Sea of Dreams (The American Heroes Series Book 2) (35 page)

“Son, it’s all right,” Beck Sr. moved fast for an old man; he was at his son’s side quickly, pulling off the heavy bags and gripping his son by the arm to pull him to his feet. “Let’s get over to the hospital.”

Beck was feeling weak and dizzy as his father and Captain Davis walked him towards the car.  He staggered like a drunken man.

“Is she dead?” he asked, trying to pull away from their steadying grip.  “No one would tell me a goddamn thing when we got to Hawai’i. Dad, how is my wife?”

“I asked them not to,” Beck Sr. said steadily. “I wanted to tell you everything, the truth, so you wouldn’t get information in pieces.  First of all, Blakesley’s not dead at all. Secondly, the girls are fine.  They weren’t in the car with her when it happened.”

Beck was having a good deal of trouble coordinating himself. They reached his dad’s car and Davis yanked open the passenger door.

“I’m glad the girls are okay,” Beck muttered as he practically fell into the front seat. “Where are they?”

“Your mother is staying at the house with them,” Beck Sr. said. “Lizzie is there and so is their nanny. They’re fine. But they’re understandably scared and they miss their mother.”

Davis shut the door on Beck as Beck Sr.  ran around the front of the car and climbed in the driver’s seat.  Beck put his hand on his dad’s arm before the man could start the car.

“Dad,” he begged in a hoarse whisper. “Please tell me how Blakesley is.  Please.”

His dad sighed faintly and looked at his son; he’d never seen him look so run down or stressed out.  The man looked like hell and his heart ached for him.

“She was hit broadside on the driver’s side,” he said softly. “The guy who hit her was just some old man going too fast to control his car. He plowed in to her and knocked her into a tree. She never saw it coming. I don’t know if that’s a blessing or not.  Anyway, she’s been in a medically-induced coma for about six days now.”

Beck’s eyes widened. “Medically induced coma?” he repeated, horrified. “Why?”

Beck Sr. started the car and pulled out. “Surprisingly, she didn’t suffer any majorly broken bones other than a few cracked ribs and a cracked collar bone,” he replied, pulling out of the airfield and heading off base. “But she’s banged up, son.  Her lungs are bruised and her spleen was ruptured. They had to do emergency surgery on the spleen to remove it.  They put her in a coma to help her heal faster because she was fighting the intubation tube so much.  She kept trying to pull it out so they just knocked her out.”

Beck listened to his wife’s injuries, horrified and frightened.  He watched the landscape pass by, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Is she improving?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “What do the doctors say?”

“They say she’s getting better,” Beck Sr. replied. “She’s going to be okay, son, They’re weaning her off the respirator today and she should regain consciousness soon. I wanted you to hear all of this from me directly and not pieces of messages that told you how badly she had been injured. I’m sorry if that scared you, the not knowing.  But I felt it was best to tell you everything all at once.  The main thing is that she’s going to be all right.”

Beck sighed heavily, struggling to get a grip on himself. “Thank God,” he muttered, wiping the tears that were coursing down his face. “You can’t even imagine what hell it’s been the past few days. I didn’t know if she was dead or alive. “

“She’s very much alive,” Beck Sr. took the road out of the base, heading for the Coronado Bridge. He glanced at his son. “But… well, there’s something else you should know. Maybe you already knew.  The doctors said she was pregnant.”

“What?” Beck looked at his father, shocked. “She is?”

“Was,” Beck Sr. stressed softly. “The accident caused her to miscarry.  You didn’t know about the baby?”

Beck stared at his father, absorbing the news.  He put a hand over his mouth as if to hold back the horror he felt. “No,” he breathed. “She didn’t tell me. Why didn’t she tell me?”

Beck Sr. shrugged.  “The doctors said it was a very early pregnancy,” he said quietly. “Maybe she didn’t know yet herself. I’m sure she didn’t deliberately keep it from you.”

Beck closed his eyes and looked away, more tears rolling down his cheeks for the baby she had lost.  But he comforted himself with the knowledge that she was going to be all right.  That was the most important thing in the world.  There would be more babies, but there would only be one Blakesley. Still, he was feeling everything down to his very bones and his emotions, so carefully controlled, were all over the place. 

He wept the entire way to the hospital.

