House of Cards (4 page)

C
hapter 6: Complications

Avalynn
’s POV

I’m at the hospital again, fully aware that this has quickly become my second home. We are now four months in since the accident and not a whole lot has changed. Things haven’t gotten any worse, so the Doctors say that is a good sign at least.

I’m sitting comfortably in the chair that I’ve grown accustomed to, grading papers
, when all of the sudden a loud beeping noise sounds. I look up from my answer sheet and my heart plunges into my feet. Daxton’s heart monitor is flat lining. Nurses and Doctors, it’s hard for me to differentiate between the two right now, come rushing in through the door. I’m pushed out of the room and told to go sit in the waiting room until they can figure out what’s going on.

A ‘
Code Blue’ alarm sounds over the hospital loudspeaker and I can’t breathe. I somehow manage to get shallow breaths into my lungs, just enough to keep me from passing out, but it hurts badly, every single inhale and exhale that I force myself to complete.

I can’t sit down
and instead I pace the waiting area, back and forth; nowhere to go and nothing I can do. I’m scared. I pray out loud, not caring who is around and possibly listening.

“God, please don’t let this be the end. Let him continue to fight. He has been pushing so hard since this all happened. This can’t be it.” I’m pleading with God. It feels like I’m doing that endlessly these days
but it’s worth it, if it saves his life. I make a promise, right then and there, that I’ll never ask for a solitary thing for as long as I live if I can just have my family back; alive and well.

Hours go by and I’m still waiting. I have managed to contact Gram and Gabe, so that they can make it up to the hospital. They call the rest of
Daxton’s friends and we are all sitting in the waiting room in complete silence, anxiously waiting.

I’m expecting bad news. I’ve been trying to keep the faith, but with each passing moment with no change, it only
gets more difficult. Nervous, I bite my nails down to the quick. They’re bleeding and the pain feels good, if only for a minute - it’s a relief from all the pent up pain that I’ve been feeling for the last couple of months.

After hours,
which feel like days, the Doctor finally comes out. He looks grim and my heart feels like it may beat right out of my chest and start flopping around on the floor. We all gather around to hear what he has to say, making sure that he only has to say it once.

“Daxton has
had some serious complications.” He states unaffectionate.

Gabe
wastes no time speaking up for all of us.

“What kind of complications?” He questions
, not something out of left field, the Doctor had to be expecting that we would want to know. Why confusion is plain on his face is beyond me.

“Well
, right now, Mr. James, we are still trying to evaluate your brother’s condition. I am at liberty to tell you that he is still alive, but in critical condition. His brain has experienced severe swelling and we are unsure of what the cause is. The accident obviously is the main reason for the swelling, but why it didn’t show up on his scans immediately is still unknown to us.” 

“Well…what do we do?” Gabe asks tensely.

“You wait.” the Doctor responds, his voice lacking any emotional inflection. He nods his head and exits the waiting room quickly.

My mind starts to
absolutely freak out. I have to talk myself out of pulling out my phone and being a Google-search Doctor. I know that I’ll only drive myself crazier; I just hate not knowing.

As w
e wait another five hours, we all pass out in random locations in the waiting room. Surprisingly, the nurses don’t mess with us or attempt to kick us out even after visiting hours are over. Apparently they know something we don’t and that just makes this even more nerve-wracking. It’s really serious, I know that. Anything involving a brain injury is.

A different Doctor comes into the room and wakes us up.

“Daxton is going into recovery now. We had to do emergency surgery to get some of the fluids off of his brain, which was causing the massive swelling. We inserted a tube through his skull to relieve some of the pressure. We are just lucky to have gotten to him time. If he wasn’t in a coma right now, and had been home instead, he may have died in his sleep or worse.”

Well
, this Doctor leaves little to the imagination. I guess I can appreciate him for laying it on thick, but my chest tightens at the thought. It’s really hard to be feeling lucky that Daxton is in a coma, but I guess it may be a blessing in disguise. Sometimes in life, we pray for something and wonder why it doesn’t come true; when in reality, something better is planned. Not everything we pray for is right for us.

“We’re not out of the woods just yet, but I have high hopes that we won’t see any more complications in this facet. You all should go home and get some rest. Daxton’s vitals are stable and he’ll be ready for visitors again in the morning.”

We slowly dredge our way out of the waiting room. I stay the night at Gram and Gabe’s because I’m too tired to drive. They don’t even have to ask me, they can tell by the sheer exhaustion written all over my face. Gabe silently wraps his arm around me and directs me to their car where I climb in wordlessly and fall asleep in the backseat. The next morning, I got dropped off bright and early at the hospital and went in as always to see Daxton. I was nervous that when I arrived, his bed would be made up and they would tell me that he was gone, but he was right there, same room. His head was wrapped up, mummified almost, but he was alive. And that was all that mattered to me at this point.

Honestly, if every single thing changed about Daxton and he had to be taken care of for the rest of his life
, I’d do it. I’d devote my life to taking care of him. I think, deep down, I’m preparing myself to do just that.

This was definitely one of the worst moments throughout Daxton’s hospital stay
, but it certainly wasn’t the last.

Chapter 7:

An exciting moment gone astray

***Avalynn***

It’s been five months and twenty-six days since the accident.
Daxton is doing much better since the scare and all of his tests have resumed back to what’s normal for him now. He’s still not awake, but the Doctors have high hopes that he will return to normal before no time. They have to continue shaving his head and draining the excess fluid; I figure that’s a small price to pay for his life, though.

