Retrograde

Retrograde | Chapter 5

Authors note:  

Hello my loves!  

I appreciate everyone's patience over the last six weeks.  Your comments and messages have kept me motivated to write, even when work was mental.  This chapter took serious emotional energy to write, as you'll soon understand, and I truly hope I've done it justice.

This chapter includes a song very dear to my heart.  I felt it was the perfect addition and wanted to share it with you.

The usual warning: 🔞 Profanity and whatnot is present in this chapter, so please read at your own discretion.

Please don't forget to vote, and thank you for leaving your comments throughout the chapter.  They really do bring me so much joy.  I love following along as you read. ❤️

Lots of love,
Ames

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Previously on Retrograde:

"Eda! Eda!" Serkan scrambles in front of her, trying to get her to focus on him, but she's catatonic. He quickly grabs the phone.

"Eren!? Eren!? What's happened!?"

The sound of Eren Yildiz crying on the other end breaks Serkan in a way he didn't think possible.

"Son, you need to bring Eda to NYC Presbyterian. It's Elif Anne."

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Serkan's eyes are glued to Eda as he stutters their location down the phone line to the taxi company. He tries to calm his racing heart as he hangs up and kneels before her.

Eds stares right through him with her arms wrapped tightly across her chest. His oversized tuxedo jacket swims over her shoulders. She looks more like a five-year-old playing dress-ups in her father's clothing than the confident beauty that walked down the stairs earlier this evening.

She's not moved or uttered a word since speaking with Eren.

"Eda?" Serkan whispers, his large hands gripping the tops of her thighs. "Can you hear me?"

She looks slowly down at his hands in a daze and back up to meet his concerned eyes. Serkan scans her face, rapidly assessing her emotional state and how to get her to the taxi.

"Eda, we have to go. Can you walk?" he questions, pulling at her hands and feathering kisses on her fingertips, trying to grab her attention. Her blank eyes rise to his, but she doesn't speak.

"Come on, I've got you," he says, gathering her gently in his arms and carefully guiding her from the bleachers. Reaching the grass below, he lifts her like a bride and strides quickly towards the school entrance.

The cool night air burns his lungs as Eda clings to his neck – her face pressed to his skin, breathing in his calming scent. The warmth emanating from his body starts to thaw her frozen brain, and Eda's thoughts return to the present. She pulls back quickly to look at his face.

"Serkan! Anne? Oh my god!" she stammers as tears threaten.

"Sshhh, I've got you," he reassures her. "We'll be at the hospital soon, and then we can find out what's going on. Let's just get to the taxi, OK?" he soothes, in denial. On cue, the car pulls up to the school, and Serkan carefully loads Eda into the backseat.

Quickly arriving at the brightly lit doors of Emergency, Eda bolts from the cab in a panic – running down the corridor as Serkan frantically pays the driver. He catches up to her, and both stop dead in their tracks when they see Aydan pacing, and Eren slumped forward in a waiting room chair.