Unbroken

by Natalie Debrabandere

  She gritted her teeth.

  “We need to get my partner out first.”

  “Why don’t you let me handle it.”

  “No.”

  He gave her a friendly smile. He understood stubborn.

  “Okay, that’s no problem. What’s your name?”

  “Liz. I’m a surgeon. I know what I’m doing here, okay?”

  “My name’s Paul. I know what I’m doing too. As soon as your friend is out of the car you need to let me look at your leg.”

  Liz ignored him, and she returned her attention to the front seat as one of the firefighters leaned over Kristan with a cervical collar in his hand.

  “Wait. I’ll do it,” she said loudly. “Let me do it please. Paul?”

  “Right here,” the man said.

  “Can you help me?”

  “Sure.”

  Between them they had Kristan onto the board and secured pretty quickly. Two guys carried her toward the ambulance, and Liz jumped out of the car only to find that she could not use her left leg at all now. The pain was excruciating, and when she stumbled Paul was there immediately to support her.

  “Can I help you now?” he asked, looking at her.

  He was tall, black hair, black eyes, fit-looking, and he was watching her intently.

  “I need to go with Kris,” Liz said tensely.

  “You need to get off that leg.”

  She shook her head.

  “Later.”

  It turned out she had a large piece of glass stuck in her thigh. The wound was deep and painful, and it required several stitches. She had also pulled a couple of ligaments in her knee, but fortunately it was nothing that a lot of rest and regular icing would not fix.

  Other than that she was fine.

  Later on, too much later on for her liking, she managed to find some crutches and she walked over to Kristan’s room.

  Liz had been right about her shoulder. It was dislocated. Her left wrist was badly sprained. The cut in her head was deep and it took a while to pull all the bits of glass from the car embedded in it. Fortunately the scans revealed no serious internal injuries, just a concussion, bruising to the brain that would leave no lasting damage. Liz found it difficult to breathe when she thought about how much worse it could have been for the both of them. Kristan could have been killed.

  Just as she was about to enter her room someone called her name, and she looked up to see James walking quickly toward her.

  “Hey, James…”

  To her surprise her voice caught in her throat and she could not say much more.

  He grabbed her and hugged her tightly as she dropped her crutches and started to cry.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” he murmured.

  “How did you know we were here?” Liz asked, trying her best to stop crying and regain her composure.

  “I know Paul,” James said softly. “The paramedic who was at the scene. He called me.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Liz remembered. “Paul was very good. You know him?”

  James nodded.

  “Yeah. He’s a very good friend. How are you, Liz?”

  “Worried about Kris,” Liz said with difficulty. “She got hit full on.”

  His expression darkened.

  “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Yes. She will be. But she has a concussion and her shoulder was weak to begin with, and I hate it that she’s hurt…”

  He rested his arm on her shoulders and pulled her close.

  “I know. But from what I know about Kristan that won’t keep her down for very long, right?”

  Liz chuckled a little.

  “Yeah, I think you’re probably right,” she agreed, smiling through her tears. “She’s tough.”

  “What hit you? Can you remember? Did you see it?”

  “Had to be a big truck,” Liz ventured, shaking her head as she tried to remember and drew a complete blank.

  “Had to be. Look, the police are here and they want to talk to you.”

  Liz took an immediate step back.

  “Not now. James, I need to go and see Kris first. Okay?”

  He nodded and gave her a warm smile.

  “Of course. Of course, no problem. I’ll go tell them that. I’ve brought you both some clothes, by the way.”

  Liz hugged him again.

  “Thank you,” she said. “And thank you so much for being here.”

  She opened the door to her lover’s room, looked toward the bed and found it empty.

  Her heart sank.

  “Kristan,” she called anxiously. “Kris? Oh, God…”

  “Liz.”

  Liz spun around at the sound of Kristan’s voice and found her leaning against the bathroom door. Apparently she had been in the process of putting her bloody clothes back on when Liz had walked in on her. She had managed to get as far as her jeans, and she was still wearing her hospital gown on top of them.

  “What are you doing out of bed?” Liz exclaimed, frowning.

  “I was… coming to find you,” Kristan said slowly and with difficulty. “Are you okay?”

  Her hair was dirty and stiff and sticking out of the large bandage that covered her forehead. Her eyes were limpid blue, her face chalk white. The cervical collar she was supposed to be wearing was abandoned on the floor.

  “Baby, what are you talking about?” Liz enquired, moving toward her. “You need to lie down, my love, come on.”

  “Are you okay?” Kristan repeated loudly.

  “I’m fine,” Liz assured her gently. “Just pulled a muscle. I’m okay.”

  Kristan nodded and attempted a smile, but then she swayed as if she were going to fall. Liz wrapped her arms around her waist to steady her.

  “You need to lie down,” she repeated.

  “No, I don’t,” Kristan murmured even as she leaned against Liz more heavily. “Not safe here.”

  “We are at the hospital, we are safe. You have a concussion. Kris, please listen to me.”

  Liz had her on the bed again before Kristan even realised what she was doing. She winced when she tried to move her right arm and found that she could not.

  “What’s wrong with my shoulder?” she mumbled.

