Chapter 21
It's A Long Road Back
After a trauma, your body is at its most vulnerable. Response time is critical. So, you're suddenly surrounded by people. Doctors, nurses, specialists, technicians. Surgery is a team sport. Everyone is pushing for the finish line. Putting you back together again. Recovery is not a team sport. It's a solitary distance run. It's long, it's exhausting, and it's lonely as Hell.
~Meredith Grey.
xXx
Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…
"Renesmee…" Jacob's voice fills my head. "Please, wake up. Please. We miss you. I miss you. Alex is freaking out about you. Everyone is, I guess…and Mr. Brown? Man...he's different. I guess it's because he held his hands over your stomach when you were bleeding out…"
He takes a shaky breath. "My dad's funeral was yesterday. Rebecca and Rachael are in Seattle, and I'm staying with Rebecca and her husband at the Hilton for another week, until I can get an apartment. Did you know that I'm an uncle?" I could hear the smile in his voice.
"Yeah…she's not even a month old yet. They named her 'Sarah', after our mom. She looks just like her, too. I can't wait for you to see her."
My mouth twitches, a smile faint on my lips.
"Renesmee?" He asked, sounding excited. "Nessie, are you…?"
"Hi," I whisper, my eyes opening slightly.
"Oh, God, Nessie…" He smiles. "You're okay." He takes my hand, and brings it to his face. Though my vision was slightly blurred, I could see tears coming from his eyes.
"Oh, God, you're okay…" He kisses my hand.
"Miss Cullen," A doctor walked into the room, smiling. "I'm glad to see you're awake. I'm Dr. Torres, the doctor whose been looking after you since you were moved back."
"Where are…?"
"Your parents?" Dr. Torres finishes for me. "I just paged them, as well as your aunt. They should be here soon. While we wait, I would like to do a workup," She walked up to the other side of my bed.
"Follow the light," She said, flashing a small stream of light into my eyes.
"Great…" She murmured, putting the tool back in her pocket. "Can you follow my finger?" She held up a finger, and I followed it with my eyes.
"If I got shot in my stomach, why are you testing my neuro function?"
"You've been in a coma for almost three weeks. I'm just checking to make sure it didn't have any effect on your brain."
"Three weeks?" I squeaked out,
"You were induced in a coma to let your injuries heal better, so you wouldn't code again. The coma lasted longer than we expected." She pushed back the blanket, and checked under my gown.
"Your incisions are healing very nicely." She tucked my gown under the blanket, and then checked the one I had on my chest.
Before I could say anything, Mom, Dad, and Alice came into the room.
"Oh, my God, you're awake," Mom said, tears running down her face. "You're okay,"
She comes up to me, and gives me a kiss on my cheek.
"Dad?" I asked, taking a look at my father. He looked different from last I remember. Everyone did…but, Dad especially. His skin was slightly paler than it had been, and he looked tired, more than he usually did.
Everyone looked different. Mom looked like she had been crying a lot, and the three of them looked like they had just finished going through Hell.
"What happened?" I asked weakly.
Everyone looked around at each other.
"I have another patient I need to check on…" Dr. Torres said, walking out of the room.
"Uh, yeah, I told Rebecca that I'd watch Sarah tonight, I should probably get going…" Jake stumbled out of his chair, and left.
"What the hell is going on?" I'm confused. Why was everyone acting so strange?
"I mean, you all look like you've been through Hell, and Jake mentioned something about his father's funeral? Dr. Torres said that I had been 'moved back?' What the hell is going on?"
Mom pulled up a chair, and Dad and Alice sat on the other side of the room.
"Well, Renesmee, when you got shot, the bullet tore through your stomach and pancreas, and tore a hole in your liver, where it was found. You lost nearly fifty units of blood that night…and during your first surgery, we found out who shot you, and that he was running through the hospital, shooting doctors, looking for your father, for revenge."
Mom closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath. "He found him, and shot him in the chest. The bullet barely missed his heart. His heart stopped. But, by some miracle, it began beating again. Then…I had a miscarriage."
