When We Go Back Again (Mason Brothers Book #1)

Chapter 23

EDEN

“It’s me, Fletcher. I’m right here just open your eyes and look at me.”

My eyes flutter open and I see Fletcher’s handsome face looking down at me. I smile big because I love every time I see his face, but then the events of the night come flooding back and I try to sit up and tear away from whatever is restricting me.

“Whoa...hold on Eden calm down!”

All of a sudden I feel trapped again. Fletcher is pinning my arms back down onto the bed and that just makes me freak out even more. I start thrashing around to get him off of me, “Get off of me! Off! Leave me alone!”

“Shit, shit Eden, look what you did? NURSE!!!” Fletcher yells in the direction of the door. I look down at my arm and see the blood coming out of it and that makes me freak out even more. A nurse comes running in grabs a soft piece of gauze from the table near the bed and presses it against my arm.

“Eden, my name is Nina, I’m your nurse here at the hospital. I know you’re scared, but I need you to calm down, okay? You just pulled your IV out and that was giving you fluids to help you recover.”

“Recover? What happened?” I stopped fighting against her, but I was too focused on the blood dripping down my arm to think about anything else now.

“The doctor is being paged, he’ll be in soon.” She grabs some tape and wraps the bandages around my arm and moves the bag of fluids over to the other side of my bed. “I’m going to have to place an IV in your other arm. It won’t take long, I just need you to hold still for me, okay?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just…I couldn’t move and I got scared because I was just remembering that I couldn’t move.” I look over at the corner of the room and see Fletcher. He looks borderline terrified, but he also looks completely worn out and tired. “Fletcher?”

“I’m here, babe. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he takes a step forward ever so slightly. I want to reach out for him, but a man in a white coat comes walking in the door at that time and takes my attention away from him.

“Mrs. Carter?”

“Miss, just Miss Carter. Or Eden.”

“Forgive me. Miss Carter, my name is Dr. Lynch, do you know where you are?”

I look around, “The hospital. I’m assuming Woodward Regional.”

“You’d be correct. Do you know what happened to you that got you here?”

I press my free arm against my forehead and try to think. “I don’t know, it’s a little fuzzy and my head really hurts. The only thing I remember for sure was I couldn’t move. This headache is nothing like I’ve ever had before.”

“You certainly are dealing with what would be similar to a really horrible hangover.. If you don’t mind I’m going to run a few tests.”

I nod my head and let Dr. Lynch perform his tests. The first thing he does is use a penlight to check my pupils. I have to follow his finger a few times and then he reaches around the back of my head and presses a spot that lights up all the pain receptors in my head.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry about that Miss Carter. You have quite an open wound back there from hitting your head. That combined with the grogginess of you coming down from the drugs and you’re going to have a pretty bad headache for a few days.”

“Drugs? I don’t do drugs.”

“Have you had a chance to talk to her at all?” He asks Fletcher. Fletcher takes a few more steps closer to the bed, still hesitant.