by Joyce Jordan
Fourteen
Gabe had not slept since the night he walked into Ana’s apartment and found Stefano in her bed. He was angry at himself for jumping to conclusions. He realized now that he should at least have allowed her to explain, despite what he thought he saw or believed was the truth. Everybody deserved their day in court, as they said. And he hadn’t given Ana that opportunity and she wasn’t giving him the chance to apologize either. His sister had told him to give her time but he didn’t know how much time was enough. The more time that passed the more he missed her and the worse he felt like shit. Kelly had been right that night she called him a piece of shit. He was relying on intel from Manuel who had seen her a couple of times and the body guards he had assigned to protect her since she refused to use his car and driver when she went out. He wasn’t prepared to let her go, and he would fight for her till the end. Most days he spent time looking at his phone going through the photos he had taken of her when she had been unaware, usually when she slept in his bed. His apartment was feeling empty, even her clothes in his closet didn’t offer him comfort, and he kept thinking about that day she had chewed him about them, the first weekend she had stayed at his penthouse. He looked at the box containing his clothes she had shipped to him a few day after that fateful Saturday. He couldn’t bring himself to unpack the clothes, so they stayed in the box which he had pushed to a corner in the closet.
Most days he didn’t make it to the office. He prefered to work from home and not face anyone with his haggard face. At first his foot had prevented him from moving around too much. That heel had been a killer. Now he just didn’t care about his appearance anymore, and most days he just showered and put on clean clothes, and was even keeping a stubble that he shaved every couple of days. It had been about ten days since that fateful day, and Gabe was thinking he may have to resort to kidnapping her so he could get her to listen to him. He needed to take her to some island faraway and only release her once he had had his say.
His heart almost stopped when he got a call from Kelly screaming about Ana. Even after asking her to slow down, he still couldn’t get what she said, except the words, Ana..hurt…in hospital. It was a while before he could even find out which hospital.
Gabe shot out of his penthouse so fast, it was like the hounds were chasing him. He had given his driver time off since he was hardly going anywhere these days. Besides it would take too much time before anyone could make it, so he drove himself. He drove like a crazy man praying for her life. He hadn’t even told her he loved her. And now they were not speaking to each other, because of a stupid fight that was all his fault. God what a fool he was. Even the billions he had amassed over the years were not worth anything to him, compared to Ana’s life. He tried not to jump to conclusions on how she had been hurt. Jumping to conclusions is how he had gotten into this current trouble he was in with her.
Gabe arrived at the hospital Ana had been brought to, the same hospital Kelly worked. Thank God it’s one of the best, Gabe thought to himself and he stopped his car at the valet drop off, before rushing inside the emergency wing entrance.
He was trying to talk to one of the nurses at the desk asking for Ana Summers when Kelly spotted him and pulled his hand. She was a mess, crying that it was all her fault. He had to calm her down before he could get a coherent word from her. She wasn’t even sure of the whole story, but she had forgotten some important notes she had been working on the past few days and had asked Ana to bring them to her. She had just dropped them off to her before she was back in less than half an hour on a gurney with bruises. Apparently some boys had tossed her around when she tried to help an old lady they were making fun of. They had tossed her so hard that she fell and hit her hard against one of the seats on the subway train and hadn’t woken up since and no one was sure of anything until they had done tests.
“Where is she now?” Gabe asked her.
“They took her for the tests. They won’t allow me to be there because I am not immediate family, but I can try to get information from some of the other doctors or nurses who are working on her, or read her chart if I get the chance.”
“Okay, how about you find out who her doctor is, how long it will be before they are back while I make some calls. Did you call her family?” Gabe figured Kelly needed to do something, needed to keep busy so she didn’t go back to crying.
“No, I didn’t know what to tell them. I was hoping she would wake up so I could find out what happened before I scared them unnecessarily.”
“Okay, you did good. Thanks for calling me.”
He typed a small message to his family and asked them to come. Gabe knew everyone would drop whatever they were doing and come to support Ana. Next he called her brother, Mark. He explained what Kelly had told him, and that he hadn’t even had the chance to see her because she was having tests done somewhere, but he was about to go and find the doctor and see if he could get any enlightening infomation. Gabe assured him he would call him back as soon as he found out something, but in the meantime he would send his jet to pick them up.
Gabe met Kelly in the waiting room before they went to look for the doctor assigned to Ana. He was anything but calm, but he needed to present a calm face to Kelly otherwise she would just be a wreck too and they wouldn’t be able to help Ana.
They found him, a Dr. Eli Simmons, who said he wouldn’t get the results for another fifteen minutes but still wouldn’t be able to give them any information unless they were family. Before he could get into the doctor’s face, Kelly was telling the doctor that he was Ana’s fiance. They hovered around the area waiting for Ana to be brought back from her tests. His family arrived one at a time, all wearing worried expressions on their faces. Gabe saw her as she was wheeled in from the elevator. She looked so pale and fragile. He rushed to her side as her bed was pushed behind one of the curtains. Her hands were so cold but Gabe held onto them and held on as he whispered to her. Dr. Eli Simmons came in and took her chart then asked him to step outside. He didn’t want to leave her alone, but needed to hear what the doctor had found out.