"You were pregnant?" I raised my eyebrows.
"I was…" Mom looks down. She recollects herself, and continues.
"The gunman shot himself afterwards. In the same room where Sarah was unplugged twelve years ago."
Things start clicking in my mind, as I'm making the connections. Jake's father died. The gunman shot himself in the same room where Sarah was unplugged twelve years ago. He was looking for my father for revenge.
"Jake's dad, shot Dad and I?"
Mom looked down. I try to peer over everyone, where Jake had just left. His dad was the shooter? His dad?
"He was still deep in grief about the loss of his wife, and was still very angry with me. He thought that it would make him feel better by trying to shot me, and apparently, you." Dad said sadly
"The hospital was closed for a week afterwards, for the police investigations. Right after we got word that Billy had shot himself, we moved you to Overlake, where the rest of your surgeries took place." Alice told me quietly.
"Surgeries?" I asked. "As in, more than one?" I felt my eyes nearly bugging out of my head.
"As soon as you got to Overlake, Dr. Hunt met up with a team of surgeons at Overlake, and they went to work trying to save you. At that point, no one thought you were going to make it into the next five minutes. Your heart was weak due to a traumatic VSD, so you were hooked up to a machine that acted as your heart. During the first surgery at Overlake, you lost even more blood, and they had to stop the surgery, or you would have died," Mom said, after re-gaining her composure.
"They were going to try again after twenty-four hours, but after only five, your heart rate plummeted, your BP bottomed out, and you went into abdominal compartment syndrome. Your father and I couldn't help but watch the surgery, and your heart just…stopped. You coded. You were put on bypass to fix the hole, and after five minutes, you came back." Mom had tears in her eyes.
I was in tears as well. I actually died, yet, here I am right now, almost three weeks later, and I'm alive, and breathing. And Dad died as well, yet here he was, alive, breathing, he was okay. I was grateful that the last words I had spoken to him before this happened was 'Daddy, love you more,' instead of something else.
And Mom…she was pregnant. Really and truly pregnant. But she lost the baby…she looks like she's okay, but she's falling apart on the inside, after nearly losing Dad and I, and then losing the baby. I
I just don't know what to think right now. This is just all too much. I mean, what the hell?
"Dad?" I ask quietly, after a few minuets.
"Yeah?"
"I love you." I looked over at him. "I know that I tell you that every day, but I really love you. I mean it. I love you all…and I'm really glad that I'm able to be here with you guys." I look around the room at my aunt and parents.
"We are, too." Mom said. She sat on the edge of my bed, and grabbed a hold of my hand.
xXx
One week later…
"When can I leave?" I asked Dr. Hunt, as he did another checkup.
"Not for another four or five days, at least," He said, applying a clean dressing to my abdominal suture.
"I want to make sure everything is healing, like it's supposed to be. You need to be able to actually eat solid foods, and get off the feeding tube, as well as a few other things. You're scheduled for a laparoscopy, to check on the staples, make sure everything's okay."
"Another surgery?"
"This one's a bit different. We're going to make small, microscopic incision, and do an exploratory, which means we are sending little scopes in the incision, and the image of your GI tract will show up on a screen we have in the OR. We won't cut open unless there's something seriously wrong."
"Can't you just send me through a CT?"
"I want to prevent any possible bleeding before it happens." Dr. Hunt smiled.
"The good news is, your incision is healing nicely, and your heart is as strong as ever,"
I rolled my eyes. "But I can leave after one more week?"
"Assuming there are no problems, yes." Dr. Hunt said. "But you will need another surgery in a month or two."
I let out a groan.
"It's better than the other option…" Dr. Hunt pointed out.
"Yeah, I know…"
"Oh, and you have a visitor," He smiled, and walked out of the room.
A minute after he walked out, Alex ran in.
"Oh, my God, you're alive!" She yelled, "Do you know how much I was worried about you?"
