So I'm really sorry for how long this chapter has taken to upload, and I'm also sorry for how short and uneventful it is! There isnt much left to say I'm afraid, but I hope you like how I'm bringing it to a close. Thanks for being patient hehe!
Much love
xoxo
11.
Lights flashed overhead before blinking into complete darkness. Nikki felt as if she were floating through space, her body weightless. She felt nothing, no pain. The cold was gone, replaced with only numbness.
Suddenly her body was jolted as if she'd driven her car over a speed-bump in the road and she felt somebody pushing something onto her face, over her mouth and nose. She fought the fogginess in her mind, and her eyes snapped open as she gasped for breath. All around her was movement, and the unbearable pain in her stomach was back. She wished she could return to the comfort of being numb, but no such wish was granted. From what she could tell, she was in an ambulance, the sirens blazing loud to clear the way outside. A paramedic stood above her holding a plastic mask over her face which pumped clean oxygen into her lungs. She took several deep breaths of the gas and air and felt light headed, but it did little to numb the pain. He was also barking orders to someone stood beside her, but she could hear no words. Somebody was holding her hand, clutching it so tightly. She looked along her arm and found the person on the end of it. Jack's face was lined with worry and his grey shirt was dark with blood. Her blood. His hand was slippery in hers and she tried to squeeze his fingers, but she couldn't muster the energy.
"Nikki, I'm here, we're on the way to the hospital. You're going to be okay, just stay with me!" Jack was calling, and she could finally hear through the fogginess that clouded her thoughts. The ambulance bounced over a bump in the road and a high pitched buzzing noise echoed in Nikki's ears. The edges of her vision began to blur and Jack's voice and the sirens were fading. Before she could stop it, the darkness swallowed her up.
Nikki blinked her eyes slowly awake. Her head was groggy as if she was waking from a long nights sleep. Momentarily her memory was blank and she moved to roll out of bed, fearing she was late for work. A warm hand reached out to stop her movement and her eyes came to focus on a familiar face.
"Jack," she mumbled her voice hoarse from lack of use. Her tall colleague smiled down at her and helped her move back onto her back. She took a moment to take in her surroundings, staring from the clinically white walls and then down at the crisp scratchy sheets on the cold metal bed on which she lay. The smell of disinfectant burned her nose and the steady beat and hum of hospital machinery filled her ears.
"Why am I in the hospital Jack?" she muttered, staring down at her arm where a needle was taped to the crook of her elbow. There was a constant flow of liquid being dripped carefully into her blood stream, pain killers administered as and when she needed them.
"You don't remember?" Jack asked, cocking his head to one side and assessing her with a frown. His face was lined with worry and stubble was forming across his cheeks and jawline. Nikki began to shake her head, but a throbbing pain in her ribcage caused a wave of memory to wash over her, threatening to drown her. She had been attacked in her home, the place she was supposed to feel safe, by a delusional serial killer.
"What happened after I…?" Nikki croaked, shutting her eyes and holding her breath, summoning the strength to ask the question she needed answering.
"Your neighbours, they heard screaming. They called the police. The ambulance arrived just as it happened. If they had been any later…" Jack stopped to shake his head and Nikki noticed his clenched fists by his side. He hadn't needed her to finish her question; he knew what she wanted to know.
"You were there… In the ambulance with me…" she said, a little unsure as she tried to piece the information together.
"I just had a feeling, Nikki. A real bad feeling that you weren't okay. So I drove back to your house as fast as I could. I pulled in just after the ambulance. Shit Nikki I thought you were dead," he said, his eyes hooded and dark. Nikki swallowed around a lump in her throat and moved her hands over the bandaged wound in her torso.
"I thought I was dead too," she smiled weakly.
"You lost a lot of blood on the way in, but they took you straight to surgery and fixed you up pretty good. The knife didn't hit any major organs; it missed your lungs by a centimetre… The surgeon said you were lucky," Jack explained, taking a seat in the bedside chair, tugging it closer and leaning his elbows forward on the bed.
"I feel real lucky," Nikki scoffed, turning her face away, "what's the rest of the damage?"
"One of your ribs is fractured, your nose is broken and your eye socket is fractured, but the rest is bruising. The swelling should go down within a few days. You've been signed out of work until you've recovered fully," Jack replied.
"And what happened to him?" she asked.
"He's been arrested. The amount of evidence against him means he's going away for a long time. The police had to, er, drag me off him," Jack sighed, scratching his face and coughing into his fist.
"You went for him?" Nikki asked, unable to hide her slight smile. She was never one to condone violence, and even Jack's pass time of fighting caused her a little discomfort, but who was she kidding. That bastard deserved an eternity of violence towards him, not just for what he did to her, but for what he did to those girls too. She hated him with everything she was, and it exhausted her.
"I saw you like that and I thought he'd killed you too, like those girls, and I couldn't stop myself. He was laughing while my hands were around his throat…" Jack shook his head again, his voice dripping with venom. Nikki reached out and took his hand in hers. He squeezed her fingers tight and they sat like that for several long moments.
"Leo's been here every day, but someone had to go back to work. The case is closed and there's a lot of paper work lingering. You're lucky you get out of that," he grinned and she couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Thanks Jack," she said sincerely.
"For what?"
"For everything. Just thanks," she smiled and he squeezed her shoulder.
"It's over now kiddo," he said and they both breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Suddenly Nikki felt a painful twinge in her side and gritted her teeth together.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked, searching her face.
"Yes, it just hurts," she mumbled, trying to blink away the sharp stabbing pain.
"I'll get a nurse," he said as he stood and disappeared. Moments later he returned, followed by a short red headed nurse with a name badge which read 'Heather'. She smiled down at Nikki and messed with the drip in her arm. It took only seconds for the meds to filter into her veins and she felt awash with relief. Her head was becoming fuzzy, her thoughts swelling and then shrinking away. She giggled.
"Thanks Jack," she muttered again.
And then the drugs pulled her under.
