My Universe [a Roman Reigns story]

3 The hospital

"Well? Come on, Seth! Spit it out!" I demanded as I grew more nervous with each passing second.

"Take it easy, dude. So... her name is Stefanie King and she's at Tampa General Hospital. He also told me that the driver of the truck that caused the accident has been arrested. Apparently it turned out he was on drugs," Seth finally replied.

"So that means she's okay?" I wanted to know while her name echoed in my head. It had a nice ring to it, I had to admit.

"He didn't know anything for sure, but at least she's alive." he said then.

"Are you at ease now?" wanted Dean to know.

"No, not quite. I want to see for myself how she's doing first." he replied and then started to leave the room once more.

"What do you mean? We have to leave for the airport in a few hours to get to the next city," Seth said, confused.

"I don't care about that at all right now. I need to see her! You can go to my gym and work out while I'm gone!" I replied.

"Roman, what's really going on here?" asked Dean, looking at me inquiringly.

"It probably sounds totally deranged, but I just can't get her eyes out of my mind. The way she looked at me. And the way she grabbed my hand.... something happened inside me." I explained, even though I could hardly explain it to myself.

"What, but you-" began Seth, but Dean quickly cut him off.

"Let him Seth. It's important to him. Go to the hospital, Roman. We'll wait for you here." said Dean, giving Seth a meaningful look.

Without saying another word, I set off to change and then headed for the hospital. I didn't have the slightest idea what I should say to her, but I would think of something. At the moment it was only important for me to make sure that she was alright. Well, and maybe find out what the heck was going on here.

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I parked the car and went inside. I walked straight up to the reception counter and told the woman who worked there the name of the woman I wanted to visit. Hearing her name come out of my mouth made me smile. With a sickly sweet smile, she told me where I needed to go. I took the elevator to the right floor where a nurse kindly showed me the way.

"May I ask how you relate to her?" as she escorted me.

"I was the one who pulled her out of the burning car," I explained.

"Oh! She was really lucky you were around. Miss King is still asleep. The doctors are slightly concerned about that. But she is no longer in acute danger of death. Now we must wait. Her friend, who is also her emergency contact, just left a few minutes ago because she said she was taking care of Miss King's dog," the nurse said as we entered the room.

Immediately my eyes fell on the woman I could not forget. She looked so small lying there in that hospital bed. Her head heavily bandaged. Hooked up to IVs and all kinds of machines. Her arms lay on the blanket and were covered with bruises and cuts.

"Aren't her parents or other relatives here?" I wanted to know, because it amazed me that she only had a friend as an emergency contact.

"As far as we know, she doesn't have any immediate family left. Poor thing." the nurse explained to me.

"Oh...how is she? How badly is she hurt?" I asked as I stepped closer to her.

"Well... she has a bad concussion and a big laceration on her head. Her collarbone is broken and her shoulder was dislocated. She also has several broken ribs, as well as a crack in her pelvis. And she had severe internal bleeding on one ovary. That was repaired during surgery. On top of that, she has a lot of cuts." she enumerated.

"Oh my God." I whispered as I sat down on the chair that was next to Stefanie.

That was a lot and one injury sounded worse than the other. I took a close look at her face to see if maybe she was in pain. It didn't look like it, but something inside me wanted to be sure.

"I'll leave you alone for a few minutes. Then you'll have to leave again. The doctors will be here soon to examine Miss King further." said the nurse.

"Okay." I replied without looking at her.

I just sat there in silence listening to the machines beeping. I didn't have the slightest idea what to do now, but just sitting here knowing she was alive was enough for now. 

After a few minutes, I gently took her hand in mine. It was the same hand with which she had grabbed mine yesterday. Yesterday... it seemed much longer ago.

"Sir?" I heard the nurse say from the doorway.

I turned my head in her direction but did not let go of Stefanie's hand.

"Yes?" I replied.

"It's time to go." she said.

I sighed and turned my gaze back to the woman in the bed. I wanted to memorize her face very carefully. But then I suddenly froze. She had opened her eyes! Those blue eyes that had haunted me since I first saw them. And they were even more beautiful than I remembered.

"Hey..." she breathed and looked me firmly in the eyes.