Secluded Heart

by Graysen Morgen

  “She was involved in an auto accident…”

  “Oh my god! Is she okay? Where? What happened?”

  “Calm down ma’am. Are you family?”

  “I’m…” Frankie thought quickly. “I’m her sister.”

  “She was just taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.”

  “How bad is she?” She said as she ran out the front door of her house. She’d left Rainer’s before Chase, so she had time to make it home and never saw the accident. Ping and Gayle left right after Frankie. Chase stayed behind to answer a question Paul had about open heart surgery. His mother lived in Connecticut and was told she needed to have a double bypass very soon. He was in the dark trying to understand the information the doctor’s gave his brother.

  “I’m not sure ma’am. She was alive when they pulled her from the car.”

  “Oh my god,” Frankie choked back tears and hung up the phone. She dialed another number quickly as she drove on.

  “Hey what’s up?” Ping answered.

  Frankie tried to talk between sobs.

  “Huh? What’s wrong Frankie? I can’t understand you, calm down.”

  “Chase!” She yelled.

  “What about her?”

  “She…” Frankie tried to pull it together. “She was in a car accident…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know Ping…the cop said…he said she was alive when they pulled her out of the car…”

  “Oh my god! What! Oh my god! Where is she?” Ping was hysterical.

  “Mount Sinai. I just pulled up, call Gayle.” She closed her phone and ran into the emergency room.

  ***

  When the ambulance arrived the paramedics wheeled the stretcher into the ER. The trauma resident didn’t recognize her since she was covered in blood from the cut on her head that wasn’t even an inch long, and strapped to a backboard with a neck brace clamped to her head. The left side of her face was severely bruised and her eye was swollen almost shut.

  “Her name’s Chase…” The paramedic said to the doctor. “We pulled her out of a tiny convertible roadster. An SUV practically ran over her and squished her into a parked car.” They moved her onto a hospital gurney, but left her strapped to the plastic board and in the neck brace. The doctor looked closely at her as he listened to her breathing and peeked behind the eyelid on the uninjured side of her face.

  “Dr. Leery?” He turned towards the paramedics that were leaving the room. “What kind of car did you say that was?”

  “Uh…” He looked at his note pad. “Some kind of silver sports car, I think maybe a Mercedes.”

  All of a sudden the doctor started yelling orders to the nurses and the attending that was with him. “Call radiology and tell them we have a trauma code red…NOW! She needs a CT scan, facial x-rays as well as head, neck and chest x-rays!” Code red meant one of their own, sort of like top priority.

  The paramedics noticed the immediate change of pace in the room. “Do you know her?”

  “Yes, she’s one of the best cardiac surgeons in Miami. She works here.” He said as he helped wheel the gurney down to radiology. “How bad was it? Was she awake at all?”

  “No, she was unconscious, but breathing on her own when we arrived. The witness said she was awake and tried to speak to him right after it happened. The car was unrecognizable; we had to practically cut around the driver compartment to get her out. It didn’t cave in too bad on her legs though. The airbag probably hit her in the chest. We found her slumped against it and the door.”

  “My god,” The trauma doctor shook his head and walked towards radiology.

  ***

  “Excuse me I’m looking for Dr. Chase Leery, she was brought here from a car accident.” Frankie sounded winded, she’d run all the way from the parking garage.

  “Um…” The nurse behind the desk checked the records. “I don’t see her on here.”

  “Look lady!” Frankie almost went over the counter. “She was brought here by ambulance, all…” The tears just wouldn’t stop. “All I know is she was alive when they got her out of the car. She’s a heart surgeon here, I’m sure you probably know her.” The woman stood up.

  “Wait just a minute.” She walked away. Frankie paced the floor praying for Ping and Gayle to get there as quickly as possible. She wasn’t sure she could handle seeing Chase alone.

  “She’s in radiology, that’s all they can tell me. Are you family?”

