Zailey (Sequel) ✔️

Part Thirty Eight

Zander

I hadn't slept.
For one, they wouldn't let me because of my concussion.
They seemed it dangerous for me to sleep.
For two, I couldn't sleep. Not while knowing that the girl I care about most in this entire fucking world, was still laying unconscious in a stupid, rigid, stark white sheeted hospital bed.
Needles were dug under the skin of her hands.
Tubes and wires carried on from them, leading to machines that consistently made beeping, sucking and hissing noises.
It was over twelve hours since the ambulance had brought Bailey in and the Doctor's had run their initial tests, so a short while ago they'd taken her off to run more scans on her head.
"Unfortunately it appears the swelling on her brain is still there."
The Doctor on duty had informed Arian.
"Though it looks as though it's possibly gone down a little since the last scan."
"That's good news, right?"
Arian had replied.
"Yes."
The Doctor had agreed.
"However, it's not enough that we can allow her to wake up on her own yet "
It was still just going to be a torturous waiting game.
I wasn't sure how much patience these God damn arseholes thought we had.
None of the boys had caught more than a few minutes' nap, sitting in the rigid chairs of the waiting room, no doubt earning themselves a crick in their neck and/or back.
Some were routinely on their feet, trying to stretch out their bodies and making excessive visits to the canteen to load up on coffee, considering there were no real cafe's open at this hour of the night/morning.
We were basically on a turn around of who would visit Bailey's bedside at any one time, hoping for change, while the Nurse's stepped in about every hour and a Doctor would every two to three hours.
"Please, please, please don't let her die!"
I found myself begging into the room that was silent other than the beeping, hissing and sucking of the machines that were measuring Bailey's heart rate and feeding her oxygen and some other fluids I had no clue about.
I wasn't a guy who believed in no 'God'.
I knew my Uncle Nate and his family firmly believed in the divine power of the greater good, praying each morning and night as well as around their meal times.
I'd almost felt like the devil and that my skin would burst into flames when I'd been staying at their house.
But I'd sucked it up and stayed silent while they went about their prayers.
As a kid I'd prayed while hiding locked in a cupboard Benjie, Darwin or Elliot had forced me into as a means to protect me from Dad's raging, drunk and probably drugged up fits.
But nothing ever changed.
I'd begged and pleaded for the man of greater power to stop my Dad.
For us to stop hearing Mum's crying and her screams of pain and despair when Dad's fists would fly.
It never changed.
Mum would try and hide any bruises that landed on her face with makeup.
She would try and not wince when she'd walk around getting our breakfast ready and our lunch boxes for school.
She'd try not to bawl her eyes out when she'd beg the power company to not turn off our power, because the arsehole Father blew the bills money on the Pokies or a Poker table.
When Dad would lay into my Brother's and eventually me, blinded by alcohol, drugs and pure rage, I knew no greater force was going to help us.
Eventually Benjie, Darwin and Elliot just got big enough to fend the arsehole off.
Mum would scream the loudest when Dad's fists or boots would land on my Brother's and Me, though I didn't yet understand why somebody else taking the blows apparently hurt her even more than when she did.
Those ugly sounds of my childhood would always haunt me.
So now I knew that no other force was going to help Bailey.
But I had to try anything there possibly was.
Many people still believed in the divine power of prayer, so I figured begging into the silence of the room was at least worth a shot.
Bailey Grace was far too beautiful of an Angel to be taken away now.
I can pick her instantly in a room, corridor, or beach crowded with people.
Her smile lights up not only an entire room, but ignites my heart with a spark that I never wanted to live without.
Her eyes sparkle like the perfect cloudless summer sky, so pure and blue.
Her body, wrapped up in my arms, is the entire best feeling in this world.
Not even catching the rare seven foot wave that rolls into our coast line could compare to the feeling of our bodies pressed together and the fast heating of our hearts echoing into each other's body.
"Please don't take her away!"
I begged in desperation, to nobody in particular, my hands clasped firmly together in front of my heart and my elbows resting on my thighs.
My chest felt like there was no air left in my lungs, so tight and constricted.
My heart felt like it was tearing to pieces, sharp shards shattering off, ready to pierce the rest of the insides of my body.
My throat burned with an intense, searing pain.
I was practically raw from all the tears I'd already shed within the last sixteen odd hours, knowing the predicament this beautiful girl was in.
Nobody had yet said in quite as many words that she could die.
But none of us are stupid enough to believe there's not the chance she won't make it.
It's been about seventeen hours that she's been out cold, with tubes and wires helping her to regulate her body and keep breathing.
There's still swelling on her brain.
Not one of the Evans boys or my own Brother's has gone home even once yet.
The furthest anybody has travelled was outside for some 'fresh air' or to get food or drinks from somewhere that's at least outside the hospital.
"Son, you should really get some rest."
Came a gentle, soothing voice from behind me.