The Two of Us

Chapter 22 - The Patient Ones

Chapter Twenty Two - The Patient Ones

Khalid's shoes squeaked as he walked down the polished halls of the hospital. He disliked hospitals - they were too bright, too cheery for a place that had sickness and death lurking behind closed doors. He turned a corner, dodged a nurse wheeling a hospital bed and listened to his shoes squeak as he walked on.

Squeak. Squeak. Pause as he stopped to let a lady walk past. Squeak.

He jumped into the elevator and pushed the button that would take him to the third floor. An old man stood patiently beside him, his face wrinkled and haggard. He held a box of chocolates and Khalid wondered if they were for his wife. His chest tightened as he looked down at the pink roses he'd bought for Sabrina - they were her favorite.

The elevator stopped and he turned right, leaving the old man behind to wobble out on his walking cane. He heard a clang and as he looked back, saw that it had fell out of the man's hands. Khalid glanced down at the roses and back up to Sabrina's room which he could see from where he stood. He turned back and handed the old man his cane.

When he walked into Sabrina's room, he expected her to be awake. The first thing he saw was her unconscious form, her wrapped up head and a dozen things connected to her arms and face. He was aware that she'd hit her head when he'd pushed her out of Reed's grasp. They'd said that she'd gotten thirteen stitches. He was not aware, however, that she was still unconscious.

He slumped down in a seat beside her and barely managed to say salaam to her parents who were glaring at him distastefully. Setting the roses on the table besides him, he sighed. Last night had been disastrous - and after Sabrina had been taken to the hospital, the Police had been sent to track down her kidnappers. Reed was dead and Osama and a few others were being held responsible and charged for kidnapping, keeping a hostage and in Osama's case - murder. Since his ex gang fellows had told the cops about him being part of the Ghetto Lords, Khalid was also being questioned, but since they had no evidence, they couldn't do much. Yet, this didn't stop Sabrina's parents - who had been informed of his past activities - from glaring at him. They had every right to, he supposed. It was all because of him, after all.

He was glad they were being civil enough to wait until Sabrina woke up. There was no need to start a war when she was pretty much in a coma. No one said it of course - the word was like taboo. But it'd been more than ten hours and she was still unconscious. The nurses were monitoring her brain activity and there was whispers of a spinal cord injury. Khalid desperately hoped it wasn't serious.

He stared at her still lashes and her smooth skin. He longed for her to open her caramel colored eyes and flash that beautiful smile. But she was motionless like a statue as she seemed to sleep on, lost in wherever a person went when they couldn't wake up. Sabrina's father grunted, trying to catch his attention and Khalid blinked, turning his head towards the irritated man.

"We'd like to talk to your parents." Sabrina's father told him, stiffly. "When can we meet with them?"

Khalid nodded his face expressionless, but inside he was dying. "They're busy today. Tomorrow."

His voice came out raspy like it didn't want to work anymore. He was so broken inside, he didn't know how to feel anymore. Or what to say or think or do. All he knew was that Sabrina could possibly die and it was all because of him. He didn't blame her parents for hating him. He hated himself too.

And Reed. Who was dead and Khalid hadnt even been the one who shot him. Reed, who thought for sure he'd shoot himself rather than the girl he loved. He still remembered firing the gun - but not at Sabrina - he would never shoot her. He fired it at the wall above her head to distract the son of a gun who held her and then reached out to pull her away from him. It was his fault that she fell and tripped and hit her head. Reed had punched him in the face and Khalid had almost managed to shoot his brains out before the bastard knocked the gun out of his hand.