by Chris T. Kat
The lifeguards couldn’t do a lot on the boat except shelter us from the wind as much as possible and quickly deliver us to the shore. They tried to get a reaction from Alex, without success. Tucking my knees under my chin, a position I haven’t been in since I was very small, I observed Alex’s ghastly white face with its noticeable blue veins. I deliberately breathed in and out slowly to stop myself from hyperventilating.
The urge to ask the fussing guard if Alex would be okay was as overwhelming as it was childish. I knew no one could give me that assurance. I still wanted it. Desperately.
Several people rushed toward the boat as it slowed down and helped to secure it. They heaved Alex onto a stretcher and carried him to a waiting ambulance. Two medics helped me out of the boat and guided me toward another ambulance. Several times I stumbled and each time they caught me. My legs were annoyingly uncooperative as was the rest of my body. I wanted to look after Alex myself even though I would only be a nuisance.
Refraining from asking the medics about Alex’s condition, which they clearly couldn’t know anything about, I asked instead, “How’s the little boy?”
“They drove him to the Medical Center on Pacific Avenue,” one of the medics answered.
They urged me down onto a gurney, stripped me of my clothes, and bundled me into a rescue blanket. They took my temperature, which they pronounced to be low but not too worrisome. They placed warm compresses to my armpits and groin, causing me to hiss in surprise.
“The compresses are a safety procedure,” the medic assured me.
“Who’s with the boy? His brother was the one with me on the boat; the boy will be terrified surrounded by all those strange people.”
The older of the medics, who introduced himself as Ray, told me, “There was someone with him. A police officer or something. Charlie, what was his name?”
“Chandler, I think.”
They fumbled around with the infusion, snapped the straps of the gurney shut, and tightened them before Charlie went into the front. Ray sat at my side and we were ready to go wherever when the backdoors burst open. Ray jumped up with an indignant, “Hey! We—”
“Thank God, you’re okay!” Parker shouted as he climbed into the ambulance. He banged the door shut behind him and took a seat on my other side. He frowned at Ray. “What? Didn’t you want to take him to the Medical Center?”
“Who are you?” Ray demanded.
“I’m Detective Trenkins and this bloody, suicidal idiot here is my partner, Detective Woods. He shouldn’t wear a badge if you ask me since he’s a complete imbecile, but what do I know, huh?”
Tilting my head sideways to look at Ray, I explained, “He’s pissed off because I wouldn’t let him play hero.”
Parker muttered some very colorful expletives that caused Ray to blush furiously. In the front of the ambulance, Charlie coughed. As he started the engine, he said to Parker, “So you’re teamed up with a guy who has a hero complex? You have my deepest sympathies. Maybe we could trade stories someday. You wouldn’t believe how many people suffer from that complex.”
Parker stopped midway through his rant and peered at Charlie, then back at Ray.
“Is it contagious?” he asked.
“No,” Charlie laughed. “It absolutely isn’t.”
Ray ignored Charlie’s teasing comments and fiddled with the line of my IV bag. When Parker’s cell phone rang, Ray’s and my eyes met briefly. He shrugged and whispered, “I bet you had a good reason for playing hero. Even if you acted completely unreasonably.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
Parker flipped his cell phone shut and shoved it back into his jacket. He didn’t say a word but fidgeted a lot. The sirens on top of the ambulance blared as the car sped through the streets. Parker purposefully avoided eye contact with me. I wanted to ask him what he had heard on the phone, yet I didn’t. I had a very good idea what news he had received. I didn’t know if I could stomach it. On the other hand, I had to know.
“What was the call about?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
The strain in my voice and the crack at the end gave me away nonetheless. I had seen dead people, battered and barely resembling anything human, but never had I felt this helpless, this terrified before.
Parker’s gaze skimmed over me, but he still hesitated. I closed my eyes and prompted, “Parker, please.”
“Alex is unconscious. His heart rate is increased and irregular. His temperature is too low to register. They don’t want to move him around right now. They are trying to heat him up slowly.”
Parker stopped and followed his silence by a deep sigh. I opted for opening my eyes. I couldn’t bear the darkness around me anymore. Swallowing my own spit became a serious issue, but I managed. “What does that mean? Come on, Parker, translate it into plain words for me.”
Parker glanced at Ray, who stared at us with unhidden interest. Parker’s hesitance suddenly made sense. I felt a deep affection for my troublesome partner, knowing he tried to keep me safe. “Parker?”
He grimaced before he focused his eyes on my face. “That means it’s not looking good right now. Maybe a fifty percent chance of surviving.”
“Fifty percent? That’s… that’s not too bad.”
Parker’s face softened and he briefly touched my cheek with his fingers. “I guess.”
I didn’t want to see the compassion and the pity on either Parker’s or Ray’s face. The only thing I could do about it was to close my eyes again, so I did just that. Blocking out any thoughts about Alex proved to be more difficult—impossible, actually.
I ENDURED the ride to the medical center and all the prodding the doctors did there. My temperature went up astonishingly fast, so they gave up trying to convince me to stay overnight for observation. It might have had to do with me lamenting and demanding answers about the whereabouts and conditions of Alex and Sean. No one ever answered any of my questions.
