Temptation 2

14 - hero

When I reach the SUV, Tom jumps out from the passenger side and opens the back door for us. "Can you hold her?" I ask him. He nods and puts his arms out for me to place her in his hold. When he has her in his arms, I slide into the SUV, and he gently lays her down with her head on my lap and she lays out along the back seat. Tom gets back into the SUV and turns to look at us, "I called an ambulance, but I don't think we should wait." "I need to get her to a hospital now," I state. DJ looks around to us now, "I need to get both of you to the hospital—now." DJ changes gears and races onto the road. Tom keeps his eyes on Madden, and I can't even complain about the love that shows in them; right now, Tom has got to be one of my best friends and I lowkey hate him at the same time. I'm starting to feel the pain in my arm from the shot but the general relief of having her back takes away most of the pain. "Hero," her little voice speaks up, "I'm so tired." I run my hands through her soaked hair, "I know baby girl, but you got to stay awake just for a little bit longer." Tom watches her eyes, and I see tears fall down his face. She's looking right at him when she reaches her hand out to him. He takes her hand in his and I see the goosebumps appear on his skin from how cold she is. "Don't cry Tom," she says. A fake smile is plastered on his face as more tears fall from his eyes and down his chin, "They're happy tears because we got you back."

* * *

Today is day three at the hospital and Madden is still in a medical induced coma. When we first arrived, the surgeon on her case said it didn't look good the first few hours he had her on her table. "She lost so much blood, bones are broken, ribs are cracked..." The list just went on and on and I needed him to stop talking. As they took Madden into surgery, another doctor took me into a room to check my bullet wound, stitched me up and I was good to go. It was when they told me they were putting her in a medical induced coma, I short of lost my shit and I got kicked out of the hospital.

"Why the fuck would you do that? I know the risks of this shit. You put her under, and she may never wake up and if she does, she can have some major brain trauma. I'm not going to let you do this." I push his shoulder and the surgeon stumbles back. "Mr. Tomlin, I assure you this is what is best." "No, I don't think you understand. If you do this without my permission, I will sue you until you have no job left and there is not a penny left to your name." Security guards from the hospital now storm into the room. "Mr. Tomlin," The doctor is very patient with me. "This will be better for her healing, and she won't feel the pain like she would if she were awake." The security guards take me by my arms and start escorting me out of the room. DJ and Tom who were waiting in the hall look at me in confusion and DJ doesn't even try to step in. He knows that my temper got the best of me, so he just follows the security guards out of the building. "Tom," I shout at him behind me. "Stay with her." He nods and I watch him walk into her room.

Today, I'm allowed back into the hospital as long as I keep my temper in check. I slept for almost a day and feel refreshed. My mind now comprehends the doctor's reasoning for putting her into a coma, I was just exhausted and overly stressed out. When I walk back into the hospital, staff, patients and loved ones all stare at me, knowing exactly who I am. A little girl, wearing a bright pink bandana on her shaved head comes up to me, pulling at the cuff of my long sleeve black sweater. "Excuse me," she coughs. "May I give you a hug?" I bend down and notice now she's got tubs in her nose helping her breathe. She wraps her arms around me and other than Madden's hugs, this is probably one of the warmest hugs I've ever received. I've never really thought about having kids, but this little one just sparked something in me. When releases me from her fragile arms, I take her hand in mine and we start walking towards Madden's room. "Madden told me to come give you a hug for her because she can't walk right now." Madden's awake. Butterflies swarm my chest. "And what's your name little one?" "My mommy and daddy call me Pipa, but my real name is Penelope Grace Mareson. I'm five years old and I love the colour pink, do you like the colour pink?" She coughs again. I can't help but laugh, she's just adorable. "It's not bad but black is my favourite. Have you been spending a lot of time with Madden?" I ask her. She nods her head yes and as we get closer to Madden's room, she lets go of my hand and races off. When I catch up to her, I see she's sitting at the end of Madden's bed with a sharpie in her hand and she's drawing on Madden's leg cast. Madden's looks to be sleeping so I let Pipa continue to entertain herself while I take a moment to really take in Madden.

