Chapter 11

Callie's POV

"Callie?" The woman gasps. "Sweets, it's me!"

I study the woman, my eyes blurry. She slowly moves closer to the bed, her features being illuminated more by the light above my bed. There is a haze in my head that I cannot seem to clear.

"I..." I begin, my voice croaky, before stopping and looking closer at the woman for a few moments. She is wringing her hands nervously, staring at me with huge pleading eyes. Her messy blond hair is thrown up into a sloppy bun on the top of her head. There is a slight shift in my brain and a vague memory begins to make its way forward from inside the fog clouding my mind.

I suck in a short gasp.

"Stef?"

"Yes! Yes baby it's me." Stef sobs, letting out a relieved sigh. She moves forward quickly to grip my hand tightly. "You had me worried for a minute honey."

I look at her closer and realise why it took me a while to recognise who she was. The pale, haggard face is hardly recognisable at that of the woman I remember meeting at dinner. The fog in my head also isn't helping matters.

"What's... why does my head feel funny?" I whisper, moving to shift my other hand to bring it up to my head before stifling a gasp of pain.

I look down and realised that there is a cast wrapping itself around my arm.

"Honey... you were asleep for a while. And you are on a fair amount of medication to help you get better." Stef murmurs, gently stroking her fingers across my forehead and through my hair.

Suddenly I remember something very important.

"Jude!" I struggle to try and sit up. "I need to get to him! He needs me!"

My body is vehemently protesting the movement, my shoulder shearing with heated pain but I can't let it get in my way. I continue to try and force my up against Stef's hands. An alarm starts going off from the machine behind me.

"Callie!" Stef is shouting at me. "Honey I need you to stop! Please sweets you're going to hurt yourself even more!"

"I need to get to him!" I choke out, my voice breaking with the pain lancing its way throughout my body. "Please! He is hurt!"

Suddenly there is a flood of people rushing into the room. One of them grabs my arm and a needle is being pushed into the IV port that I didn't realise was in my hand until now. It takes a moment but suddenly my body goes slack on me and I feel Stef's and another person's hands gently lay me back down on the pillows.

"We need you to remain still Callie." A man says from the end of the bed. "Your injuries don't need to be upset anymore than they were from your previous struggle.

I try to move, to ask more about Jude, to do anything but my body is too lethargic and refuses my brains orders.

"If you listen to me and stay still, I'll explain your injuries." He says.

I don't respond so he nods and begins to explain.

"You have been unconscious for three weeks now." He begins. "We had you in an induced coma for a week but you did not respond once we took the medication away. You experienced severe trauma to your head which caused swelling to your brain. We had to give you medication to bring it down, thankfully it responded and we didn't need to do further surgery to relieve pressure. The gunshot you received to your shoulder did become infected. This is going to increase the time it needs to spend healing as we had to take you back into surgery in order to clear out the infected tissue as it wasn't responding as well as we would have liked to the antibiotics."

He pauses for a moment and studies me quietly. I think I must look a little shell shocked because he gives me a sympathetic look and says "How about we continue this talk later. We will let you rest for a while before taking you to do a few more tests. How does that sound?"

I nod slightly and sag back further into the pillows behind me. He gives me a nod in return and then motions for the nurses who were still hovering at the side of me to leave the room with him.

Stef slides back in beside the bed, standing next to me my hand and gripping it gently.

"How do you feel honey?" She murmurs gently.

I don't know what to say so I just nod and turn my head away from her.

"Jude is at home with Lena." She says, her voice soft. "We had to drag him away but he was falling asleep in the waiting room. He needed his rest."

"Is he ok?" I croak, my throat itchy.

Stef leans over to the bedside table and pours a small cup of water from the pitcher and then brings it to my lips, letting me take a few sips before answering.

He had a severly sprained ankle but that is mostly healed now. He still needs to take it easy on it but he can walk around easily now. He also broke his right arm, a spiral fracture. That has been casted, it is annoying him to no end but he only has a few more weeks in it. Other than that, a few bumps and bruises that have already healed."

I feel my body relax at that. He still got hurt, and I still hate myself for allowing that to happen but at least he is healing. He will be ok.

"When can I see him?" I ask, slightly anxious to see him knowing that he will have been very worried about me having been hurt for so long.

"It's late." Stef answers. "He will most likely be asleep at the moment but he will be in first thing tomorrow morning for visiting hours. The only reason I am allowed to still be here is because I twisted a few arms about not wanting to leave you behind and that they better let me stay. It took a while but they did."

"Thanks." I murmur, touched that she would care so much.

"I wanted you to know that someone would always be here. Even if you may not have been aware, I couldn't stand to see you in that bed all alone."

I nod, and begin to feel my eyes droop. Despite only just waking up I am exhausted.

"It's alright Honey." Stef whispers, squeezing my hand tightly. "Close your eyes. I'll be right here when you wake up."

Slowly, but surely, I feel my eyes shut and my mind slip into unconsciousness. The last thing I am aware of is a brush of lips against my forehead. This confuses me. I still don't know why she cares. But there is something deep inside of me that lights up at this.

Maybe for once I'll be safe.

A/N sorry for it being so late guys! I know it has been forever but i have been finishing my final year of my undergrad in science. I find out on the 27th if i pass and if i do i graduate on the 15th. Wish me luck guys and i will try my best to get another chapter out soon. I am sorry it is short but i figured i should get something out. Please R&R.