Seeing my resignation, Gigi gets back to looking at Georgie’s chart. “You’re just here for observation now?” she questions before going over and reading the monitor.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “How’s she looking?”
“Looks good,” she says. “You’ll be out of here before you know it.”
“Thank God,” I sigh. “Are you on your break?”
“Yeah.”
Shit, I’m sure she doesn’t want to spend her break in a hospital room. I mean, she spends her whole day in them. She deserves to get out or rest. “Why don’t you go enjoy your break?”
She smiles at me and gently shakes her head. “Why don’t you go have one? I’m almost positive you haven’t eaten properly. I’ll stay with Georgie, and besides,” she adds with a sparkle in her eyes. “I am enjoying my break.”
I grin at her comment, but it’s the earlier one that puts me on edge. “I can’t leave her and I can’t do that to you.”
“You can and you will,” she says. “I’ve already eaten and you look exhausted. I’ve got forty-five minutes before I need to be back so go and take a break. Mel is about to go on hers, so I’ll have company. I promise you, I won’t leave this room. Georgie will be safe with me.”
I desperately want to take her up on her offer, even if it’s only for ten minutes so I could run down to the cafeteria and grab something to eat, but the thought of walking out of this room without Georgie right by my side is terrifying.
“Sean,” Gigi scolds as she sees the indecision written all over my face. “You need to take a break. If you don’t, you’re going to be exhausted when you get her home tonight, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m almost certain you’re going to be sitting up all night with her and you can’t do that if you’re falling asleep.”
Shit.
“Damn it, Gigi,” I groan with a sigh. “I don’t like that you’re right.”
“Get used to it,” she says, coming over to me and offering me her hand. I take hold of it and she gives it a tug, attempting to haul me to my feet, but I’m practically twice the size of her so it doesn’t really work in her favor. Instead, she ends up stumbling and falling towards me. I release her hand and reach for her waist to stop her from landing flat on her face. “Holy shit,” she screeches under her breath, trying her hardest not to wake Georgie. “You need to lose some weight.”
“Please,” I scoff as I help her right herself before getting to my feet. “There’s not one ounce of fat on me.”
Her eyes travel down my body and I see the desire in her eyes. It completely turns me on but now really isn’t the time. “No, there is not,” she murmurs.
With a grin, I lean down a press a kiss to her cheek. “Are you sure?” I question one last time.
She places her hand on my chest and splays her fingers. “I’m positive,” she tells me as she looks up at me with those lips that are begging to be kissed.
I gently press my lips against hers and she soaks it up like it’s her only lifeline. “I’ll be back in no time,” I tell her. I step back from her and watch as she drops down into the couch, crossing her legs under her and pulling out her phone, making a show of getting comfortable.
I look back at Georgie and realize I’m being ridiculous. She’s going to be safer with a trained nurse than me. I’m only going to be gone for a few moments and I completely trust Gigi when she says that she won’t leave the room.
With that, I walk to the door just in time to see Mel walking in with her lunch. She takes a seat next to Gigi and together they relax on the couch, taking absolute pleasure in the few moments of peace that they get each day.
I duck out of the room, leaving my daughter in Gigi’s capable hands.
Chapter 15
Gigi
“I’m so tired,” Mel yawns as she puts her feet up on my lap and relaxes back into the couch. “It’s been such a long shift. The little boy in the next room is having such a hard day. I have to go in there every fifteen minutes.”
“Oh, really?” I asks as I flick my eyes back to Georgie to check she’s still sound asleep. “What’s he in for?”
“His appendix burst. The poor kid is in so much pain. He has allergies to most pain killers so he’s pretty much having to tough it out,” she explains with a sad smile.
“Oh, no,” I frown with a heavy heart. “The poor little guy.”
“Yeah, it’s horrible, but he’s being so strong. His mother is a complete wreck and I can tell he wants to break down into tears, but he’s being brave for her.”
I let out a sigh. “He’s going to be a heartbreaker when he’s older.”
“No doubt about it,” Mel smiles as she takes a sip of her water.
Georgie makes a noise and both our heads instantly fly her way, watching to see what she does next. We hold our breaths, not wanting to make a single noise to wake her. She rolls over and squishes her face into the pillow before calming into her sleep. I let out my breath, relieved I haven’t woken her.
The poor little angel needs all the sleep she can get. She’s had an awful night and I bet she’s absolutely wrecked. I can’t even begin to imagine how scary that would have been for her. Being unable to breath and have paramedics crashing into your house in the middle of the night then carrying you away.
“So, how’s Tom going?” I ask with a cringe, still hating the guy.
Mel shrugs her shoulders. “How would I know?”
“Because you’re still sleeping with him,” I grunt.
“I am not,” she whisper yells.
I continue on as if she hadn’t just blatantly lied to my face. “You’ve snuck out of your bedroom nearly every night, except for last night when he snuck into our place and rocked your world while you screamed out his name,” I tell her. “But I can’t work it out. You spend your day’s cursing him and then climb in bed with him each night. What’s it going to be? Do you love him or do you hate him?”
“What?” she questions with panic in her eyes. “Neither. I mean, of course I hate him, he’s a jackass.”
