Hey guys! Feels like a long time since I updated, huh? I've been busy with AP classes, Trig and Physics. All of it seems to be piling up in the worst ways but I promise weekends are my fanfiction haven. Please enjoy the fourth chapter of "Titanium"...
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No Beta Reader, so ignore mistakes if any :)
The format for this chapter is different...
Titanium
XXX
2 Hours After Surgery
Elijah Goldsworthy rests his heavy head against a pillow; one that is usually fluffy, but currently feeling like a bunch of newspapers crumbled up into a wrinkled sheet. His chest feels heavy, like a ten ton weight is forcing him down on the flat surface he is reclined on.
"You're awake."
The young officer attempts to turn his head towards the unfamiliar voice, but immediately hisses, feeling the strain in his chest become rougher. The nurse beside him places a soft hand on his left shoulder, speaking softly, "Oh darling, try not to move. You're a hero, ya' know? You're lucky to be alive Mr. Goldsworthy."
"W-What happened to me?" He asks, panic in his tone.
The memories of the shooting is mashed into pieces inside his mind. For a second, he attempts to physically force himself to remember something...anything.
"You were shot, Mr. Goldsworthy. You saved a young womans life."
At that moment, the flashbacks come quickly back to him, haunting and taunting the weakness of his mind.
But what makes him smile; those innocent, teary, blue eyes.
1 Hour After Surgery
Clare Edwards stares at the man who saved her life, admiring him from afar.
He seems to be resting peacefully; his heart monitor isn't beeping frantically, but keeping a steady, normal pace. Every now and then a smile would creep up on her lips when he would stir in his sleep. She'd become a bit anxious, wondering if this would be "the big move", where he'd wake up.
Nevertheless, they were only small movements that meant nothing.
"I told you he was right up here! But that doesn't mean you can see him Imogen, I won't let you!" Clare hears a man yell loudly, his voice echoing the quiet hospital hallway.
Her heart skips a few beats as she sees an officer, helplessly trailing behind a woman with brown frazzled hair and a crazed look in her eyes. Clare jumps to the side of Mr. Goldsworthy's door, and Imogen spits towards the young woman, "YOU'RE THE ONE THAT GOT MY HUSBAND SHOT? YOU'RE THE BITCH! IT'S YOUR FAULT HE'S-."
The officer escorts the woman out, screaming to her that it wasn't Clare's fault that Eli was shot.
It wasn't her fault he failed to put on his bullet proof vest before entering a room with a crazy man who was holding a hostage at gun point. It wasn't her fault that Luke was unstable enough to shoot the police officer who was just doing his job; trying to save the hostage.
Clare Edwards stands before the glass window awkwardly, embracing herself.
Something tells her that she should leave, but a force much stronger keeps her numb feet planted to the ground. Her eyes scan the room as the nurse smiles lightly in her direction, before putting another IV into his arm.
"He'll be okay, ya know?" Clare turns her head, to see Chief Mason with a toothy grin on his face.
"He's a stubborn son of a bitch, I'll tell you that much. I told him he should've been wearing his vest. But you know what he told me? He told me that the longer I keep him down there, the longer the chances of saving you become slimmer." The chief laughs, his obnoxious snort making heads turn.
"Who was that woman who was yelling at me?" Clare's voice cracked, tears in her eyes.
"That was Mr. Goldsworthy's wife. He doesn't speak much about her, guess she's not special enough to be talked about. But did you hear any news about him?" Chief Mason asks the slightly confused and distraught woman beside him.
"H-He's doing okay, that's all I know." She spoke truthfully, glancing curiously at Eli's sickly pale skin, down to his foot that would twitch every ninety six seconds.
"You didn't hear?" He asks, baffled.
"Hear what?"
"He's been muttering your name ever since he's gotten out of surgery..."
2 Hours After Surgery
"Your wife came by to see you, she's downstairs in the waiting room if you'd like me to go get her." Nurse Katie offers, staring in concern at Eli who's picking at the dirt that's caked beneath his fingertips.
"I don't want to see her." He admits, not taking his eyes off his hands.
"And why is that?" Nurse Katie changes the bag to his IV, while noticing the nervous twitch in his eye and the pained expression etched in his face. He scoffs, nearly losing his breath in the process.
"Breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth." She instructs, and he does as followed, nodding his head.
"Now keep doing that for a couple of minutes. Your heart needs rest, you need rest. I'll send the woman outside in here for you, maybe she can help you relax a little."
Eli is about to scream at the nurse for letting his wife in; he doesn't want to see her, she doesn't even want to see him.
What's the point anymore?
He doesn't look up, afraid that it'll be someone he clearly doesn't need to see or doesn't want to talk to because Imogen wouldn't care about his well-being anyways. But what Officer Goldsworthy did not expect, was to hear a different voice from the door.
"H-Hi. I-I um, I'm Clare Edwards."
"Clare Edwards?"
"Yes. You saved me."
3 Hours After Surgery
"I want to see my husband!" Imogen shouts for the tenth time at Doctor Chris.
He points to Eli's door, responding, "He's seeing someone right now, and for the past hour, she's been keeping his heart rate steady so we'd like to keep it that way. One visitor will be allowed in at a time. But, we've been given clear instructions from the patient that he doesn't want to see you."
"Why wouldn't he want to see me? He's my husband! Please!" She begs, but Doctor Chris doesn't give in.
"M'am, I'm going to be doing what's best for my patient. Your husband was shot, the bullet skimmed his heart; we have to do what's best for Eli. If talking to this woman keeps him calm, then so be it." Doctor Chris tapped Imogen's frail shoulder lightly, before heading off into the other direction.
"It's you, you told him." Imogen spits at Adam, pounding her bony finger into his chest.
"I didn't tell him anything! The last thing I want to do is upset him to a point where his heart fucking stops! Stop being so goddamn selfish Imogen! Maybe he already knew before you even got here." Adam hissed, pushing her hands away from him.
"Why don't you just leave? You don't care about him," Adam whispers, tears in his eyes.
"O-Of course I care." She stutters, her upper lip twitching.
"If you cared so much about him you wouldn't have cheated on him! You would've thought before you betrayed him! And you know what, if you really cared you would've fucking packed up your bags and left a long time ago!" He screamed, defending his best friend.
"I loved him!" Imogen retorts, tears streaming down my face.
"Did you love him when you broke his heart? When you slept with Liam? Did you think about how Eli would feel when he found out that you're a cheating whore?" Adam's voice is high, grasping the attention of onlookers.
The sad thing, he didn't care.
Imogen had married Eli; made a vow to love him and only him. She broke that vow, and that is what was eating away at Adam's mind. His best friend was unknowingly sharing a bed with a cheater, eating breakfast with a cheater, and coming home...to a cheater.
"I hate you. I never liked you." Imogen whispers, "I wish it was you got shot."
"Don't take your mistakes out on me." Adam shoots back at her, glaring dangerously at Imogen, staring at her shaken composure. Imogen's throat tightens, before she says, "I always loved Eli...his personality and the way he cares so much but-."
Adam cuts her off, "But what?"
"I can't love a man who is only home for two hours then goes to sleep. I can't love a person who is unlovable."
3 and 1/2 Hours After Surgery
"I'm not lying! Why would I lie? We were stuck on that roller coaster for hours." Clare exclaimed, her cheeks red from explaining the long story without breathing.
Eli smirked, shaking his head back and forth, "You'd die from heat stroke if you were up there that long. How did you not pass out from the blood rushing to your head?"
"I don't know, to be honest. When we got down, I fainted." Clare admitted, blushing admirably at the man before her.
They've been talking since he's woken up, going back and forth like they're old friends who are catching up. The shooting was discussed briefly, and sooner or later, the topics became lighter to talk about.
Without a doubt, they were enjoying each other's company.
"Would you ever consider going on a date with me? Or just hanging out?" Eli asked out of the blue, his voice scratchy, cracked and rough.
"Aren't you married?" Clare whispered, pointing to the wedding ring he was toying with on his finger. He scoffed, before slipping it off, and chucking it out the window of his hospital room.
"...She was cheating on me."
Clare's heart sunk into her chest, staring at the man who was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. He smirks innocently, trying to act calm about his rigid breaths.
The heart monitor speeds up, beeping frantically as the one word falls from her lips.
"...Yes."
END OF CHAPTER 4
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Cliffhanger Girl
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