by Ann Lister
“Not really,” Glen said. “I think if it had come right down to it, he still would have walked away from her, too. Nick wanted to be with you. Simple as that.”
Colby nodded. “So, now you’re with Lana.”
Glen laughed. “As much as anyone can be with Lana,” he joked. “She’s not looking for a boyfriend - just someone to…”
Colby playfully nudged her shoulder against Glen’s arm and grinned. “I know what Lana is looking for, Glen. You don’t need to explain it to me.”
“Good,” he snickered.
“Can I ask you something?” Colby asked, the smile fading from her face.
“Anything.”
“What’s your sister look like?”
“She’s not nearly as beautiful as you are, Colby - if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Colby tipped her head in embarrassment for asking the question. “I was curious, that’s all. Sarah must have been very special, otherwise I don’t think Nick would have been willing to commit to something as serious as marriage. He doesn’t seem to be the type of person that jumps into anything on a whim.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Colby. Nick and I didn’t discuss the finer details of the relationship he had with my sister. He said it felt weird, so it was a subject we rarely talked about, and after she left him, we talked about it even less.”
A pause fell between them and Colby’s thoughts quickly drifted back to Nick. She wondered if he was okay, if he was in a lot of pain, and again her tears began to flow.
“I’d do anything for Nick,” she said softly.
“I know you would and he’d do the same for you, too.”
A nurse appeared in the waiting room and moved toward Colby and Glen. “I understand you two have been waiting to see Nick Gaffney?”
“Yes,” Colby said, standing up straight.
“He’s been moved into a room. I can take you to see him now,” the nurse said, as she turned to head back toward the door to the hallway.
Colby followed the nurse and stopped when she realized Glen wasn’t behind her. “Aren’t you coming?” Colby asked Glen.
“You go ahead, have some time alone with him, and I’ll see him later. I think I’ll go call Nick’s parents in Connecticut. Someone should let them know about Nick’s accident.”
“Oh, yes. That’s a good idea,” Colby said, moving into the hallway. “I’ll see you later.”
Colby followed the nurse down the hall and into a private room, stopping a few feet from the end of Nick’s bed. His lifeless body was laying slightly inclined against the pillows and covered from the waist down with a thin sheet. A hospital gown was loosely draped across his chest and stomach and left untied. Her eyes drifted up to his head. Deep purple bruises had already appeared on the left side of his face and a large piece of white gauze was taped to his forehead above his eye.
Colby tightly closed her eyes, trying to eliminate the flashback flickering like an old movie in her head, seeing Wayne in a similar hospital scene.
Covered in Blood.
Dead.
Nick wasn’t dead, she kept repeating to herself. The doctor had told her Nick would make a full recovery. His injuries were short-term obstacles that were already beginning to heal, she kept repeating to herself, trying to convince herself of this truth but it wasn’t working.
“He’s still unconscious, but feel free to talk to him,” the nurse said, startling Colby out of her trance. “Who knows, maybe the sound of your voice will wake him,” the nurse said, checking Nick’s monitors and intravenous fluid level.
Colby forced herself to move forward and stand beside Nick’s bed. She stared down at him with tears beginning to drip from her face. He seemed to be peacefully sleeping, but the bruises on his face told Colby a different story. She touched his hand and was grateful for its warmth, than ran her fingers up the length of his arm and settled onto his shoulder. Without thinking she peeled back the cotton gown and nearly gasped when she saw the discoloration over his chest and side, deeply concentrated in the area around his ribs.
“He’s so bruised,” Colby said, her voice cracking with emotion.
“Pretty much head to toe,” the nurse said lightly. “You’re looking at the worst of it on his ribs, but he has a few more on his legs, too.”
Colby’s eyes scanned down his chest and onto the outline of his legs beneath the sheet. She saw the enlarged lump of the cast on his foot, which extended almost to his knee.
“They set his leg?” Colby asked the nurse.
