His Touch

Chapter 64

Dominic

Two hours. Pacing back and forth in this damn waiting room. Two fucking hours. No updates. Nothing.

You know the saying 'no news is good news'? Well that doesn't apply here. I've gone through this shit enough times with my men to know that if there is no news after this long then something has gone wrong.

"Dom, sit down." Maxwell tells me in a slightly irritated voice. "Your pacing is only making it worse." He tells me.

I give him a slight glare but nonetheless sit down. "There's been no updates."

"I'm well aware of that." He says in a duh tone.

I shake my head, ignoring the rudeness he's presenting me with considering I'm his Dom. "What if..."

"She's not." Max cuts me off as he answers my question firmly.

"But how would you..."

He cuts me off again. "She's going to get through this, you told me that." Maxwell reminds me. "Your dwindling faith in her is..."

"My faith in her is not dwindling." I argue with a harsh tone. "I just... the odds are..."

"I know the odds, especially after this long between updates, but this is Ellie we're talking about. She's a fighter, remember, she wouldn't go out like this."

"In her past life maybe, before I came along. But what if you were right, what if me being in her life ruined her? What if I'm the reason she... she..." I can't bear to say it.

Max sighs and places a hand on my shoulder. "You didn't ruin her, though I'm beginning to think she ruined you." He laughs softly. "I've never known you to go mushy and emotional over anyone."

"Watch it." I warn in a low voice. "I'm only that way for her, not for you nor anyone else."

Max smirks. "Besides, this instance wasn't your fault. Our bat shit crazy father, remember. Not anything to do with you. An outcome like this would still have happened if you hadn't come into her life, he still would have come after her when she left and we both know she wouldn't have gone back with him without a fight." He was right.

"Then I should have protected her better."

"That we can agree on." He mutters.

"Mr. Harding?" A doctor calls out as he enters the waiting room. She's wearing scrubs and has a tired look on her face.

Max and I stand at the same time. "Yes." Max replies to the doctor.

She glances at me quizzically. "And you are?"

"Family." Max replies before I get the chance, he knows that she wouldn't have said anything with me present if she knew I wasn't family. Though I would have just threatened the information out of her.

The doctor gives me a slow up down and I can see a familiar look in her eyes that I've seen on countless other women, though I no longer feel the need to take advantage of the situation. "Miss Harding is out of surgery and in recovery now. We had to perform open heart surgery after an xray showed a fragment of the bullet had nicked the outer lining of her heart." She begins to tell us. "We were successful in removing all fragments of the bullet, and we were able to sew up the minor tear on the heart. Though Miss Harding has a long road of recovery ahead of her, we do believe she will make a full recovery."

I let out a sigh of relief. Eloise is going to be fine, she's alive and she's going to be fine. "Open heart surgery? What possible complications are we looking at?"

Max clasps my shoulder. "We can think about all that later. Can we go see her?" He asks the doctor.

She nods. "Level three, room three fourteen. She will still be under the effects of anaesthesia for a few hours, and will continue to be groggy for an hour or so following."

Max thanks her before she disappears back behind the doors she'd come from.

We head to Ell's room where sure enough she's in a hospital bed, strapped up to wires and machines. Eloise is unconscious and has a large bandage protruding from her hospital gown neckline. Maxwell and I take seats on either side of her and I cannot help but to think of when Maxwell and Eloise were in reverse places, when I'd brought her to a hospital to see her brother in much a similar situation to what she is in now.

I look up at Max to see his eyes closed as he clasps one of Ell's hands in both his. I look down at her other hand directly in front of me, lain gently on the bed next to her, I cannot bear to touch her just yet out of fear I'll break her. Pulling my phone out of my pocket I dial Sid's number, he's one of the doctors I keep on the payroll.

"Yep." Sid answers casually, sounding as if he'd just rolled out of bed.

"Sid, it's Dominic." I state in my authoritative tone. "I need you to tell me everything you can about open heart surgery." I can feel Maxwell's glare on me, I don't need to look at him to know he's disapproving of me doing this now rather than spending time with Eloise. I stand up from the chair beside the hospital bed and walk to the far corner to give Max a bit of space with Eloise, as well as being able to keep an eye on her myself from here.

"That would take quite a while." Sid replies. "If you tell me specifically why you want to know then I can narrow down the information to you so you get exactly what you're after."

I sigh agitated, although he does have a point I'm honestly not in the mood. "Someone I know has had it and I need to know the complications, recovery time, anything that I will need to know in order to help them.'' I hated referring to Eloise as simply just someone I know, but I do not need people as low on my totem pole as Sid knowing how much she means to me.

"Well, Dom, each person is different, unique in the way they recover and their ability to recover or face complications depending on what caused them to have the open heart surgery and their overall health and wellness before the incident occured." He explained it to me. I start telling Sid a brief overview of Eloise's medical history before he cuts me off. "I would have to see her charts to give you more precise information for her outcome, but the typical recovery time for open heart surgery, without complications is between six and twelve weeks, she cannot do any strenuous or stress inducing activities for atleast six of that and she will have to be signed off by a doctor before engaging in activities such as workouts, heavy lifting, sexual intercourse, and returning to work.

"The most common complication from that surgery is bleeding and tearing from her chest incision and the damage done to her heart. With all surgeries comes the risk of complications such as infections, and all that which I'm sure you're well versed in by now. But bar any complications she should be out of the hospital within five days.

"The best thing for someone recovering from open heart surgery," Sid says, "Is rest. Rest as much as they can, but they also need to complete simple daily tasks themselves such as getting dressed and going on small walks. I would recommend having her stay in bed until tomorrow, so the effects of anaesthesia should be well worn off by then, before having her starting with those small tasks, but the sooner she starts them the faster her recovery will be. Those minor daily tasks will also help with her mental state as well, it will keep her busy enough she feels like she's doing something as well as allowing her to take it easy and rest as much as possible."

I nod, even though Sid cannot see me, taking in all the information. "Anything else?"

"That's all I can offer from the top of my head, her doctor may have more to say on it seeing as they will have more of an insight to her recovery."

I hang up and put the phone back into my trousers.

Max cocks an eyebrow at me. "Come sit down and just be with her, stop worrying over all that other stuff. Just sit here thankful she's still with us."

"I'm trying to keep her with us." I say defensively.

"I know." Max nods.