Across the Music (Across the Ocean Book 2) (29 page)

How much loss and suffering must one person experience in their life? Such a sweet and beautiful human being, made to walk through life with these burdens upon her shoulders. Who was there for her during these times? Who helped ease the pain? I have to swallow the lump in my throat and the tears that are trying to fill my eyes. I have to be the strength she needs now. I want to be her strength. I want to lift her above all the pain and save her from it all.

I begin to fill with anger over Loki's stupid antics. So often in the past he would get terribly drunk and cause fights. He has a reputation for sleeping around, and talking a lot of shit when he's intoxicated. I can guarantee he caused this fight as well, and has taken poor Sophie through the works with him. He doesn't deserve her, doesn't deserve someone who needs more from a man who is supposed to love and care for her,
like I do
.

The doctor comes into our curtained area and examines Sophie gently and carefully. Rage bubbles within me when I see the large mottled and purple bruise on her ribs. The doctor feels around her ribs and back, listens to her heart, and asks about pain when she's breathing. When he's finished, he declares that it is most likely a fracture in at least one of her ribs. He tells us to get her a brace to help support her and ease her pain, but that there isn't much else he can do.

"Is there any word on our friend, Loki?" I ask the doctor before he can leave.

"He's going to live; he is a very lucky person. He's in surgery right now, but I'm sure you can go and see him in the morning." I thank him, and he's gone. I turn back to Sophie, who doesn't appear to have noticed what the doctor said.

"Did you hear, Sophie? Loki is alive, and lucky to be so. We can come see him in the morning." She nods silently, and I'm still not sure she's understanding. I help her to stand and take my girl carefully home.

The next morning I wake up curled around Sophie, who is sleeping like she's never slept before; deeply. She woke up to her terrible nightmares three different times after we got home and I tucked her into her bed. I ended up lying down with her in hopes that my nearness would calm her down, and it did. She didn't have another nightmare after that. She didn't say much on the way home, other than a sweet 'thank you' when I tucked her into bed, and a light kiss on the cheek when I climbed into bed with her later in the night.

I look at my phone on the night stand and see several missed calls and text messages from worried friends asking questions about Lokie and Sophie. One in particular is from Brooke, demanding that we contact her as soon as we head to the hospital so she can meet us there. I send her a response, telling her we'll be there within the hour.

I still feel exhausted, but it's almost ten in the morning. I know if Loki is awake, he's probably feeling pretty crummy right now. I bet he wonders what happened to Sophie, and he probably regrets the fight. I know it will be good for Sophie to see Loki alive and awake, so I shake her lightly to get her to wake up.

"Sophie, let's get up and go to the hospital. We'll grab a muffin or something on the way there. It'll be good for you." She groggily turns towards me, and I can see just how tired she is by the dark circles under her eyes that make her seem haunted. She probably was haunted while she slept, if the nightmares say anything about that.

She climbs out of bed, and I help her get ready the best I can, at least during the times I can't do the task for her, I stay near to her for the company. She brushes her teeth, uses the bathroom, and puts on one of my shirts with a pair of black jeans, and we leave.

At the hospital, we're told which room that Loki is in and we head up there. I can feel a bit of reluctance from Sophie, as her steps become slower as we near his room. She's afraid. I grab her hand firmly, and give it a reassuring squeeze.

"It'll all be okay, let's go see him." Our eyes meet, she takes a deep breath accompanied by a pained expression over her ribs, and we walk into the room.

Loki looks awful. He's bandaged around his ribs, dark bruises around his eyes, split lip, the list goes on. He has a brace around his neck, and he doesn't appear to be awake. Sophie gasps and rushes to the bed to grab one of his hands that lie unmoving on the sterile hospital sheets. His heartbeat is steady though, on the monitor.

A few minutes of silence later, and Brooke enters the room. She rushes forward to Sophie and grasps her tight, jerking back in surprise when Sophie lets out a yelp of pain.

"Are
you
hurt?" She asks Sophie, who nods and rubs the tender spot on her ribs. "What happened?"

"Some guys were talking about me, I think. They followed us outside and Loki landed the first punch. One of them kicked and hit me, but I didn't end up as bad as Loki, obviously." The anger from last night bubbles in me again. Those guys were probably chiding Loki because of his poor habits, and poor Sophie got caught up in all of it. Stupid Loki! How could he do this to Sophie!

"Holy shit. He looks very bad. Do we know the extent of his injuries?" Sophie and I shake our heads no, and Brooke reaches for the clip board at the end of the bed. "I don't understand any of this Icelandic doctor's chicken scratch. Hopefully the doctor will be in here soon."

As soon as the words leave her mouth, a stern looking female doctor comes quickly into the room. She looks over all of us before heading to check Loki's vitals.

"Can you tell us what injuries he has?" Brooke asks her.

"He has had a cervical break in one of the vertabrae in his neck," She says as she glances over his clipboard. She looks up at us with a slight frown "He might have temporary to permanent paralysis from the neck down." she says gravely. Sophie gasps and lifts a hand to her mouth after I  translate what the doctor said. "We're still waiting on him to wake up. He had a surgery on his neck last night, and he'll need to wear a brace for at least 2-3 months." The doctor gives us a tight yet stern smile, and walks out.

He could be paralyzed? For life? His entire body? A chill runs down my spine at the thought of Loki never being the same person again, and for what? For getting drunk? I can hardly contain my anger now, so I ask Brooke and Sophie if either of them would like coffee so I have an excuse to walk it off.

"You two can go get some, I'm just going to sit here with Loki. Is that alright?" I can tell she needs her space, and so can Brooke. We exchange glances, and walk out of the room as Sophie sits down in the chair next to Loki's bed.

