by Pepper Pace
From her spot outside of the restaurant, Nicole could see that the interior of THE CALABASH was dark. Everyone had already gone! That meant that it was after one am because after closing it took nearly two hours to clean and to do night prep. Dear god…she’d been hurt for over 2 hours.
Nicole stumbled on her feet as a sob of despair fell from her lips. She was so tired…her eyes welled with tears. She just couldn’t walk anymore. Why she had come here instead of home was a mystery, but now that she was here she was too tired to go anywhere else. Nicole leaned against the door, her knees buckling beneath her.
“Ahh!” She cried out. Black spots dotted her vision as she began sliding down the door.
~***~
Marty was in no hurry to get back to his empty condo. In fact, he had often times considered bringing in a cot for his office. Hell, his office was more like home to him then his actual home. IKEA had a nice couch that could double as a bed and no one would be all in his business about why there was a cot…
He jumped when he heard a thumping sound at the back door. “What the hell…?” Marty stormed through the kitchen, hesitating momentarily as he contemplated grabbing his handgun. But he heard a small mewling sound and his blood almost ran cold.
He barely hesitated as he unlocked the door. Thankfully he had never been robbed. CALABASH was located in a decent residential district. He could hear soft sobs and he carefully pulled open the door. Nicole’s crumpled form feel forward. Surprised, Marty reached for her.
“Nicole!”
She screamed in pain when he gripped her shoulder. His face went white at the sound of her scream as well as the sight of her battered form. Without thinking he knelt down beside her, his arm going around her torso where he held her carefully against him.
“What happened?!” His voice sounded and felt like it had turned into dust in his mouth.
Without waiting for an answer he swept her up in his arms, ignoring her cries of pain. Wordlessly, he hurried outside to his truck. Marty placed her into the passenger seat as if she was little more than a baby. Carefully he reached over and pulled a seatbelt across her body. Again she cried out. He blanched even more.
“Take it easy, Baby Girl. Take it easy. I’m going to go lock the restaurant.” With trembling hands Marty quickly locked the restaurants doors, dropping the keys once in his excitement. His hands squeezed into fists. Marty cursed himself. How many times had he wanted to offer to drive her home at night? There wasn’t a night that went by that he didn’t worry that there would be some thug lying in wait for her in those damned woods that she rode past to get to her apartment. And now it had finally happened. When he found out who had done this to her he was going to kill the bastard!
Hurrying back to his truck, he pulled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell. Slowly Nicole’s eyes began to close.
“Nicole! Wake up! Don’t go to sleep! Who did this to you?” Marty’s gray eyes looked almost dark with anger.
From a distance she heard the question and struggled to clear her head. It was pounding so hard.
“Lady…” Suddenly she was alert. She blinked and cried out in distress. “Marty, she hit me.”
“Shhh, shhh. It’s okay.” He said as he drove, one hand on the wheel, the other gently holding her hand. A lady?? Why would a lady-- “Were you hit by a car? Oh god, I thought you’d been…I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“My bike…Marty go back and get my bike.”
“Nicole-”
“My bike, Marty. Please get my bike,” she pleaded.
“Okay.” He relented, knowing that he should be rushing her to the hospital, but the pain in her eyes was too much for him to bear. “Where is it?”
“The other way.” He did a U-turn in the middle of the road and headed in the opposite direction.
“Nicole…” He spoke her name more to himself, anxious to get on the track back to the hospital.
It wasn’t too long before he saw definite signs of a wreck. He pulled over to the curb and jumped out of the truck. Nicole’s bike lay in the middle of the street.
“Jesus…” He picked up the bike and took a moment to examine it before tossing it into the truck bed. The thing was mangled! He looked around cursing. She had just been left like trash. Marty got back into the truck. Nicole’s eyes were closed again.
Baby Girl?” He peered into her face.
“Hmmm…” She groaned.
“Don’t go to sleep.” Carefully he touched the back of her head. His hand came away bloody and he could see the blood down the back of her neck and smearing the back of the seat.
He cursed himself for not taking her directly to the hospital. “Hang in there, Baby. Hang in there.” Quickly he pulled back into the street and to the hospital.
Nicole felt her eyes closing beyond her control. She just wanted to sleep for a little while…
“Nicole!” Then they jerked open. “Talk to me, Baby. Tell me about…the lady.” That fucking bitch-ass lady.
“The lady?” She mumbled and looked at him. “What lady?”
“The lady that hit you.” Nicole could see the surprised look on the woman’s face all over again. Why did she just leave her for dead? Nicole wouldn’t leave a dog for dead.
Marty kept looking at her curiously. “Are you with me, honey?”
“My head--stomach… feels weird; heavy.”
“When we get to the hospital I’ll call your parents-”
Nicole paused. “No.” She mumbled. He had to strain now in order to hear her. “I don’t have any parents. My Mom passed…I only talk to my Dad at birthdays and Christmas,” if then.
