Don't Leave Me Chapter 2
Mary hurried toward the operating room as fast as she could manage, ignoring the pain she was feeling as a result of so recently having a baby. Her pain did not matter right now - Matthew needed her. Oh God, please let him be okay she silently prayed. She could not bear to lose him now, not when they were finally happy after so many years of heartache, not when their babe was only hours old. Surely God would not be so cruel.
"My lady, what are you doing out of bed?" a nurse asked, following Mary down the hall. Mary, who was focusing on her own silent prayers, ignored the nurse's question and continued in the direction of the operating room. When the nurse surmised her destination, she began protesting again. "You cannot go in there. You must wait."
"My husband is in there. Do not presume to tell me I must wait," Mary said, flinging the door open without a backward glance. "Oh my darling," she cried when she saw him on the operating table. Unable to fight the tears any longer, she gave into her grief and let them fall.
"Lady Mary please, you must wait outside. You cannot help him in here," Dr. Clarkson said gently.
"Please do not try to send me away," she said, stepping close enough to touch him, needing to feel for herself that he still lived.
"I must do my work in as sterile an environment as possible. The presence of additional people only increases the risk of infection if he survives. It won't be long, but it is safer for him if you wait outside."
"For his safety I will do as you ask, but I shall be right outside. If anything goes wrong, anything at all, you must tell me right away," she sternly told the doctor. Once he nodded in agreement, Mary reached out to stroke Matthew's cheek a single time. "Such good luck my darling," she whispered as she placed a soft kiss on his lips before leaving the room.
Mary nervously paced the hall just outside the waiting room trying to create a facade of a calmness she did not feel. She had wiped her eyes and refused to let any more tears fall. Her tears, evidence of her fear and pain, were not something she would let anyone else see. It was only minutes later when her parents appeared in the hall and her resolve was tested.
"How dare you try to keep this from me," she said, the anger clear in her voice as she faced her parents.
"It was only temporarily, just until we knew more. We did not want to upset you unnecessarily," Robert said gently while Cora tried to get Mary to sit down.
"Upset me? My husband is unconscious and is undergoing a dangerous procedure. I am more than upset. But I have a right to know - more of a right than anyone else."
"Mary, please sit down. You need to calm down," Cora said, scared by the fact that she had observed something she had never seen before - Mary's hands were shaking as she spoke.
Despite knowing that she would not truly be able to calm down until Matthew opened his eyes again, Mary reluctantly sat down. "Tell me what happened and do not leave out any details."
Robert reluctantly recounted how they had come across the accident and what little they knew of Matthew's condition.
"Thank God you found him when you did. I would have been haunted forever if he had died alone in some ditch."
"Truth be told, it is also Tom we need to be thankful for. Doctor Clarkson said if it hadn't been for Tom's quick thinking in stopping the bleeding, Matthew would not have made it to the hospital alive," Robert informed her. Robert was struggling with the knowledge that the son-in-law he had been so reluctant to accept and had often treated ungracefully was the only reason the family might survive the day in tact. He wasn't sure how to thankful him or apologize for his past behavior.
"Where is the baby?" Cora asked.
"He is with Anna."
"He?" Robert asked.
"Yes, he," Mary said with a small smile that soon faded when she thought how her poor son might lose his father without ever knowing him. Swallowing hard, she fought back the tears that were again threatening to fall. "You can go see him if you like. He is perfect."
"As anxious as I am to meet my grandson, I can wait a little longer - until we know more about Matthew."
Shortly later, Doctor Clarkson appeared.
"How is he?" Mary asked, rising quickly to her feet.
"He is hanging on. We completed the transfusion, but he will have to be monitored for the next several hours. His temperature and pulse will have to be taken often."
"So he will be alright?" Robert asked.
"Unfortunately I cannot say yet. Assuming there are no complications from the transfusion, then we have to see if he wakes up. There is no way to determine if he is comatose or merely unconscious. I should warn you, should he awaken, he will likely have suffered from a concussion at best or worse - serious brain damage. Only time will tell."
"Have Matthew placed in my room," Mary instructed.
"I am not sure that is a good idea. You need your rest too Lady Mary."
"Doctor Clarkson, either you place him in my room, or I will remain by his bedside day and night," Mary said in a voice that left no room to doubt her.
"Very well," Clarkson reluctantly agreed.
For the next several hours, Mary sat in a chair next to Matthew's bed, holding his hand as she held the baby in her other arm. She spoke to him of the baby, urging him to open his eyes. While he showed no signs of the complications from the transfusion and his blood pressure had risen to a normal level, by late in the evening he still showed no signs of awakening. Her fears that Matthew had indeed slipped into a coma plagued her more with each passing hour.
At the repeated urging of the night nurse, Mary finally laid down in her bed to try to find sleep that her weary body craved. Sleep however was impossible. With the worries weighing heavily on her mind, she knew there was no way to find sleep without Matthew.
She finally left her bed and walked the few steps to his. The bed was too small for two people, but Mary was determined to make it work. She carefully shifted him over to the far side of the bed and then climbed in beside him. Laying on her side, she rested her head on his chest where she could hear the comforting sound of his heartbeat and feel the warmth of his skin. It was only when she tried to wrap his arm around her only to watch it fall limply back to his side.
There, in the darkness of the room with no one else to see, she gave free rein to her pain and fear. Her tears began to fall as she gasped for breath. "Please don't leave me Matthew….please….You remember the night before we married, you told me that you would never be happy with anyone else as long as I walked the Earth and you thought that I felt the same. But the truth is so much more, because while it is true that I could never be happy with anyone else as long as you walk the Earth, it actually goes much further. The simple fact is that is only half the truth for I will never be happy at all without you, not ever. So please don't leave me my love," she whispered as she cried herself to sleep laying against his chest and praying that it would not be the last time she fell asleep next to him.
TBC