The Flaw in your Heart

54. Comatose

Chapter 54

Tessa’s POV

“You’ll be able to see him soon sweetie”, a kind nurse was talking to me as I stood outside the family and relatives room, trying to calm myself down. Dan’s parents had gone in to see him first, which I understood, but I just badly wanted to be with him. Dan’s Dad had phoned Fran and she was getting the next flight home from a holiday with friends in Tenerife to be with her brother. 

“What will he look like?” I asked the nurse. “I’ve never seen anyone in a coma before”

“He’ll just look like he’s sleeping, but there’ll be lots of wires connecting up to him, and he’ll have a tube going down his throat so he can breathe”, the nurse explained. “But he can’t feel any of it, so don’t worry about him being in any pain, he’s definitely not”

I nodded, mentally preparing myself to see Dan soon. 

“Are you sure I can’t get you anything? A drink? Anything you want to eat?” the nurse asked.

“No, I’m okay thank you”, I replied shakily.

She smiled comfortingly, rubbing my arm before walking down to the nurses’ station, respecting my silent wish to be alone.

Not too long later a different nurse came up to me, saying I could go in to see Dan now. His parents were still in with him, but they wanted me to come and see him, knowing how much of a state I was already in. I followed the nurse down to where Dan’s bed was in the ICU and it brought back memories from when I was down in the CICU following my surgery; I realised actually how difficult it must have been for Dan.

“Here he is sweetheart”, the nurse said, opening a curtain to Dan’s cubicle.

I swallowed the painful lump down my throat as my eyes first laid on Dan’s lifeless body in the hospital bed. He did, as the nurse told me, look as if he were sleeping. He looked very peaceful. He had so many different wires and tubes connecting to him and coming out of him, the most noticeable being the thick tube coming out of his mouth; allowing him to breathe, and he was surrounded by beeping machines. His skin was ghostly pale, making his hair, which was still in its messy quiff despite everything that had happened, appear even darker – almost black. 

“Oh Dan”, I whispered, barely audible, as I walked to his bed side. His parents were on the other side of the bed, his Mum holding his hand and her eyes watery with tears. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, pushing a few hairs out of his face. I almost smiled; if he’d been awake he would have pushed her away, saying how embarrassing she was. But he couldn’t do anything. I fought back the tears, shakily reaching out to touch his forehead. 

“Would you like a chair?” the nurse asked.

I nodded, afraid I’d burst into tears if I spoke. She disappeared and reappeared with a plastic chair, dragging it over to the side of the bed for me. I sat down, leaning forward and placing my hand on Dan’s arm, being careful of the wires and tubes. 

I let out a shaky breath, wiping the tears from under my eyes with my free hand. 

“Are you alright?” Dan’s Dad asked me, causing me to jump slightly.

I gave the smallest of smiles, nodding ever so slightly. “I’m okay”, I said hoarsely, but then the tears began spilling over and down my cheeks; revealing that I was far from ‘okay’.

“Oh Tessa”, he said sadly, coming over to me. He put his arms around me and I let go of Dan’s arm to cry into his Dad’s chest. He rubbed my arm comfortingly as he held me tightly, and he really and truly felt like a granddad.