Liar. “A jackass that you really like,” I grunt.
“No,” she argues. “He drives me insane.”
“The sooner you face it the better. He drives you insane because you can’t stop thinking about him and it freaks you out that you keep going back to him because that might just mean that you’re developing feelings for him.”
She presses her lips together in a tight line. “Can we not talk about this anymore?”
“Only if you admit that I’m right,” I practically sing.
“You’re dead wrong.”
I grin as I look over at her and place my hand gently on her thigh. “It’s ok, Melly,” I say digging deep to find my most condescending tone. “You’re going through this thing we call denial. It’s a strong emotion and I get it, it’s like a cloud of fog covering your thoughts, but don’t stress, my slutty friend, the fog will soon clear and the denial will fade away, leaving you with only the truth. You’re falling for a jackass.”
“Shut up,” she groans as she pushes my hand off her and lets out a huff. She pulls her phone out and makes a point of ignoring me.
Georgie’s monitor notifies me to a change in her condition and the grin disappears from my face. We both jump up and hurry over to check her out. Her heart rate has increased and with all her other vitals perfectly fine, I put it down to a bad dream.
I give her little hand a calm squeeze, letting her know that she’s not alone before taking my seat with a heavy heart. I hate the idea that she’s most likely having a bad dream, but I hate it more that the dream is most likely a replay of the horrendous night she’d just had.
Mel reaches across the couch and gives my leg a squeeze. “She’s going to be…”
A deafening alarm sounds over the ward, cutting our conversation short. We look at each other for a moment before springing to our feet. “What the hell is that?” I ask as I look to Georgie who’s seconds from bursting into tears as the deafening
alarm assaults her ears, but at least it’s woken her from her nightmare riddled sleep.
Both our pagers go off at the same time and I look down at it. “Code Silver?” I question as I look up at Mel in horror.
“That’s not…?”
“Yeah,” I panic. “A shooter in the hospital.”
“Fuck,” she curses before pulling the door open and darting out of the room. I rush to the door but stay right where Georgie can see me. The pediatric ward is a flurry of people and I look across at Mel who stands at the nurse’s station speaking with her supervisor.
She turns back to me with horror on her face which is when we hear the first scream coming from the end of our hallway. No. My stomach drops. The gunman must be on this ward.
Fuck.
A man stands at the end of the hallway with a gun in hand. “Where’s my daughter?” he roars over the noise of the alarms and screams. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What the hell are we going to do? I mentally try to go over the hospital’s policies and procedures but I’m coming up blank. All I can think about is the shit loads of children in the ward.
The hospital would have instantly gone into lockdown the second the alarm went off, meaning the big double doors leading in and out of the pediatrics ward would have been locked. No escape. No way for me to get Georgie out of here. No way for the rest of the children to escape. We’re stuck here with a mad man until someone can come for help.
Fuck.
The man spins on his heel to face up the hallway and both Mel and I instantly take a step back to hide ourselves, which puts too much distance between us, a distance that I really don’t like. I glance back at Georgie, absolutely terrified when I hear the sound of a door being kicked in.
My eyes flick across to Mel who hides behind a wall. I see panic all over her face and I have no doubt she’s thinking about all the children on her ward while hoping each of them currently have somebody with them.
I peek down the hallway to find the man hovering in the doorway to one of the rooms. “Where is she?” he yells before raising his gun, pointing it inside the room and pulling the trigger. The sound of the gunshot rings out loud and clear and I resist the urge to run.
Screams are echoed throughout the ward as I stare wide eyed down the hallway at the people fleeing to find somewhere safe. I need to get down there. I need to check if somebody was hurt.
The man instantly ducks back out of the room takes two big steps before kicking in the next door. His arm rises, screams are heard from within, followed by a deafening bang.
Fuck.
I look back at Mel who has tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘Hide’ she mouths before slipping under the nurse’s desk and no doubt squishing herself behind the metal filing cabinet.
With the sound of another door being kicked in, I hurry back into the room and gently close the door behind me, making sure not to draw any attention to us. I silently flick the lock and jump when another bang echoes through my ears. I frantically look around for something that can be shoved behind the door, but everything is affixed to the wall. Panic surges within me.
I hurry over to Georgie as I don’t have much time left. The man is going door by door and recklessly shooting. I need to get her safe. My hands shake but I pull it together. I can’t afford to freak out yet.
Georgie screams in fear as I hurry around to her bedside and start ripping the cords away from her as I mentally map the ward. There’s only three doors left before he comes barging his way in here with a loaded gun.
Another door is kicked in. Screams. Bang.
I go as fast as I can, ripping the blankets off her and scooping her out of the bed. The bathroom is too far away, I’ll never make it there.
Kick. Bang. Bang.
Fuck.
I find the supply closet and wipe my arm across the shelf, letting all the contents fall to the ground before jamming Georgie inside. “You need to stay really quiet, ok?” I beg as she screams for her daddy. “Please Georgie, please calm down. It’s really important that you stay quiet.”
With tears streaming down her face, she nods her head.
“Where is she?” the voice roars from the hallway.