I'm so confused by what's happened; sometimes it's hard for me to tell if this is reality or my imagination. Am I really just in one of my terrible nightmares that wake me up feeling as though my world has ended all over again? I glance at Loki, guilt washing over me again. He was just sticking up for me, being defensive over me. Everybody who tries to help me gets injured, or dead.

Is there somehow a curse upon my soul? To have my brother die, my mother die, and my father become a crazy man. Now this with Loki. He might be paralyzed for the rest of his life, for god's sake! I take a shaky breath, careful of my ribs. Reaching forward, I grab his hand and squeeze it; willing him to wake up and be alright.

"You're an idiot for hitting that bloke," I say to him, not caring if he can hear me or not "But you're sweet for defending my honor." I pull his hand to my lips and give the back of it a soft kiss. The fingers twitch suddenly, surprising me. I glance up at his face to see his eyelids fluttering and opening slightly, sluggishly.

"Holy shit, Loki," I breathe at him, scooting my chair closer to the bed. His eyes continue to flutter for several long moments before he's able to open them half-way and glance in my direction. Tears are pouring down my face with the relief that he isn't dead, or dying even. He will recover from this. I close my eyes for a moment, my mind betraying me and showing me a flash from when he fell and hit his head on the curb last night.

I quickly open my eyes again to see Loki looking at me fiercely, and it's hard to make out the emotions in his eyes. I stand up to sit on the edge of the bed next to him. "You're such an idiot, sticking up for me like you did." I attempt to smile at him, a wobbly thing that is filled with the relief I feel. The point between his brows comes together in a small frown as he either thinks about what I mean, or is in pain.

"You sure put up a fight," I continue, eager to say something,
anything
to calm my nerves. "They didn't hurt me much –" I'm cut off by a spasming in Loki's left hand that is resting still in mine. His fingers clamp down on mine, and I frown at him curiously. "Don't worry, I really only have a fractured rib, nothing compared to what you have." I'm trying to be reassuring, but he only seems to be getting more agitated, the fingers of his left hand clenching over and over in mine.

"Take it easy, you're seriously injured. They said you could possibly even be paralyzed, but you're moving this hand, and fingers. Can you move any of your other body parts?" His eyes bore into mine with an intensity that is unsettling. I look closer and see that his eyes are filled with tears. My heart clenches, and I reach for the buzzer for one of the nurses to come in and check on him. Maybe the pain is just too much, or maybe he really is paralyzed. A single tear rolls quickly down his cheek and absorbs into the white sterile neck brace. I'm unsure what to do; maybe my presence is unsettling to him. Perhaps he doesn't want to see me, since I remind him of the fight. There's a knot in my stomach filled with uncertainty as I stand up and release his hand.

"Gunnar will be here in a moment. Can you talk at all?" He makes a strange motion with his head that he probably shouldn't be making that seems to be saying no. Gunnar walks in with Brooke behind him, coffee in both of their hands.

They both see that Loki's eyes are open and rush towards the bed, and I can see the emotion in Gunnar's eyes at seeing his best friend awake. Brooke is quiet, but there is a joyous smile on her face. A nurse comes into the room; having been beckoned by the buzzer I pushed earlier. She walks up to him and the monitor, check his vitals, and administering more pain medication. She then turns to us and says something in Icelandic. Gunnar responds, and after a few minutes of her checking his injuries, she smiles at all of us and leaves the room.

"She says that it's best if we come back tomorrow. He will fall asleep soon, and that it's not wise for him to be speaking now." He takes the few steps to be next to me, and grabs my hand in his large warm one as he looks down at me with a softness that I'm beginning to realize he only really shows to me.

"Ari says that he and the guys will make a stop by tonight or tomorrow." Brooke says to me, and I assume she called him while they were grabbing coffee. I nod my head, look to Loki; his eyelids looking heavy and ready to sleep. I lean towards him and kiss his cheek very softly.

"We will see you soon. Get some rest, mate."

After saying our goodbyes to Brooke, we climb into Gunnar's car and head back to his flat. It's Tuesday, and I guess he called into work to be here with me, and for Loki. I don't believe I've ever had anybody who was as supportive and present for me as a comforting figure like Gunnar has been from day one. I'm incredibly lucky, he's everything I've ever wanted and or needed in somebody before. To be around him is to feel safe, cherished, appreciated.

"I found your note that I had given you during the show, the one with the translated lyrics from the song I wrote from you. They were on the ground near you when I found you, but the paper didn't look like it had been read, since the tape I put on it was still intact." He lifts his hand out of his back pocket after we enter the flat and pulls the dirty white piece of folded over paper, tape still intact even though the paper itself is a little worse for wear.

I cut the tape with a quick swipe of my fingernail and open it up carefully, studying  his scribble. He's quiet as I read it over to myself.

Everything is ready, behind locked door.

We are not at home, if anybody cares

The girl in my bed, wearing nothing but a shirt

I’m lighting the candles to set the right mood

Beautiful, perky breasts, gorgeous legs

Everything that matters is within these walls

I look over at her, our eyes meet

We are both aware of what this night has to offer

I am In bed, nothing in my way

Rip off her shirt, and let the games begin

Kiss here, kiss there, where does the next kiss come

By the thought alone, the girl gets rather hot

Yes hot, she is beginning to steam

If I don't maintain her temperature, I’ll have to begin again

Slowly I start using my fingers

She digs it and starts moving her body

So of course we continue, we are just getting started

What does she like? There is no reason to ask

I just enjoy managing and attending my task

When I reach the Good spot, she gives me a signal