  “We all are.” A sobbing voice answered from behind Frankie. Ping and Gayle were standing behind her crying their eyes out. The nurse looked at them quizzically. Here you have a woman with jet black hair and semi-tanned skin, an auburn haired woman with fair skin, and a short Asian woman. None of them looked related to each other and the only thing she could remember about Dr. Leery was she was tan and blond. Frankie caught onto the oddball stare. “We were all adopted.” She said quickly.

  The nurse shook her head. “Come with me, I’ll take you to the family waiting room.” She walked them down a ridiculously clean hallway with chalk white floors and baby blue walls. All three of Chase’s best friends walked into the tiny room still crying.

  “We saw the car.” Gayle said as she sat on one of the hard gray chairs.

  “What?” Frankie asked as she sat next to her. Ping sat on the other side of Gayle.

  “Ping picked me up on Seventh. I was at Cordova’s looking for a birthday present for my Mom. Anyway, we rode past Rainer’s on the way here. It must’ve happened right after she left. They were still cleaning everything up and the car was on a flatbed wrecker, along with a big red Expedition and a little black Acura.” Gayle wiped the tears from her face.

  “There was nothing left of her car Frankie. It was a silver ball of metal with cloth mixed in from the convertible top.” Ping starred at the floor.

  “Oh my god,” Frankie closed her eyes and prayed silently for her best friend’s life.

  “I…uh…I took a couple pictures with my camera phone as we passed it.” Gayle said half under her breath.

  “That’s fucked up Gayle.”

  “What if…I don’t know…I just took them, okay.” Gayle felt bad enough as it was. She wasn’t really thinking about Chase being hurt at the time. She was just amazed at the car.

  “Well at least let me see them.” Frankie said with sarcasm. Gayle pushed a few buttons on her phone and handed it to Frankie.

  “Holy shit! Oh my god, Chase.” There were two pictures of the Mercedes and one each of the truck and other car. Frankie’s hands were shaking as she handed the phone back to Gayle. “She’s…” Frankie closed her eyes. “She’s lucky to be alive.”

  ***

  An hour later the doors to the waiting room opened. “Hi, I’m Dr. Rosenthal. Are all of you with Dr. Leery?” The moderately short, dark haired man stood in front of them in dark blue scrubs and a white lab coat.

  “Yes. How is she? Can we see her?” Frankie stood up to speak to him. She was surprised to see that she was almost taller than him.

  “She’s going to fully recover, but right now she has a slight concussion and a severe contusion to the left side of her face. She had a small cut above her left eye that took six stitches. Surprisingly, she didn’t break any bones, but she’ll be very sore for a while and have a hell of a black eye. We just gave her a little bit of pain medication so she’s asleep right now.” He backed up a little bit. “If you come with me I’ll take you to her.”

  They walked down one hallway, and then turned down another. Gayle noticed the sign for Intensive Care and an arrow pointing in the direction they were heading.

  “She’s in here so she can be monitored every fifteen minutes because of her concussion.”

  “How long will she be here?” Ping asked.

  “Probably two days, just to be on the safe side.” He waved towards the open doorway. Frankie was the first one to walk in. Chase had IV lines coming from both hands and an oxygen tube stuck in her nose. Bright blue stitches stuck out from the dark brui
sing on the left side of her face. Her eye socket and cheek was severely swollen. Her blond hair had dried blood in it, but it looked like the nurses did their best to clean the blood from her face and neck. Frankie thought she looked peaceful laying there under the thick blanket sound asleep. She walked over and rubbed her fingers on her left hand. Chase never stirred.

  “I’m so sorry honey.” Frankie whispered as the tears came back full force.

  “At least she’s okay. The Doctor said her eye will heal with no problem.” Ping hugged Frankie.

  “We’re all here Chase. We love you.” Gayle said as she squeezed the fingers on Chase’s right hand.

