Reckless Passion

Chapter 36

— Chapter 36 —

Song Theme For This Chapter: Fix You - Coldplay

— Louis —

I was forced to stand back as a few doctors and nurses took Rose from my arms and put her on a bed and then hastily wheeled her into a large, open room.  I tried to stay by her side, so I could comfort her and protect her but also because I couldn’t bear to leave her side again.

I watched through the small windows on the doors, I couldn’t see her face clear enough and from where I was standing she looked like she was hardly moving.  My heart starts to race as the scene brings an all too familiar and horrendous memory to the front of my mind.

“Aunt Jackie!”  I hear my young, thirteen-year-old voice in my head almost like my younger self is right next to me.  “AUNT JACKIE!”

I banged on the doors and suddenly one of the nurses comes out and gently coaxes me away from the doors.

I squeeze my eyes shut.  No!  I’m not reliving this memory.  This is nothing like that.  Rose isn’t dying.  I open my eyes and look up, the doctors and nurses are all around her, I can’t see her at all; the anxiety is making my heart race more.

One of the nurses looks up, making eye contact with me and comes to the doors.

“Sir, I’m going to need you to step away from the doors a little.”  She says urgently.

The similarity to the memory causes me to struggle for breath.

“No!  You don’t understand!  I have to be with her!  I have to make sure she’s going to be okay!  I can’t lose her!”  I blubber, panicking.

“Sir, you need to calm down.”  She says sternly, holding her hands up in front of me.  “Trying to get in that room and panicking is not going to be any help to her or any of the doctors.  They are just trying to bandage her up and stabilize her.”

I look from the window to the nurse.  “Is she going to be okay?”  I ask in a weak voice.

The nurse gives me a sympathetic smile.  “They’re still briefly examining her as they get her stabilized.  Her body seems to be lacking a lot of energy and she’s lost quite a bit of blood from her genital area.  Do you know what happened to that girl?  And has she eaten in the past few days or gotten proper sleep?”

I frown and drop my eyes to the floor.  “She was kidnapped almost two days ago.  My boys and I finally found her today and rescued her, she was too distraught for me to really ask her anything but I did see a spot of blood on the sheets I wrapped her in.  I couldn’t put her clothes on her because they were all torn and ripped.  I have a terrible gut feeling that she was raped.  The men who had her probably didn’t feed her since they never bothered to put clothes on her or so much as cover her with a blanket.”

I look back up at the nurse whose expression had turned grim.

She slowly nods.  “Thank you for your information.  Shortly after she’s settled in a room we will see if she can tell the doctor what’s happened.  What’s your relationship to the patient?”

“I’m her boyfriend.”  I say meaningfully.  I feel a little proud of myself for actually admitting the sentence out loud.

“Does she have any family that should be notified that she’s in the hospital?”

I gulp, hesitant to answer her question.  “Her mother and father… they’ve been looking for her I believe and I’ve not yet told them that I’ve found her.”