Chapter 35 - I hate it here
AN: sorry for the delay but I had a lot of crap go down, check out the newest chapter of RIDE for all the details if you want 'em. On with the story.
When Vince was wheeled into the other room he'd prepared himself for a lot of things. He had known she was hurt. But he still wasn't ready for what he saw. The sight that greeted him was not something he could have prepared himself for no matter what.
"Can you leave us?" He asked. No one else had been admitted to the room after Letty had been released so at least that was possible. The team all looked at each other, wondering if leaving them was a good idea. Vince had just been through a traumatic experience, and now he saw how bad Nyssa was hurt. They didn't know how well he was taking it. They were worried about if he could handle it. "Please?" He added.
They agreed with another look and then they all filed out of the room. Once he was alone with Nyssa he picked up her good hand, the one without stuff plugged into it. He couldn't believe that he was so much recovered but Nyssa was still out cold. He really couldn't believe how bad she looked. Her face was so bruised. He didn't remember her looking as bad before he'd succumbed to the pain killers himself. He trailed one finger down the normal side of her face. At least they hadn't had to cut her hair off, she hadn't had any sort of serious head injury.
It just wasn't fair. The whole situation wasn't fair. And he knew that most of the blame rested squarely on him and Dom. It had been Dom's idea to accept the offer to be the team that popped the trucks, that much was true, but everyone had gone along with it. But that last job, they all protested but him. Dom might have listened and not done the job if Vince had only said no. Dom and Vince had that kind of relationship, plus if Vince had said he wasn't doing it then it really wouldn't have happened.
Much as it pained him to admit, he had to be thankful for Brian. Brian had kept them all out of jail. Sure, Nyssa came up with the plan, not Brian. But Brian had gone along with it, had implemented it, and had sold it to his peers it seemed. Brian had told Dom that the cops weren't after them. Plus Vince had no idea what would have happened to him if Brian hadn't gotten him off that truck. Dom's car had been dead, totally without compression, and the girls had flipped theirs. He would have been waiting for Leon to come and get him.
Plus if Brian hadn't of thought so fast and called for the chopper both he and Nyssa would likely be dead. He brushed some hair off her face. He started to talk to her. He didn't know if she could hear him or not but it didn't really matter.
"I'm so sorry baby. I never shoulda let you come. I shoulda made you wait with Mia. I should have listened to you girls when you said it was wrong. Now you're hurt and it's mostly my fault." He continued on, telling her he was sorry.
Nyssa could hear Vince telling her how sorry he was, but she couldn't speak, she couldn't surface from the place she was. It was the most frustrating thing, infuriating. But she'd been alone so long she was glad of his company, glad of the familiar sound of his voice. But she wanted to tell him it was ok, that she didn't blame him and that he shouldn't blame himself, but she couldn't get the words out, couldn't open her eyes. Everything happened for a reason, she knew that, but it was so frustrating for her. Then oblivion sucked her back in and she stopped feeling anything at all.
Vince was sure that she'd been about to speak to him, but he shook his head, that was crazy. Wasn't it? While he was just speaking to her in low tones he heard the door open. The doctor walked in and over to the other side of the bed.
"I hear you terrorized my staff till you got your way and jeopardized your own health just to come here and see for yourself that your friends weren't lying and the girl is in fact unconscious." The doctor asked, but he smiled slightly when he said it. It was often good for patients having trouble waking up to hear familiar voices, voices of people they would want to speak to. However the other man should not have been out of his bed yet.
"I had to see her." Vince didn't feel like explaining himself any more then that. "Why hasn't she woken up?"
"We don't really know, but it's fairly common in someone who lost as much blood as the young lady did. I suspect when her body repairs itself and replenishes more of the blood she lost she'll wake up."
"That's a lot of guessing." Vince growled. How could they not have a better idea then that what was wrong with her?
"Well, its educated guessing young man, her brain is fine, nothing abnormal about her brain activity or any swelling, her concussion is gone. She's going to be fine. I bet she's more upset about the scar she's going to have from where we fixed her kidney then she is about anything else when she wakes up." The kind doctor looked at the place where Vince and Nyssa's hands were still joined. "Just remember you're not much good to her or yourself if you end up making yourself ill trying to do more then you're capable of." With that he turned to leave the room.