She's got a spring yellow hospital gown on, and Mara luckily grabbed Madden's pillow and fleece blanket from my home when we first arrived here, so she's got her own things to make her feel at least slightly honey. Her left leg is covered in a white cast which looks to be drawn all over by Pipa. Little Penelope is very good at drawing for a five-year-old as I can see, and I can imagine it's not the easiest thing to do on a cast. "I'm impressed. She's got bandages on her arms and legs, her face and I'm sure she has them on her torso. Bruises mare her skin and smaller cuts here and there scatter her pale skin. It's clear they weren't feeding her. My Babygirl has and will probably always be a skinny girl as she's struggled with her mental health, but this is pure starvation. Dark circles round her eyes—as I feel the lump in my throat coming up and the tears form in my eyes, a hand rests on my shoulder. I turn around, wiping the tears from my cheeks and see Tom standing there. He has a coffee cup in his hand and a faint smile spread on his face. "Hey dude. She's been asking for you." A bit of anger comes out of me, "Why didn't you call me right when she woke up?" He just shakes his head and walks past me, sitting down in the chair beside her bed. He sighs, "Well, she told me not to Hero." I look to him and back down to her, confusion written all over my face.

Sipping on his coffee, Tom starts to explain. "When she first woke up, she was begging to see you and the doctor's kept giving her excuses because they didn't want to stress her out by telling her you needed a few days to cool down." A nurse walks into the room, asking us to leave the room so she can wash her. When I offered to do it, she looked at me like I was crazy and told me it would be a liability if I cleaned her. So, Tom lead me the way to the cafeteria in the hospital where I filled up a cup of black coffee. When I took a sip, it was literally the worst bloody coffee I've ever tasted. Tom didn't seem to notice, probably because he's been drinking this shit for three days.

We sit across from each other on the white cafeteria tables and sip our dirt coffee. "Have you slept at all?" I ask him. His eyes are almost as dark as her's. "The first night, when they brought her into the room—pretty much after you left—I watched her for a little bit just to make sure nothing was going to happen and with all the excitement from the day, I ended up passing out almost instantly. Four hours later, I was woken up by her machines beeping like crazy and an alarm sounding in the hallway. Her heart stopped man." He shakes his head and looks down at his coffee, "I stood there like a pussy and just watched as cut open the gown and put paddles on her chest and shocked her. They managed to get her heart rate again and when the doctor checked her out, he said there was nothing actually physically wrong with her. He thought it was a mental thing, like she had given up and with that, so did her heart. After that, no. I haven't slept." I'm pissed off, sad and fucking grateful. I place my hand on Tom's in a friendly manner and nod my head at him. "I'm fucking mad at myself for throwing a fit and not being there for her. It really fucking hurts me that I wasn't there but thank you for being there when I couldn't...again." Tom looks up at me and takes on more sip of his coffee before leaving me there alone to go say goodbye to Madden. He needs his sleep but I'm sure he'll be back once she's better.

While I give him some time, I take my phone out and make a call to Justin. The phone picks up immediately but it's not Justin's voice on the line, it's his wife's. "Hero, we saw on the news that you got her back. It's been three fucking days and you don't even send me a text message to tell me which hospital she's in. If I wasn't so worried about her, I would rip your head off, but I want to come see her!" I tell her how I got kicked out of the hospital and did what was suggested to me by everyone and rested. Then I told her which hospital we're at and asked her to bring me a real fucking coffee and a pair of sweatpants for Madden. I already packed a bunch of my t-shirts for her to wear because she loves that. As I hang up the phone, I realize Tom never told me why Madden didn't want him to call me, so I make my way to the room.

Pipa is still sitting and drawing on Madden's leg when I walk in, so I nicely ask her where her room is, and escort her back. She gives me one last hug; tells me she will be back tomorrow to finish and then disappears into her room. When I get back to the room, Madden's eyes are open and she's starring out the window. I cough so she knows I'm here. "Hero, I can feel your presence through this whole building. I know you're here." She's right; I feel the same thing. As soon as she walks into a room, I don't know where she is, but I know she's there. I can feel her when she's nearby. "Can I sit?" I don't know why I'm fucking nervous. I walk over to the other side of the bed and sit in the chair Tom previous took place in and she looks at me.