“You seem very happy you two. I hope you make that other baby.”
“Well we will certainly have fun trying.”
Bryony wanted to ask her friend if she and Scott had ever had problems in the bedroom department – in their expectations of each other – but she didn’t feel that she knew Lola well enough now to ask that sort of question.
“Bye Lola. I promise I will stay in touch this time, and if you ever want to come to New York for a visit, I would love to show you around.”
The two friends hugged again and Bryony went into the Motel room.
She lay awake that night, thinking of Alex and what had happened, as she had on so many nights since she last saw him. She wasn’t sure whether the heartache she still felt was about the type of sex that Alex wanted from her, or about the fact that he had turned to another woman so quickly after she had left.
If she was really honest with herself, she had kind of liked the sex. Well more than liked actually – until it came to the more painful stuff. If that woman hadn’t been there when she returned to Alex’s apartment it was possible that she and Alex might have worked things out and that they would still be together.
She missed him. Perhaps she should have taken his calls and met up with him to talk things over. She wasn’t sure she could go back to, what did he call it, her vanilla lifestyle after just that short time with a man who excited her more than any other man before.
Thinking of Alex brought that familiar yearning in her belly and she brought her hand down between her legs and remembered how good he had made her feel. Already the hair was beginning to regrow there and she couldn’t decide whether to shave it again. It seemed a bit pointless now. She closed her eyes and recreated the scene in her mind when Alex had shaved her. Her hips began to rotate as she massaged her clit and before long she had climaxed – her body trembling and shuddering with pleasure.
Next day she was very tired after a disturbed night’s sleep, but roused herself to get on the road to drive back to Pierre. She checked out of her room and pulled out of the parking lot, on to the road. Her dreams of the night before were very much on her mind and her concentration was not as focused as it normally was. She put her foot down on to the gas and the last thing she heard was a squeal of brakes and an almighty crash – before everything went black and she lost consciousness.
* * * * *
A few hours later, Lola found herself striding up and down the corridor of the emergency room waiting area in the hospital in Pierre. The motel receptionist, knowing that Lola was a friend of Bryony, had called her right after calling for an ambulance and Lola had reached the motel even before the ambulance had arrived. The scene she faced had been horrific. A large truck had hit Bryony’s car, parts of which had been completely mangled. Fortunately the driver’s side had escaped the worst of the damage, but her friend looked in a bad way, pale and seemingly lifeless.
Lola was distraught at seeing her friend in such a state and screamed at the receptionist to call 911 again to see why the ambulance was not already there. She was terrified that Bryony might already be dead and had never felt so completely helpless in her life. She stroked the back of Bryony’s hand, and begged her friend to hold on until help arrived. Never had she been so glad to hear the ambulance siren as it approached them.
“You’ve got to hang on, Bry. We’ve only just found each other again. I don’t want to lose you now. Please, please hang on till we reach the hospital.”
The paramedics stabilized Bryony and decided to take her straight to Pierre, rather than to the small local clinic. Lola followed in her car, leaving Kelly with her mother. “I don’t know who to call, Mom. Bryony doesn’t have any relatives that I know of, and I don’t think there is a boyfriend around, although she did mention a man called Alex, and she seemed very keen on him. Do you think I should call him? There must be someone in her life who cares enough to be with her.”
Her Mom didn’t want Lola to drive to the hospital while she was in such a state, but Lola insisted. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll take care, I promise. I can’t leave her to face this alone.”
She was finding it hard to think straight, concerned as she was about whether Bryony was hanging on in the back of the ambulance that was speeding, emergency lights flashing, towards the hospital. Despite her promise to her Mom, Lola drove as fast as she could after the now disappeared ambulance. Arriving at the hospital she was relieved to find a space near to the entrance, but before running into the Emergency Room to find her friend, she took Bryony’s cell phone out of her purse and scrolled down, looking for an Alex on her list of contacts. There was only one on the list. She rang the number nervously. Still in shock, she wasn’t looking forward to calling a complete stranger and telling him that a woman he may or may not still care about could be fighting for her life, but it seemed like the only option right now. Even if this man, Alex, was no longer involved in her friend’s life, surely he would want to know what had happened to her?
In California, Alex was enjoying being with his parents. He had begun to feel relaxed for the first time in a long time. He knew he worked long hours and that he should take off more personal time, but up until recently he hadn’t known what to do with that personal time, and more importantly, who to do it with.
His cell phone rang and his heart jumped when he saw that it was Bryony. At last she was returning his calls after the weeks of silence.
“Bryony, you don’t know how pleased I am to hear from you. It’s been too long.”
The voice at the other end of the phone wasn’t Bryony’s however. “Is that Alex Graham?”
“Yes. Who are you and what are you doing with Bryony’s phone?”
The voice at the other end of the phone sounded nervous and scared. Even before she began to speak Alex knew that something was wrong, but he wasn’t prepared for what was to follow.
“I’m Lola Branson. I’m Bryony’s friend and I live in Oakley, South Dakota where Bryony used to live. I didn’t know who to ring and she had mentioned your name.”
