Shattering The Surfaces

Chapter Twenty Nine Hospital

Soft rhythmic beeping woke me. The light in the room was dim so I was able to open my eyes with ease. My head feels groggy and has a dull thud. I begin to become aware of where I am.

I’m in a hospital bed.

I draw in a sharp breath when I try to turn and sit up with my hands. I lifted them up so I could see how heavily bandaged they are. In my left arm is an IV and I look to that side of the bed to see that, that is where the beeping is coming from. Fluids drip through the bag at intervals, I can’t really tell how often. A smaller bag drips more slowly and I assume that it is pain killer medicine.

Lifting one of my legs, sure enough there were bandages on my ankles too…where I had been bound. I felt sore all over. Yawning, I noticed a bandage on my cheek stretching with my yawn. I reached up to touch it and it was across my cheek bone. The pain killers must be working if I didn’t notice it when I first woke up.

Looking to my right I could see daylight through the window. I must have slept all through the rest of the night and into part of the day when I was taken to the hospital. The last thing I remember was Jon with me in the ambulance.

Jon…

The thought of him and the emotions that begin to surface made me feel warm and my heart rate picked up. What he had done for me was beyond what normal human beings do. He had come after me and saved me. For the moment, I didn’t want to think about what happened, what I just went through.

Also, to the right I saw my father. He was asleep leaning in the chair against the wall. My eyes immediately stung with tears and I couldn’t hold back the plethora of feelings that swam through me. What he must have been going through while I was kidnapped. It was all my fault. If I had never gotten involved, trying to be a bad girl with Levi, none of this would have happened. The guilt overwhelmed me.

I didn’t want to wake him. I was sure he’s hardly slept the last three days as it is. I wondered why my mother wasn’t in the room with him. Maybe she stretched out her legs or went to get coffee.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I hoped my father would forgive me. I hoped I didn’t cost him his career. Tony and Jon risked their own lives to come save mine. I was sure Aunt Lily was furious.

Oh my god Tony!

The last time I saw him he was on a stretcher and looked unconscious. Tears fell down my cheek now. I had failed and disappointed everyone. A tear stung on a raw part of my cheek and I drew in another sharp breath. At the same time the hospital door opened and my mother walked in carrying a tray of coffee. She didn’t look at me yet, but set the tray down on the table next to my father.

I watched as she smoothed back his hair and kissed his forehead lovingly. It made me smile to see them still so happy together. She turned to look at me then and saw the smile on my face. Quietly, she took a seat next to my bed.

“Your awake,” she spoke softly. I just nodded, my throat felt too dry to talk.

“Do you need some water? You were pretty badly dehydrated from your…your captivity.”

She busied herself with the provided water jug and poured some into the plastic hospital cup. Gently, as a mother does she lifted my head so I could take a sip. The cool, but stale flavor of the hospital water seemed to relieve the dryness in my throat and I was able to clear it quietly. We didn’t want to wake my father up yet.

“I’m so sorry mom,” was the first thing I could think of to say. My bottom lip trembled as my eyes stung with tears again.

“Shh, it’s not your fault…”