“Is she going to be okay Dr?”
“She has some minor bruises on her body, which will heel in a few days. It’s the bump on her head that I am worried about,” Dr Simmons said. “Right now she is in a coma, which is probably the best thing for her. She is not in any pain, but she will be if she wakes up.”
“What do you mean if? Are you saying she may never wake up?” Gabe could hardly get the words out.
“I don’t want to scare you or give you any false hopes. But the brain is tricky sometimes. We need to monitor her for the next several hours, making sure there is no swelling. The sooner she wakes up, the better the prognosis. The next twenty four to forty eight hours will give us a better indication. One of the good things going for her is that she is young and strong. She just needs to fight, if you talk to her it may help. Anyone who loves her should talk to her so she knows she is loved and knows there are people who need her. Some people don’t believe that works, but I have seen it help many patients. And sometimes medicine is not enough for a full recovery.”
“Thank you Dr.” Gabe said and shook the doc’s hand.
“I’ll be coming to check on her later. And in a few hours we will have her moved to a room.”
Gabe nodded his head and walked over to his family. He took them to the waiting room and held Kelly’s hand. She had stopped crying and was hanging onto Evelyn. His mother walked in while he was in the middle of telling his siblings and Kelly what Dr. Eli Simmons had said. She held him as if he were still a teenager. “Baby, you need to be strong for her. She loves you, she will come out of this.”
“Mum, I’m so scared. We have’t talked since ten days ago. And it’s all my fault.”
“It’s okay, just think positive for now. You have to fight for her. Show her what she means to you and she will wake up soon.”
“I know,” he said. Then he continued and told them everything. “Mum, I need you to prepa
re the guest rooms at my place for her parents and brothers. I sent my pilot to go and pick them up, but I have no idea what time they will arrive. I have to call Mark and give him an update.” Gabe turned to Kelly and asked her if she needed to go back to work. She had been given the rest of the day off, so he asked if she and Evelyn could accompany his mom. Help stoke up the fridge with groceries.
“I promise I will call you as soon as anything changes. Why don’t you all peek in before you leave?”
Kelly agreed reluctantly. He knew she needed to be nearby. But he needed her to be among people she could feel free to talk to who would try and take her mind off Ana for a short while. He asked his sister to keep an eye out for her.
“Okay baby. I’ll be back soon,” his mom said as she went to see Ana along with Kelly and Evelyn.
Gabe took his brothers to a table with seats at the far end. “I need someone to make sure she gets the best treatment, the best room available. I like the doctor she has, he doesn’t bullshit, but I need someone to run a background check on him. Then I need to know what the fuck happened on that subway. I need those motherfuckers to pay for what they did to Ana. And where the hell are those bodyguards I put on her?” Gabe stood and started pacing. Someone was going to pay. And that someone better pray that Ana survived.
“Sure Gabe. Anything you need. Has someone told Stefano?” Manuel asked.
“Oh God. I don’t think so. I don’t even have his number. I’ll have to ask Kelly for the number.
“It’s okay, I have it. I’ll make the call,” Manuel replied.
“Thanks. She would kill me if she woke up and she found out we didn’t include him.”
“What else do you need done?” Nate asked.
“Oh, I need someone to coordinate transport for her family when they land. I had given John indefinite leave since I was hardly going to the office anyway. If he is in town he should be able to come soon, please have Andrea call him to find out. He will be able to get in touch with the other drivers and everybody should be on call twenty four seven.”
“Anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask. This is what family is for,” Rafe said as he held Gabe’s shoulder in comfort.
“Thanks bro. Thank you all for coming. I’m not sure how I can survive the next several hours without you all. You doing all this for me, will help me concerntrate on Ana knowing you are taking care of the other important stuff. Let me call Mark and update him.” Gabe took a few steps away and dialled Mark again. He gave him the run down from the doc, but said he hadn’t seen any police officers yet, so maybe they were still at the crime scene.
Mark told him they would be coming as soon as the jet landed. His parents were packing, him and Matt had already grabbed their overnight bags and re-assigned some off their work and postponed some of the court cases. He explained to Mark how they had to say he was Ana’s fiance in order to get any information and to let his parents know it wasn’t a sign of any disrespect, but as soon as his sister was out of the coma, he would be asking her to marry him. He thought he could give her time, but life was too short. He needed to make this relationship a permanent one now.
He cut the call and saw two gentleman waiting with his brothers when he turned away from the window. He joined them and introductions were made and he found out they were the detectives assigned to the case.
“Detectives, please tell me what the fuck happened. Sorry about the language.”
“None taken,” the tall skinny one, Smith replied. “From the witnesses who saw the whole thing happen. It seems four teenagers where harrassing some old lady, had been at it for a while. When Ms. Summers got on the train, she stepped in and tried to protect the old lady, and told the teenagers that they were bullies, they needed to go and find someone their own size.”