An icy hand gripped Alex’s heart.
“What’s happened to Bryony? Has something happened?”
“I’m afraid there has been an accident. Bryony was leaving the motel in Oakley and a truck hit her car. Bryony is hurt bad Alex. I just didn’t know whom to contact. She has no family that I know of and I don’t know her friends in New York. You were the only one I could think to call.”
There was complete silence at the other end of the phone while Alex absorbed the shock of the news. For a brief moment, when the phone rang, he had thought that Bryony was calling to say that she had forgiven him and was willing to give him a second chance. He realized now what that ache in his gut was; the one that had kept him awake for so many nights after she had left him. With a blinding flash, he knew that he loved Bryony, and now a woman was on the end of the phone telling him that she had been badly hurt. He was having trouble absorbing the news.
At the other end of the phone, Lola waited for the silence to end. She had hated the thought of giving bad news over the phone, but what choice had she had? “Are you still there?”
Lola’s quiet and tremulous voice broke through the fog around his brain and Alex immediately sprang into his curt and efficient mode, that he used when encountering emergencies in his life. This was no time to break down and wail – he needed to get into action to deal with the problem. It sometimes made people around him think that he was cold and uncaring, but it was the only way he knew how to respond in these sorts of circumstances. The wailing could come later.
“How bad is she and where is she now?”
“I’m waiting to hear from the doctors. She is in surgery right now, at St. Michael’s in Pierre, South Dakota. She has multiple injuries, but they can’t tell me very much until after the surgery.”
“Okay, I’m on it. I need to contact a few people and I will get back to you. Call me the moment you hear any news.”
The phone line went dead. His f
irst step was to contact someone he knew who was high up in the Presbyterian Hospital, ranked as the top hospital in New York. His contact promised that he would speak to their top trauma surgeon and ask him to speak to the doctors in Pierre to get details of her injuries. As soon as they judged Bryony to be stable enough to transport, they would send a medical flight, with full medical staff, to fly her back to New York.
His next step was to arrange a private plane to take him to Pierre. Within minutes, he had arranged for a helicopter to pick him up from the nearby golf course and fly him to the airport, where a plane was ready and waiting to take him to South Dakota.
The helicopter took just ten minutes to reach him, by which time he had packed his bag and said his goodbyes to his Mom and Dad.
“I hope everything goes well. We will pray for your friend.”
Alex was not a religious man, but at times like this he was willing to take any help he could get. He hugged his Mom and ran out to climb into the helicopter, which whisked him away to the airport. All the way there his only thought was, don’t let her die. Let Bryony live.
He called Lola when he arrived at the airport and told her he was about to leave LA and he would be at the hospital in just a few hours.
“Do you need to go home? I guess you have a family to care for?”
“It’s okay. My Mom is looking after my little girl. I will stay until you arrive. I don’t want Bryony to be alone.”
“Thanks Lola. I will see you soon.”
In just over four hours Alex was striding purposefully down the corridor towards the waiting room where Lola was waiting. As soon as he entered a young woman with brown, wavy, shoulder-length hair and a very worried expression jumped up from her seat.
“Alex?”
He nodded.
“What news Lola?” Alex’s heart was pounding and his brain was racing over all the possible outcomes that lay in wait for him in this hospital. He was a man who normally thrived on challenges and the unknown, but today he was in dread of hearing words he didn’t want to hear and which he wasn’t sure he could cope with.
“I’m not sure. They haven’t told me much, except that she had been bleeding internally, but they had managed to stop it. They said they would come back and tell me more. I’m so glad you came. I’ve been so scared… she looked so frail and broken when I first saw her. It just seems so hard to take in! We were just laughing and talking about old times last night, and then this happens.”
Alex was at least relieved to hear that the doctors had been able to stop the bleeding which backed up what he had heard from the surgeon at Presbyterian. He was also relieved to have heard shortly before arriving at the hospital that a medical flight was already on its way from New York and would be here within two hours. No disrespect to the surgeons at St. Michael’s, but he wanted Bryony back in New York where some of the top trauma experts in the world were based.
On the outside, Alex appeared to be a man in complete control of events, but inside his stomach was churning. This was an event whose outcome was beyond his control, but he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that Bryony had the best possible medical care, no matter what the cost.
Lola wasn’t quite as stoic as he was. The relief that she no longer had to cope alone with what had happened meant that the tears that Lola had been trying desperately to hold at bay began to roll down her cheeks. Alex recognized that she had been through a traumatic experience and touched her arm sympathetically. He guided her to a chair and urged her to sit, fishing in his pocket for a clean handkerchief, which he handed to Lola. He was much too hyped up to sit himself.
“You did right to call me, Lola. Are you an old friend of hers? I’m afraid I don’t know much about Bryony’s life before she came to New York except about her losing her Dad and about them moving around a lot. Tell me about her life in Oakley, when you last knew her.”
Alex wasn’t sure that he could concentrate on Lola’s reminiscences, but he wanted something to take both their minds off what was happening so near, yet out of sight.