Chapter Nineteen

Scripps Mercy Hospital was a state of the art medical facility with a nationally recognized trauma center. It had been instrumental in saving Blakesley’s life.  As Beck made his way into the hospital with his father holding on to his arm, he realized that he was resisting the urge to run.  He kept walking faster and faster but Beck Sr. kept a firm hold on him.  By the time they entered the hospital, Beck was pulling his father along.

Beck Sr. took his son to the elevators and up to the third floor ICU ward.  It was a very nice hospital, one of the top in the nation, and Beck took comfort in that.  Still, he was overwhelmingly anxious to get to Blakesley.  He didn’t even know where he was going; he just charged of the elevator and kept walking.  Beck Sr. had to turn him around and direct him into the ICU.

It was a nice unit as far as ICU wards went, pristine and shaded in elements of blue and white.  Each patient had their own glass-enclosed room and Beck and his father stopped at the nurse’s station first.  The nurse on duty recognized Beck Sr. and shook hands with Beck.  Gabrielle Johnson was a very pretty, motherly African American woman with a big smile.

“So you’re Miss Blakesley’s husband,” she said, visually inspecting the big blond man with the growth of beard and the dirty clothes. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Beck was pale, exhausted, struggling not to make an emotional mess of himself, but he still managed to be somewhat polite.

“From who?” he smiled weakly.

Gabrielle pointed to Beck Sr.  “Your father has been here every day,” she said. “So has Gina Aguirre and Blakesley’s father. Marshall is in there with her now, in fact. He hasn’t left her since this happened.  I’m sure she’ll be very happy to see you.”

Beck perked up. “Is she conscious?”

Gabrielle shrugged. “She’s trying,” she waved him to follow her. “We took her off the respirator this morning and have been weaning her off the drugs.  She’s starting to twitch around so I’m guessing she’s going to come out of this at some point soon.”

Beck put his hand on the woman’s arm, stopping her. “Please tell me how she is,” he begged softly. “My dad told me what happened, but how is she now?”

Gabrielle could see how distraught the man was.  It was touching, really. She patted the hand that was on her arm.

“She’s a fast healer,” she assured him. “She came through surgery like a champ and she seems to be healing very well.  The doctor will be around later, but he’s confident she’ll make a full recovery.  Don’t worry so much.”

She smiled and pulled him in to the nearest glass-enclosed room.  Beck stepped inside the door, his eyes falling on the bed in the middle of the room. Blakesley lay there with an oxygen mask on her nose and mouth, and as he drew closer he could see the bruising on her face and a cut above her right eyebrow.  Her long hair was dirty and stringy, all wrapped up in a surgical mask to keep it out of the way. The shock of seeing her suddenly brought everything down around him and he grasped her hand, the one that didn’t have all of the I.V.’s sticking out of it, and burst into tears.   His soft sobs filled the room.

Marshall had been sitting in a chair next to the bed but Beck hadn’t seen him.  When Beck broke down, Marshall jumped up from his chair and shoved it at Beck as Beck Sr. lowered his son into the seat.   They stood there with their hands on Beck as the man wept, their comforting grips willing strength and support into his body to help him face what he must.   Beck lay his head down on the bed next to Blakesley and sobbed.

Gabrielle stood by the door, watching the man break down and feeling deeply sorry for him.  Sometimes words just couldn’t bring comfort so she quietly slipped out to allow the family time alone.  Marshall, too, had tears in his eyes and thought it would be better if he left Beck alone with his wife.  The man deserved some privacy in his weakest moment.  So he slipped out, followed shortly by Beck Sr. who didn’t like seeing his proud, heroic son so distraught, especially when he couldn’t do anything to help him.  There was nothing any of them could do.  He went outside of the room to stand with Marshall, struggling not to tear up.

Beck didn’t even realize he was alone with Blakesley. He was struggling with his grief, of seeing Blakesley so badly injured.  It was tearing him apart.   He turned his head so he could see her, tears still streaming down his face.

“Hi, baby,” he whispered, gently rubbing her arm. “I’m here. Everything is going to be fine, okay? I’m here and I swear I’m never going to leave you again, not ever. Can you hear me?”