“Yes. It was a clean break, so it should heal quickly. His ribs are going to take a long time to heal and will be very painful for him to deal with. And considering what he does for a living, I'm guessing the recovery time for that is going to drive him crazy.”
Colby stepped back up to his head and bent to kiss his cheek. “What about his head injury?” she asked, running her fingers through his dark hair and moving it off of his forehead.
“Well, it’s important that he wake up soon, so we can properly assess that injury,” the nurse said, as she used a pen to write new data into Nick’s medical file. “He has a pretty good gash beneath the bandage, but that will also heal in time.”
“Ten stitches,” Colby said quietly, reciting from memory what the doctor had told her earlier in the hall.
“Yes, that’s right,” the nurse smiled. “Well, I’ll let you have some time with him. If you need anything, I’ll be at the nurses station across the hall. My name is Kate. I’ll be Nick’s night nurse and I believe Susan will be with him for the day shift tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Kate.”
“Don’t worry,” Kate said. “We’ll take good care of him.”
The door to the room shut, cloaking Colby in a silence that unnerved her. The only sound in the room was the beep from Nick’s heart monitor and the subtle straining noise of his breathing.
Colby ran her fingers across his face and lips, assessing every square inch of his body. She couldn’t believe how battered he was, covered in a variety of abrasions and contusions, some looking more serious than others. She grabbed a tissue from the small table beside his bed and cleaned a pool of dried blood from his ear, and another smear on his neck, then brushed her lips over his.
“I love you, Nick,” she whispered beside his ear. “And I’m really scared. Please wake up for me.”
When she got no response from him, she pulled a chair to his bed and sat down, resting her head against his arm.
Colby’s thoughts quickly flashed back to Wayne on the day he died and how the hospital staff had allowed her to sit with him after she had arrived at the hospital. She had sat in a similar position that day, with her head laying against Wayne’s arm. She could still remember every painful detail from that tragic day. She remembered the stench of blood that clung to Wayne’s hair, the surprising warmth of his skin and how she could literally feel his body cooling with each passing minute. She recalled how she kept trying to warm him by holding onto him tighter, pulling the blankets up higher to his chin, cleaning the blood from his face, until a nurse finally convinced her it was time to say good-bye. The pain she felt then was just as real to her now, ten years later.
Colby lifted her head from Nick’s arm and gazed at his face. Her hand squeezed his, hoping for any trace of acknowledgment she was sitting beside him, but he remained silent. She was lovingly stroking his hand, when Glen stepped into the room. She wiped the tears from her cheek and stood up, making room for Glen to approach the bed.
“How is he?” Glen asked.
“No change,” she said. “He’s still unconscious.”
Glen nodded and moved beside Colby. “I called his parents. They’re catching the first plane they can in the morning and should be here tomorrow afternoon.”
“Are they upset?”
“His mother was hysterical. She’s been worried for the last twelve years something like this would happen to him.”
“I can’t say I blame her,” Colby said
.
“It comes with the job, Colby, but we’re highly trained to do what’s required with the least amount of risk possible. There’s a greater probability someone could get hurt in a car accident on their way to work, than what we typically encounter doing what we do.”
“I understand, but that fact holds little comfort now, as we stand here waiting for him to regain consciousness,” she added.
Glen stayed with Colby for several hours, then offered to drive her back to the resort.
“I can’t leave him, Glen. Not until he wakes up,” Colby said.
“Okay, but no one knows how long that will take.”
Colby clung to Nick’s hand. “I know, but I still want to stay.”
Glen nodded and moved toward the door. “I’ll stop by tomorrow after I get out of work. If anything changes during the night, have the nurse contact me.”
“I will,” Colby said.
Glen waved to Colby and stepped into the hall, closing the door behind him.
Colby shifted the chair closer to Nick’s bed and did her best to curl against his arm, while still sitting in the chair. Her hand rubbed softly at his chest beneath the hospital gown, just feeling the warmth of his body gave her comfort, somehow making her feel like everything would be okay.
“You're still here?” Kate asked Colby, as she breezed into Nick’s room.
