Saved by Grace

by TJ Rudolph

  The brown haired policeman was next to me again. “It’s best if you stay here so that they do what needs to be done.” I knew that he meant it was better for me stay behind in case Chase was dead and I dropped to my knees. He picked me up in his arms and held me.

  “We need her statement,” I heard someone tell the officer.

  “Not now, I will take it in the morning,” he said.

  I moved out of his arms. “I have to go to him.”

  He nodded. “I will take you.”

  Chapter 17

  When we stopped at the hospital I ran inside. The white walls, the emergency sign and the swarm of doctors and nurses all reminded me of a day I never wanted to relive. It felt like the day I lost Aaron all over again, only this time Chase’s death would be my fault. I felt my head spinning and I leaned against the wall nearby and threw up in a potted plant. I could never forgive myself if Chase was dead. The officer whose name I never got put his hand on my shoulder.

  “I found out which ward he is in, I can take you there,” he told me

  I spun around. “So, he is alive?” I said as tears welled up in my eyes.

  “He is, they managed to dislodge the bullet which was dangerously close to his heart and for now he is unconscious. He lost a lot of blood and his body is very weak. Doctor says he doesn’t know when he will wake up.”

  “Please take me to him,” I said.

  We walked down a wide corridor and into the ICU. “This is it,” the police officer said pointing to a set of white wooden doors. There were two police officers standing on either side of the door.

  “Why are they guarding the door?” I asked him.

  “It’s for his own protection, Jerry had a lot of people working for him,” he told me.

  “But Jerry is dead right?” I asked suddenly afraid.

  “Yes, ma’am, he was declared dead on the scene.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. He walked away from me and went to speak to the officers and they let me through. When I walked in I was hit with the same imagery as the day Aaron was lying in the hospital bed. Chase was connected to so many tubes and I nearly broke down, but Chase needed me now and I needed to be strong for his sake.

  I walked toward him and held his hand. I could hardly believe that it was the same person who took down three of Jerry’s goons. He looked so fragile. “Chase, I am so sorry that I did this to you, you didn’t deserve this. It should have been me,” I cried.

  One of the nurses brought me a chair, which she said pulled out into a bed at night. I stayed awake the whole night, watching him, hoping that by some miracle he would open his eyes and call my name. But that miracle never came.

  Early the next morning the officer who had brought me to the hospital walked into the room. “Any change?” he asked me.

  I looked at him, really looked at him for the first time. He looked to be in his early fifties, he was a tall man with broad shoulders and curly brown hair. His green eyes looked tired and worried.

  “No change,” I told him.

  “Grace, I am afraid that I will have to question you, the hospital has made their boardroom available for us,” he told me.

  I looked at Chase, I didn’t want to leave him.

  “It won’t take long,” he assured me.

  I kissed Chase’s forehead and followed him outside.

  We walked a short distance and he opened a brown door. There was a long wooden table in the center of the room, with matching chairs all around. He motioned for me to sit down by the end of the table, closest to the door and sat opposite me. He took out a notepad and pen and took a deep breath.

  “Grace, we are here today to discuss the events which led to the shooting of Chase Ryder. Could you please state your name for the record?”

  “Grace Delaney,” I said.

  He scribbled my name down. “I don’t think we’ve officially met,” he stuck out his hand. “I am Officer O’Neil.”

  Officer O’Neil, I thought as I shook his hand, now where did I hear that name before? Then the realization hit me. “You are the Officer who looked out for Chase in juvi? Officer John O’Neil?”

  “Yes,” he pressed his mouth in a hard line. I instinctively reached out to touch his hand.

  “I’m sorry, I had no idea,” I said.

  He wiped a tear from his eyes. “Let’s continue, before I am unable to complete my questioning.”

  I nodded.

  “Can you tell me the events that led up to the night of Chase being shot by the infamous mobster Jerry Caldara?”

  I cleared my throat, wringing my hands together; I was going to let another person in on my broken childhood.

  Officer O’Neil sensed my discomfort.

  “Start wherever you feel comfortable and if I feel like I need more detail, I will ask,” he encouraged me.

  I nodded and started with the day my mother made me sing. He listened intently making notes. I would stop now and then, take a sip of water and begin again. It took longer than I thought and it drained all the energy I had and after I gave him a detailed account of how Chase saved my life, I was sobbing.