  “You dislocated it. It will be fine, darling, but you need to lie down now.”

  Carefully but firmly, she pushed Kristan back against the pillows.

  Her lover was fading fast but still fighting.

  “I don’t want any drugs,” she said thickly. “Okay? Will you tell them?”

  Liz climbed in next to her and rested her arms around her.

  “No problem.”

  Kristan sighed deeply when she felt Liz settling on the bed next to her. She closed her eyes at last.

  “No drugs…” she murmured.

  “Don’t worry. You haven’t had any yet, and I will make sure they do not give you anything.”

  She had had the presence of mind to tell the doctors that Kristan would not want any pain killers, even when they set her shoulder back in and put the stitches in her head. It had helped that her lover had been unconscious then. She was relieved to find that she had made the right decision.

  Kristan tried to sit up again and Liz tightened her hold on her.

  “Shh. Relax,” she murmured. “Stay still, my love.”

  “I’ve got a headache,” Kristan mumbled.

  “I know. You should try to sleep.”

  “What happened?”

  “Something hit us.”

  “On the road?”

  “Yes.”

  Kristan was feeling dizzy and she relaxed back against Liz, thinking about that. She was silent for a few minutes, her breathing slowed, and Liz was hoping that she had fallen asleep at last. She closed her eyes, eager to join her, when Kristan spoke again.

  “I pulled off the road. It can’t be… We were way off the road, Liz.”

  “We got hit at the lights, darling. Remember?”

  Kristan sighed.

  “Not really...” she s
aid. “Everything’s fuzzy…”

  “I know. You will feel better in the morning. Just sleep.”

  “Liz, can Mike come over?”

  Liz breathed out slowly.

  She did not reply immediately, and instead just rested her hand against her lover’s cheek.

  “You’re burning up, Kristan,” she remarked, concerned. “Please stop thinking and try to get some sleep.”

  Kristan struggled against her and started to get agitated again.

  “We need to speak to the police,” she protested. “Where’s Mike? I need to talk to him.”

  Liz bit her lip and hesitated for a second. She knew it would do no good to try to reason with Kristan right now, so she simply cradled her in her arms and tried to offer whatever comfort she could.

  “We’ll tell him in the morning, okay?” she murmured. “You’ll be fine in the morning, I promise. Close your eyes, baby.”

  Kristan winced in pain as she tried to turn over. Suddenly it felt like a million nails being fired at her brain.

  “Don’t move,” Liz ordered immediately. “For God’s sake, Kris.”

  “There’ something I need to do…”

  “No,” Liz said firmly. “You’re injured. You need to be still and give your body time to recover. And baby, I need to get some sleep as well.”

  Kristan went still immediately.

  “Why? You said you were okay,” she said, her voice trembling.

  “Yes. I am. Just pulled some ligaments in my leg. It’s fine. I just need to rest a little.”

  Dislocated shoulder or not, concussion or not, Kristan was very clear when it came to Liz and she wanted to be able to look her lover in the eye. She twisted until she was lying flat on her back, and she pulled Liz against her with her good arm.

  “You’re very pale,” she remarked, frowning.

  “You’re one to talk,” Liz replied with a tired smile.

  Kristan narrowed her eyes at her.

  “Are you okay, really? You’re not just saying that?”

  “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

  “You had some pain killers for your leg?”

  “Yeah, I’m pumped full of them. I feel great.”

  But she was not lying about the drugs and she knew she was about to crash.

  “Kristan, please promise me you’ll stay in this bed with me until I wake up,” she murmured. “Okay, darling?”

  “I promise,” Kristan said immediately. “I’ll stay with you.”

  Liz gave a sigh of relief.

  “Okay. You are a handful, you know.”

  “No, I don’t know... Sorry. I love you.”

  Liz smiled a little. She could barely think now, and she just wanted to close her eyes and forget about everything. Kristan would be there, she believed her, and so she simply allowed herself to drift.

  Within seconds she was fast asleep.

  Kristan felt her sink lower against her, and she was quiet as she listened to her breathing. She knew she was too wired to sleep, and her shoulder was way too painful to allow her to relax. Her brain felt foggy, she had a splitting headache, and there was something she knew she ought to be able to remember.

  She could remember kissing Liz in the car, stopping at the lights, and then nothing.

  She took a deep breath and shifted a little. Her shoulder was throbbing and it made her want to throw up again. She knew all she had to do was ask the nurse for some pain killers, and she would dose her up with morphine. For a second the need was so fierce she forgot to breathe. If Liz had not been asleep right next to her she might even have tried. Broken her commitment, just like that. That’s how bad the pain was.

  Kristan clenched her teeth and stared at the ceiling, trying to imagine she was somewhere else, maybe on a nice run through the forest or out on the lake in her kayak. But her brain simply would not stop, and she could not help trying to reconstruct in her mind what had happened to them out on the road.

  “Something hit us,” she murmured.

  Liz mumbled something in her sleep but she did not wake up, and Kristan kissed the top of her head.

  “It’s okay,” she said softly.

