Wounded Hearts

Chapter Sixteen

Ronan tossed and turned for nearly two hours before finally giving up and sitting on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his weary face with his hands and looked out the window at the bright sunlight outside. The golden rays reminded him of Laura's hair and he groaned and stood up. He could not live without that woman and that meant there was only one thing to do.

He was going to go back to Laura's house and he was not going to leave until he managed to convince her that she was his one and only. He walked downstairs and found Abigail, Jeff, their kids, Bruce and Penelope in the living room watching television.

"I'm going out." Ronan said. Abigail smiled knowingly at him.

"Good luck, big guy." she said. Penelope giggled.

"Good luck, big guy." she repeated. Ronan laughed.

"Thanks." he said. He was pulling his boots on when the phone started ringing and he was nearly to his truck when Abigail ran out the door.

"Ronan, the phone is for you!" she yelled. Ronan stopped and turned around. Who would be calling me here? He wondered.

"Tell them I'm busy." he said waving his hand dismissively. Abigail shook her head.

"It's Doctor Pelphrey, Ronan." she said. Ronan froze. He had not spoken to Lance, or Dr. Pelphrey in over two years. Not since his old friend had told him that his wife was never going to wake up.

"What does he want?" Ronan asked warily. Abigail sighed.

"Talk to him and find out." she said holding up the phone. Ronan stomped over to her and jerked the phone out of her hand. He didn't know why she always had to make things so damn difficult.

"What?" he said into the phone.

"Ronan?" Lance's voice came out of the phone.

"Yeah." Ronan grunted.

"This is Doctor Pelphrey from Archer Memorial."

"I know who you are, Lance." Ronan said with a sigh.

"Right. Well I don't know if you know her but there is a woman here that keeps saying 'Ronan'. She's unconscious and not saying anything else other then that and we have no records on her here at this hospital to know who to call…"

"What's her name?" Ronan asked gripping the phone a little tighter.

"Laura Green. She was in a car accident and she is in the ICU. I didn't know if you knew her but Ronan isn't a common name so I just….." The phone fell loudly onto the gravel drive and Ronan was jumping into his truck.

"What's going on?" Abigail demanded. Ronan didn't bother to reply as he fired the truck to life and pulled out slinging gravel and squealing tires as he pulled onto the blacktop. Abigail picked up the phone to find that Lance was still there.

"He just took off like a bat out of hell. You better tell me what's going on."

888

Ronan's boots echoed loudly off the white halls of the hospital as he made his way to the ICU. His mind kept playing back to over two years ago when he had made this same walk and he prayed that there would be a better sight waiting for him at the end of this one.

He rang the buzzer for admittance into the ICU and he cursed when the nurses voice seemed to take hours to come back over the line.

"May I help you?" the high pitched, robotic sounding, disembodied voice asked.

"I'm here for Laura Green." he replied and then he cleared his throat to try to remove the emotion he could hear in it.

"Come on back." the voice called and the door clicked. Ronan pushed it open and walked into the ICU. Nurses were scurrying back and forth and Ronan suddenly felt very overwhelmed and lost as he looked around. There was no privacy in the ICU. Every room had clear glass walls so that the patients could be viewed at all times and Ronan looked around desperately for anyone that resembled Laura.