Nick, looking after her even from a hospital bed.The arrangements had probably been made by Dylan, but the impetus would have come from Nick.
The crying jag had made her hungry.She opened the container and pulled out a tomato and mozzarella sandwich and poured herself a cup of tea.The container had three types of sandwiches, carrot sticks, grapes and two cannoli.She polished everything off just as they pulled into the hospital parking lot.
To her surprise, the driver got out of the car too.“You don’t have to accompany me inside,” Parker said.
“Oh, but I do,” he answered with a smile.“My instructions are clear.I will accompany you to the floor where Mr.Gardner and Mr.Garin are.”
He was smiling, but there was steel visible under the smile, and Parker knew that short of shooting him, too, he was going to accompany her.
He took her small case and Nick’s big suitcase as they walked inside and took the elevator to the third floor.The hospital was silent, with few people around.A nurse came forward, tall, dark-haired, and said “Dr.Donovan?”
Parker nodded and she said, “Follow me, please.”
They went down several halls, through a door beyond which was utter quiet.There was only one Marine, standing at attention just outside a door.
The nurse stopped at the door.“Mr.Garin is in here.He came out of anesthesia about half an hour ago, but he is still only semi-conscious.”She walked away.
Dylan was sitting in a chair and got up.Parker looked up at Dylan.“Do you think they’d let me stay the night?He might need something.”
Dylan smiled.“Parker, I don’t think you have quite grasped the situation here.Nick’s a hero.You’re both heroes.The hospital staff doesn’t know any details, nor will they ever, but they do know you and Nick did something extraordinary.Everyone has instructions to bend over backwards to help you.”
Parker blinked.She was ahero!
Dylan pushed open the hospital room door, and she walked in, and there he was!Nick.Pale beneath his tan, with tubes running in and out of him.Oh God.It took everything she had not to hug him and risk pulling a tube out of him.
There was a chair in the corner.She picked it up and quietly placed it by his bedside and sat down.It was preternaturally quiet except for the beeping of some machine monitoring something.Parker knew nothing about medicine except for the fact she was intensely grateful for modern medicine and Dr.Crowley for keeping Nick alive though he’d been shot.
If Nick had been a legionnaire—no, if Nick had been a Roman in antiquity, he’d have been ageneral—and had had a spear thrust through his abdomen, he’d have probably died.Of blood loss if nothing else.Definitely of septicemia.
But—here he was.Alive.Breathing peacefully.A little dinged, but she’d been assured he’d have a complete recovery.
A miracle.
There was a faint gray tint to the sky outside the window.Dawn was coming.A new dawn, a new day.
It was all ok.
She put her hand over his on the cotton blanket, put her head down next to his and fell fast asleep.
ChapterThirteen
Pain was there, but somehow far away.God bless pain meds, Nick thought.He hurt, but it was as if his body were in another room, together with the pain.Eyes closed, he took stock.He hurt everywhere, but most particularly his shoulder and lower abdomen.There was a reason those two places hurt, but he couldn’t actually pinpoint it.Something had happened—something important—but the memory danced just beyond his reach.
He knew where he was.A hospital.No mistaking that smell and the faint sounds of machinery beeping.Nick hated hospitals, but something, some deep knowledge his body had, told him he couldn’t simply get up and walk out.He was stuck.
And there was something warm and soft on his hand and something warm and soft and tickly on his face.
With great effort, he cranked his eyes open.Yep.Hospital room.Not light but not dark.He had no idea what time it was or even what day it was.He lifted his hand and found there was something on it.
Parker’s hand.Parker’s hair, on his face because her head was next to his.She drew in a breath, lifted her head, smiled at him.
She was mussed, pale, without makeup.She was so beautiful.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”He coughed.His voice came out like a frog’s.
“You can have a sip or two of water.Would you like some?”