"Thanks man."
"Just take care of her son, she's very lucky to be alive and so are you. Take care of each other."
"We will." Vince said as the doctor left the room. And he meant it. He was never letting Nyssa do anything dangerous again. He couldn't live through this again. The team came back into the room then.
"Doctor says you go back to your room now." Mia said and Vince allowed himself to be moved back to his own room. The rest of the week went by very swiftly. Nyssa never did wake up over the first 4 days they were there. After the 4 days they released Vince. But he didn't go home much anyway; he was always with Nyssa in her room. He was getting worried, no matter what the doctor said. He was released already but she still hadn't woken up and it didn't seem right.
And poor Jesse was still in a coma too. Vince and the rest of the team lived a very solemn existence. They didn't want to allow themselves to be too happy because it seemed wrong to be happy when two of your best friends were still unconscious in the hospital.
The doctors said that Nyssa should wake up any day because she was fidgeting in her bed more, and it just seemed like she wanted to wake up. Jesse, on the other hand was still not showing any signs of regaining consciousness. Vince spent most of his time with Nyssa, talking to her about anything and everything, but he spent time with Jesse too.
More then once he was surprised to find Brian in Jesse's room talking to the boy. He was finding it harder and harder to hold on to his dislike of Brian. Brian could have easily saved his own ass and just turned them all in. As it was he was likely to loose his job over what he'd done for them. But Brian didn't seem to hold that against them. Plus he spent so much time with Jesse. He was there almost as much as Vince himself was in Nyssa's room.
She had an itch on her right side that was driving her crazy. She wanted to scratch it but she couldn't move. She tried again. Then with a deep breath she came back to reality. Nyssa woke up disorientated and with things plugged into her. She'd known she was hurt but not as bad as she guessed it had ended up. She had a hard time moving because of all the stuff she was hooked up to. She finally got mobile and lifted the blankets and moved the hospital gown she was wearing out of the way and saw the stitches on her right lower abdomen. "Damn, that's gonna scar and not where my bathing suit will cover either" she said to herself out loud. She wondered how long she'd been out of it. She felt as weak as a new born. She looked to her left. There was Vince, sitting on the edge of the other bed, watching her expose herself to his view, laughing. He was dressed in his own clothes, the bastard, she thought.
"I wondered when you were gonna come around sleeping beauty. The doctor said you'd be mad about the scar." He grinned. She was finally awake. He got up and walked over to the chair by her bed and sat down.
"How long have I been out of it?" She asked and her voice came out all low and scratchy from not being used in so long, and from having breathing tubes in her throat at first.
"Five days." Vince gave her a sly grin.
"And you're up and dressed after all that was wrong with you and I'm just waking up from a little banging on the tummy how?"
"I'm a fast healer and I hate the hospital." He was still grinning at her. If she was well enough to be sarcastic and bitch at him then she was going to be just fine. He lost the grin. "You were really messed up girl. I don't know what I was thinking letting you come along."
"We'll talk about that more at home. And, well, I'm up now. Get me outta here. I can't stand the hospital. " The doctor walked in to hear that.
"Oh, no young lady, you'll be here another few days for observation." He leaned in to check her stitches, since she'd kindly left them bare for him.
"No I won't. I'll just get up an leave if you don't check me out."
"There's no way you're going anywhere for at least another two days Miss Williams and there's no negotiation possible about that." The doctor said firmly.
"I'm leave here today, the easy way is for you to check me out, the hard way is for me to just get up and leave." Nyssa said belligerently. She wasn't in the best of moods to find out she'd been passed out for days and Vince was already released.
"She's pretty use to getting her own way. I'm afraid that's mostly my fault." Vince threw out.
"Well, not this time she's not. It's not safe to let her go anywhere yet."
"I'm here you know, no need to talk about me like I'm not in the room or like I'm a child. I'm fine. I've been sleeping it seems for 5 days. I'm going home like it or not."
"Is there any way we can take her home and just keep her in bed there?" Vince asked. He didn't want to think of her running away to go home on her own, he knew she was totally capable of it.
