Chapter Nine

Several hours had passed and John had been admitted and his leg operated on. He had a skull fracture as well. It was a linear fracture and didn't require any surgical intervention but Rose was devastated. She had been waiting in the relative's room and refused to be comforted. She was just waiting. Pete had gone back home to be there for Tony and Jackie was waiting with her. Jackie's patience was wearing thin.

"You realise he was leaving don't you?"

Rose didn't respond, of course she knew he had been leaving he had a backpack with him and had been trying to disappear before anyone was awake.

"Do you want him to leave?"

She hadn't thought she had cared until she saw him lying bloody and broken at the foot of the stairs but in that second the thought that he might be gone had crossed her mind and it had terrified her.

"Rose!"

"What?"

"Have you heard a word I've just said?"

"Yes!"

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well do you want him to leave?"

"No."

Jackie spoke more gently,

"Why was he leaving love? Why was he sneaking away?"

Rose sighed and tears welled up in her eyes, she was saved from further explanation by the doctor knocking on and opening the door of the relative's room.

"Mrs Tyler, Miss Tyler," he shook their hands. "John is out of theatre now and will be transferred to his room soon."

"It's a private one like I arranged?" asked Jackie.

The doctor nodded.

"Is he conscious?"

"No not yet but he should regain consciousness in the next few hours. He took a nasty fall and we've had to plate his leg and he will need some physiotherapy afterwards."

"What about the head injury?"

"That is a concern but his brain isn't swollen so I am hopeful he has got away with it."

"Can we see him?" asked Jackie.

"You can wait in his room he will arrive shortly."

The woman thanked the doctor and made their way to John's room.

"Mum you should go home there's nothing you can do here and I want to be here when he wakes up."

"Not before you tell me what happened."

"Mum…"

"No I mean it. What happened to make him want to leave without even saying goodbye?"

"I happened."

"Meaning?"

"I… we… we had sex but I was using him, imagining he was the doctor and he realised that. I told him I could never love him as he deserved to be loved. I told him there would never be anyone for me but the Doctor."

"Oh Rose. Yeah that would do it. Do you still feel that way?"

"I don't know. Seeing him lying there… for a second I thought he was gone and that was terrifying."

Jackie moved forwards to comfort her daughter but Rose put her hands up,

"No Mum. I need to feel this and I need to be here when he wakes up. I need to be alone, please."

Jackie knew when she was defeated and replied,

"OK. I'll get a taxi home but you call us when he wakes up and when you want to come home. Remember you need some rest too OK?"

"I will Mum… and thank you."

Rose sat down and waited in the room. She didn't have long to wait before John was wheeled in in his bed. The nurses fussed about him and it wasn't until they left the room that she got to see him properly.

His leg was raised in a hoist and in plaster from his ankle to beyond his knee and his head was swathed in a bandage with thick padding at the back where he had hit his head. He was deathly pale and his face was puffy and swollen. The nurses had told her his level of consciousness varied and that was largely due to the anaesthetic.

Gently she brushed the tuft of hair over his forehead away and kissed where she had exposed. He moaned softly and she pulled back as if she had been scaled. He was trying to speak but she couldn't hear him so she lowered her ear to just above his mouth. He whispered,

"Thirsty."

His voice was raspy and gruff and she remembered that he would have been intubated so his throat would be dry and sore. She looked on his cabinet and saw a covered jug of water with a sippy cup alongside it. After pouring a cup full out she carefully held it to his lips and tilted it as he sucked from it. He spluttered and she pulled it away saying,

"Not too fast!"

"Throats so sore." he rasped at her.

"That's the tube they used, it'll pass. Now take it slowly." she held the cup to his lips again and waited until he had drained the beaker.

"Better?"

He nodded and spoke again,

"I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as I am. We'll talk when you've had some sleep." She took hold of his hand and squeezed it reassuringly, "I'll be here when you wake up I promise."

John nodded and closed his eyes.

Without letting go of his hand Rose hooked a leg around the chair she had been sitting on before he had been brought back from theatre and pulled it close to his bed. She settled herself in it and laid her head on the edge of his bed. She was going nowhere until he woke up again.