She twitched a little but he was mostly met with silence.  He stood up from the chair, taking a very close look at her face to see the damage.   He ran a gentle hand over her forehead, inspecting the big bruise on her left cheek and the cut above her eye.  No matter what her injuries, he still saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Very tenderly, he kissed the tip of her nose, her right cheek.

“I’m here, baby, I’m here,” he whispered, tears popping from his eyes and falling on to her pale cheek. “I’m never leaving you again, I swear it.  I love you so much. I need for you to wake up and talk to me, okay? Please, baby.  Can you hear me?”

She remained still and silent. Beck reclaimed his chair and pulled it up close to the bed so he could put his arm around her and lay his head down on the bed beside her. He just wanted to touch her, to be near her.  The man was so exhausted and emotionally tapped out that in little time, he was sound asleep, snoring loudly next to his wife.

***

Blakesley could hear the snoring.  It was Beck; she knew that because he snored so hard sometimes that his chest rattled.  She went to pat him to tell him to roll over but she found that she couldn’t move. Her arms seemed very heavy.  It was strange so she tried to roll over, but searing pain shot through her body and she awoke into a harsh world of bright light and glaring agony. 

Beck woke up to Blakesley’s painful gasping and his head shot up, his focus on her in an instant as she struggled to move around on the bed.  He put his hands on her shoulders to still her.

“Take it easy, baby,” he soothed. “You’re okay. Everything is going to be okay.”

Blakesley was incoherent, half-awake, and had no idea where she was.  She began crying. “B-Beck,” she wept. “Wh-what’s happening?”

He was hovering over her, his lips against her face, his hands on her shoulders to keep her from moving around too much.

“It’s okay, baby,” he soothed her softly, catching Gabrielle and Marshall out of the corner of his eye as they entered the room. “You’re okay. You’re going to be fine. Just calm down, okay? Calm your breathing. That’s right; slow down.”

Blakesley was trying to listen to him but she was in a great deal of pain. “It… it hurts,” she sobbed. “Everything hurts.”

Gabrielle came  up on the other side of the bed, checking the I.V.’s to make sure Blakesley hadn’t dislodged anything. 

“Miss Blakesley,” she put her face next to Beck’s. “My name is Gabrielle. I’m a nurse. You were in an accident, honey. You’re at Scripps Mercy Hospital.”

Oddly, that seemed to calm her down.  At least she knew where she was now. The tears stopped abruptly as she looked at Gabrielle, struggling to clear the cobwebs out of her mind.  She looked around the room a bit without moving her head, her frightened gaze coming to rest on Beck.  She focused on him.

“You look so tired,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

He smiled at her, fighting off the tears. “I’m fine.”

She stared at him, fighting the confusion. “Where are the girls?”

“They’re fine,” he assured her. “They’re at home with Lizzie and Nikki.”

“I was in an accident?”

He nodded. “Your car was hit.”

She blinked, thinking back to the last thing she remembered. It was all so muddled. “Is my car okay?”

Beck glanced back at Marshall, who stepped forward so his daughter could see him. He smiled at Blakesley when she focused on him.

“We’re going to have to buy you a brand new car,” he said. “I was thinking about a nice, big, heavy Cadillac.”

Blakesley digested the statement, lucid enough to know that her father was teasing her. She hated Cadillacs. “I don’t want your old man car, Dad,” she muttered.  “Those are for old farts.”

Beck snickered, kissing her cheek just because he was so happy she was conscious and moderately coherent.  At least she was clear enough to joke. He felt better than he had in five days.

“We’ll get you whatever you want,” he assured her. “I’ll keep your dad away from the Cadillac dealer.”

A flash of a smile crossed her lips as she looked at Beck again. “Where are my girls?”

His smile faded, thinking maybe she wasn’t as lucid as he thought if she was repeating questions. “At home, baby. They’re fine.”

“Can I go home?”

Gabrielle shook her head. “You’ve got a little recovery time to do here and then you can go home,” she said. “Now, can you tell me how you feel?”

Blakesley thought on that question , taking a deep breath and gasping with pain as she did so.

“My body hurts,” she grunted. “My ribs. My belly.  My throat really hurts. What happened to me?”

Gabrielle glanced at Beck to see the man’s reaction to his wife repeating questions when they already told her the answer.  She could see the distress in his face.

“You were in a car accident,” she said evenly. “You need to sleep now and recover. You’re going to be fine.”