Father of the Bride

Chapter 29: The Siren

Curled up by the corner of the hospital entrance draped in her husband's jacket, Mahnoor hugged her knees and glanced at her glimmering wedding ring. This was the moment that defined her, the moment she realised what Khizar meant to her and how he'd changed her life. There was love after an abusive marriage, there was trust and safety after living with a violent husband. For years she had closed her heart to the world and it's possibilities, terrified; but Khizar shaped a new world for her. Mahnoor bowed her forehead on her knees and blocked out the world. The sepia cracks of dawn broke through the black night when the screaming siren of an ambulance derailed her painful memories.

For some cryptic reason, one ambulance seized Mahnoor's attention. The ambulance van raced past her and the doors flung open to a flurry of activity. Doctors, nurses waited for the patient to unload to begin their treatment. With blurry vision from her tears, Mahnoor watched the paramedics jumping out of the van and began to hand over a patient to the waiting doctors and nurses. The blurred voices pulled Mahnoor to her feet; she felt a tug on her heart, like the scene was infusing her with energy.

"Severe smoke inhalation." The paramedic said.

Mahnoor's eyes scanned the casualty but she couldn't see anyone. Her face turned pale, she was completely disorientated and blindly followed them into the hospital.

"40-year-old male. Found in a cupboard in a house fire. Unconscious."

She shuffled through the group of medical professionals as they wheeled the patient to look at the casualty's face. It was a man. Masked with an oxygen mask. His face blackened with smoke and ash. A tremor shook her. Was it Khizar?

Mahnoor stumbled tripping over reaching out to the bed. "Khizar?" She squeaked with hope. It was then she noticed the dimple on his chin, the dimple she'd kissed a hundred times; life surged through her.
"He's alive." Mahnoor whispered to her soul to wake up.

The monitors beeped the rhythm of his weak heart.

"He's a doctor at the QE." Confirmed a nurse. "Dr Khizar Khan."

Khizar Khan was alive.

"Khizar!" Mahnoor cried out. Colours filtered into her bleak life.
"My husband." She pressed her palm on her pounding heart that called to Khizar. The nurse held distraught Mahnoor outside the resuscitation room as she waved her arms out for her husband.
"He's alive!" Mahnoor wept in disbelief. "That's my husband!" She pointed inside. "He's alive. He's alive." She repeated in shock and disbelief.

With her arms around Mahnoor, the nurse peered through the blinds at the doctors treating Khizar.
"The fire crew thought no one else was in the property. They found him in a cupboard in one of the rooms. That's why it took so long locate him. He'd escaped from the ferocity of the fire, but the smoke got to him. When they found him, he was wasn't breathing." Mahnoor's jaw dropped wide.
"The paramedics administered CPR, so he's back in rhythm and suffering severe smoke inhalation." The nurse informed. "He's still critical."
"But will he be okay?" Mahnoor tugged the nurse's arm holding onto her for scraps of information.
"Dr Khan is in the best possible place." She restored an ounce of faith. "Let the doctors do their job."

***

Panic struck. Arrested by fear, Mahnoor stood by Khizar's bed watching he doctor's every step.
"Please Allah! Save him! Ya Allah! Ya Lateef!" She uttered a silent prayer.

The doctors checked his airways and attached electrodes on his chest to monitor his heart rate and secured IV access. The flurry of activity around him kept her at a distance.

"It's lucky the found him." A Caucasian doctor approached her.

"Will he be okay?"

"We have secured his airway first and foremost. After that-"