strength he needs to continue on this journey. Be also with Makayla and the children as th
ey adjust to not having Ethan in their everyday lives for a time. Give them peace and comfort.”

  Sierra lapsed into silence for a moment, at a loss for words and yet still pleading with God to spare Ethan’s life. When she felt a touch on her arm, she looked up to see the nurse standing beside her.

  “We’ll take good care of him,” she said with a reassuring smile. “You need to go get your rest now, so you’re ready to handle whatever comes in the days ahead.”

  “If anything comes up, I know you’ll call his wife, but could you please call me too? Just to be sure I hear about it?”

  “I think your number is on his file, so I’ll make note that you’re to be called as well.”

  “Thank you.” Sierra bent and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then made her way to where she’d left her things earlier.

  It was dark as she walked to her car, and as she drove home, exhaustion began to drag at her. Usually by this time, she was already in bed and had been there for awhile. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure that her mind wasn’t ready to settle into sleep the way her body was.

  At the apartment building, she gathered up her stuff and headed inside. As she reached the second-floor landing, she spotted a bright yellow Post-It on her door.

  Shifting her things around to one arm, she pulled the note off and read it.

  No matter what time you get home, please call me. -D

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Though the D could have stood for Danica, Sierra knew Danica’s handwriting, and that wasn’t it. Clutching the note in her hand, she unlocked the door then let herself into the apartment. She dumped her things onto the couch, then slumped down beside them.

  She dragged in a deep breath then slowly exhaled, willing the tension of the day to leave her body. Unfortunately, that didn’t really work, so she pulled her phone out of the bag where she’d shoved it earlier. In her haste to leave the staff lounge, she hadn’t even stopped to check for texts or messages.

  Her eyes widened as she saw the number of texts she had from Danica and Dalton. It was quickly apparent she’d been wrong to assume that they would all just be focused on Makayla and Brooke. In her highly emotional state, she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She’d just felt so…alone.

  Sierra plopped down on the couch beside her pile of stuff and brought up Dalton’s contact information. After a moment’s hesitation, she tapped the screen to call then put it on speakerphone and leaned back against the couch, resting the phone on her chest.

  “Where have you been?” Dalton demanded when he answered.

  “I was at the hospital,” she told him, a bit wary of the tone of his voice. “I was on my ward.”

  “Why didn’t you tell anyone that you were leaving the waiting room? Or check your messages?” he asked. “Didn’t you care about how Ethan was doing?”

  Grabbing the phone from her chest, Sierra sat up. She didn’t even bother to try and keep the indignation from her voice when she said, “Of course I did. Just because I wasn’t in the waiting room doesn’t mean I wasn’t getting updates. I just wasn’t going to sit there when there was someplace I could be with things to help keep me busy while I waited for news.”

  There was a beat of silence before Dalton spoke again.

  “Sierra, I’m sorry,” Dalton said, his voice dropping to a softer range, then he sighed. “It’s just…we were worried about you, and when you weren’t responding to our messages, it meant we only worried more.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t reply. I had left my phone in my locker because I was out on the ward. The updates were coming to me from my supervisor.”

  “Did you get a chance to see Ethan before you came home?”

  “Yeah. They let me stop by for a few minutes when he was settled in the ICU.” Sierra got up and moved towards the large window that looked out over the park. The street was quiet and dark except for the circles of illumination from the streetlamps. Most the houses she could see were dark as well, their occupants having already ended their days. “I could hardly recognize him.”

  “Makayla was a mess after she saw him in recovery. Did they give you an idea of how long he’ll be in the hospital?”

  “No, but it’s going to be a long road to recovery,” Sierra said wearily. “Between the concussion, internal injuries, and the broken bones, it’s going to be awhile before he’s back to normal. If he ever gets there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Sometimes severe concussions are difficult to recover from, and even with therapy, the extent of damage to his legs could change his walk.”

  “Like after Gabe’s accident?”

  “Exactly. It took him awhile before he was able to walk without his cane and even now, he still has a limp sometimes.” She hesitated, resting her forehead against the glass. “How’s Mitch?”

  “He’s doing better than Ethan. I’m not sure of all the specifics of his injuries, but they said he was stable and that he wouldn’t have to go to the ICU after he was out of recovery.”

