MC's Viking Warriors- Viper #3

Doretha

I fly down corridor after corridor as I follow the arrows that I can barely make out through my tears.

With a gasp of surprise, I see Vidar sitting on a plastic chair in a the corridor, his arm in a sling and a devastated expression on his face. My feet start to fail. My steps falter. My breath catches in my lungs and I feel a step away from passing out when a hand grabs my arm and pulls me into their chest.

I look up and see Vidar looking down at me with a lost smile.

"I'm so sorry Doretha, he's in theatre now... they... they said it's fifty fifty... I..."

He trails off as the blood rushes into my ears and I can no longer hear anything beyond Caine's laugh and his smile as he tells me he loves me.

When I finally reopen my eyes, I find myself sitting on those plastic chairs with Astrid on one side and Vidar on the other.

"A-any news?"

My voice is so hoarse that I can barely speak. I don't want to speak, because if I ask the question the unthinkable answer may follow.

"He's still in theatre Doretha." Astrid says softly whilst trying to stroke my hand. I jerk it out of the way, I still don't like people touching me... only Caine can touch me to comfort me. And Caine's gone. He's left me.

A choked sob breaks from my chest and I physically feel my heart shattering into tiny shards of glass that jab into my chest and bleed. No one touches me again as I hunch over my knees.

Finally, a door slams open and a pair of surgical scrub legs appear in my line of vision and I lift my head up to hear the news I'm dreading beyond words.

"Are you Doretha Green?" The surgeon asks and I nod, he takes a seat next to me and folds his hands in his lap politely.

After we moved in together we both put each other as our next of kin. I never imagined how soon after this moment we would use that fact. It makes me feel so sick I can barely function.

"He's out of theatre and we successfully stopped the internal haemorrhaging and removed the bullet."

"What?" I gasp as I sit bolt upright and turn to look at the man, I thought I'd lost him. I was convinced he'd left me, but maybe now he hasn't... maybe he does want to stay with me.

"As I said, he did well in theatre. But his heart stopped multiple times in the ambulance leaving his brain starved of oxygen for several minutes. Right now, he's in a coma."

"Oh."

I'm at a loss for words. I stare at the pale green wall opposite me and try to breathe once again.

"W-will-will he wake up?"

The surgeon clears his throat and shuffles his legs around to be slightly closer to me, not intrusively, just supportively.

"There is good evidence to suggest he will wake up... we just can't say when exactly. I'm so sorry the news couldn't be better Miss Green."

There are voices speaking around me once again but I can't hear them, it's all muffled around the news.

Taking a deep breath, I open the door to Caine's room. This is my third attempt and this is the closest I've gotten so far. This time I catch a glimpse of his face, of my Caine's face and I know I have to see him.

Boldly, I walk into the room and gently shut the door behind me. It's silly, I'm behaving like he's just sleeping and the slightest noise could wake him up, I wish that was true.

The chair is already pulled up and close to the bed from when Vidar and Mouse visited him. They insisted on going first to show me that everything would be ok, and now I'm so grateful that they did.

Settling down on the seat, my hand immediately reaches out for his and I stupidly expect him to take my hand in his. But of course, he doesn't.

Swallowing hard, I reach across and take his cold hand in mine. It's scratched up and bruised from his impact of hitting the ground, but they're still his hands. The hands that have held me as I fall apart, have carried Maddy and have wiped my tears away. They're still my Caine's hands.

I guess I should talk to him.

"Hey baby, it's me... it's Doretha. I'm here with you now and forever."

Those are all the words I can muster in me to say, the rest are in my heart. Leaning down, I press my head to his hand and let the tears out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three miserable days have passed and Maddy's nightmares have returned tenfold, she wakes up screaming three or four times a night. Chris has gone deathly silent since the news that daddy wouldn't be coming home for a few days, he understands more than Maddy what has happened.

I've visited Caine every day but each time it gets worse, more hopeless and more brutal. He's shown no signs of waking up and I'm dying inside.

When Chris was ripped from my arms it felt like I'd lost an arm. But without Caine to hold me, I feel like I've lost a leg.

"Caine, please. I need you to wake up and be here for me." I beg and plead as I settle down in the chair that has essentially become my home these past few days.

I look hopefully up into Caine's face, desperate to see a smile on his face or even just a flicker from his eyelid. But of course, there's nothing.

Quite out of nowhere all the pain I've felt over this accident morphs into anger and betrayal. He's leaving me.

"Caine please." I beg one last time and squeeze his hand tighter. "You promised me! You swore you'd never leave me, but you have. You've left me just like I knew you would!

How could you? You promised! You promised I'd be stuck with you forever... and now, now what? You're just going to leave me?"

I take a deep heaving breath as the words that have been swirling in my heart have finally left my mouth. Leaning my head back down, I lay my cheek to the side facing away from Caine's face. Looking at him laying there on that bed while I know he's never going to wake up is too much, too painful.

My tears wet the bedcovers as I sob into my fist and try to control the shaking tremor in my hands. I need a drink, I need a smoke, I need Caine.

A hand strokes my hair and I freeze, the tears still rolling down my cheeks with hiccups clutching at my chest. The hand moves down the length of my hair once again and finally my muscles let me move again.

I turn my head and sit up, finding Caine's hand fractionally elevated in the air and his eyes open a fraction.

"I told you forever didn't I Doretha baby?"

Ta da! I hope I'm all forgiven now my lovely readers. Xxx