Who knew?

Chapter Ten

The aroma of bleach stung Lena's nose. Her tongue was dry, with a slight hint of iron lingering on her taste buds. As she slowly awoke she realized she was moving quickly. It felt she was laying down but the ceiling above flashed before her eyes; fluorescent lights shone down almost every ten seconds.

Her head was pounding, the right side of her body was sore and stung as she tried to shift. Her gaze was heavy as she tried to remain awake. She heard beeping and other loud noises ringing in her ears, but she couldn't see where the sounds were coming from. She shifted her head slightly to the right and pain blasted through her ears, she let out a yelp.

"Ms. Smith, stay with us," a nurse with a bright red lip was saying. Lena saw her lips moving but suddenly she couldn't make out what was being stated. She began to feel dizzy, weak as if her body was paralyzed. She felt tired, depleted even, all she wanted to do was sleep. 'Just for a minute,' she thought to herself.

Everything became dark again.

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"How is she?" asked August shuffling through Lena's hospital door. He held a bouquet in his hand. James glared up at his friend but lightened his expression when he spotted the despair in August's eyes. "She's stable, she just needs to wake up now..." Mr. Smith butted in.

It's been 26 hours since the incident. After August returned to the beach with the paramedics and police, they didn't hesitate to rush Lena off in the back of the ambulance. 'Head trauma' and 'simple fracture to forearm' were all James heard the paramedics say. The arm was an easy fix but the head trauma was everyone's major concern. Arriving right behind the ambulance, James drove August and himself. James commanded that August go wait in the lounge while he followed the stretcher back. The trama team was already waiting during their point of arrival and James could hardly keep up.

She was lifeless in his eyes, and it felt like his world had ended.

He held her hand all the way to back doors until one of the nurses told him he couldn't go any further. It took the nurses a while to persuade James to join his friend in the lounge, but eventually, he watched as Lena was rolled off around a corner towards surgery.

He sauntered back towards the waiting room and saw his friend sitting in the corner chair. August was hunched over, hands cupping his face. James strode over.

"How could you let this happen?!" James provoked. August peered up at his best friend. Tears streamed down his face. "God, James, that should be me, why isn't it me?" August cried.

James cried.

His eyes poured out all they could until he couldn't cry anymore. Eventually, Luke and James' mother arrived and met with the two boys in the waiting room. Mr. Smith demanded an explanation.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP HER? Why didn't you help her?" Luke cried. To see a grown man cry was absolutely devastating.

"What did the doctors say?" Caroline asked. "A broken arm and a hit to the head," mumbled James.

"God you STUPID idiots!" Luke snapped. Caroline grabbed his arm gently. "Luke-" she started.

"NO, this isn't fair. This isn't fair. It's not your son, so you'd not understand! I CAN'T LOSE MY LITTLE GIRL TOO!" Luke started to explain, his voice breaking.

Caroline pulled back and put some space between them. "You're not the only one who has lost someone, Luke. How dare you say I don't know," Caroline scoffed, disappointed.

Just then, Lena's doctor showed up, "she's stable. Arms gonna be in a cast for a few weeks, but her head is out main concern," the doctor said.

As much as everyone wanted to sigh with relief, no one did.
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"She'll wake up Mr. Smith, she's strong, I know she will," James replied reaching over to grab her broken arm's hand.

James took in Lena. She was breathing fine, yet they had a breathing tube connected just in case. Her head was bandaged from the doctor's past attempts to stop bleeding in her brain.  The IV fluids that were hooked to both arms somewhere on Lena, were giving a small drip, drip sound.

James sat there staring. He wondered how this could have happened. How he wasn't the one in the bed.

A sudden tap on the door startled everyone. Glancing up Mr. Smith smiled kindly at Caroline, who ignored his look.

She came in and grabbed up James, "say goodbye James, it'll be a while until you see this girl again," she hummed quickly.

James pulled out of his mother's grip, "What??" He questioned. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"The deals off Luke, my son has better options out there in the world, I can only imagine what could have happened if James decided to jump in there..."

"Caroline, please, I said I was sorry," Luke replied now standing. August was shocked, standing in the corner, watching everything going on.

Suddenly Lena's body jolted as to show her frustration. Again and again, her body shook violently. Her holter monitor which measures her heart rate started to go faster until it dropped to such a slow speed, it stopped. Doctors rushed in, surrounding Lena's body. Everyone that wasn't a nurse or doctor was kicked out of the room.
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.

The doctors ripping open the CPR tools and began working on Lena. Luke watched as his daughter's life was slowly slipping away, he fought the doctors as they tried to push him out of the room.

Caroline pulled James out as much as she could but James was frozen, his eyes never left Lenas still seizing body. "No," was all he could get out as he watched her room get further and further down the hall.  

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A/N: Okay I know this is a short chapter, but please bear with me. Thank you for reading <3