Eight hours in the waiting room of the ICU can drive one insane. Let’s just get that out in the open. Especially when it’s someone you love more than life itself in there fighting for her life. I’d gotten word hours ago that Jess was at risk for organ failure due to hypothermia. They’d been spending all this time trying to stabilize her and they claim that as long as she can make it through the next 24 hours that she had a good chance at pulling through. Other than that I didn’t know anything else. My parents and Caleb left a while ago to go home. I, on the other hand, refused to leave until I knew Jess would be okay. I was warned that I’d be waiting a while but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to stay any further away from her than I had to.
So here I was, sat in one of those super uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room alone, just waiting for some kind of news. The worst part of being alone in here was probably all the time I had to myself to think about every little thing I did wrong and what I could have done to change things. I made a silent promise to myself that if Jess got out of this okay I would spend the remainder of my life making sure that she knew exactly how much I love her.
I curled myself up in the chair the best I could in an attempt to get some sleep. If I didn’t at least try I knew I was going to drive myself crazy. It occurred to me how often Jess and I ever spent nights apart, which was never. I already missed the sound of her voice. The way she’d cling to me at night as if I was going to disappear if she didn’t hold on. I’d never be able to live without that.
The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake by a nurse. I winced as I felt the obvious kink that had formed in my neck from sleeping in such an awkward position. I looked up to see an older woman, probably in her mid-fifties smiling sympathetically at me.
“I’m sorry for waking you, sweetie, but someone dropped these off to you this morning,” she said, holding out a bottle and a small cup of water. I looked to see that someone had brought me my antidepressants which was a relief because the last thing I needed right now were more of the withdrawal symptoms.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully before taking the two pills quickly. I straightened up in my chair and attempted to stretch myself out.
“We’ll keep these at the nurse’s station for you. We’re technically not supposed to allow medication to be carried around in here,” she said.
“Okay. Would you mind telling me if you’ve heard anything about my girlfriend’s condition? They haven’t told me anything since she was first admitted,” I asked her, hoping she at least knew something.
“Your girlfriend is the pretty girl with the dark hair right? I don’t know anything but I can find out for you,” she said kindly.
“Thank you so much. I’d appreciate any kind of news. I’ve been so worried.”
“Of course. I know how hard it is to get any kind of information in here. I’ll be right back,” she said before walking off in the general direction that Jess had been taken to. As I waited for her to come back I leaned back into my chair and sighed. I really wished I had someone here with me but I knew my parents and Caleb had things to take care of back home. From what I was told, Scout was in a bad way and he needed a lot of special care for a while. They didn’t know the extent of his injuries yet but I knew it didn’t look good. This whole situation was so fucked up. I wish I’d never shown Jess that spot over the river.
It was about half an hour later when the same nurse finally came back into the waiting room. Hopefully she was bringing me good news. God, I could only hope.
“The doctors have said that at the moment Jessica is doing okay. They don’t feel comfortable allowing her to breathe on her own just yet so she’s still on a ventilator. They want to give her a little more time to get stronger before they take it off, so I’d say if she continues the way that she has been they’ll have her off of it later today or tomorrow. Right now she’s just in an induced coma so that her body can heal.”