He glanced at her again. “What about other family? Friends?”
She hesitated. “Scattered all over the country…Marty...”
“What?”
“I feel funny-” she caught her breath as she felt a sharp pain. Marty pressed the gas, pushing the car dangerously fast.
“Almost there. Funny how?” There was no answer. Thank God the hospital was just up ahead.
Her eyes were closed again. Marty grasped her hand. “It’s okay, baby.” He pulled into the emergency entrance like he was at the Daytona 500. “We’re here. Hang on.” Jumping out of the truck, he waved for an attendant.
~***~
The next time Nicole opened her eyes it was daylight. Alarmed, she tried to sit up.
“Hey, hey. Relax.” Marty placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Don’t. You just had surgery.”
When she tried to look around her head felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer and she sucked in her breath.
“You’re in the hospital.” Marty said quietly. She focused on him. His eyes were red and glassy, his cheeks stubbly with a new growth of beard. “Do you remember what happened?”
She licked her lips. They were dry and hot. “Water...” She croaked.
“No, Sweetie. You can’t have anything to drink. There was internal bleeding. You can have a sponge in your mouth or ice.” He reached for a small cup and pulled out a funny little blue object. Carefully he put it in her mouth and it tasted like heaven. She sucked on it, until most of the dryness went away. He took the sponge out of her mouth and placed it back in the cup.
“More.”
“No, just one.” He picked up a vial. “This might help.” He dabbed a finger into the salve and very carefully touched the finger to her lips.
Half asleep, the tip of Nicole’s tongue came out to explore his finger. Marty’s eyes stared into hers then he quickly looked away.
“It’s lip balm.” He said clearing his throat. Finally he looked at her again. “How do you feel?”
“Can I go back to sleep?” She said oblivious to her actions.
He smiled. “Yes.”
~***~
Later Nicole opened her eyes and briefly remembered a different hospital and a different time—happier; a newborn baby in her arms. Painfully she pushed the memory away.
Where was Marty? He had been here, hadn’t
he? She vaguely remembered him taking away the awful thirst. He had put something in her mouth…a sponge. Nicole licked her dry lips and looked around for the cup with the sponge. There it was on the side table. When she reached for it she discovered that her right arm was in a splint and sling.
With her good hand she touched the back of her head. It was covered in a thick bandage which made her head feel twice its normal weight. Tentatively she touched her face. One eye was swollen almost closed. Her lips were swollen and she had scrapes on her forehead. Damn, on her forehead? She pressed her hand to her stomach and felt soreness. She pulled down the bed sheet and blanket and lifted the gown slightly. She was naked under the gown and there was an incision covered by clear tape on her side. She studied it in awe before swallowing dryly and remembering that she was thirsty. Noting that in addition to the sling on her right arm she had an IV in the back of her left hand. She greedily stared at the cup wondering how she was going to manage it. Carefully she sat up and when she didn’t black out she swung her legs over the edge of the bed so that she could reach the cup.
“Nicole!” Marty was standing in the door holding a Styrofoam cup and a brown paper bag. He hurried to the bed and put his things on the bedside table. “What are you doing? You have a concussion!” He frowned at her sternly. “Come on, lay back down.” He took hold of the covers and lifted it just as she swung a leg back onto the bed.
Nicole was exposed from where she’d hiked her gown up to examine her belly and Marty got a perfect view of Nicole’s nudity. Quickly he averted his eyes, lowering the covers as soon as she had her legs back onto the bed.
Nicole cringed inwardly feeling her face flame in embarrassment. Not only had she not trimmed her crotch in ages, she also hadn’t shown it to a man in years—and then HE, of all people, gets an eyeful. She quickly reached beneath the covers and adjusted her gown as she finished settling in the bed. She avoided meeting Marty’s eyes.
When she finally did look at him, she noted that his face was red, also. He cleared his throat and tried to feign nonchalance as he pulled a chair closer to the bed.
“I had to leave for a minute to get coffee.” He reached for a cup filled with melting ice. “Ice?”
“Oh yes, Please. I’m so thirsty.”
“The medicine will make you feel that way. You sure have had an awful lot of it, too.” It seemed as if she had been given everything including the kitchen sink. He grasped a piece of ice and carefully slipped it into her mouth.
“Uhm. That’s good.” She sighed and savored it, licking her dry swollen lips. He watched mesmerized, eyes focused on her full lips and the way her tongue ran over them, knowing that she was completely unaware of how delicious she made those lips look. Marty silently watched her as he fed her another piece of ice after the first one melted.
For an instant Nicole forgot that this was the same Marty that she and Kendall had been mercilessly calling names. She’d never seen him this nice to anyone. He seemed like a different person. It made her lower her guard, something she would have never done with Marty in the past. Swallowing past her earlier embarrassment, she swallowed the ice morsel.
