Falling for the Mafia Queen

Part 6

The rest of the night was a blur until I was back at the hospital. When I did make it back to my house I changed out of my button down and dress pants, and grabbed my white v-neck, my dark wash jeans and my leather jacket. As we left I noticed Vito had changed as well and was carrying a bag with a change of clothes for the boys. It was almost 2 am by the time I got back to the hospital. As I got closer to Marina's room I noticed Shelly and Victor were outside the room talking, they were laughing about something as I approached them.
    "Is she still sleeping?" I stopped in front of Shelly, ignoring Victor completely.
    "Yes, she's still sleeping. The nurses checked on her about an hour ago, they should be doing another check soon." I gave her a small nod as I turned towards the door, Victor stopped me as he got up.
    "You should know your father called me, he wanted me to let you know that he's calling me off and that she is now your responsibility. If anything happens you are to handle it." I knew what he meant, and I didn't want to think about it. I heard Shelly and Victor say their goodbyes as I walked into the room.

    The hours passed by slowly, we all switched between sitting at Marina's bedside trying to get a response from her or to see if she would wake up. According to William he expected her to wake up closer to 4 am once all the pain meds wore off. William stopped in just after 5 am before making his rounds and she was still sleeping. When he finally came back after his rounds to check on her it was almost 7, and she still hadn't woken up yet. Marcus was sitting on her bed when William pulled Shelly and I over by the door to talk to us about her condition.
    "With her not having woken up yet I am beginning to get a little concerned," William continued to look at her monitor as he spoke. "We changed her IV, and reduced her pain meds hoping that was the cause of her not waking up yet. We should know soon what's going on."
    "And if she doesn't wake up? Or if she does, what state will she be in?" Shelly spoke up before I could, all I could do was stare at her motionless on the bed. The small rise and fall of her chest, and her heart monitor beeping the only indication that she was still alive.
    "As I explained to Beck last night the worst case scenario is that she may never walk again, while the best case is that it's just a mild concussion." Before Shelly could respond we heard a soft grumble from the bed.
    "Marcus, leave her be." I knew she couldn't be awake already, nothing seemed to wake her up it didn't make sense. I turned back to William for him to continue, but I saw Marcus holding her hand before she pulled it away from him.
    "You should know she's awake." Marcus backed away from the bed to show us that she was awake, and staring at all of us with wide eyes. She seemed to be in shock from her surroundings. Marcus made his way over to the door as the three of us walked towards the bed, with Shelly reaching her first.
    "Oh sweety, how are you feeling?" Marina reached her hands out to Shelly as she sat on the bed, her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She quickly dropped her hands after squeezing them tightly.
    "Sloane, can you take Ms. Smith out into the hallway?" I could tell William was concerned about her well being, too much stimulation could overwhelm her and hurt the healing process. My brother made his way over to the now almost sobbing Shelly, and wrapped himself around her as they made their way out into the hallway.
    William continued once the door was closed again. "It's good to see you're awake so quickly after what you've been through." I knew it was lying, he knew she should have woken up hours ago, but I knew he didn't want to concern her. "Let me introduce myself, my name is Dr. William Graves. I'm the doctor that performed your surgery last night, and I'll be the one looking after you while you are in recovery." She gave a small nod in response, she looked around at all of us and saw the concern in our faces before starting to cocoon herself and wincing from the pain it caused. I made my way over to her bedside, taking her hand in mine as I sat down.
    "I want you to reserve your strength, but I want you to squeeze my hand once for yes, twice for no. Can you do that for me?" She gave me a small squeeze, I didn't want to scare her but we still didn't know for sure what the outcome from her surgery would fully be.
    "Good good, do you feel anything when you move?" Again she gave me one small squeeze, I looked back to William who was watching us intently at the foot of the bed and gave him a small nod.
    "Do you remember what happened, the reason why you're here?" Instead of responding, she pulled her hand away cocooning into herself again. She must have known why she was in the hospital and what had happened to her. I got up slowly and made my way back over to William, I could tell Marina was lost in her own thoughts.
    "Do you think she'll be okay?" William was looking at her monitor before he responded.
    "It's hard to say, but from what I'm seeing it looks like she'll make a healthy recovery. It's possible her throat is still dry from the tube during surgery so we'll make sure she gets plenty of liquids, and we'll keep an eye on her. I want her to stay a few more days just to make a full recovery and make sure nothing is permanent before releasing her."
    "Alright, I'll probably have Sloane stay here just to keep an eye on her to make sure no one else gets any funny ideas." William gave me a small nod, he knew what I meant. We both knew that even though Victor was called off, that wouldn't stop someone else from trying to get on my father's good side.
    The door flew open behind Marcus, as he quickly reached for his gun but stopped when he saw Sloane and Shelly following behind to two newcomers. One was a woman, she couldn't be any taller than 5' with fire red hair in tight curls down to the middle of her back. The second was a man, he looked to be the same height as me his hair was a dark brown kept short. The man stopped short looking around the room while the women made her way over to Marina.
    "Oh hunny, how are you feeling?" Marina was pulled from her thoughts, I didn't realize she had been crying until now. It took her a few moments to realize who was sitting in front of her.
    "Momma." Her voice was small and hoarse as she wrapped herself around the women and sobbed into her shoulder. She quietly soothed her as they rocked back and forth on the bed.
    "Beck, I'd like you to meet Marina's parents. Jasper and Lucy Mezza." Shelly was by my side gauging how I was taking everything with a cautious eye. The man who I assumed was Jasper came up to me.
    I reached out my hand to introduce myself, "Beck Contovella." He seemed to size me up before extending his hand out to meet mine. He dropped my hand before turning to Marina and joining them both it what seemed like a never ending hug. Marina pulled away from the group hug to hug her father before leaning back down on the bed.
    "How are you feeling bunny? Are they taking care of you?" She gave a small nod and was smiling from the nickname, I could tell she was still holding back tears.
    "We'll be out in the hallway if any of you need anything." It was William who spoke this time, I could tell he wanted to talk to her parents to update them on her condition but her having quality time with them first was more important. We all went into the hallway so Marina could have some time with her parents.

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    "Oh sweety, what happened? Are you okay?" My mother was pushing my hair out of my eyes, while wiping the tears from her own. I took her hand in mine and kissed it softly.
I looked at my father who was now at the foot of the bed looking at the door they had all just walked out of. I banged my foot on the bed to get his attention, I could tell his mind was spinning coming up with scenarios and trying to figure out what was going on. It took him a few moments before he pulled his gaze from the door and back to us. He ran his hands through his hair, his mind still piecing everything together before he spoke.
"Is she......" He couldn't even finish his question, we both already knew the answer. "....is she the one who caused this?" I shook my head no, and he took a calming breath.
"Does she know who did it?" I gave a small shrug, I honestly didn't know. He walked around the room pulling at his hair, I knew he figured out who she was and I didn't need to tell him.
"I'm just glad you're ok bunny." He made his way over to the bed and we were back in our group hug. Tears welled in my eyes again, I didn't know what else to do and crying seemed like the only logical thing. I should be dead, I knew that much, but I still didn't know why Beck has decided to protect me.