Kick. Screams. Bang. Another scream coming from the little boy with appendicitis.
Fuck. I slam the cupboard door shut on Georgie, hoping she has the strength to remain quiet. I fly across the room, knowing we’re next. I can practically hear his footsteps coming up the hallway.
With no other options, I throw myself across the bed and grab the sheet. I pull it over my my face, terrified that I might be showing other parts of my body.
The door is kicked in and I hear the sound of the wood splintering as it cracks and breaks the lock. The door slams against the wall and crashes with the force of his kick. Even with the noise of the alarm, it feels deathly silent.
Fear rattles my body and I hold my breath as I hear him take a step inside the room. I bite down on my lip, forcing myself to remain quiet and not to cry. Georgie is being so brave and so should I.
The sheet is ripped off my body before the man screams out again. “Where is my fucking daughter?”
My eyes clench down as my body shakes with fear. I refuse to look at him as the tears fall from my eyes. I know it’s coming and I try to prepare, but nothing could ever prepare a person for this.
BANG.
FUCK.
Shooting pain rips through the back of my shoulder and I bite down on my lip as to not scream out in agony. My teeth rip through my lip with the force of my bite and I taste the blood in my mouth. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to need stitches in that. The question is; if I can make it to the point of receiving stiches or will I lose too much blood while I wait for help?
My shoulder aches but I don’t dare move until I’m certain he’s gone. I need to check it out. I have to know what kind of damage has been done, but I’m terrified of looking. Right now, it’s just an incredible pain in my shoulder that shoots throughout the rest of my body, but the second I look at it, it becomes real. Blood instantly starts soaking through the bed and I feel the warm liquid beneath me.
Shit that’s a lot of blood. I need to slow it down.
I’m desperate to reach around and press on the wound to help ease the throbbing pain but I don’t dare move, not until I’m certain he’s gone.
I hear his footsteps leave the room and move to the next.
The next door is kicked in, followed by silence and then the inevitable bang.
Where the fuck is the hospital security? Where the hell are the police? The fucking SWAT team? Sean?
Sean? Oh, please, let Sean be ok. I can only imagine the fear he would be in for his little girl right now. And Mel, she would have had a front row view of the man coming in here.
Certain that it’s finally safe to make my move, I shuffle off the edge of the bed and quickly look around the small room. It’s completely deserted and with the unfortunate screaming coming from up the hallway, I realize it’s either now or never. Who know if he’s coming back to finish the job. I have to make this quick. The room doesn’t have a door anymore, leaving us open to any kind of threat.
I run as fast as I can and rip open the supply cupboard. Pain shoots through my arms but I don’t look, not yet. My arm dangles down by my side as I use my other to reach up and drag Georgie off the shelf.
She gasps as she looks at me and I can only imagine what she’s seeing. I let her fall from the shelf and catch her over my shoulder before bolting to the bathroom. I put her down in the shower and pull the curtain around, to hide her just that bit more.
I go back to the door. Look out at the room and run back to the supply cupboard. I grab anything and everything I can possibly find to help stop the bleeding of my shoulder. I jam it all down into the pockets of my scrubs before dashing over to the side of the bed and grabbing Georgie’s asthma inhaler. I run back into the bathroom and lock the door behind me.
I fall against the back of the bathroom door as a sligh
t level of safety comes over me. We’re not at the finished line yet, hell we’re not even halfway. There’s still a madman loose and until I’m absolutely certain he is dealt with, I won’t be leaving Georgie’s side, or this bathroom for that matter.
I take a second to look at myself in the mirror and finally see what Georgie was seeing. Blood soaks the front of my scrubs while blood pours down from my lip and trails down my arm, dripping to the floor. Shit. This isn’t going to be good.
I empty the pockets of my scrubs onto the bathroom vanity and reach for the bottom of my top, I try to remove it but it’s too hard. If I had scissors I’d be able to cut it off but I’m going to have to do it the hard way.
I walk back to the shower and gently pull the curtain back to see a sobbing Georgie. “Georgie, honey. Are you ok?” I ask.
She looks up at me with terrified eyes. “I want my daddy,” she cries.
“I know, sweet girl. He’ll be here soon, but until then, I need you to be brave and help me out. Do you think you could do that for me?” She nods her head and I take a step back to sit on the toilet. “Can you see that I have a sore arm?” she nods again. “Ok, good. Well I need to take my shirt off so I can fix it. Can you help me do that?”
She gets up and walks towards me, rubbing the tears from her eyes in the process. She places a hand on my sore arm. “Sore?” she questions.
I try not to cringe at her touch. “Yes, honey, very sore.”
I talk her through the process of helping me to get my other arm out of my top before pulling it over my head and sliding the shirt down my bad side. I hold in my screams as to not freak her out though I nearly pass out from the pain, but I force myself to keep it together. Georgie needs me alert.
I let out a breath as stand and step in front of the mirror, finally taking a good look at the damage, which is when it actually hits me, this is a fucking bullet wound in my shoulder. I turn to the back and study the bullet hole then turn to the front and do the same for the exit wound. At least the bullet is out of my body and I won’t have to fish for it.
Sean: Denver Royalty (Book 3) Page 11