I always find you

Chapter 07

Shortly after four in the morning, Carlos awoke to violent shaking of his entire being and a cold sweat that had left his whole body and sheets soaked.

His broken fingers and damaged shoulder shot bolts of white hot pain down his arms and all over his body as he tried to move. For a moment he had forgotten the damage those people had done to him; he tried to prop himself up on the bed to sit up and get to the table. He needed to drink water.

But as soon as he put his hand on the bed and put the slightest pressure on his hand, he groaned, bit his lip to keep from screaming and fell back on the bed again. Whereupon he hurt his shoulder as well.

"Fuck!" he shouted, and shuddered again trying to curl up around his abdomen.

His stomach lurched like an unbalanced washing machine and his intestines bubbled and clenched and burned, feeling like a lava-filled volcano about to erupt.

The motion of trying to curl up made his head throb as if a family of gnomes with hammers had moved in and were building a whirlpool, but one that was making his world spin and sway.

"Please..." He tried to raise his voice to call for someone, but only succeeded in getting out a choked whimper. "Help... someone..."

Marjan hated shifts that ended late, and she hated shifts that ended in the early hours of the morning even more. But that little boy had taken a liking to her and had asked her to accompany him in the ambulance.

Luckily Nancy was also there and they could have one last coffee before going home and spending the rest of the day in a coma. But first they wanted to know how Carlos was doing — surely TK or Andrea were with him and would know how he was doing.

When they arrived, they didn't knock on the door, sure that Carlos would be sleeping and they didn't want to disturb him. They opened the door a little to get the attention of whoever was inside, but realized that there was only Carlos there, suffering in bed, writhing in pain and sweating, when they approached.

"Hey, Carlos, are you okay?"

"What are you doing here?" he protested in little more than a hoarse whisper, as he continued to writhe on the bed. "I just need a nurse to give me something for the pain."

"Where's your mother? Or TK?" Nancy asked, not taking her eyes off the monitor displaying his condition; the numbers had her instantly concerned, his heart rate and blood pressure were way too high and his oxygen was bordering on needed supplemented

"I told my mother to go get some rest, she's been here all day and tomorrow I want her to go check on the kids," he said it too quickly, words catching on his tongue as it were numb. "And TK can't be here...he's been through this... Seeing me like this would only make him suffer and bring back bad memories and thoughts. I don't want that."

"Wait. You asked to be left alone?"

"They don't know I'm alone, my mom thinks TK is staying with me and TK is convinced my mom is sleeping over with me... But I don't want them to have a bad time because of me. I look like shit, but it will pass, and I'd rather be here alone, even if I have to writhe in pain all night. At least they won't have to put up with it."

Marjan walked over to the bed and was about to gesture for Nancy to do the same but the paramedic was already grabbing another of the chairs to sit on the other side of the bed.

"What are you doing?" Carlos bit his lip as he felt a huge invisible hand twist his stomach, pull at it and then devour it from the inside. "No...go away please... You can't be here."

"What do you mean we can't be here?" Marjan folded her arms and made herself more comfortable for a second, then leaned over to Carlos and grabbed his hand.