“Are you family?”
“I uh ... no.” I try not to let myself look as defeated as I feel.
“It’s okay, Danny. You can let this one slide. He was at the original scene. Roommate, right?” Officer Arnold raises a brow at me.
I nod rapidly, a smile forming.
The nurse, Danny, nods once. “Okay. There are a few things to finish up, but you should be able to go in shortly.” He smiles politely before leaving us in the hall.
I look back to the officer, who is scribbling notes on his notepad. “What happens now?” I ask, having never been in this situation before.
He clears his throat. “Now, I get a statement from you, and hopefully from Abby with permission to press charges. It’ll be much easier if she cooperates with the investigation. I’ve got a female detective on her way as well in case she’d feel more comfortable talking to a woman.” Someone calls him over his walkie before he stands and dismisses himself. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”
Left alone to my own thoughts in this rowdy, yet completely forlorn hallway leaves so much room for my mind to run wild. I sit back down in a chair across from her room, and watch the door impatiently, hoping I can order it open. I don’t know how much time passes before two nurses leave her room. “Can I go in?” I ask quickly.
“Of course. Just be gentle and careful around all the cords and tubes,” one of them says, holding the curtain back for me.
I almost run past her. I don’t know what I was prepared for when I got in there, but it wasn’t this. Abby lays on a hospital bed with her head wrapped in a new white cloth, an IV in one arm, a blood pressure cuff on her other, and somehow, the bruising has worsened since I saw her in the ambulance. She smiles when I walk in, but I can’t bring myself to get any words out. How do I comfort someone after such a horrific situation? Especially when I can’t hold them. I feel like if I touch her, she’s going to fall apart, shatter to pieces. But then I remind myself that after what she’s been through, she’s tougher than I give her credit for.
“Hi,” she says, voice hoarse, after I’ve been standing there for a while.
“Hey,” I finally say. “How are you?” I ask but immediately regret the question. “Don’t answer that. Stupid question.” I shake my head and pull the spare chair up to the side of her bed.
She chuckles, but she winces with the movement. “I’m alive, I guess.” Neither of us says anything for a moment but she holds her palm flat on the bed beside me. When I take her hand, she squeezes, so I squeeze back. Her warm skin eases my nerves, which have been firing a million miles a minute since finding her. Taking a deep breath, I let myself relax, but not fully. This isn’t over yet.
?CHAPTER 31
Abby
Beeping machines andthe constant inflating and deflating of the blood pressure cuff are getting annoying. They keep me from sleeping, not that sleeping is very comfortable right now anyway. Not to mention, a nurse or Dallas has to wake me up every three hours to make sure I wake up due to the head trauma. As much as the pain meds are trying to help with everything, I can still feel the throbbing and slight twinge of pain every time I move. To top it all off, my ribs hurt so even breathing is a literal pain.
I look at the chair beside my bed and see Dallas hasn’t moved. He’s dozed off now that it’s been a few hours since we’ve arrived. His head is slumped against the back of the chair. One arm lies across his brow bone, the other hand still tangled in mine. Today has been such a whirlwind of emotions that I’ve barely taken time to process what happened. Two officers came in shortly after all the nurses left but I told them to get out. They’d wanted details. Even things that seemed unnecessary like what I’d eaten for breakfast. It’s bad enough getting beaten half to death, but then being asked to relive it, to tell the story all over again within an hour just seemed cruel.
The white blanket that once covered my toes has drifted up from all my twisting and turning in bed and now my toes lie bare to the cool hospital air. Alarms sound when I tug on the blanket and the heart rate monitor attached to my finger falls off. Dallas jolts awake in his chair and is by my side in seconds.
“What’s going on? What do you need?” he asks frantically, worry in his eyes.