“I can’t leave him like this,” she said, rubbing at her eyes. “I want to be here when he wakes up.”
The nurse nodded, as she began to take Nick’s vital signs.
Colby watched the woman work. “He’s been moaning a lot,” Colby said. “Does that mean he’s in pain?”
“It’s normal for him to make noise, although I suspect he’s doing it involuntarily, not because he’s in pain,” she said, moving to the opposite side of Nick’s bed. She raised his wrist to count his heart rate, then lifted one of his eye lids and flashed a bright light at his pupil. “Well, his eyes are reacting normally, that’s a good sign.”
Colby sighed. “I’d feel a lot better if he’d wake up.”
“All of us would,” Kate said with a smile.
Chapter Twelve
The night passed by slowly, with Colby doing her best to sleep in the chair beside Nick’s bed, her head resting against his arm. The occasional moan that escaped his mouth kept her nerves on edge, until finally the sun began to filter in through the window curtains of his room.
Colby had managed to drift off to sleep, when she felt him beginning to stir beneath the sheets. At first his movement was so subtle she thought she was imagining it, but it steadily increased in intensity, as did his muffled moans. Finally, Colby realized Nick really was shifting beneath the sheet. She stood up from her chair and squeezed his hand, leaning over his face and stroking his head.
Colby called his name and pressed her cheek lightly to his. “Wake up for me, baby. Please, open your eyes.”
She felt him tip his head toward the sound of her voice. Emotion flooded her eyes. “Nick!” she said with excitement, and watched as he tried to open his eyes. “Nick, please wake up for me. I need to know you’re all right.”
Her fingers went to his face, softly stroking at his cheek, then running across his lips.
“Je vous aime. Reveiller-vous s'il vous plait pour moi,” she said beside his ear.
“Colby,” Nick sighed so softly she could barely hear his voice. His eyes eased open and blinked several times, as if trying to focus on her then, as recognition registered in him, he smiled. “I love you, too.”
“Oh my, God! You’re awake!” Colby cried.
Nick’s smile quickly faded, as his face strained into a tight grimace. He attempted to lift his head and then winced again and dropped it back to the pillow.
“Are you in a lot of pain?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
Nick tried to inhale and struggled to get a breath to fill his lungs. The wheezing sound he was making was terrifying for Colby to hear.
“I’ll go get your doctor,” she said, turning to leave his side.
“No. Stay with me,” he insisted, trying again to catch his breath, his body twisting on the bed in agony.
“Nick, your ribs are broken! You need some more pain medication so you can relax and breathe easier. Let me go get your doctor!”
Colby quickly moved toward the door and stepped into the hall. She saw Nick’s nurse in the hallway and called to her.
“Kate! Nick is awake! Please, hurry! He’s in a lot of pain,” she yelled.
Kate paged Nick’s doctor and scurried into the room behind Colby.
“How long has he been awake?” Kate asked Colby.
“Only a few minutes. He’s having trouble breathing. Can you do something to help him?” she asked in a frantic tone.
Kate bent beside him. “Nick, you need to take shallow breaths for me,” she instructed making direct eye contact with him. “Nice and slow.”
“It fucking hurts to breathe!” he cursed in frustration.
“I know it does. You have three broken ribs. Its going to hurt for quite a while.” The nurse pulled a syringe of pain medication from her pocket and prepared to inject it into the intravenous line running into his arm. “I’m going to give you a shot that will help you relax,” she warned Nick.
Within seconds, Colby could see a change in Nick’s eyes, as the medication began to take hold of his senses. “What did you just give him?” Colby asked, as she watched Nick’s body settle back against the mattress.
“Morphine,” Kate replied, discarding the needle into the bio-hazard box attached to the wall behind Nick’s bed. “He might be out of it for a while, but it should help him to breathe easier.”
Moments later, Nick’s doctor entered the room. “I hear our patient was awake bright and early this morning,” the doctor said, quickly flanking Nick’s side and beginning to do a battery of tests on him, in order to assess the head injury. Nick’s eyes were open, but it was obvious he was struggling to stay awake.