  9

  Frankie brought Chase home from the hospital two days later. She stayed with her around the clock the first couple of days since she was still in an extreme amount of pain and unable to do a lot for herself. Surprisingly, she didn’t break any bones, but she felt as though she shattered her entire skeleton she was hurting so bad. The pain pills knocked her out within minutes, so it was either stay awake in unbearable pain or take the pills and go to sleep.

  “I need to go to the office and take care of some paperwork. I’ll be back in a few hours. Take your pills and get some rest honey.”

  “What day is it?” Chase asked groggily. She was unable to remember the accident. In fact, she couldn’t remember much about Sunday at all, except for having a conversation with Remy and being sad.

  “It’s Friday. Why?”

  “What’s the date?”

  “December twenty third.” Frankie raised a questioning eyebrow. “Got a hot date for Christmas?”

  Chase grinned. It hurt way too much to laugh. “Just a foursome with you, Ping and Gayle.” The girls had been together on the holidays for the past four years. Even if they were dating people they were always together. None of them were from Miami except Chase, and her family moved away to escape the heat, so the girls became each other’s family. Demanding jobs and busy lives kept them from going to see their families in multiple states.

  When Frankie was leaving there was a knock at the door. She opened it to a giant bouquet of various flowers in a crystal vase. Frankie figured the arrangement probably cost close to three hundred dollars. She took it inside and put it with the giant array of flowers that were sent to the hospital by co-workers and other friends. Chase’s condo was starting to look like a flower shop with at least twenty arrangements scattered.

  “That one’s huge…Who’s it from?” Chase asked quizzically. She was lying on the couch watching reruns of CSI: Miami. For some reason she always got a kick out of watching it since she lived in Miami and there was no way in hell that show was taped there, to her it was like watching a mockery of her city. That and the fact that she slept halfway through every episode seemed to help. Plus, the women were usually good looking.

  Frankie opened the card and walked over to the couch with it. Chase’s face was still bruised pretty badly. Her left eye was black and blue and she still had her stitches. She also had bruising on her chin and chest from the airbag. It literally looked like someone beat her up, but lucky for her, it was only bruising and a minor cut that would more than likely heel with no scar.

  Chase took the card and flipped it open. Frankie stood in silence as Chase read the inscription.

  Chase,

  I‘m glad you‘re okay. I went to the hospital to see you, but I didn’t know what to say, so I never went inside. I’ve driven by your house a hundred times since I found out you came home, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. Anyway, I just wanted to say I’m sorry and I hope you get well soon.

  Remy

  Chase tossed the card onto the coffee table. “Did you tell her?”

  “No.” Frankie shook her head.

  “Hmm…” Chase laid back down on the couch. As soon as Frankie was gone Chase threw the TV remote across the room, it was the closest thing she could grab. The batteries flew out when it crashed against the wall.

  “God damn you! What gives you the right to lead me around like your fucking puppet on a string?!” Chase still couldn’t remember the accident, but she did finally start remembering the events of that day. In particular the entire conversation she had with Remy, so lying helplessly on her couch staring at the enormous bundle of flowers on the table only pissed her off. Chase took a pain pill and went to sleep, at least this way she wouldn’t sit around thinking about the woman that made her heart skip a beat and blood boil all at the same time. Boy, what a cliché. She thought.

  ***

  Later that same night, Frankie, Ping and Gayle all came over to Chase’s. Frankie made homemade pizzas for dinner and they sat around watching the movie version of Rent on DVD. They seemed to do that anytime something was going on with one of them. Their ‘Rent night’ had become a karaoke singing fest. They each had her favorite character and could sing all of the songs. Chase had to admit it cheered her up, she’d only thought about Remy once every half hour, instead of every ten minutes. Especially since the flower vase was nearby. Ping and Gayle went around and read all of the cards, Remy’s bouquet was the only one with no card and it was by far the most extravagant, so naturally they questioned her about that one.

  “I thought she stayed with her boyfriend?” Gayle asked. Ping wanted to smack her in the back of the head for bringing it up.