  Officer O’Neil handed me a tissue. “He will wake up soon, I know it. He is stronger than you know,” he told me.

  “I know he will,” I said trying to convince us both.

  “That’s all the questions I have for today, I will let you know if I need anything else.”

  I nodded and headed out of the door as I put my hand on the door knob, Officer O’ Neil spoke again.

  “Chase didn’t only save your life, Grace; he brought down a notorious gangster that the police have been looking for, for years. He’s a special kid,” he murmured.

  “Thank you,” I said and walked out feeling lighter, hopeful that Chase would be okay.

  I sat down next to him on the bed and held his hand. Chase was everything I knew he was, all I needed now was to tell him so, and that I was sorry for what I said to him when I last saw him. Sorry that I ever doubted him.

  “Chase, you need to wake up for me, please,” I said, laying my head down on his chest. A few minutes later the tiredness got a hold of me and I fell asleep.

  When I woke up hours later I saw a picture of Jerry flashing on the TV and I turned it up. They spoke of his death and how many counts of murder and fraud he was wanted for.

  I realized that I needed to call my Dad, Chris, and Agatha before they got wind of this from the news. It wouldn’t be long before Chase’s and my name would be mentioned too.

  I walked outside and called Chris and Agatha first. It was the hardest to explain everything to them, since they were completely in the dark about my former life with my mother. There was a lot of loud gasping and whimpering from Agatha. Chris said almost nothing on the phone, his only words while I was telling the story was, “go on,” and there was an undertone of anger in his voice. I suspected that he was angry with himself for not being there to protect me. When I ended the call, they said that they would be at the hospital within an hour.

  I of course couldn’t get a hold of my dad, but he was arriving in a week’s time and I thought it best not to worry him, since he was so far away.

  I went to take a shower in the bathroom in Chase’s room and after that I decided to get myself a cup of coffee; I needed something in my stomach. While I was walking to the hospital cafeteria, I heard Agatha’s voice in the foyer. She saw me at the same time that I saw her and both her and Chris sped up to meet me. Chris took me by the shoulders and looked at me with tears in his eyes before he pulled me toward him. “You gave me a big scare there, Pumpkin.

  “I’m okay now,” I told him.

  “And how is the boy doing?” Agatha asked.

  I hadn’t said much about Chase. In fact, I didn’t know how to bring it up.

  “He is still in a critical condition.”

  “I just can’t believe that you had a whole other life that we didn’t know about, I hope you know now that keeping such things from us is a bad idea,” Agath
a scolded me.

  “I know and I’m sorry, I just wanted to put all of that behind me.”

  “No one will ever hurt you again,” Agatha said wrapping her arms around me.

  I heard a machine beeping inside Chase’s room and I ran inside. A doctor and a few nurses ran past me and I stood to the side.

  “What’s happening?” I asked them. But no one answered me.

  All of a sudden, the heart machine started to flat line and my eyes darted from the machine to Chase to the doctor, who was working frantically on him. The doctor shouted at one of the nurses for something and she charged up a machine. The doctor put it to Chase’s chest and his whole body jerked forward and then he fell back. I put my hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming. I watched enough movies to know that if I made to much noise they would usher me out of the room. I needed to know that he was going to be okay, I couldn’t leave his side.

  After they shocked his heart for the third time, his pulse returned to normal and I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn’t move my feet as I looked at him, all my energy felt like it drained from my body.

  The nurses left the room and the doctor was punching something into the machine that was monitoring his heart. I went to hold Chase’s hand and tears streamed down my face.

  “What happened?” I asked the doctor who was now writing something on a clip board.

  He turned to me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were in the room,” he said. :The artery which pumps blood to the heart has been severed causing a delay in the heart getting a full supply of blood. I wanted to give it a chance to heal on its own but it has become too risky. The nurses are prepping the room for surgery so that I can fix it. It is a short, one hour surgery and uncomplicated. They will fetch him soon,” he said.

  I looked anxiously down at Chase.

  “There is no need to be concerned,” the doctor gave me a small smile before he left.

  I heard someone walk in and I didn’t turn around until I heard Agatha’s voice. “Is that Chase Ryder?” she asked. I looked at them; both her and Chris were standing wide eyed looking down at Chase.

  “Can we speak outside?” I asked.

  They walked outside of the building with me following behind, trying to form the story that I was going to tell them.

  “What is going on, Grace, how are you involved with Chase Ryder?” Chris asked raising his voice.