"I really don't think it's a good idea. She has to get back into eating solid foods and she can't even get out of bed on her own yet." The doctor didn't plan on letting her go anywhere.
"But what's better, letting her go now and knowing that someone knows where she is and is making sure she doesn't get out of bed, or having her find a way to sneak out on her own and then not knowing what she's doing, or how she's getting home." Vince asked the doctor, he knew Nyssa was just the kind of person who would sneak out of the hospital given half a chance.
"You have a valid point. Why don't you leave us, I'll check her over and if there doesn't seem to be anything that would cause a complication she can go home in your care, tomorrow." So Vince left the room and the doctor checked Nyssa all over. "You're going to be fine, you got very lucky that you were already in that chopper. You can go home tomorrow if you do well over night. I can't let you go any earlier then that."
"Fine, I guess." She sighed.
The doctor brought Vince back into the room and broke the news to them. That was fine with Vince, but he didn't let Nyssa know that. He didn't want to take her home and then have it end up hurting her worse. When visitors hour was over Vince pretended to go home then snuck back into Nyssa's room.
"What're you doin' here?" She asked him.
"I'm not ready to go home yet." Vince smiled and sat on the edge of her bed. She slid over to the side a little more. Vince took off his shoes and kicked his legs up on the bed.
"Why?" Nyssa asked, kind of curious, kind of sly, she had an idea why.
"No reason."
"Really, you just hate the hospital but you don't want to leave." She peaked up from under her lashes.
"Ok, well, maybe sleeping at home alone isn't all it's cracked up to be." He slid down till he was laying down on his side beside her, then he put his arm around her gently.
"So you're gonna spend the night here in this little bed with me?"
"Maybe not all of it, but some of it for sure." Vince looked embarrassed.
"I hate it here." Nyssa almost cried. She really did hate it here. Plus she was worried that life was never going to be the same.
"Me too." He pulled her closer gently and rested his chin on top of her head. "Go to sleep. I'll take you home tomorrow." He kissed her on the crown of her head and she did go to sleep.
AN: sorry for the delay but I had a lot of crap go down, check out the newest chapter of RIDE for all the details if you want 'em. On with the story.
When Vince was wheeled into the other room he'd prepared himself for a lot of things. He had known she was hurt. But he still wasn't ready for what he saw. The sight that greeted him was not something he could have prepared himself for no matter what.
"Can you leave us?" He asked. No one else had been admitted to the room after Letty had been released so at least that was possible. The team all looked at each other, wondering if leaving them was a good idea. Vince had just been through a traumatic experience, and now he saw how bad Nyssa was hurt. They didn't know how well he was taking it. They were worried about if he could handle it. "Please?" He added.
They agreed with another look and then they all filed out of the room. Once he was alone with Nyssa he picked up her good hand, the one without stuff plugged into it. He couldn't believe that he was so much recovered but Nyssa was still out cold. He really couldn't believe how bad she looked. Her face was so bruised. He didn't remember her looking as bad before he'd succumbed to the pain killers himself. He trailed one finger down the normal side of her face. At least they hadn't had to cut her hair off, she hadn't had any sort of serious head injury.
It just wasn't fair. The whole situation wasn't fair. And he knew that most of the blame rested squarely on him and Dom. It had been Dom's idea to accept the offer to be the team that popped the trucks, that much was true, but everyone had gone along with it. But that last job, they all protested but him. Dom might have listened and not done the job if Vince had only said no. Dom and Vince had that kind of relationship, plus if Vince had said he wasn't doing it then it really wouldn't have happened.
Much as it pained him to admit, he had to be thankful for Brian. Brian had kept them all out of jail. Sure, Nyssa came up with the plan, not Brian. But Brian had gone along with it, had implemented it, and had sold it to his peers it seemed. Brian had told Dom that the cops weren't after them. Plus Vince had no idea what would have happened to him if Brian hadn't gotten him off that truck. Dom's car had been dead, totally without compression, and the girls had flipped theirs. He would have been waiting for Leon to come and get him.