  “That’s good. It would be a lot more difficult for all of us if both of them were in serious condition.”

  “Yeah.” Dalton sighed. “It was such a horrible, freak accident. I know Bennett feels guilty that he didn’t get hurt at all.”

  “That’s not his fault though. It’s just how things happened.” Even as she said the words, Sierra couldn’t help but wish that perhaps the injuries could have been spread out over the three of them, so Ethan hadn’t had to bear the brunt of it. Maybe he wouldn’t still be fighting for his life. “Anyway, I need to go to bed. I’m exhausted.”

  “I’m sure you are,” Dalton said sympathetically. “Are you going up to the hospital tomorrow?”

  “Probably. They won’t let us in to see him too much though, especially while he’s still heavily sedated. I don’t want to encroach on Makayla’s time with him, so I may wait until later in the day to go in and see him.”

  “I think she understands that you need to see him too,” Dalton said.

  Sierra wasn’t one hundred percent sure of that, but that was only because she knew that Makayla was still facing the possibility of losing her husband and wouldn’t want to give up any time with him. Sierra couldn’t really blame her, but at the same time, she was still at risk of losing her brother, too.

  A wave of grief crashed over her, and she swallowed hard against it. She didn’t want to grieve when Ethan was still alive. The grief would override her hope, and she really wanted—needed—to keep her hope alive.

  Still, emotion tightened her throat as tears slid down her cheeks. But she refused to cry on the phone with Dalton, so she took a deep breath and said, “I need to go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  She hung up before he could respond because even the slightest bit of sympathy from him would be too much for her, and she wasn’t ready to share those emotions with him—or anyone—just yet.

  Dalton stared at the phone, concerned by Sierra’s abrupt termination of their call. He hated the idea of her being alone when she was so worried about Ethan. He knew his folks were staying with Makayla that night to support her and to help with the kids. Everyone else had someone to support them during this time, except for Sierra.

  But there was nothing he could do about it since he couldn’t exactly stay with her.

  With a sigh, Dalton got up and went into the kitchen to find something to eat for a late-night snack. He’d been thinking of heating up some leftovers when Sierra had called, so he opened the fridge to see what was there.

  In the end, none of it appealed to him, so he just made himself a ham and cheese sandwich then sat down in front of the television to eat it. An entertainment program was playing on the channel he’d left the TV on earlier, so he reached for the remote, but before he could change it, he heard a familiar name and paused.

  Jesse O’Shea declined to comment on the status of his band today when we caught up with him in LA. In the almost six months since his bandmate, Angel, died of an apparent overdose, Jesse
and the rest of the band have been flying well below the radar. Rumor has it that the band has disbanded, but there has been no official confirmation of that. Of concern is the disappearance of lead singer, Dalton, who hasn’t been seen since Angel’s funeral. It is believed that he has been in rehab, but this has not been confirmed or denied by his spokesperson. All they will say is that Dalton is doing well and considering his future.

  Dalton’s eyebrows rose at that. He supposed that was true, but he hadn’t expected his representatives to release any sort of statement without at least talking to him.

  Behind the report was video footage of Jesse walking into an office building. Dalton frowned as he watched him disappear inside, wondering what had taken him there. He’d just talked to him two days earlier, and the man hadn’t said anything about heading to LA.

  Though he could call Jesse, since it was two hours earlier on the West Coast, Dalton decided to put that off for another day. If there was something Jesse thought he should know about, he’d tell him. In the meantime, he had a family crisis to get through.

  The next morning, Dalton was up early and in the gym, trying to figure out what his role was in everything that was going on. He knew what he wanted it to be.

  He wanted to be at Sierra’s side, helping her in any way she needed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure she’d accept his help. It was like she thought she needed to deal with this on her own. The fact that she’d left the family the day before reinforced that thought for Dalton.

  Of course, he also felt that his family had played a role in Sierra’s reaction. By turning all their comfort to Makayla, they had, in a sense, turned their backs on Sierra. No wonder she felt she had to deal with this by herself. He wanted to find a way to prove to her that wasn’t the case.

  By the time he’d finished his workout and was in the shower, he still didn’t have any idea of what to do. He wished that he could drive her to the hospital and stay with her there, but he couldn’t drive, and most likely, she’d go back to her ward between visits anyway. Still, he had to try.