She lightly gives me a hug. "I mean, you were shot, and then on the news, they said that your dad got shot, and they gave this whole sob story about how the gunman was Jake's dad, and that he tried to kill your dad for killing his wife, and then he killed himself…what the hell?"
"It's true." I said quietly. "He shot me because I was dating Jacob."
Alex sits down slowly, bringing a hand to her face. "You're serious?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, my God," Alex's eyes were wide. "no wonder he seemed so…distant…oh, God, I feel so bad…"
"The last time I saw him was a week ago, when I woke up. He had mentioned something about his dad's funeral, and my parents, and Alice, told me everything that happened. He left before they told me, and he hasn't come back…" Tears sting the back of my eyes, and some make their escape.
"It's probably because he's been really busy. Last I heard, he was trying to get an apartment near the school."
"I just want to see him…" I said.
"He'll come." Alex takes my hand, and I look at her. "I promise you. He has been freaking out about you, Ness. He will come."
"Yeah…" I close my eyes, and turn my head the other way.
"How long have you been stuck in bed?" Alex asked.
"Forever," I said. "I think I've lost the use of my legs."
"Let's go for a walk." She stood up. "It can't be that bad, can it?"
"I like your thinking." I smirked. I moved the covers, and slowly swung my legs over the bed. I winced, as I sat on the edge.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked.
"Yeah…fine. It just hurts a little when I sit up. I'll be fine. Can you grab that IV pole, and put those bags on it?"
"Yeah, sure…" Alex grabbed the mobile pole, and moved my IV bags from the bed to the pole.
"Let's go." I got up from the bed, and we walked out of the room.
xXx
Alex
"How's the food here?" I asked, as Nessie and I walked down the hall.
"You didn't notice the giant tube going in my nose, attached to a bag full of…" She looked over at the brownish liquid in an IV bag.
"I don't even know what the hell that is." She smiled.
We laughed for a few seconds, before returning to our conversation.
"How's school?" Ness asked.
"Closed the Monday after you got shot. We came in Tuesday to this assembly, where Berg talked about what happened…including the hospital shooting. Well, anyway, she just talked about what happened, and then some girl came up and said that you had lost, like, all of your blood, and the blood bank needed some more of your blood type, so a couple teachers, including Brown, cancelled class, and we all went to Swedish to donate blood. I gave the most, because I can't remember half that day."
"Thanks," Nessie smiled.
"Anything for a friend." I smiled.
"How is everyone?"
"Freaked out." I said. "It's different, now. Brown especially." I twisted my face. "Like, everyone is weird. On edge, you know? Like, in the middle of class if a pencil drops everyone will basically have a heart attack. I don't like it."
"Well, he did make an attempt to control the bleeding…" Ness started, "and a student was shot during a dance so..."
"Those would be possible reasons…" I shrugged, deciding to change the topic. "What's it like here, anyway? Any cute doctors?"
Ness laughed. "Really, Alex?"
"Of course," I smiled.
"Well, if you must know…" Nessie looked around, and then we stopped.
"There's this one pediatric surgeon that checks on me sometimes, you know, change the dressings, make sure my incisions aren't infected, you know, that stuff?"
I nodded, a smile creeping onto my face.
"Well, he's like this 2nd year resident, young-looking, and single. He comes off as an ass, but he has such a heart for kids. He's hot, too."
"Name?"
"Dr. Alex Sloan," She smiled slyly.
"Oh, my God, if I married this guy, we'd both be Alex Sloan!" I giggled happily.
Nessie's face fell.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She began breathing really hard, and she winced. "Ow," She breathed. She put her hand to her stomach, where the incision was. I looked down, and a pink/red color was seeping through the hospital gown, and was on her hand.
She looked back up at me. "Oh, my God…"
"Nessie…" I was scared.
"God…oh, God…" She breathed. She looked scared.
Soon, her face slacked, and she fell on top of me.
"Holy shit…" My best friend just passed out on me, bleeding.
"Help!" I screamed, noticing a nurse's station nearby. "Please, somebody help!"