A Soldier's Life

Chapter 31 - We did everything we could

Scarlett's POV:

Robert parked the car, and we all made our way into the hospital. Sophie had told us where to meet her and we rushed through the hallways to get there as quickly as we could. As we turned the corner into the waiting room Sophie was sat with her head in her hands, her shoulders moving slightly showing she was crying. Robert was quick to rush over to her and pull her into an embrace.

Lizzie and I stood nearby but at a distance, feeling like we were intruding by being there. Although Sophie had been courteous to me by allowing me to be here, I didn't want to make things awkward. I watched as Robert just held Sophie as she cried. I was trying very hard to hold my own tears back, but I could feel the sting behind my eyes.

As Robert pulled away Sophie gave a half, tight lipped smile to us all. "They're just getting her settled in the room and then they said we could go in and see her." She explained, standing up and pulling myself and then Lizzie into an unexpected hug. We all took a seat waiting for someone to come and talk to us. It seemed like hours before two people eventually appeared from one of the rooms. I recognised one as the Colonel from the charity dinner.

They approached and we all shot out of our seats, Sophie making a bee line for the Colonel before wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "Hi Sophie. This is Dr Sanchez and he'll be Y/n's attending." He explained. Sophie held out her hand and shook the doctor's hand. "Hi, I'm Sophie, Y/n's sister." Her statement caught me by surprise, but then I realised that she was probably doing it to ensure she could stay if they said only family could visit. "This is Robert, Scarlett and Lizzie. They are friends of Y/n's." She carried on.

He gave us a smile and shook all of our hands before guiding us to the seats. "Please take a seat and I'll explain everything." Robert took a seat next to Sophie and took her hand in his, providing all the support he could, whilst Lizzie and I sat together. We both grabbed at each other's hands, knowing we'd need the comfort.

"Y/n was hit by an RPG explosive round. The round made contact with the floor at Y/n's feet, causing her to be thrown in the air. This has resulted in a number of injuries. The first and most concerning injury, it a skull fracture. This has caused her brain to bleed and subsequently swell. At the moment we are monitoring the swelling as we'd like to avoid surgery." The doctor started. "Why do you want to avoid surgery?" Robert asked.

"Y/n's body is very week at the moment. She won't be able to cope with too strenuous a procedure. Brain surgery could cause more complications than it would solve. What I'd like to do is monitor the swelling and use medication to help to reduce it. If that doesn't work, then we'd operate as a last resort." Robert nodded at the response and the doctor took that as his indication to carry on.

"The surgery that we'll be performing this evening will be to repair the damage caused by a large piece of shrapnel that lodged in her abdomen. This caused some damage to her kidney and spleen. A temporary fix was done at the field hospital, which we will go in to complete. The final major injury is a compound fracture to her left leg. They were able to maintain blood supply and we will carry out surgery in the coming days to reset it with pins. We aim to do this on Sunday as this should give her body time to recover from the procedure we'll carry out today." He paused after his explanation to allow us time to take in everything he had said.

I had so many thoughts rushing around in my head. There were so many ifs. There were also a lot of things that had to go right to ensure she made it through this. I looked up and saw Sophie, clinging to Robert's hand with Jimmy's arm wrapped around her shoulder. "Will she make it through?" Sophie asked the question which I knew had been on all of our minds. The injuries she had sustained were not minor and had so many risks to them.