SOMETHING UNEXPECTED

Chapter 8

Lucy's POV

I rang the bell in the intensive care unit and a nurse let me in. "Who would you like to see?" "I'm Lucy Chen Bradford and I'm here to see my husband Tim Bradford. He was shot on duty today, I was there when it happened but I haven't been given any information about his condition since then as I was still on duty myself."
The nurse nodded and took me to Tim's hospital room. "I'll send a doctor to see you, he'll talk to you about everything Mrs. Bradford." "Thank you."
I sat down at Tim's bedside and took his hand.
He was still intubated and hooked up to several monitors.

The doctor came into the room and introduced himself. "Mrs. Bradford, I'm Dr. Albas and I operated on your husband. The bullet had ruptured his spleen, then penetrated the diaphragm and injured the lower left lobe of his lung. We had to remove the spleen but he will be able to live without it. We sutured the diaphragm. The lung injury looked small but the damage caused by the bullet was worse than we had expected. We were able to stitch up the hole that the bullet had made in the lung. However, as air had entered the pleural cavity as a result of the injury, he developed a life-threatening tension pneumothorax. We were able to solve this problem with a chest tube. He had to have three blood transfusions during the operation as he lost a lot of blood. But we were able to stop all the internal bleeding. We will keep him sedated and intubated overnight. The chest tube must remain in place for 48 hours. If he survives the night well, we can extubate him tomorrow. The next 48 hours are still critical. He's definitely not out of the woods yet, but if he makes it through the next 48 hours without further complications, he should make a full recovery from his injuries."
"Thank you Dr. Albas for saving my husband's life."
Dr. Albas said goodbye and left the room.

I stayed at Tim's bedside all night and held his hand. He wasn't allowed to leave me and the baby. He can't die. He must survive these next 48 hours without complication.

The next morning after the doctor's visit, Tim was extubated and the sedation was reduced as his vitals had been stable all night.
Now he just had to wake up on his own and prove how tough he is.

I asked a nurse if I could lie in bed with Tim as he was no longer attached to so many wires and I was so tired. All this stress was certainly not good for the baby either.
The nurse nodded and told me which side I could lie on next to him and which cables I had to watch out for.
She also told me that he could probably hear me despite the sedation and that I should talk to him quietly.

When she was out of the room, I climbed into bed with Tim and lay down next to him.
It felt so good to be close to him again.
I hadn't been this close to him since the break up, even though I would have preferred to be this close to him in a different situation.

I took his hand and placed it on my belly, then I put my hand on his.
"Tim, please you have to wake up and get all better. This baby needs you. I need you."

I fell asleep next to him as I just couldn't keep myself awake any longer.

I woke up when I noticed something moving next to me. I looked up at Tim and he was finally awake. "You're awake."
I immediately got up from the bed and told the doctors.
They came into Tim's room and did a few tests on him.

I had to wait outside in the meantime, I wrote a message to everyone and updated them about Tim's injuries and that he was now awake.

As soon as the doctors had finished with Tim and left, I came back into the room. "How do you feel?" I asked him. "As if someone had shot me. My left side hurts a lot but that seems to be normal after everything the doctors have just told me. But there's one thing I didn't understand that they said?"
"What?" "That my wife was with me all night and is now waiting outside the door. So either I have really bad amnesia or you lied to the doctors, which would make more sense because I actually remember everything. And believe me, I would never forget if we had gotten married."

"Okay, maybe I lied and pretended to be your wife, but otherwise they wouldn't let any of us in here who weren't directly related to you. Genny can't come until tomorrow and I didn't want you to be alone until then. Besides, the baby in my belly is related to you so it wasn't entirely a lie. It's just that the fake story about me being your wife is much less complicated than our real story."

Tim nodded and smiled slightly. "That's right, our story is much more complicated and thank you for being here all night."
"I was glad that I got to keep you company and it was the least I could do, after all, you saved our lives. Why did you jump in between? The height of the gun was such that it would probably have gone into my bulletproof vest."

"It was more or less a reflex. I saw him aiming at you and wanted to protect you and our baby, there was no other way than to throw myself into the line of fire. Even though it would probably have gone into your bulletproof vest, I just couldn't risk anything happening to either of you both."
I smiled slightly and sat back down on the chair next to his bed. "You only gave me half a heart attack for that. I almost lost it here because I was so scared for you, so don't ever do that again to me."
"Lucy, I can't promise that because I'd probably stand in front of you and our baby every time someone pointed a gun at you." He took my hand in his and I smiled lightly at him.

I stayed with him all day at the hospital although he slept half the time as he was still very weak from the pain and medication.
"Lucy, don't you want to go home so you can get some rest?" he asked me in the evening.
"No, I'm not leaving you alone Tim. I can sleep in the chair and rest when you're feeling good again."
"You're not sleeping in that chair, it looks totally uncomfortable. Then sleep with me in bed. After all, you were lying next to me when I woke up earlier."

He scooted to the side and I climbed into bed with him. "The chair is really uncomfortable. It's much nicer in this bed and next to you" I said and smiled slightly.
He put his arm around me and pulled me close to him. I laid my head on his shoulder and fell asleep.

The next morning, Tim woke up when I got up and ran to the bathroom.
"Are you okay?" he asked me when I came back. "Yeah, it's just the nausea. I didn't want to wake you up."

The doctor then came round and after a few examinations Tim's chest drains were pulled out.
The last 48 hours had passed without any further complications and he would make a full recovery from his injuries.