Second Chances: a Coincidences novel (Book 2)

Chapter 15: The Final Straw

She took me to get my vitals checked, heartrate, blood pressure, and my temperature. All of them were way off the scale with my blood pressure exceedingly high and my heartrate at 130 beats a minute.

The nurse took me to one of the units, trying to keep myself from fully breaking when all of this was making me cry.

I watched as I walked, noticing how some patients were critically ill while others were not so ill in comparison to others.

I laid down on the bed, taking off my tank top since they had to put whatever over my chest to detect my heartrate. They even tied a rope over my arm and began to draw blood. I hated needles and I hate it more when they had to take blood from me.

The nurse pulled four vials of blood, unable to stand the sight of it because looking at my own blood in a tube made me feel ill like there was something wrong with me.

"You're going to be okay, I promise!" the nurse said, whose name was Fatimah. "Is there anyone you would like me to call? Maybe your parents or a family member, a friend?

"No, I'm on my own" I said, not wanting to interrupt my family when they were out doing their thing.

They had done more than enough for me and I did not want to have them come here to this dreadful place while I was being treated.

Fatimah then rubbed some alcohol over the top of my right hand, making sure no germs were present when they punctured me with an IV. She slowly began to puncture my very visible and popped vein. I flinched as pain radiated to the rest of my hand.

I took a deep breath and she hooked me up to a bag of intravenous fluids since it turned out I was likely a bit dehydrated.

"Here, drink this with some apple juice so that you don't taste the bitterness. This will help with the headache as it is a strong medication."

"Thanks" I took the cup and started sipping it.

She then added something to my IV, using a needle but thankfully that needle was not going to puncture my skin.

"I'll be back to check on you in a bit" she gracefully smiled.

"Thank you" I said, wiping away a tear that escaped my eye.

She smiled, almost as if assuring me I would be okay.

Lying here, alone, I felt lonely and like a seriously damaged individual. I looked at my phone and Khaled had sent me a photo of him and Louai with their parents, smiling, along with Sheikh Hamdan.

I put the phone down as I was starting to get sleepy, as the nurse gave me a mild sedative so I could rest a bit.

My headache was starting to simmer down, thank God, because this had to be the worst migraine, ever.

I closed my eyes, attempting to go to sleep, and felt as the slumber began to overtake me. I also started to think about what explanation I was going to give my family, as I did not want them to know I was here.

***

Khaled's POV

I called Omar but he was not answering, though the chat receipt indicated he saw the photo I had sent him.

It was hard to explain but it felt as if something was not quite right. I was worried about Omar's well-being as he was home alone, and his lack of an answer made me feel uneasy and felt it in the pit of my stomach.