  “She’s still with him. We uh…I…I ran into her when I left Rainer’s…”

  “When?”

  “I guess right before the accident, I don’t know. All I remember is basically telling her it was me or him.”

  “Wow, and she sent you flowers? What did the card say?”

  “It’s none of your business Gayle!” Frankie barked.

  “No, it’s okay. She just said get well soon. It was nothing special.”

  “The flowers she sent are gorgeous.” Ping smiled.

  “Yeah,” Chase fought back a tear.

  ***

  Two days after New Year’s Chase was back to work full time. Her black eye was gone and she had a very thin little scar above her left eye from her stitches. Her bruised muscles were healed and finally stopped aching. All in all, she was back to normal. She’d already bought a new car. Ironically, it was exactly like the one she totaled, the same slate gray exterior with a black convertible top and black leather interior. This one just happened to be two years newer than the other one, and just as loaded.

  Chase had just come out of a three hour mitral valve replacement surgery, when her pager went off. She decided to call the number back from her office phone since she was heading in that direction. She was a little tired from working just over eighty hours in the past week. When Chase put her mind to something, she did it. The entire cardiac staff, as well as the surgical staff tried to get her to come back slowly, that lasted a week, by the second week she was back full speed ahead. They couldn’t help but respect her determination to get back to normal and her devotion to her job and her patients.

  When Chase came out of the elevator she turned down the hallway where her office was located. The blond stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the tall woman leaning against the wall. Chase didn’t have to look into the brown eyes staring her way; she could feel them burning a hole through her. Just when I think my god damn life is straightening out after being turned upside down, she shows up to fuck it up again. Back into the blender I go. At that point she began walking towards the woman standing by her closed office door. Chase lost the battle with herself and made eye contact with Remy. She’s so adorable, just looking at her makes me melt.

  Words weren’t spoken as Chase moved around Remy and opened her office door. She waved for Remy to walk inside. Chase shut the door behind herself. They both spoke at the same time.

  “What…”

  “I’m...”

  Remy grinned and Chase smiled shyly as they both apologized.

  “Why are you here?” Chase finally got a complete sentence out.

  “I…uh…I’m glad you’re okay.”

&
nbsp; “I’m fine.” Chase calmed her tone slightly. “Thank you for the flowers you sent me, they were beautiful.”

  “You’re welcome. I…” She nervously moved forward and put her hand on Chase‘s cheek. “I was worried about you. I wanted to see you, but…” Chase closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the tender touch. “I didn’t know what to say to you.”

  Chase finally pulled her head from the clouds and backed away from Remy’s touch. “Well, I’m okay now.” She said as she leaned back against her desk and crossed her arms. “Why are you here?” She asked again against her own will.

  “I wanted to see you. I…God Chase, when I heard you wrecked your car and were in the hospital I didn’t know what to do. No matter how hard I try, I can’t help my feelings for you.”

  “Well, try harder.” Chase said sarcastically. “How’s Brian?” She added with a touch of vulgarity and rolled her eyes. That comment hit Remy below the belt. She didn’t know what to say or do, it was clear Chase didn’t want her around.

  “I should go.” Remy turned to leave the office. “I…” She closed her eyes and turned back around. When Remy opened her eyes again Chase saw the tears. “Chase…I’m in love with you.” The tears fell from her beautiful brown eyes. “I’m sorry.” She turned and hurried out of the room, leaving Chase dumbfounded.

  When reality finally sank in and Chase closed her jaw she sat in the chair behind her desk. The words repeated over and over in her head as her own tears slid down her face. She ran both hands through her short blond hair and sighed heavily. I hate her. I hate her for doing this to me, I hate her for saying that to me, I hate her, I hate her, I hate her. She squeezed her eyes closed, then opened them. “I’m so god damn in love with her I can’t think straight.” She whispered to herself and wiped the tears from her eyes.