Nik's eyes kept darting from the road ahead to Caroline. He had barely put the car in park before she had jumped in and commanded him to drive. Now she sat quietly in the passenger seat. Her leg was jiggling and she had bitten the nails on her left hand down to the quick. Unlike him Caroline's eyes were glued to the road.
Nik came to a stop at a red light and turned to look at her. The rapid motion of her leg increased the longer they sat at the light.
"Caroline, love," Nik implored gently pulling her hand away from her mouth. "What's wrong?"
"I-I," Caroline stared at the road fumbling for her words. "Je-El," it was as though the language she had grown up with had flown out of her head. The only things left in her skull were the unintelligible sounds flowing from her between her lips.
"Caroline," Nik begged. She was starting to scare him now. "Caroline. Breath. Take a moment and breath, love," Nik waited until she had taken three shaky breaths. "Now try again," he urged.
"Elena's hurt," Caroline trembled but managed to enunciate clearly. "Her brother called me⦠he can't get here until tomorrow morning. It's bad Nik; Jeremy said it was bad."
The light turned green but Nik stayed still. He thought about how Elena had been with Elijah that morning. Countless scenarios were running through his brain, but try as he might he couldn't come up with an answer. What could have possibly happened to her so quickly?
"What happened?"
"He didn't say," Caroline whispered. "I don't think he knew."
A horn honked behind them launching Nik into motion again.
"Elena Gilbert?" Caroline demanded. "How is she?" After Nik had parked the car and rushed inside the hospital he had watched as Caroline's nerves faded to be replaced with a determination he had seen few times before. She had a look on her face that demanded answers.
"Are you family?" The nurse β Rose β asked glancing up at from her post at the nurses station.
"I'm her best friend," Caroline stated.
"I'm sorry miss," Rose drawled turning back to the desk. "I can only release patient information to family."
Nik could see the blow-up coming and laid a hand on Caroline's arm.
"Where is she?" Nik attempted an alternate tactic. "You can tell us that right?"
"Hold on," Rose sighed. She typed on the computer for a minute before jotting down a number on a slip of paper. "Fourth floor recovery wing room 23." She passed the coordinates to Nik. "They should be bringing her out of surgery soon."
Nik quickly directed Caroline to the nearby elevators before she could react to the tidbit of information. They were in the elevator when she began shrieking.
"Surgery!" Caroline slammed her hands against the wall. "She had to have a surgery?"
"Caroline you need to calm down," Nik soothed taking her shoulders to peer into her eyes, "getting worked up is not going to do anyone any good right now."
"Worked up!" She shrieked slamming her hands against his chest. "I am not worked up!" She cried pushing him against the wall. "I'm not worked up," she choked.
Nik wrapped his arms around her to stop her flailing arms. Caroline struggled for a moment before sinking into him. He held her close while she sobbed. She only pulled away when the door opened. Nik wrapped his hand around hers before leading her toward the recovery wing.
They sat on two chairs outside of the empty room.
Caroline glanced up when she saw the gurney being wheeled in their directions. She could just make out a mass of straight brown hair before turning into Nik's shoulder. Only when the doctors left the room did she look up again.
"Dr. Fell," Caroline whispered. It was loud enough to catch the woman's attention. Unfortunately that was all Caroline managed to get out before her sobs started again.
"Caroline," the doctor frowned. "I'm sorry but I can't tell you anything specific about her condition."
"Is she going to be alright?" Caroline found her voice, but remained against Nik's shoulder.
"It's touch and go right now, Caroline," Dr. Fell explained. "That's all I can say right now. I can only release that information to β "
"Family," Caroline nodded. "I know." She watched the doctor leave and then stood up to look inside the recovery room.
Her breath caught in her throat when she saw her friend's lifeless form on the bed. Wires seemed to spring from every inch of her body: arms, chest, and stomach were attached to monitors and fluids. A white bandage was wrapped tightly around her brow, and her arm was held in a cast. There were two monitors one measuring her heart, the other measured something else and was attached to her stomach. There was a cut under her eye, and bruises bloomed on every inch of visible skin.
Caroline couldn't bring herself to look to closely at her friends face. Instead she looked at her 'uninjured' hand and lightly ran her hand over it.
She pulled her phone out before turning to the second monitor. She watched it as she took a seat beside the bed and waited for the call to connect.
"Katherine," Caroline breathed into the answering machine. "I know you two still aren't talking, but you need to come to the recovery wing at the hospital. Elena's hurt."
"Her sister?" Nik questioned. He picked up the bag of personal effects before sitting beside Caroline.
"Yeah," Caroline nodded and then clarified, "her answering machine." She fingered the bloody blue dress through the bag. "I gave this dress to Elena last year for Christmas."
"It's going to be fine, love."
"You don't know that," she glanced up from the dress.
"No I don't," Nik squeezed her hand and reached for his phone. The call connected after the third ring.
"You should come to the hospital. Fourth floor recovery wing, room 23. Hurry." Nik hung up.
"Elijah?"
"Yeah."