Parker somehow emerged with a bunch of my clothes in his arms a couple of hours after my arrival in the medical center. He threw them on a chair next to my bed and bestowed a drop-dead look on me. Taken aback, I blinked at him. “How did you get my clothes?”
Parker scowled at me, but at least he answered. “I told one of the guys at the station to open your locker and bring some of your clothes over here.”
“You ordered someone to break open my locker?” I asked incredulously.
“Would you rather run around naked? Not that you’re bad-looking, but it might not be the wisest thing to do after almost drowning.”
“I did not almost drown,” I replied while I shrugged into a shirt. A satisfied sigh escaped from my mouth when I pulled a heavy and well-worn sweater over my head.
“The hell you did! You stupid asshole!”
Parker started pacing through the room, all the while cursing and ranting. Thinking it was for the best if he could get his agitation out of his system, I let him be. I dressed silently but also kept an eye on him. When I finished I said, “Parker? Where’s Alex?”
“It was my pleasure to make sure you have decent clothes after almost killing yourself, don’t sweat about it!”
I didn’t mistake Parker’s comment. Yes, I understood he was angry, rightly so, but I also knew he didn’t want to tell me something. I swallowed several times as my stomach decided to lurch suddenly. Throwing up would probably be considered a reason to evaluate my physical condition further and I didn’t have time for that. I needed to see Alex, needed to make sure he was still here and most importantly, still alive.
My voice sounded decidedly close to begging when I said, “Parker, please, where’s Alex?”
Parker watched me for what seemed like an hour. Eventually he relented. “He’s in the ICU and sleeping.”
“That’s… that’s good, right?”
Why the hell did he make such a fuss? The ICU wasn’t good but at least Alex lived. Sleeping was probably a normal and healthy reaction by his body after such a trauma.
“Jeff,” Parker sighed ominously. I didn’t like this kind of sigh; the implications behind it frightened me.
“What? Do you know which room he’s in?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Bring me to him,” I demanded.
Parker pinched the bridge of his nose before he dropped the bomb. “Alex went into cardiac arrest upon arrival here. Resuscitation was successful, but he’s on a ventilator at the moment.”
Chapter 25
THE world around me slowed down as I tried to process Parker’s words and their meaning. I remembered feeling helpless once before, to the point of thinking this had to be a bad joke. My parents’ deaths had evoked the very same feeling two decades ago. I couldn’t cope with losing someone I loved again.
“Jeff, stop holding your breath for Christ’s sake!” I heard Parker muttering while he forced me to sit on the edge of the bed.
The world suddenly snapped back into focus and I became aware of myself trembling and panting. I felt sick, utterly sick. Waves of nausea rolled through me while my thoughts and feelings were all over the place.
Sometime later, wheezing and shaking, I realized I was slightly bent over with my forehead resting against Parker’s chest. Parker’s hands clasped the back of my head, occasionally mumbling something I couldn’t decipher. Surprised, I detected I held onto Parker tightly. Once I noticed this, I forced myself to loosen the grip I had on him. Parker responded immediately by letting go of my head. I could barely look at him when I apologized. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out on you.”
“He’s young, he’ll get through it. I just didn’t want you to go to him without knowing what to expect, you know?”
I nodded. “Thank you. I….”
My voice broke. I hid my face behind my palms and tried to compose myself. I hadn’t felt this shattered since my parents died. Only this time it felt even worse.
Parker pressed a hanky in my hands and rested a hand on my shoulder. He urged me up and got me moving toward the door. “Sorry to appear like an ass but you have to pull yourself together if you don’t want the other guys, and especially Williams, to become suspicious. Your hero-act already raised enough eyebrows.”
“Shit!” I exclaimed. “I still have to go and see him, Parker.”
“I know. Come on.”
I THOUGHT Parker’s words had prepared me for what I’d see in the ICU. God, was I ever wrong.
Alex seemed so incredibly small and fragile in the hospital bed, his complexion only slightly darker than the sheets. That alone would have put the fear of God in me. The various lines sticking in his veins plus the thick tube in his throat had me trembling and teary-eyed in an instant. The guy in the bed? That wasn’t the lively, sometimes cocky, sometimes downright sexy young man I had fallen for.
I walked into his room, forcing myself to approach his bedside. I had seen other people lying in hospital beds, looking far worse than him. Yet it had never touched me like it did now. Something cold and hard clamped around my heart, tightening fiercely until it bordered on being unbearable. It hurt like all hell.
Willing myself to breathe through the pain, I wondered whether I should risk sitting down on his bed or not. Cautiously I sat, all the while keeping an eye out for any sign of discomfort from Alex. None came.
He lay there, completely still. Only his chest heaved up and down in a regular pattern. That, at least, should have been a positive, but all I could think of was how would he be when he woke up? Would he remember what happened? In the movies, the injured party always suffered from amnesia. I had never met anyone who didn’t regain their memory, but I couldn’t stop myself from worrying about the consequences of the cardiac arrest.
Parker’s hand on my shoulder startled me. Dry-mouthed and with a highly accelerated heart rate, I growled, “Geez, Parker! Giving me a heart attack after almost drowning is seriously not your brightest idea.”