“We were good friends from school, but we hadn’t seen each other for a few years. We met up again when Bry came to visit her Dad’s grave in Oakley and I was there tending my own Dad’s grave. We’d sort of lost touch when she left after her Dad died, but we caught up when she came over for dinner last night. She told me that she had met someone called Alex, but that you two had broken up after just a short time together. I could tell, though, from her voice that she still thinks a lot of you. I know she doesn’t have any close relatives, so I thought of calling you. I hope I did the right thing.”
“Thank God you did, Lola. And thank God that I was only in California with my parents and not in Europe as I had originally thought of going. I’m so grateful that you thought to call me. Yes, it’s true that we did break up, but believe me, Lola, I care about Bryony very much. I will do whatever it takes to get her back on her feet. I know very little about her early life, although she did tell me about losing her Dad when she was eighteen. I’d like it if you would tell me about that time.”
“I remember the day of the accident so vividly. He was driving to pick Bryony up and crashed into a tree. The police said that he had a tire blowout. Bryony was devastated. It had just been her and Stanley for so long, after her Mom died when she was just a baby. She was always so bubbly and happy when we were at school. They were even poorer than we were, but Bryony never complained, even when she had to borrow a dress to go to Prom. She used to talk about the future. Said she wanted to really make something of her life and make enough money so that she and her Dad could buy a proper house instead of that beat up old trailer home they used to live in. She looked so pretty on Prom night, all the guys were lining up to dance with her.”
Lola paused, lost in her memories of those happy times and part of her was afraid that Bryony would not be able to dance again after today. Alex sensed her worry and pushed her to continue reminiscing. The thought had crossed his mind too and he couldn’t bear to dwell on it. “So what happened to make you two drift apart?”
“The accident changed everything. Bryony stayed with us for a short while, but she wanted to go back home to the trailer. She withdrew into herself and the bubbly Bryony that we all used to know and love just disappeared. I went down to see her but she was all closed up. I didn’t know how to reach her. One day I went down and the trailer home was deserted and the man in the next trailer said that she had left that morning, carrying a suitcase. Bryony left and no one knew where.”
They sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts until, at last, the door to the operating suite was opened and a man in scrubs came towards them. Alex walked briskly to meet him, the anxiety etched onto his face, and introduced himself as Bryony’s boyfriend – which wasn’t true of course, but he figured that they wouldn’t talk to him otherwise. The man had obviously been made aware of what Alex had been doing behind the scenes and had spoken to the New York surgeon and given him a full report of Bryony’s current medical status.
“She’s stable. We think she is now out of danger and her vitals are getting better. After consulting with your New York people we have decided that it will be safe to fly her up there and they will be here in a couple of hours. In the meantime Ms. Winters is in our Intensive Care Unit and being constantly monitored.”
“Can we see her?”
“Yes, I think that will be possible. I’ll get the nurse to come and get you.”
When the surgeon had left, Lola sank back onto the chair and began to cry again, but this time they were tears of relief, even though she was still desperately worried about her friend.
“It’s okay, Lola, Bryony’s going to make it. She’s a tough woman. She will get through this.” Alex wished he felt as confident as he sounded, but he believed in talking things up rather than down.
The nurse came and took them to the bed where Bryony lay, hooked up to all sorts of monitors. Alex thought she looked so pale and fr
agile.
“Don’t be scared of all the wires. The machines are measuring all her vital signs and they will make a sound if anything needs checking. It’s probably best you only stay a few minutes this time, as we have some tests to do. Just reassure her that you are here. Sometimes, even though a patient is unconscious, they recognize familiar voices.”
Alex moved closer to the woman in the bed that did not look at all like the Bryony he knew. He took her hand and kissed it gently.
“Bryony, its Alex. I’m here with Lola. Don’t worry about anything. I’m going to take care of everything. You are going to get well again. Just you concentrate on getting better.”
He beckoned Lola forward and she went around the bed and took Bryony’s other hand.
“Bry, honey, its Lola. You’ve had an accident, but you are going to get well. We’ve both been so worried about you. Alex is taking you back to New York and I am going back to Oakley. But Alex will telephone me every day and tell me how you are getting along. Just you concentrate on getting better and hopefully I will be able to come up and see you in New York. Make sure you get better soon, Bry. I will be thinking about you all the time. Oh and Mom sends her love too. God bless Bryony.”
She leaned over and kissed her friend on her pale cheek, and stepped back to give Alex some privacy. He leaned over Bryony and kissed her on the lips.
“I love you, Bryony. You have to know that. I didn’t even know myself until now, but seeing you again just made me realize what I had lost. I’m going to take care of you. I’m going to say goodbye to Lola now, and let the nurses do their job, but I will be back to go with you back to New York.”
They both left the nurses to care for their patient and withdrew to the waiting area.
“You must go home, Lola. You have a child to consider. Do you need transport?”
“No, I have my car. It’s not far to Oakley.” She gave Bryony’s cell phone to Alex and gave him her own contact details. “Please call me when you get back to New York and let me know how she is doing. I won’t stop worrying about her until I know that she is really on the mend.”
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