Plus if Brian hadn't of thought so fast and called for the chopper both he and Nyssa would likely be dead. He brushed some hair off her face. He started to talk to her. He didn't know if she could hear him or not but it didn't really matter.
"I'm so sorry baby. I never shoulda let you come. I shoulda made you wait with Mia. I should have listened to you girls when you said it was wrong. Now you're hurt and it's mostly my fault." He continued on, telling her he was sorry.
Nyssa could hear Vince telling her how sorry he was, but she couldn't speak, she couldn't surface from the place she was. It was the most frustrating thing, infuriating. But she'd been alone so long she was glad of his company, glad of the familiar sound of his voice. But she wanted to tell him it was ok, that she didn't blame him and that he shouldn't blame himself, but she couldn't get the words out, couldn't open her eyes. Everything happened for a reason, she knew that, but it was so frustrating for her. Then oblivion sucked her back in and she stopped feeling anything at all.
Vince was sure that she'd been about to speak to him, but he shook his head, that was crazy. Wasn't it? While he was just speaking to her in low tones he heard the door open. The doctor walked in and over to the other side of the bed.
"I hear you terrorized my staff till you got your way and jeopardized your own health just to come here and see for yourself that your friends weren't lying and the girl is in fact unconscious." The doctor asked, but he smiled slightly when he said it. It was often good for patients having trouble waking up to hear familiar voices, voices of people they would want to speak to. However the other man should not have been out of his bed yet.
"I had to see her." Vince didn't feel like explaining himself any more then that. "Why hasn't she woken up?"
"We don't really know, but it's fairly common in someone who lost as much blood as the young lady did. I suspect when her body repairs itself and replenishes more of the blood she lost she'll wake up."
"That's a lot of guessing." Vince growled. How could they not have a better idea then that what was wrong with her?
"Well, its educated guessing young man, her brain is fine, nothing abnormal about her brain activity or any swelling, her concussion is gone. She's going to be fine. I bet she's more upset about the scar she's going to have from where we fixed her kidney then she is about anything else when she wakes up." The kind doctor looked at the place where Vince and Nyssa's hands were still joined. "Just remember you're not much good to her or yourself if you end up making yourself ill trying to do more then you're capable of." With that he turned to leave the room.
"Thanks man."
"Just take care of her son, she's very lucky to be alive and so are you. Take care of each other."
"We will." Vince said as the doctor left the room. And he meant it. He was never letting Nyssa do anything dangerous again. He couldn't live through this again. The team came back into the room then.
"Doctor says you go back to your room now." Mia said and Vince allowed himself to be moved back to his own room. The rest of the week went by very swiftly. Nyssa never did wake up over the first 4 days they were there. After the 4 days they released Vince. But he didn't go home much anyway; he was always with Nyssa in her room. He was getting worried, no matter what the doctor said. He was released already but she still hadn't woken up and it didn't seem right.
And poor Jesse was still in a coma too. Vince and the rest of the team lived a very solemn existence. They didn't want to allow themselves to be too happy because it seemed wrong to be happy when two of your best friends were still unconscious in the hospital.
The doctors said that Nyssa should wake up any day because she was fidgeting in her bed more, and it just seemed like she wanted to wake up. Jesse, on the other hand was still not showing any signs of regaining consciousness. Vince spent most of his time with Nyssa, talking to her about anything and everything, but he spent time with Jesse too.
More then once he was surprised to find Brian in Jesse's room talking to the boy. He was finding it harder and harder to hold on to his dislike of Brian. Brian could have easily saved his own ass and just turned them all in. As it was he was likely to loose his job over what he'd done for them. But Brian didn't seem to hold that against them. Plus he spent so much time with Jesse. He was there almost as much as Vince himself was in Nyssa's room.
She had an itch on her right side that was driving her crazy. She wanted to scratch it but she couldn't move. She tried again. Then with a deep breath she came back to reality. Nyssa woke up disorientated and with things plugged into her. She'd known she was hurt but not as bad as she guessed it had ended up. She had a hard time moving because of all the stuff she was hooked up to. She finally got mobile and lifted the blankets and moved the hospital gown she was wearing out of the way and saw the stitches on her right lower abdomen. "Damn, that's gonna scar and not where my bathing suit will cover either" she said to herself out loud. She wondered how long she'd been out of it. She felt as weak as a new born. She looked to her left. There was Vince, sitting on the edge of the other bed, watching her expose herself to his view, laughing. He was dressed in his own clothes, the bastard, she thought.