“She went againist four of them?” Gabe questioned.
“Yes,” Smith answered. “Then they turned their attention on her instead and tossed her round among the four of them, she lost her balance then fell and hit her head against a seat. As soon as the train stopped at the next stop, the teenagers ran away.”
“And no-one else tried to help the old lady or Ana?” Nate stepped in.
“A lot of people just mind their own business. That’s the problem. But we have surveillance photo’s so we should be able to get their pictures, and we have some of the folks who were in the train who are working with out sketch artists for a description of the kids. We believe one or all of them go to school at one of the private schools in Manhattan. One of the witnesses claims she saw something that had colors for some private school, but she doesn’t remember which one. Because of the time this happened, we believe these kids could have skipped school or something. We are not sure, but we have someone looking into that,” the other detective, White who had been quiet joined in. While he was skinny like his partner, he was at least about six inches shorter.
“Looks like it’s some rich kids with nothing better to do,” Manuel paraphrased. “Whoever they are, we need them charged and need those charges to stick. If their parents try to brush all this off, we need to know. My brother will most likely be spending most of his time with Ana. Please call me with any updates.” Manuel handed them each his business card.
“When she wakes, please call us so we can get her statement,” Smith said looking at both Gabe and Manuel.
Everybody nodded.
“We will be in touch,” White said and then they both left.
“You guys go and see Ana while I make a call to Lester. I need him to represent the old lady and Ana, file charges as soon as those teenagers are located. I’m sure they can be tried as adults.” His brothers left and Gabe made the call to his lawyer. He told him he wanted every resource available to be put on this case and no dollars spared. He would call him with more information but in the meantime he told him he could find him at the hospital. Gabe hung up and went to sit with Ana. His brothers were still with her. Manuel was holding one of her hands and telling him about his date the night before. Gabe wasn’t even aware his brother had started dating Stefano. Apprently Ana had pushed them together. It made him even feel worse. His brother was now dating the guy he had accused Ana of sleeping with. How twisted is that?
He went to sit on her other side and held her hand. A few minutes later Stefano entered the room. He rushed to her side and took over from Manuel.
“What happened?” he asked no one in particular.
“Just talk to her. Anything from your happy days that will bring her back. We’ll tell you later about the accident.” Manuel said to him.
Stefano started talking about the day he first met Ana in the library and she had taken him under her wing, helping him with his laptop. Everybody chuckled when he told them how he had been clueless about his virus software having an expiration date. She had taken him to her apartment where he met Kelly, and from that day on, they had become fast friends. As an international exchange student, it hadn’t always been easy, but with Ana and Kelly, they had introduced him to a lot of things, they had even dragged him to the mall, the nail salon, the hair salon and tried to Americanize him.
When the doctor came to check on Ana, Stefano and his brothers left. The doctor said everything looked the same, then he left Gabe alone with Ana. Gabe returned to his seat, where he held Ana’s hand and spoke about their time together. He told her how she meant the world to him, and he needed her to wake up so they could spend the rest of their lives together. He tried to avoid events of the last fourteen days except that he was glad she had intoduced his brother to Stefano. How Manuel was glowing, if a man could be said to glow. But Manuel was certainly smiling more than usual.
Several hours later they moved Ana to a private room. It was huge and had a private sitting area that could accommodate his and Ana’s family without having to crowd her in her room. He sent his family Ana’s new room number then sat and held her hand. Even without talking, he needed to make sure she felt his presence.
A little while later, his mo
m, Evelyn and Kelly came back. He hugged Kelly and told her there had been no changes since she saw her last. He left her to have some private time with Ana. He closed the connecting door and sat in the private sitting room with his mom and sister.
His mom asked him if he had eaten anything. He told her he couldn’t eat anything right now. But would settle for coffee. Evelyn made coffee in the small coffee maker that was next to a sink. She located a tiny fridge that was empty and said she would bring soda’s and water later. He thanked her for the coffee and drank it silently, staring into space.
His brothers and Stefano arrived an hour later with huges bags of food. He looked at his mom and knew she had told them to bring the food. He knew he needed to eat, but the act of eating while Ana lay a few feet away on a hospital bed with her life hanging in the balance, didn’t bode well for anything going down. He didn’t think Kelly had eaten either. He needed to make sure she ate, otherwise he would end up with two women in hospital. He would force food down his throat if it made Kelly eat.
His mother said she would sit with Ana while everybody ate. She managed to convince Kelly to leave Ana’s bedside to eat something, however small. Stefano took care of Kelly and made sure she ate. He was grateful for that. He managed to swallow a few bites but mostly pushed his food around his plate.
As they ate, his brothers gave him updates. Apparently the detectives had found the private school all four boys attended, and even had their names. They were waiting for the boys parents to show up with their son’s before they could release the name, but Lester was working on getting those names sooner.
Once the boys came in, they would bring the witnesses to identify the kids, but according to the sketches drawn from each of the three witnesses, they were identical and the police had confidence the witnesses would have no problem identifying them in a lineup.