“How long have I been here? What did they do to me?”
Marty didn’t answer immediately. He replaced the cup of ice and picked up his half forgotten coffee. “Two days. Today is Thursday.”
Nicole gasped. “I don’t remember…”
“Why should you? You’ve been unconscious. You have a really bad head injury Nicole. Had you been wearing a helmet perhaps you’d be out of here by now.” He gave her a stern look and the Marty that she was familiar with was back. “You can never do that again. If you ever crack your head in the same spot…”
Her eyes widened. And then suddenly he blinked, and his eyes transformed from a dark storm to his more normal cold gray. “You’re going to be okay, Baby Girl.” He said with a sigh. “The police need to know about the women who hit you. I tried to give them some information…but I didn’t know very much.”
“I don’t know much myself. I just remember that she looked like a nice, sweet, Motherly type.”
“Anybody who’d hit a person on a bike then leave…isn’t nice.” He said with forced control.
Nicole noted how his face instantly darkened and how easily he angered. She forced herself to remember the details so that she could give him the information he wanted.
“She was driving a red SUV. That’s all I know. She was a black lady, about fifty-five or sixty.”
Marty waited and when she didn’t continue he nodded. “Well the police took some paint from your bike-”
“Marty?” Something suddenly dawned on her. “Who’s watching the restaurant?”
He didn’t answer right away. “I closed it.”
“You closed it? You didn’t even close it for Christmas.” She knew first hand because she had worked it with him. Did that mean that he’d been here for the full two days? Somehow that idea made her feel funny.
A nurse walked in then and was pleased to see Nicole awake. She wanted to take her vitals and when Marty moved to leave, the nurse assured him that she wouldn’t be long. She asked Nicole if she thought she could make it to the bathroom and she responded that she could. Marty stood back and watched the nurse help Nicole to the small lavatory, averting his eyes when her gown slipped open and exposed a bit of one milk chocolate butt cheek. Nicole quickly looked over her shoulder to see if Marty had caught sight of that but he had been quicker and was already pretending to watch the television screen that sat suspended on the adjacent wall.
Ten minutes later she was in bed, settled and tucked in. Her head pounded like tom toms from the effort, though.
“Are you in any pain?” The nurse asked.
“Yes.” She said between clenched teeth.
“I’m going to put some medicine in your I.V. You’ll be sleeping like a baby in no time.”
Nicole watched the nurse inject the narcotic tensely. What was the protocol? Did she say no, I’m a recovering addict? Please don’t give me that drug and make me remember how I used to crave that high…
The nurse, misunderstanding her agitation, gave her hand a brief pat. “You’ll be better very soon. I’ll send the doctor to look in on you later.” Then she left.
“Nicole,” Marty leaned forward. “The other day when I asked you about family, you said that you had none. What about friends? Is there anybody that could take care of you when you get out of the hospital?”
“Take care of me?” Her response was surprised. The concept was foreign since she’d been taking care of herself her entire life.
“I don’t mean take care of you…I just mean somebody to keep an eye on you. You almost died…I’m not trying to scare you, Nicole, but I do want you to understand how serious this is.” Marty’s eyes looked distant. “You lost so much blood-”
Nicole carefully drew in her swollen lip. “Marty, I can take care of myself.” There was not another word spoken for almost a full minute.
Marty sighed. “I’ll be back later.” He got up and left without a backward glance.
Nicole felt a sudden emptiness. She knew that Marty was taking her response, or lack thereof, as stubbornness. It wasn’t. There just wasn’t anybody that Nicole could count on. She couldn’t go home to family that didn’t exist. Nicole felt fear. Not of what was happening to her, but of the familiar solitude. He did not understand that even if there was a family they wouldn’t want her. They wouldn’t take care of her. They never had in the past and they wouldn’t now.
~***~
Hours later she heard the door open. The drugs had put her into a fuzzy little cocoon. It had been years since she had acquainted herself with narcotics… and what scared her was that she was enjoying it.
Nicole surprised herself further when she was disappointment that it was a Doctor entering her room and not Marty. It gave her a moment of pause to think that she was actually missing Marty’s company. In a million years she would have never dreamed that wo
uld be possible.
The Doctor examined her, poking and prodding. They talked at length about her injuries and it seemed to Nicole that he was being intentionally vague. Every question she asked was met with the same response: ‘We won’t know until you heal’. In other words, I have no idea, just guessing here.
Her worst injury was the head injury that could have long terms affects on her health…of course when she asked what kind of long term effects, the Doctor rambled off a lot of technical terms until her head began to swim.
“I think you should be able to eat solids and drink liquids.” Her cracked and dried lips did appreciate that! Nicole suddenly put her concerns behind her at the thought of a cool cup of water.