The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

"Hello," a voice said to me, shaking me gently as I gradually woke up.

"What? What? What?" I asked, panicking as I realised where I was and what had happened to Chloe. "Is she awake? Is she okay?"

The nurse looked at me as she straightened out the blanket around Chloe. "She's stable," the nurse smiled sympathetically to me. 

"Can I ask you a question and you gotta reply honestly?" I asked the nurse. The nurse nodded as she picked up the clipboard at the end of Chloe's bed and began to flick through, monitoring the charts as she looked at me. "Is she gonna survive this? I can't lose her."

"Honestly?" the nurse asked. "I think she's gonna be fine. She's had a very lucky escape. Majority of the people I treat who are in serious car accidents don't make it to this point. She's a very lucky girl."

I sighed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a definite yes but I had hope to cling onto. 

"She could be in a coma for a few days though, it could even last weeks," the nurse added as she put the clipboard back down on the table at the end of the bed and looked at me with her arms folded across her waist. "A coma is the body's natural way of healing itself. It could take weeks and even if she wakes up, she might be brain damaged or severely disabled. We've also gotta wait until she's woken up to take her down to x-ray as we think she's broken her leg."

I smiled at her. 

“Miracles can happen though,” the nurse smiled to me. 

I looked back down at Chloe as her chest moved up and down as the machines pumped oxygen into her body, helping her to breathe as she laid completely still in the hospital bed. I sighed as I sat back down in the chair where I had been all night, watching Chloe, praying she would wake up and tell me to sleep because I looked hideous without my 'beauty sleep'. The nurse left me in the room in complete silence as I continued to look at Chloe, lost in the millions of thoughts that were running through my head. After a short while, the door opened again and in walked Josh.

"You're still here?" he smiled as soon as he saw me. 

"I couldn't leave her," I said, smiling warmly back at him before turning to look back at Chloe. "George went to get Katy from Lisa's late last night so I thought I'd stay here with her, in case she woke up or anything happened. I didn't want her to be on her own."

"You're a good friend to her, Sammy."

"I could have been a better friend though," I sighed, feeling guilty for the last two weeks since storming out of their apartment on Chloe.

Josh looked at me and smiled. "Come on. I think you need a coffee," he suggested, helping me up out of the seat.

*

Walking down the corridor towards the hospital's café, I looked at Josh as he stared at the ground. I couldn't help but feel guilty as I looked at him. I knew something he didn't. I knew about Chloe being pregnant and having an abortion. I wanted to tell him but I couldn't - it wasn't my place to tell him. I didn't want him to be angry at Chloe when she was so vulnerable. If she woke up and found out that I had told Josh when she didn't want him to find out, she'd hate me even more than she did right now. But at the same point, I didn't agree with keeping it a secret from him. If it was the other way round and George was keeping a life changing secret from me that Josh knew about, I'd want Josh to tell me. For the whole duration of the walk to the hospital's cafe, I kept going over what I could do in my head. In the end, I just decided to say nothing and hope that Chloe came to her senses, when she woke up. 

Josh got the coffees, while I got a table in the empty seating area. Sitting down, I looked up at the clock to realise it was 6am. I had been at the hospital for 18 hours straight. Looking around at all the empty seats, I waited for Josh to come sit down at the table patiently. Soon enough, Josh appeared in sight holding two coffees with an exhausted smile on his face.