  Liz just sighed and her fingers tightened briefly around Kristan’s wrist before they relaxed again. Kristan tried to remain calm. Her mind kept flashing images at her of Mike, non-stop like a mad projector.

  Something about Mike.

  For several hours she just held on to her lover and thought about Mike, and that was it. When she finally fell asleep there were no dreams, no thoughts. Just peace at last.

  Chapter 15

  When Liz woke up the following morning a nurse was in the room with them, making notes on an iPad. She smiled at Liz when she saw that she was awake.

  “Good morning,” she said quietly. “I’m Judith.”

  Liz returned the smile, feeling a little disconcerted and disoriented, wondering how long the woman had been there. She did not like it that people could just walk in on them whenever they felt like it, but then again this was a hospital after all and these people were here to help. She glanced at her partner as the nurse returned to her notes, and she was happy to see that Kristan was still fast asleep.

  “How are you doing?” Judith murmured as Liz slid off the bed.

  Liz took a quick inventory of her injuries. Everything hurt, but at least she could move.

  “Sore, but okay,” she replied.

  She rested a soft hand on her lover’s forehead.

  “That fever has not gone down yet,” she murmured, dismayed.

  “I hear your friend did not have anything for the pain last night, is that right?”

  “That’s right. And she’s not my friend, she’s my partner.”

  The tall brunette shook her head, smiling a little.

  “No worries. And that’s brave,” she observed.

  Liz’s eyes filled with tears at the heartfelt comment.

  “She is brave,” she whispered, looking at Kristan.

  Judith rested a soft hand on her arm.

  “She will be fine,” she said gently. “Try not to worry too much.”

  Liz nodded as the woman left the room, and she returned her attention to her partner. Kristan was clutching her phone in her good hand, and when Liz saw the number she had tried to call four times during the night she started to cry.

  It was Mike’s number.

  Taking the phone, careful not to wake her, she stepped out of the room to call Omaru.

  “You ladies okay?” he asked immediately.

  “Yeah, getting there,” Liz said tiredly. “Kristan had a bad night.”

  She could walk without her crutches now, barely, but she could, even though she knew she should keep the weight off her leg. Surgeons always made bad patients, and she was no exception.

  “Bad how?” Omaru enquired.

  “She was asking for Mike. She called his number a few times while I was asleep.”

  He was silent for a few seconds.

  “I guess you’d expect this sort of thing after a hard blow to the head, right?” he said eventually.

  Liz nodded.

  “Unfortunately, yes. It won’t last.”

  “Good. Listen, we found the truck that plowed into you,” Omaru carried on. “Abandoned in a field thirty minutes from town. We also found an unlit cigarette under one of the seats, and we are dusting for prints.”

  Liz’s heart jumped in her chest.

  “Why? You don’t think it was an accident?” she exclaimed.

  “We would be doing the forensics regardless, but I doubt very much it was an accident.”

  “Does the cigarette match the one we found in the cottage?”

  “Indeed.”

  Liz closed her eyes and tried in vain to stop the tears.

  “I hate this so much,” she murmured. “You think it’s my ex still?”

  “I don’t know. We’ve been going round with pictures of him, in town and out of town. Nobody seems to have seen him. Not to mention the fact th
at Customs did not pick him up. I am beginning to think it might be somebody else.”

  “I don’t really know how to take this,” Liz reflected.

  The relief when she allowed herself to think it was not Robert was immense. The fear was even greater. This was not about scaring them anymore, it was much more serious. Someone had tried to hurt them badly, maybe even kill them.

  “Listen, I know Kristan doesn’t want to abandon the Park,” Omaru said again, “but it would be great if you guys could go away for a while.”

  “Where?”

  “As far as you possibly can.”

  “For how long?”

  “A few days. Just until she gets better, that sort of thing.”

  He was not telling her that he had a feeling the situation was escalating. He wanted them gone and out of harm’s way until he could get a grip on it.

  “Take a few days off, Liz. Wouldn’t hurt, you know.”

  “I know,” Liz sighed. “I’ll talk to Kristan.”

  “Okay, thanks. We’ll keep on working here. You take care and keep me posted, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Liz hung up, and she looked up to see Pam striding down the hallway. The woman was dressed in jeans and a heavy fleece, mountain boots, and she also sported a very angry look on her face. She was probably the last person on the planet that Liz wanted to see at that precise moment.

  “Liz, what’s going on?” Pam said in lieu of a greeting. “Did you crash?”

  The emphasis was on it being her fault, obviously, and Liz visibly bristled at the woman’s cheek.

  “Something hit us,” she advised her.

  Pam looked her up and down and did not bother even asking how she was.

  “Where’s Kris?” she snapped. “She okay?”

  Now Liz was getting really fed up with the woman’s attitude.

  “She’s sleeping,” she said sharply.

  “I need to talk to her.”

  “Not now,” Liz said quietly.

  She stepped in front of the door and at the same time gestured to the nurse in charge.

  “Who the hell are you to decide?” Pam said loudly.

  The woman was incredibly confrontational, Liz reflected, and she was wondering why. She stood her ground in front of her lover’s room and refused to engage in any further conversation.

  “I will tell you the exact same thing,” Judith intervened. “Please be quiet.”