Lunacy

Chapter Three

Malcolm rushed into the waiting room seeing his mother hugging Ainsley and Gil sat with his head in his hands. He slowly approached them, scared of what he would be told. "Where is she?"

His mother walks towards him, putting her hands on his shoulders and inhaling deeply, preparing to comfort her son, "She's in surgery, one of her ribs pierced her lung and she has a massive brain bleed."

His stance falters as he grasps her arms to stay upright. She pulls him into a hug as he overthinks everything that could happen to her. "She's going to be okay Malcolm. After everything she's been through, this isn't how it ends."

He nods, the tremor in his hand showing everyone around him just how scared he was for the girl. The second a doctor entered the room he pounced, "Family of Mikaela Rodriguez?"

"I'm her emergency contact." Malcolm tried to stay calm but the doctor was taking too long to give him an update as he stared at the charts in his hands.

He nodded, "She's stable, we lost her for a second in the OR but quickly got her back, she had a major brain bleed but we repaired it and her lung has been sutured. She had free fluid in her stomach but we quickly got rid of that. She's still under the effects of anaesthesia, but should be waking up soon. She's very lucky she got here when she did."

Malcolm let out a sigh of relief at hearing she was okay, and he felt the atmosphere around him change as everyone could breathe again knowing that the girl was alright. "When can I see her?"

The doctor glanced quickly at the chart, “You can go sit with her now, as for everyone else, it’s best if they stay put for the moment. She has just endured a strenuous surgery so it’s best if she is not overwhelmed.”

Malcolm nodded and quickly followed after the doctor as he led her to her recovery room, he saw she was already awake and seemed to be on the phone. He walked in in the middle of her conversation, “Yes, Martin, I’m fine. They’re acting like it’s worse than it really is.”

Malcolm rolled his eyes at this, knowing she was downplaying it. He ripped the phone out of her hand, “Martin it’s me, Malcolm.”

Martin laughs on the other side of the phone, “My boy, lovely to hear from you again! But enough chit chat there's plenty of time for that later, now, tell me, is Mickie telling the truth.”

Malcolm sighs, clenching his eyes shut tight at the fact he was speaking to him twice in the one day, “She had a punctured lung, a massive brain bleed and also fluid in the stomach, but she's fine now.”

Martin's lighthearted demeanor diminished slightly, realising how serious she was hurt, “Malcolm, put her back on the phone, will you?”

He handed the phone back to the girl, who was trying to burn a hole through the side of his face, angry that he had tattled on her. It was like they were suddenly teenagers trying to impress the serial killer man behind bars in a mental institution, “Martin, your son is exaggerating, I’m fine, barely a scratch on me, I’ll see you soon.”

She hung up the phone before the other man got a chance to argue back with her and threw the phone to the other end of the bed, gripping her ribs in pain from the rushed movements, “Malcolm, why did you do that?” she launched her head back against her pillows in frustration.

He sighed sitting down in the seat beside her bed, grasping her hand in his as he did so, “I did it because you wouldn’t, and as much as he’s a narcissistic psychopath, he does care about you. Seeing you nearly collapse did something to him, so I thought he deserved the truth.”

She sighed, knowing on some level he was right, but she was still too pissed to admit it, so instead she just squeezed his hand tightly, “Now, before you tell me off, I have a few things to say to you, because I got an interesting text from Dani - who got my number from Gil - about how you basically begged to be killed by the copycat.”