What We Once Were

Chapter 22.

The beeping of the monitor kept Greyson James awake. Minutes after they had been found, the paramedics lifted Bridget onto a stretcher and carried her out of the warehouse. Greyson refused to let go of her hand from the entire time it had taken to get from the warehouse, to the ambulance and into the Emergency Care Unit. He sat by her bedside, tears clouding his vision, feeling so helpless as she lay there. She looked like she was in so much pain. Every time she took a breath, her stomach would wince.

The doctors had brought her in for emergency surgery. Greyson had sat with his face glued to the window as he watched them switch up her wounds, pump blood into her system and treat her bruises. His ears had become in tune to the heart rate monitor. That was the only reason he hadn't lost his mind. As long as he could hear the beeping, he knew that she still had a fighting chance.

As soon as they had arrived at the hospital, the nurses had called Alex. Greyson couldn't remember what the nurse had said. He hadn't checked his phone. He didn't even care, he only cared about one thing and she was laying, lifeless on a hospital bed.

He squeezed her hand and kissed it. "I'm right here Bridge, I'm not going anywhere. We'll get through this together, just like we always do."

Of course there was no response, just the beeping of the monitor.

Greyson jumped when he heard a knock on the door and a nurse walked in carrying a clipboard. But what made Greyson stop in his tracks was the grim expression on her face.

"Mr. James."

"Greyson, please." He said, turning back to Bridget.

"Ok, Greyson. You should go get some food. You need someone to look at your hand." She said gently.

Greyson wasn't even aware that he'd likely broken his hand. Not that he cared, he wasn't going anywhere for a while. His health could wait. "I'm fine. How is she? Is she going to be ok?"

The nurse paused, Greyson didn't want to believe that was a bad sign. "She's lost about 80% of her blood. She's also suffering from internal bleeding in the stomach, broken ribs and serious blood-force trauma to the head. Her brain is swelling and we've managed to control it but...I'm very sorry Greyson, but it's not a good sign. It's a miracle she's still breathing." She hung her head low.

Rage coursed through his veins. "No! She is a miracle, she's stronger than anyone I know. She's going to pull through, I know she will." Greyson was in denial, taking out his frustrations on the nurse. He turned back to Bridget and kissed her hand and forehead. "You're gonna be ok Bridge. I won't stop believing in you."

The nurse walked over and checked her IV, the numbers on the chart and on the monitor weren't reassuring. "When she wakes up, what should we expect?" Greyson asked the nurse.

The nurse sighed, feeding into his sense of hope to keep him from acting irrationally. "If she wakes up, she's going to need years of rehab and recovery. She will have to learn basic functions all over again. We won't know until she wakes up if she will experience paralysis due to brain damage or if she'll be able to walk again. Also, with so much swelling, she'll have to learn how to talk normally again because her cerebrum—the part of the brain that controls speech—is so inflamed it's going to be a long recovery process. Her memory will never be as sharp as it once was. She'll never be able to do her current job again. But there are some extremely rare cases where patients do recover and can start living a semi-normal life again. But whoever she was before, she'll never be that way again. I am so sorry Greyson."

The nurse's words echoed in his ears. "Her memory will never be as sharp as it once was." "She will have to learn basic functions all over again." "She will experience paralysis." "She'll never be able to do her current job again." They bounced back and forth inside his head, feeding into the madness.