“He’s going to be pissed. I know you keep having doubts about his feelings, but you can’t just break up with him like that.”
“Kind of hard to break up when you were never in a defined relationship. And besides, I know,anddon’t know, what he is going through. We don’t know his headspace. He may want to be alone and untouched and until he says otherwise he deserves to have that.” Her eyes plead with him to understand that it’s not about her and her feelings.
“He will kill me if I share a room with you,” he argues
“He will not. Now, can you please get dressed so we can get back over there? The mean doctor lady told me he should wake up soon.”
CHAPTER 13
Amix of voices float down the hall as they approach Riley’s room. When they make it to the doorway, the doctor is there, checking Riley over once more. Not wanting to overcrowd the already full room, Liz and Mikey stay back in the hallway, hanging on every word the doctor says.
“He is doing exceptional given his circumstances. We will need to do a psych evaluation once he is awake, but from what I can see, most of his chest and abdominal wounds are superficial. His blood pressure and heart rate are low, but not enough to cause concern,” she states matter of factly.
“What do you meanmost,Janine?” Alex asks, glaring at the chart in her hand.
Liz makes a mental note to ask about her when they are alone. Maybe one of them can tell her why she was so hostile.
“He has lost a lot of blood. His injuries look as if someone attempted to close them, but they did so too late. However, the medic you brought did an exceptional job closing them properly. He is also suffering from both dehydration and starvation, bad on their own, deadly when together.”
“So, what do we do?” Tyler asks.
“I will start a blood transfusion right away as well as start an IV to administer fluids, one in each arm. The transfusion will take approximately thirty minutes to an hour, and as soon as that is done, I will start TPN. That will get him the nutrients he needs. Think of it as a liquid multivitamin. I will re-evaluate when he is awake to determine if he is able to eat and drink on his own, and we will go from there. I will be right back to get those started,” Janine says, excusing herself from the room, and allowing Liz and Mikey to sneak back in, closing the door tightly behind them.
“If you two are good, we’re going to take off. We have a lot to deal with now that we are back,” Alex half asks.
“I’m so sorry. I hope you’re not in too much trouble because of me,” Liz says quietly, unable to meet his eyes.
“We all made our own decisions to go. I planned the whole thing and made it happen, don’t punish yourself for my actions,” he says, pulling the door back open. “Make sure someone is with him at all times. Janine said he should wake up pretty quick after she starts the IVs. Let me know when he’s up.”
Janine squeezes past as Alex and Tyler make their way out the door, pushing a squeaky cart topped with various bags of liquid. Overwhelmed by the revolving door of people coming in and out, Liz pushes the chair against the wall and plops herself in it, trying to stay out of the way as much as she can, given the size of the room.
Everyone stays quiet, no sounds but the beeping of machines and faint muffles from people walking by outside. Janine replaces Riley’s morphine with a blood bag, flushing it out beforehand. When the fresh blood starts pumping into his veins, she moves to his other arm, placing an IV and starting him on a bag of saline to get him rehydrated.
“Press the call button when the pump goes off, itmeans one of his bags is empty, and I will be back in to start the next one,” she says, walking out the door, leaving no room for discussion.
“I’m fucking starving, so as long as pretty boy is still napping, I’m going to go grab some food. What do you want?” Mikey asks.
“I’m too nervous to eat anything, thanks though,” she says, watching him shrug his shoulders and walk out the door.
Liz loses track of how long she sits there, watching the bags attached to Riley’s arms slowly drain into his body. She looks around the room, not a single clock in sight, and her phone died hours ago. It couldn’t have been too long if Mikey still isn’t back, unless he decided to eat somewhere else.
With nothing else to do, Liz paces the room, looking at all the crudely printed signs hanging around. So caught up with reading the random posters and loose papers taped to the wall, she doesn’t notice Riley opening his eyes, watching her as she moves around the room, before flopping herself back into the chair.
“You’re still here.” Hearing his raspy voice has Liz practically jumping from her chair, sitting up straighter to look at him, a sad smile on her face.
“I am, is that okay?” she asks, her anxiety running wild. He blinks a few times, the same way she did when she was coming out of it, trying to get the world to focus. Fighting past the urge to go to him, she fidgets with her hands to distract herself.
Riley doesn’t respond, does not speak, just looks at the various tubes in his arms, then around the room, stopping before he gets to where Liz sits. Her heart drops, every crushing thought about what would happen to them coming true. There is no denying the uncomfortable, awkward energy in the room.
“I can go as soon as Mikey gets back, but one of us is supposed to stay with you,” she says just loud enough for him to hear, trying to hide her heartbreak.
“It’s fine, you don’t have to leave,” he groans out.Of all the ways Liz saw this moment in her head, awkward was not one of them. They both look away, nothing more to say to each other. The tension in the air is palpable. Unable to stay in the excruciating silence any longer, she asks––
“Are you in pain? I can call the doctor for you.”
“Everything about this is painful,” he snaps harshly.
Liz recoils as if he had just slapped her. She bites her cheek so hard she tastes blood, a stupid attempt at not snapping back. If she was still wondering about his feelings, he just made them perfectly clear. She wonders how things could change so fast when just hours ago he called her by pet name and asked her to stay. A silent tear streams down her face, more following while she tries to pull herself together.
