A New Beginning

Chapter 8

Shiloh -

The trip to the hospital seems to take so long it provides me with enough time to imagine all kinds of scenarios and each one I come up with gets progressively worse. We are in Grand's limo and right now she is holding onto my hand and squeezing it gently in an effort to grant me some of her strength.  Without her here I honestly don't know what state I would be in right now.

I haven't seen Orion in a little more than a month and that is the longest time I have ever been apart from him since the day we met. My feelings are in a turmoil. One minute I'm so angry at what he's done and the next I'm terrified of what I'll find when we get to the hospital.

I'm at war with myself and I feel like I'm slowly losing my mind. We finally arrive and Gran's driver Greg gets out and opens the door. I can see the people in the street looking at us with curiosity. Gran gets out first and after taking a deep breath; I get out and prepare myself for whatever awaits me inside.

Nothing could have ever prepared me for what was waiting for me inside of that hospital. We walk in and immediately head for the front reception area and I approach the desk. Clearing my throat, I say, "Excuse me. My name is Shiloh Degray. A Dr. Yuri called me in regards to my husband Orion Degray." I look over at the name tag the woman is wearing stating her name as Rachel.

"If you could just please give me a moment to contact Dr. Yuri Mr. Degray. I will let him know you have arrived. Please take a seat over by those chairs." I look over to my left where she is pointing to a small waiting area with tables and chairs. "Thank you."

Gran sits down on an end chair and I pretty much just stand by her side. If I sit down right now, I won't be able to get up. I am barely holding on as it is. The only thing I know for sure is that Orion is hurt, possibly very badly. With that in mind, and even knowing what he's done, all I know is that I need to see him.

Just because he broke my heart does not mean that I stop loving him. If I had no feelings for him then I would not be in such an emotional uproar. All I want to know is what happened. How is he? I need to see for myself that he is alive and well.

My inner thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of a small but handsome man whom I am assuming is Dr. Yuri. "Mr. Degray I presume." He says as he holds out his hand for me to shake. He looks to Gran and I say, "This is my grandmother Anastasia Hildebrant."  He must recognize the family name as his eyebrows raise just a bit in surprise.  "Follow me to my office where we will have the privacy we need to discuss your husband's case."

We get to a bank of elevators and follow the doctor in and then up to the third floor that is labeled CRITICAL AND INTENSIVE CARE UNIT. This is bad. The panic begins to rise within me but before it can spiral out of control, the good doctor takes me by the elbow and in a calming voice says, "Breathe in and then out. Slowly, yes that's good."

I continue to let the sound of his voice soothe me a bit and finally I look to him and he says, "Good. Mr. Degray." "Shiloh, please call me Shiloh." "Shiloh, please stay as calm as you can. Once we get to my office and fill you in on everything, well..." He stops for a moment. I hear what he's not saying. It's so much worse than I could imagine and right now I need to keep it together.

We get to his office and he motions us to sit down in the seats provided for us in front of his desk. His office is pretty huge leading me to believe he is some kind of heavy hitter within these walls. Instead of sitting like a king on a thrown in his very posh looking chair, he takes a seat and pulls it right in front of me and then sits down.

"Shiloh, your husband was in a very bad car accident. From what the police report says and the eyewitnesses, he lost control of his car after swerving to avoid hitting some people in the street." Trying to stay calm I ask, "How, how bad?" I can feel the tears start to form in my eyes so Gran hands me one of her handkerchiefs but it won't be enough to dry my face with the doctor's next words.

With a grim look on his face he says, "His car hit a tree so hard it cracked down the middle. At this point I believe he was still okay but that fall and explosion caused  almost all of the damage he currently has." Now my panic has set in and my heart is beating erratically. I can feel myself breathing heavier as I am trying to comprehend his words.

I hear Gran ask as she takes one of my hands in hers, "Fall? Explosion?" You can hear the strain in her voice as she tries to keep her emotions in check.  I know she is very worried for my state of mind right now.  "When the tree cracked, the half his car was sitting on fell back into a ditch several feet below. He went down with it and almost all of his injuries were received during the fall."

Al I keep thinking is Oh God please let him be okay. Please, please I can't fathom a life without him in it at all.  He can't die on me, not like this.  I clear my throat and ask, "Was he still in the car when it exploded?" "No, he was thrown from the car about twenty feet. He was not wearing his seat belt but considering the car went up in flames upon impact, I will take the lesser of two evils."

By now I am a slobbering mess. I can't imagine what shape he's in and at this point I just need to see him with my own eyes.  I need to see that he is still alive even if barely.  "Shiloh, there is something else that concerns me. Orion's blood alcohol level was almost four times the legal limit. He pretty much has alcohol poisoning. I'm shocked he was even able to stand up to get to the car let alone manage to swerve out of the way in order to avoid killing people for that is surely what would have happened if he had kept driving straight on."

I give the doctor a look before I make the decision to share our situation with him. "I know why he was wasted. Doctor, I left my husband about a month ago after discovering I had an STD." The doctor gives me a confusing look so I go on to explain.

"My husband and I have been married for the past five years but we have been a couple for the last fifteen. We have known each other since we were five years old. We were each other's first, well everything until that fateful day over a month ago when the reality of his infidelity dawned on me with the knowledge of this STD I now found myself with."

"That must have cleared up by now because we found no traces of an STD in any of his tests. We have enough issues to deal with." "What do you mean by that doctor?" "Shiloh you husband died on the way here!"