"I wondered when you were gonna come around sleeping beauty. The doctor said you'd be mad about the scar." He grinned. She was finally awake. He got up and walked over to the chair by her bed and sat down.
"How long have I been out of it?" She asked and her voice came out all low and scratchy from not being used in so long, and from having breathing tubes in her throat at first.
"Five days." Vince gave her a sly grin.
"And you're up and dressed after all that was wrong with you and I'm just waking up from a little banging on the tummy how?"
"I'm a fast healer and I hate the hospital." He was still grinning at her. If she was well enough to be sarcastic and bitch at him then she was going to be just fine. He lost the grin. "You were really messed up girl. I don't know what I was thinking letting you come along."
"We'll talk about that more at home. And, well, I'm up now. Get me outta here. I can't stand the hospital. " The doctor walked in to hear that.
"Oh, no young lady, you'll be here another few days for observation." He leaned in to check her stitches, since she'd kindly left them bare for him.
"No I won't. I'll just get up an leave if you don't check me out."
"There's no way you're going anywhere for at least another two days Miss Williams and there's no negotiation possible about that." The doctor said firmly.
"I'm leave here today, the easy way is for you to check me out, the hard way is for me to just get up and leave." Nyssa said belligerently. She wasn't in the best of moods to find out she'd been passed out for days and Vince was already released.
"She's pretty use to getting her own way. I'm afraid that's mostly my fault." Vince threw out.
"Well, not this time she's not. It's not safe to let her go anywhere yet."
"I'm here you know, no need to talk about me like I'm not in the room or like I'm a child. I'm fine. I've been sleeping it seems for 5 days. I'm going home like it or not."
"Is there any way we can take her home and just keep her in bed there?" Vince asked. He didn't want to think of her running away to go home on her own, he knew she was totally capable of it.
"I really don't think it's a good idea. She has to get back into eating solid foods and she can't even get out of bed on her own yet." The doctor didn't plan on letting her go anywhere.
"But what's better, letting her go now and knowing that someone knows where she is and is making sure she doesn't get out of bed, or having her find a way to sneak out on her own and then not knowing what she's doing, or how she's getting home." Vince asked the doctor, he knew Nyssa was just the kind of person who would sneak out of the hospital given half a chance.
"You have a valid point. Why don't you leave us, I'll check her over and if there doesn't seem to be anything that would cause a complication she can go home in your care, tomorrow." So Vince left the room and the doctor checked Nyssa all over. "You're going to be fine, you got very lucky that you were already in that chopper. You can go home tomorrow if you do well over night. I can't let you go any earlier then that."
"Fine, I guess." She sighed.
The doctor brought Vince back into the room and broke the news to them. That was fine with Vince, but he didn't let Nyssa know that. He didn't want to take her home and then have it end up hurting her worse. When visitors hour was over Vince pretended to go home then snuck back into Nyssa's room.
"What're you doin' here?" She asked him.
"I'm not ready to go home yet." Vince smiled and sat on the edge of her bed. She slid over to the side a little more. Vince took off his shoes and kicked his legs up on the bed.
"Why?" Nyssa asked, kind of curious, kind of sly, she had an idea why.
"No reason."
"Really, you just hate the hospital but you don't want to leave." She peaked up from under her lashes.
"Ok, well, maybe sleeping at home alone isn't all it's cracked up to be." He slid down till he was laying down on his side beside her, then he put his arm around her gently.
"So you're gonna spend the night here in this little bed with me?"
"Maybe not all of it, but some of it for sure." Vince looked embarrassed.
"I hate it here." Nyssa almost cried. She really did hate it here. Plus she was worried that life was never going to be the same.
"Me too." He pulled her closer gently and rested his chin on top of her head. "Go to sleep. I'll take you home tomorrow." He kissed her on the crown of her head and she did go to sleep.