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Chapter 31
The aftermath
Tris' POV
The rocking of my body going from side to side alarms me as I bring myself out of the darkness. Hands, two sets of hands are touching me, prodding me.
" Is she gonna be alright? She has to be alright." Breaks through, Tobias?
" We can't be sure until she is seen by a doctor, sir." An unfamiliar voice says. " Her vitals are steady and her burns are minor" The voice finishes.
I fight to open my eyes, but they won't open. Refusing to let me see what exactly is around me. How did I get here? What happened? Did I start a fire? I remember the smell of smoke. I try harder to remember anything else, but I can't. I was working. Baking. And then… Nothing.
" Tris? Tris, can you hear me?" Tobias asks with nothing but concern in his voice. I try to open my eyes again so he can see that I'm okay. But I can't. I let my mouth fall open, but still nothing comes out.
What happened? What's going on? Why can't I move? Why can't I speak? Did I die?
I feel the ambulance suddenly come to a complete stop. And the chaos breaks loose as I hear shuffling all around me. As the bed I am laying on begins to roll outwards. I feel a bang as the wheels of the bed hit the ground taking the weight.
All around me I can hear chaos, dozens of people talking about a fire, about a broken leg, possibly something else, a gun shot victim. The chaos just continues. What happened?
The bed finally comes to a stop, as I feel myself being lifted from one bed to another. Things are being shuffled around me as people speak.
"Female, 24 found unconscious, minor burns, vitals have been steady." I hear.
"Thank you. I see you were the one that found her."
"Yes. She was on the floor, her head was covered in blood and she was unconscious. There was blood on her head. I think someone did this to her." Tobias stutters as if he's trying to process what just happened.
There was a fire? I was unconscious?
" I see and who are you? I am… Her boyfriend. We have a daughter together. Will she be okay? She has to make it." Tobias says, my heart breaks with every word he speaks. He sounds heartbroken. I try to imagine if the shoe was on the other foot, I know I would be just as worried as he is, if not worse.
" It shows her next of kin is a… Christina…"
"Yeah, it's her roommate and business partner."
"Well, we're going to need to get in contact with her. Nurse…"
"No. I'll do it, I should be the one." Tobias says.
"Very well. Let us work, there's a waiting room down the hall. We will let you know if anything changes."
My heart drops at the thought of Tobias alone in the waiting room. I want him with me, beside me. To somehow let him know that I'm okay, that I'm still here. But I can't move. I can't talk. All I hear is the loud thumping of what I could only think is his feet walking away from me.
I don't know how long it's been, minutes, hours. I finally have the strength in me to open my eyes. I look around, I'm able to turn my head now. My eyes go from face to face, looking for someone that looks familiar to me. But I don't see anyone. I see a few nurses working together. One is pulling out a tray of sterile things, another seems to be draping a blanket over my body. The nurse looks up at me smiling, as she notices that I am awake.
"Doctor, she's awake." The nurse says, gently. I'm surprisingly thankful for how gentle her voice is. My head is really throbbing.
"Well, Ms Prior. You gave us quite a scare. Welcome back." The doctor says. I take into account how tired he looks, has he been working all night. He barely looks at me, the clipboard in his hand is getting more attention than me.
" My head" I get out, my throat is raw as I speak. My hand flies to my throat coughing as I try to clear whatever makes it so rough to speak.
"Easy now. You inhaled a lot of smoke. Your lungs are going to be working overtime to accommodate it. As for your head, I'll be sending you up to do a MRI shortly. But it's safe to say you have a concussion." He continues," do you remember anything?"
I think hard, as hard as my brain will allow me to, the more I focus the more throbbing comes.
"I was working. Working on orders," I say, regretting the instant that I shake my head.
"Yes. Well, it seemed to me that you hit your head,"He explains. " You're gonna need some stitches and there are a few burns that need to be attended to. But they are minor. Nothing to worry about."
Stitches, burns. What happened? I try so desperately to think back, did I start a fire? No, I'm always so careful.
"It's quite normal to be a little confused in situations like this. I wouldn't stress about it too much, give it time, it will come back to you."
"Thanks."
" In the meantime would you like some company?" He asked and at the mention of company, I remember Tobias, he was there, he saved me..
"Yes, please." I urgently say. Perhaps he can answer some of my questions. Like for starters, what was he doing there in the first place? He wasn't supposed to be there and yeah I'm so thankful that he was.
" Very well, I'll send them in." I watch the doctor leave as the last nurse in the room steps closer to me with a cup full of ice chips and a spoon. She places it on the hospital table and rolls it towards me. She adjusts my bed just a little bit up, letting me know to suck on the ice slowly, it will help the soreness in my throat. I slowly bring up the spoon with the small ice chips to my lips, wincing as I see the white gauzes on my arm. I guess those were the burns I was hearing about.
I never knew that you could feel relief and agony from pain at the same time as I swallowed down the cold water that came from the ice chips. My throat is both burning with an ache and feeling relief from the ice.
"Well, where the hell is she?" I hear Christina's voice from down the hall. "Don't tell me to calm down… You calm down…" She continues, as her voice gets louder and louder as she obviously gets closer to where I am. "I'm her partner, for crying out loud. And from what I saw…. I should probably put an ex behind that title now. Do you have any idea what it took to get that damn thing off the ground? And now what it will take to get it back up and running. And here you are coming up, banging on my door… Telling me to keep the kids safe and don't answer the door to anyone… Like I'm five or something. Obviously, keeping god knows what from me." She rants.
The curtains move aside almost violently as she appears before me. "Oh Thank god you are alright." She says, stepping closer towards me. Tobias is standing behind her, scratching the back of his neck at the same time as being red as a tomato. Funny, if the circumstances were different I would probably warn Chris not to push Tobias any further. He looks like he may explode at any minute.
"Christina," I get out, rougher than before.
"Shhh. I'm just glad you are okay. You are okay, right?" She asks, looking me over. Her eyes glance at the annoying monitor making sure that I am in fact alive. I nod my head, not wanting to try my hand at talking again. "That's good. That's all that matters." She says, breathlessly. She steps back taking a deep breath as Tobias moves to stand beside me on the other side. I smile appreciatively as he carefully reaches for my hand.
"Then it won't hurt as much when I start to prod and poke you with all of my damn questions." Christina blurts out, her voice getting high once again. "What the hell happened?" She begins, I lift my other hand to my head, feeling the throbbing getting stronger in my head.
"Christina." Tobias hisses. "Christina," He says more forcefully.
"What?" She asks, snapping out of her ranting.
"Excuse me, but we are going to need you to keep it down. There are sick people here, you know?" A nurse says, barging in.
"Sorry." Chris gives in. She takes a deep breath, calming herself down before she continues. "Tell me." She whispers, pulling up a chair towards my bedside. For a second I think perhaps she should be the one in this bed.
"I don't know," I begin.
"You don't know? How do you not know?" Chris asks, frustrated at the thought of my cluelessness. I open my mouth, but nothing can come out. How do I tell her I have no idea what happened?
"The back door was open. My head…" I say, lifting my hand once again to cradle the bump. "And then there was smoke… And then… Nothing." I explained.
"I think I know what happened." Tobias says, my stomach drops when I see the guilt written all over his face.
A/N
It's coming down to the wire… Will Tris and Christina be understanding? Will they want to kill Tobias?
Tune in next week to find out.
Revised by: FDFobsessed
Happy reading everyone, be safe and stay healthy,
Trini