The doctor worked quietly for several minutes before he stood upright to face Colby. “He looks good,” the doctor commented about Nick. “We can keep him medicated for the pain, until his ribs heal a bit. Otherwise, I think he’ll be fine,” he said, turning toward the nurse. “He can have his catheter removed later and let’s try and get him out of bed and at least sitting in a chair. Pain meds, as needed,” he instructed.
“Okay, Doctor,” the nurse replied.
Despite Nick's effort to stay awake, the medication put him back to sleep. Although Colby was grateful to see him struggling less to breathe, she wanted him awake to talk to. She ran her fingers through his hair and sat in the chair beside his bed, then pulled her cell phone from her purse on the floor and dialed the phone number to the triage building at the ski resort. After a few rings, Nancy answered Colby’s call.
“Hello, this is Colby Hansen,” she said to Nancy. “I’m calling from Nick Gaffney’s hospital room.”
“Colby! We’ve all been waiting for an update from the hospital. How’s Nick doing?” Nancy asked.
“He’s finally conscious again,” Colby sighed. “It was a long night and he’s in a tremendous amount of pain.”
“I can imagine.”
“They have him very medicated because of his ribs, but they say he’ll make a full recovery.”
“That’s wonderful news!”
“Yes, it is,” Colby sighed. “Could you pass that information along to everyone and make sure Glen is notified, too. I promised I’d call and let Glen know if there was a change in Nick’s status.”
“I’ll be sure to talk to Glen. I’m sure he’ll want to go see Nick after work,” Nancy said.
“Thank you,” Colby said, preparing to end the call.
“Colby.”
“Yes.”
“Listen, I want to apologize for not delivering your letter to Nick last December. I meant to, but then we got busy with patients, and I completely forgot about it. Your envelope got shuffled
around on my desk for days, then became hidden beneath a mountain of files.”
Colby smiled weakly. “It’s okay, Nancy. Water under the bridge, as they say. Everything is fine, now. Don’t worry about it.”
Nick slept for most of the morning until Susan, the day nurse, came in to check his vital signs.
“Is he still sleeping?” Susan asked Colby.
“Yes. The morphine is helping him breathe easier but it makes him very sleepy.”
“Morphine will do that,” Susan responded, wetting a face cloth and wiping Nick’s face with it. “Let’s see if this will wake him.”
Almost instantly, Nick began to moan and move beneath the sheet.
“Colby?” he called to her.
Colby moved beside Nick and took his hand. “I’m right here.”
“Don’t let them give me any more drugs,” he slurred. “It messes me up and I don’t want to sleep right now.”
Colby smiled at him. “I know. You’ve been asleep for hours.”
The nurse continued to wet the cloth and wipe at Nick’s arms, then peeled back the hospital gown and began bathing his chest. Colby watched the woman, wanting her to leave them alone so she could talk to Nick privately. Finally she reached and took the cloth from the young woman's hand.
“I’ll finish for you,” Colby stated firmly.
Susan raised her eyes and met Colby’s. “Oh, okay. I guess you could do that for me. Thank you,” she said, and walked toward the door. “I’ll come back in a few minutes and remove his catheter, then we’ll see about getting him out of bed.”
Colby waited for the door to close and then turned her attention to Nick. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth. “I didn’t think she’d ever leave,” Colby said, bending to kiss him lightly on the lips.
Nick squeezed her hand. “Thank you for staying with me,” he smiled.
Colby ran her fingertips over the bruising on his face. “I’m not leaving, Nick,” she said, her eyes holding his. “I’m very grateful you’re going to be okay. I was so worried.”
He blinked to focus on her; emotion building inside him. “I’m sorry I worried you, Colby. I can imagine how difficult this must have been for you to deal with, especially with the memory of what happened to Wayne. If the tables were turned and I was the one worrying about you, I would have been out of my mind, but I am going to be okay. I promise.”