A click sounded before the door swung open. Charley entered the ICU, where a busy but quiet nurses’ station was on the right. Around its perimeter were small rooms consisting of glass doors. Most of the doors were partially open, with hospital curtains over them to provide some privacy. Charley slowed her pace in an effort to gain her bearings. Straight ahead was bed four. She looked left and saw a number three on the room next to it. Just as she was about to take a step in that direction, Owen emerged from the room. The lines on his face said he was worried.
“Hello,” Charley said and walked toward him. She blamed herself for Sully being in the ICU and fully assumed Owen held her responsible too. She prepared herself for his icy greeting.
“Charley,” Owen said, walking forward and hugging her. “Thank you for coming.”
“Of course.” Charley hugged him back, and fresh tears stung her eyes. When his embrace lessened, she stood back and asked, “How is he?”
“The same. Unconscious,” Owen said quietly. “They’ve been giving him blood transfusions. I don’t know how many units of blood he’s had. But he’s hooked up to all kinds of machines. He’s had and an EEG—electroencephalogram.”
“Does the EEG mean they think he has a brain injury?” Charley prayed the answer was no but braced herself.
“At the very least he has a mild concussion,” Owen said as they stood outside of Sully’s room. “After the accident happened, he oozed blood all night long until he almost bled out.”
Charley shivered. “Thank God, someone finally spotted and reported the accident.”
“Right, thank God,” Owen agreed. “The accident was approximately eighteen hours ago, and with the blood transfusions Sully’s received, his physician thinks Sully should have regained consciousness by now. He wants Sully to be alert and oriented within twenty-four hours. So, if Sully doesn’t come around in the next couple of hours, they’re going to fly him in a flight-for-life helicopter to Denver to their neuro ICU.”
“I understand.” Charley wanted to collapse to the floor in tears. Instead, she smiled at Owen and patted his arm reassuringly. “May I see him?”
“Yes, of course,” Owen said and rubbed his forehead. “I was just going to get something from the cafeteria and bring it back here to eat.”
“Before you go, I have Sully’s wallet and cell phone,” Charley said, taking them out of her purse.
“Thank you for going with Derek to find them,” Owen replied. “Can you hold on to them for me for now?”
“Yes, of course, Owen.”
Charley put Sully’s wallet and phone back into her purse. Owen took a few steps to Sully’s open doorway and pulled back the curtain to allow her to enter. Sully lay in the narrow bed, and as Owen said, he was hooked up to several machines.Charley’s heart nearly stopped seeing the strong, muscular man unconscious, pale, and unmoving in the bed. There was a bandage on his forehead, and his right hand was scraped. Owen said something from the crash had punctured his left side causing the blood loss. Charley walked into the room and stopped at Sully’s bedside. There was an empty chair pulled close, and she figured it was where Owen had been sitting beside his son.
“Have a seat, Charley,” Owen said from behind her. “I’ll give you some privacy with Sully. May I bring you something to eat from the cafeteria?”
“No, thank you,” she replied, never taking her eyes off Sully. “I’m not hungry.”
“I’ll be back in a little while.”
“I’ll be right here,” Charley said.
Owen left her, and Charley sat unmoving in the chair beside Sully for several minutes. Slowly, she placed her purse on the floor and gripped her hands together in her lap. Even in his current condition, Sully was outrageously handsome. Despite what he’d been through, his thick black hair fell into place on his head and the stubble of his black beard as always gave him that rugged, sexy look. His breathing seemed shallow, but steady.
A nurse, who appeared to be in her mid-forties, entered the room with a bag of blood. She smiled at Charley and said hello. Then she went about her work of hanging the bag on the IV pole beside his bed and attaching it to the needle already in his left arm. The nurse noted that the patient had a slight fever, but that was to be expected as his body tried to fight the injuries and heal. When the nurse left the room, Charley scooted closer to Sully.
Sully’s right arm lay lengthwise alongside his body, and she gently placed her hand atop his much larger, scraped hand. It was warm to the touch. Flashes of Sully touching her face, holding her close, caressing her breasts, and spreading her legswith that hand replayed across her mind. Charley bowed her head and wondered if he’d wake up and touch her like that again. Would he even want to? Deep in her very soul, she prayed he would. But if he woke, no,whenhe woke, he might blame her as she blamed herself for the accident. She slipped her other hand underneath his and softly squeezed.
“Sully,” she whispered, looking at him. “I’m so sorry. Please wake up. Even if you never forgive me, you need to wake up. You have your whole life ahead of you.” He didn’t move, didn’t open his eyes. Holding his hand with both of hers, she said, “If you do give me the chance to make it up to you, I will never let you down again. Never ever.”
There was no response. The monitors did their job with red lines on black screens. The blood dripped red out of the bag into Sully’s blue vein. The clock on the wall ticked. Nurses’ voices drifted to her from their nearby station. Everything seemed overwhelming, tenuous, and surreal. She let go of Sully’s hand only long enough to text Chloe, letting the Coopers know she was safely at the hospital with Sully and Owen. But Sully’s condition remained the same.
After pressing send on the text, Charley bowed her head and prayed. An hour later, Owen returned and handed her something in a Styrofoam box. Despite how little she’d eaten, she had no appetite. But as she’d done in taking a couple of bites of the snack at Chloe’s house to be polite, she took the box and found a ham sandwich inside it. She thanked Owen as he pulled up a chair at the end of the bed and sat. Charley glanced at the clock on the wall. In another hour, Sully might be transferred to a Denver hospital. At Owen’s urging, she nibbled on the sandwich. But it was mostly to please Owen, who by some miracle seemed concerned about her welfare.
“Hello,” said a man, wearing a white lab coat, light blue scrubs, and stethoscope around his neck as he entered the small ICU room.
“Dr. Sankari, this is Charley Cooper, a friend of my son,” Owen said politely and stood up. “Charley, this is Sully’s physician.”
“Hello,” Charley said to the doctor.
Dr. Sankari acknowledged her with a polite nod. Walking to the opposite side of Sully’s bed, he put his stethoscope in his ears and listened to Sully’s heart as he felt the pulse in his wrist. He looked at the monitors and glanced at the bag draining blood into Sully.
“Mr. Sully, are you going to wake up for us? If you would do so, I would not be worried, as your vitals are normal and your bloodwork is coming around,” Dr. Sankari said kindly, holding Sully’s left hand in his. Sully didn’t move. Looking at Owen, the doctor said, “The hospital in Denver has a bed, Mr. Custis. I’m going to play it safe and request the helicopter.”