I received an eye roll of epic proportions. In a hushed voice he said, “Our time in here is almost up and you haven’t talked to him yet. You might want to use your time better.”
I blinked and cleared my throat. “Just to clarify… you want me to talk to him? As you can see, he’s sleeping.”
“They sedated him so he wouldn’t fight the tube. I thought it was common knowledge that people register what’s been said to them even while they’re sleeping. Of course, I’d understand if someone like you doesn’t want an audience when you go all gushy.”
I refrained from asking why he emphasized the “you” so much. After all, he had a reason, maybe even two, to be pissed off at me. I gave a curt nod. “I’d appreciate it if I could talk to him alone.”
Parker left without saying another word. Which gave me a few more minutes with Alex, who would surely know what to say to someone in his position. I didn’t.
I sat there in silence and cataloged every tiny detail of his face. The chapped lips around the thick tube; his long, thick lashes covering those beautiful eyes of his; the tousled blond locks framing his face.
My hands shook slightly when I reached out and tucked a stray lock behind his ear. I brushed another one from his forehead only to watch it fall back at the very same place seconds later. The next time, I twirled the lock around my finger before I tucked it away. Alex showed no reaction at all.
“Alex,” I whispered, “oh, Alex. I’m so sorry. This shouldn’t have happened.”
I stared at him for some time before I went on in a deliberately light tone, “See? I didn’t even scold you because you didn’t stay at home where nothing would have happened. Nothing at all.”
I rubbed my hands over my face while I choked on a sob. Taking in a deep breath, I added, “Sorry, that wasn’t very nice, huh? What is it called? Passive-aggressive behavior or something like that. All right, tell you what, I’m angry you didn’t listen and we’re here now. You almost died today, Alex. You scared the living hell out of me!”
Wringing my hands in my lap, I forced myself to continue. “However, I can’t really express how very, very grateful I am that you’re alive. So very, very much.”
The door opened and a nurse stuck her head into the room. “Sir? You have to leave now. You may come back in the morning.”
I nodded. I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted to crawl into bed next to him and hold him all night long. I spared a brief moment to wonder how that would go over. Laboriously, I rose from the bed and pulled Alex’s blanket up higher.
“Shouldn’t you make sure he’s kept warm?” I snapped.
“That’s what I intend to do as soon as you’re gone, sir,” the nurse replied politely. I wished she had snapped back. At least I would have had an excuse for being angry with her.
On impulse, I bent over and pressed a kiss onto Alex’s forehead. While I carded my hands through his hair, I whispered, “Make sure to rest and get better. I’ll wait for you.”
For a split second I wanted to add those three little words that could mean the world. The nurse took the decision out of my hands by hustling me out of the room. I couldn’t decide whether to be grateful about it or not.
PARKER and I rode the elevator when another thought struck me. “What about Sean?”
Parker cringed visibly. I grabbed his left arm and pulled until he faced me. “Parker! What about Sean?”
“He’s here and he’s alive.”
“But?”
Evasively, he answered, “I don’t know much more.”
“Parker,” I all but growled, “I’m not in the mood to pry information from you. How about you tell me what you know directly?”
“How about you stop playing hero so you wouldn’t have to beg me to give you information?”
“I am sorry, I told you already. Repeatedly. What do you want from me? Should I crawl on my knees and beg you for your forgiveness? What am I supposed to do so you stop snapping at me each time I open my mouth?”
Parker snorted and shook his head. “As tempting as the image of you crawling on your knees is, I’m not that
kinky.”
I insisted, “You would have done the same if it was David.” When Parker gazed at me doubtfully, I added, “Yes, you would. I know you that well.”
“You would have chewed me out as well.”
“Definitely.”
“Oh, all right. Sean is in the children’s ward. They called his physician and cleared his medical history. I believe his physician, Dr.…,” Parker trailed off as he flipped open a small notebook and searched for a certain page. When he found it, he said, “Dr. Larvis came over shortly after Sean’s admittance and examined him as well. So far, they hope he only suffered shock and some bruises.”
That didn’t sound bad. On the contrary, it sounded pretty much unbelievable. I frowned. “And?”
“And that’s the obvious damage they could find. The future will have to show how the lack of oxygen affects him and his abilities.”
Goosebumps rose on my skin as I nodded in understanding. I didn’t want to think of the might-be-consequences of his dive into the ocean. Neither did I want to imagine Alex’s reaction to the news. My imagination supplied me with various pictures and scenes nonetheless.
“I remember one of the medics saying that Chandler stayed with him. Who’s there now?”
“I don’t know the name but there is a cop positioned outside his room. Williams doesn’t want to take any chances. A news helicopter began filming from the time you pulled him to the shore and it was big news on TV tonight. You’ll probably get a medal for that stupid stunt.”
We walked out of the elevator into the lobby. I stopped midway and turned around. “I should probably—”
“You should definitely get your ass into your bed in your own apartment.”
“I—”
“Jeff! They are both sleeping; you’ll be more helpful when you come back tomorrow morning, well-rested.”