  “I didn’t know who he was when I met him,” I explained. “We spent the whole year together and the day before Jerry captured me, I found out about Chase. I knew that he did something and was in juvi but I never connected it to Aaron.”

  Chris had his hands in his hair as if he wanted to pull it out.

  “This is all my fault,” he mumbled to himself. “Shit!”

  “What is?” I asked him.

  “I should have tried harder to get him behind bars, if I knew he was going to… That you were going to… I can’t believe this is happening,” he breathed.

  “He is a good guy, Chris,” I said standing in front of him. “And he saved my life.”

  “He saved your life and he took my son’s!”

  I stood back shocked. “But I read that both you and Agatha said that you knew he was innocent and that you forgave him.”

  “Well maybe that was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Agatha let’s go,” he said, and stormed off.

  Agatha came to hug me as hot tears started pricking my eyes, “he just needs some time. He is angry and he doesn’t know what he is saying.”

  “I know,” I said, not really convinced because I never saw this side of Chris before. If he was this upset, he probably meant what he was saying.

  “We’ll talk again,” Agatha said.

  I walked back to the hospital in a daze. Everything was falling apart. Chris was angry with me for loving Chase, and Chase was fighting for his life because of me.

  Chapter 18

  I couldn’t sleep that night; I was worried about Chris and Agatha, about my dad. And most of all I was worried about Chase who didn’t show any signs of improvement.

  The next day, Bobby, Dean, and Sebastian came to visit. Bobby burst into tears when she walked in and Dean and Sebastian went to sit next to Chase without saying a word. We all stood around him for a while and then Bobby took me to the cafeteria and forced me to eat something.

  The cafeteria was fairly empty. There were a few doctors sitting on the far side of the room who looked as tired as I felt. We walked toward a lady standing behind a long white counter and Bobby ordered two coffees and a sandwich for me. We walked toward the shiny square table and sat down in very comfortable white chairs.

  “I know you told me that you didn’t want to talk about it on the phone, but you really scared me,” Bobby said, putting her hand across the table and holding mine.

  I looked at her teary eyes; it was unfair that I didn’t tell her the whole story when she had been nothing but honest with me. I wasn’t used to having friends who cared about me and perhaps it was time that I let people in.

  I started telling her about my mother and how it led to Jerry.

  “Holy shit, he actually kidnapped you?” she said, wide-eyed.

  I nodded.

  “Thank God Chase was there to save you, I mean it’s terrible that he is in a coma right now but I am just glad that you are both alive.”

  “I just hope he pulls through, Bobby, if he dies because of me…” I let my head fall into my hands.

  Bobby came to sit next to me and wrapped her arms around me “We have to believe that everything is going to be fine,” she whispered, although I could hear her voice shaking.

  When she eventually let go of me, I had two bites of the sandwich and Bobby was satisfied with that.

  When we went back to the room, Sebastian was standing next to Chase’s bed while Dean stood by the window.

  “I can’t believe he went out there on his own,” Sebastian said to me. “If I was there to help him whoever did this to him… They wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

  Sebastian and Dean didn’t know the whole story, they just assumed that a couple of thugs jumped him, but I knew Bobby would fill them in. I didn’t have the energy to retell the story.

  I went to stand next to Sebastian and squeezed his hand. I knew that Chase would not have wanted to put anyone else in harm’s way and that’s why he didn’t tell anyone. We sat quietly in his room; now and then Sebastian would pick up his guitar and strum a few chords for Chase.

  After the sun had set and I assured Bobby that I was fine on my own, everyone said their goodbyes and left.

  About an hour later I heard a knock on the door and in walked Andy with a woman about his age, she was short with a full head of white hair. She had kind eyes and with lots of wrinkles around them. Andy walked up to me and took my hands in his. “How yer holding up las?” he asked me.

  “I’ve been better,” I shrugged.

  “Ai, a terrible tragedy, this is,” he said looking at Chase. “This is me wife Marta, I hope yer don’t mind me bringing her along.”

  “Not at all,” I said as she walked closer to me.

  “I’m sorry for what happened, Grace,” she said as she surprised me with a hug.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  They sat with me by Chase’s bed for a while. Andrew never asked me what happened and I was glad that he didn’t because I didn’t have the strength to tell another person the story. He spoke to Chase as if he could hear him and for some reason I felt hopeful when he did that.