Broken Soul

Chapter 73 (edited)

I was sitting next to Aunt Sylvia, who had been holding my hand since Adrian sat me down by her, and we all watched the clock tick the minutes down slowly.  It was excruciating, this having no idea what was going on behind those steel doors when finally a male doctor came through them asking for Aiden Silvano's family. 

 Angelo walked over to the doctor and they spoke in low voices; I kept looking at the blood all over his scrubs and tried very hard not to form any advanced opinions as to what it meant.  I saw Angelo grip the shoulder of the doctor and lower his head; my heart began to physically hurt and then I saw Adrian walk over after the surgeon had walked away, they spoke and then embraced.  God!  What did all this mean?  

My thoughts were put on hold as Adrian walked towards us, his face showing nothing and I couldn't breath; dropping to his knees he took both my hands in his and said "Baby, Aiden...he...he's stable."  I didn't let him finish anything else, I just fell onto him, my arms around his neck and I sobbed in relief.  

I felt Sylvia's hand rubbing my back in comfort as the atmosphere in the room immediately went from sorrow and grief to joy and relief.

Angelo had walked back over to us as Adrian filled us in on the rest.  

"The bullet missed vital organs but it nicked an artery and that's why the blood loss.  They repaired this in surgery but they have put him in a coma and on a ventilator for a couple of days to keep him still so he can heal; barring any fever, infections or complications they'll take him off the machine, a day or two more in ICU and then either home or a regular room for another day." 

 I let all of what he said sink in.  We didn't lose Aiden; he was safe and he'd come back to us.  I will spend the rest of my life telling both of them what they meant to me and how much I love them; when the mood strikes I will stop what I'm doing and tell them, wherever I am, no matter what I'm doing.  Adrian brought me back from my thoughts.  

"Chels, you made me a promise.  You need to get checked out, okay?"  

I nodded and said "Okay."

The doctor that saw me was kind; I just called her Dr. Sara because her last name was Indian and I couldn't pronounce it so instead of massacring it I stuck with Sara.  

"Can you tell me what happened this evening?" she asked gently as she checked my vitals, blood pressure and heart.  I went into detail and when I finished she seemed pleased at my memory recall.

  "That's a nasty bruise on your cheek" she commented.  I let her know that when I'd been hit it caused the right side of my head to hit a brick wall.  She felt around on my head and discovered a bump; it was tender when her fingers glided over it.  She said sorry and checked out the rest of my head, no other bumps present.  She shined a light in my eyes and then asked about my left eye. 

 "Detached retina from domestic violence" I told her.  

She nodded and continued her exam.  "Your wrists are pretty banged up" she remarked.  I told her I'd been handcuffed to a pipe.  "The detective asked me for your clothes, so I have put a bag right here and a gown.  I will step out so you can change and then come back, finish this up so you can get back to your family, okay?" 

 I said thank you and started to remove my shirt, hissing from the pain I was feeling in my lower back, side and stomach; when I removed my jeans I had a huge bruise forming on my thigh as well.  This was deja vu all over again I mused.

Dr. Sara came back in to retrieve the bag for Detective Chance and then returned to finish her examination.  I tentatively raised my gown to show her my side and stomach; she shook her head and said "My goodness."

  All the pressing and prodding was about to make me come undone when she finally finished and then I told her I had one more area to show her, my thigh. 

 "You got banged up pretty good, didn't you?" she said sympathetically.  I nodded.  She told me that as the night wore on I would hurt a lot more so she wrote out a script for hydrocodone and said that while it was being filled she would get me some scrubs to change into since the police had my clothes and then I'd be free to go.  I told her thank you, she nodded and disappeared out of the room.

I walked back into the waiting room to find Alberto, Alfredo, Monique, Stellan and Duffy now here.  Monique's hand went up to her mouth when she saw me coming towards them; she put out her arms to engulf me and I lost it.  

She stroked my hair as I cried into her neck and when I had gotten rid of that I pulled away from her, telling her thank you.  I slowly made my way over to Angelo and put my arm around his waist, hugging him.  He kissed me on my head and asked how I was doing.  

"I'm beat up pretty good" I said honestly.  "The doc gave me pain meds which she assured me that I would need.  Any word on when we can see Aiden?"  

I needed to put my eyes on him, just to make sure he was really here.  Angelo said anytime now and begged me to sit down and take care of myself.  I looked up and saw Adrian coming back in from talking with Detective Chance and a small smile spread across his tired face.  We didn't say anything, he just took my hand, we sat down and did what we did best, waited some more.