Haunted by the past

Chapter Sixteen

Maddie could tell she was horizontal, lying in bed, she knew that much. But everything else was foggy. What was her last memory? She had no idea. She tried to stretch but her legs wouldn’t move. Shit! She wondered for a moment whether she’d had a stroke. Concentrating really hard she managed to feel her toes...and wiggle them. But the exertion of that was exhausting, she could barely breathe, every time she tried to take a breath it wasn’t enough, she felt as though she was suffocating...and then pain...everywhere. What the hell was happening to her?

Then she could hear a voice, a woman, no one she recognised, talking quietly, "he’s been here since she was admitted, he’s not left her side to my knowledge and when I found him asleep his head against her hand, I didn’t have the heart to wake him..."

As the other voiced sighed, she had that instant flash light up her groggy mind.

Evan.
He was here.

She tried to remember what was happening, where she was. She could barely hold her eyes open. Last thing she remembered was waiting for him to come home; he was supposed to fly home from Italy. She was going to tell him the truth...about...

And then BOOM! She it all came back in a flash. SHIT JAKE!!! He’d been there, she’d confronted him, then he knew about the baby...but Evan had been there too.

She wanted to cry, she’d wanted to tell him gently, break it in easily. Instead she’d screamed at Jake like some gutter tramp, and he’d overheard it. In the street. The memories swirled in a turmoil in her brain, the past...but where was she, why?

She tried to speak but she couldn’t, she had something in her mouth, she didn’t know what.

Panic took over her and she tried to move, but everything hurt, her eyes flew open in horror, just as the owner of the voice appeared in her vision.

                "Madeline, it’s fine. You’re safe. Do you remember what happened?” She tried to shake her head, “you’re in hospital. You had an accident. Just calm down, and relax ok?"

Relax? She wanted to scream, but then waves of fatigue wafted over her and she slumped into a heap all her fight exhausted.

She couldn’t breathe, the tube in her mouth delivered the smallest amount of breath to her. The nurses sensed her discomfort, "We can’t turn your ventilator off yet, we need to see how you can cope. But we can change it; make it a bit easier to breath."

She nodded enthusiastically, then started to pant manically when suddenly there was no restriction to her breathing. She’d felt as though she was drowning; now she appreciated air like she never had before.

The nurse, Allison, stood by her and explained that she had various fractures, and the spleen injury, and most worryingly, that she’d been there for three days. That was the hardest thing to fathom.

Somewhere in the middle Evan woke up.

                "Maddie?" The worry, the desperation in his voice hurt her all over again. She was such a burden on this man.

Maddie turned her head, a part of her that she could move to look at him, then tried to smile. He touched her cheek.

                "Have you any idea how worried I’ve been?"

She tried to smile again, but with the tube in her mouth it was impossible. She was exhausted, but despite this was desperate to get this tube out of her. So she tried to sit up a small amount, thought that was hard. As she blinked her eyes and tried to gain enough strength to survive, the nurse came and elevated the head end of her bed a little and she could see around the room.