I’ve returned to teaching and the
everyday tasks of my boring life. I visit Daxton in the evenings, but I’m exhausted by the time I get up to the hospital and usually take a nap by his bedside. The nurses wake me when visiting hours are over and I head to Faith’s house to sleep. I wake up in the morning and repeat the same tasks as the previous day. My life has become one big routine. I gave up my apartment - I was really behind on rent after the accident and, truthfully, I could hardly stomach being there alone. I liked having the company of Faith and she didn’t mind us being there. I was so blessed when she came into my life that I know for sure. She steps in and takes care of Abby when I’m having a bad day. It’s extremely helpful considering I’m starting to learn how to function again. Daxton has had a few setbacks and scares, but at least he is still with us all. For that, I am thankful.

I go up to the hospital, no different than any other day. I start reading one of my favorite romance novels
, trying to escape from the sadness that I feel on a daily basis. It works and I appreciate the short term journey from reality. I pull the chair close to Daxton’s bed, just like I usually do, and snuggle up to him as best as I can in it. I pull my knees to my chest and get comfortable. It doesn’t take long before I fall asleep with a content sigh. It’s been really hard for me to sleep at night by myself. I’m not sure how long I’m asleep, but I’ll never forget how I woke up.

I feel a small brushstroke of a thumb over my hand, quickly escalating to rough nudges. I try to open my eyes, but they feel so heavy
, and I mumble for the thumb to stop in its relentless nudge to try and wake me. This is the best sleep I’ve gotten in a while. The torture does not stop, so I make work of opening my eyes. The harsh light forces me to squint. By the time I get them all the way open, I almost fall out of my chair at the sight before me.

Daxton, awake,
his eyes open. He’s looking right at me and I can’t stop my irises from taking in his beautiful face. Tears immediately fill my eyes and forcefully begin to flow down my cheeks. I find words, but struggle to get my voice to work.

“You’re awake…oh my god…are you ok? Do you want me to call the nurse?” There is so much that I want to say, but
I’m careful with my speech. I don’t want to overwhelm him upon first waking up. His face holds an unfamiliar expression that I have never witnessed before - one of confusion and discontentment. I can also see hints of pain. I grab his call button and press it, fumbling with it to keep my fingers steady. The nurses really need to come in and look him over. I can’t will myself to move from the room just yet, though. So the call button will have to suffice.

“Was I sleeping
? Where am I?” Questions begin to come out, his voice hoarse and unrecognizable. I laugh, more of a nervous noise than anything else. It’s weird that I don’t know what to say. It’s just been so long. I’ve been waiting on pins and needles for this moment and nothing feels like the right thing to say.

“Yeah, something like that.” I respond briefly, “But you’re awake now…that’s all that matters. You’re in the hospital. There was an accident, but I think everything will be okay now. The nurses and
doctors have been taking amazing care of you. Are you in pain?” I ask seriously. I’m sure he is. My body aches from oversleeping for a couple of hours; I cannot imagine lying in bed for months.

“It’s manageable
… I’ll be okay,” he forces out. He studies my face with intense, scrutinizing eyes. I can’t help it; I throw myself around him and love the comfortable feel of his body melding with mine. I attempt to be gentle in my assault, but it’s been too long since I’ve felt the warmth of his body while he was present fully.

“I’m so glad you’re ok
ay, Dax. I’ve been so worried. I love you so much!” I exclaim. I reach over to kiss him, but he turns his head away slowly and I get his cheek instead of mouth. I’m not sure how to react. I’m assuming that I must have hurt him when I leaned over.

“An accident…”
he whispers to himself. I’m not sure if he even intended for me to hear it at all. I begin to speak again, but I’m quickly cut off by a rush of words strung together almost incoherently.

“I don’t know how well you know me or if you even know me at all and
I’m really sorry if any of this hurts your feelings. The last thing I remember is getting wasted with my dudes and fighting with my girl. I'm sure you're probably real pissed off right now and I don't blame you. I probably lead you on - feel free to slap me. I’m not in the best place right now, been going through a rough patch, but this is a wakeup call for me; I’m ready to overcome this shit I‘m dealing with and move on. Life is too fucking short. I know that this isn't going to make anything better. I have no excuse for my actions, I just feel like you need to know the truth. If my girlfriend Krissi happens to come in here...we are both dead meat. You look far too sweet of a girl to stand on the opposing side of a Krissi beat down, trust me.”

***Daxton***

I hate to come off so blunt and harsh to a complete stranger, but this chick doesn't deserve any verbal lashings from the queen of mean herself. Not to mention that I feel oddly comfortable talking to her. In a different time or place, I’d definitely be into her. Krissi and I have been together so long now, that I can’t even imagine myself being with anyone else. I’ll totally take the blame if shit goes down. I’m sure it’s my fault we are in this mess in the first place. This girl looks like a real life angel and if she doesn’t leave soon, I might beg her to stay. She’s far too fucking beautiful for her own good. I secretly hope that some guy worth her time will make her feel
like that every single day of her life. My head is telling me that it's more important to make things better with Krissi, we have been together for too many years now to throw it all away. My heart, however, is telling me a completely different story. My head begins to throb incessantly as these thoughts roll around inside.

The blonde angel doesn’t say a word, the hurt very evident behind her watery eyes. She begins to twist a beautiful pink ring around her finger. It matches her perfectly. I don’t think any other ring would look as good on her finger. Tears begin to rush down her face and I
badly want to to wipe them away. She tries to hide her hurt by looking away, but I can just tell; somehow, I can just tell. She turns around quickly and rushes out of the room. My arm consequently whips back at the sudden movement. I didn't even realize that I was holding her hand. An immediate sense of dread washes over me and suddenly I would give almost anything to make it go away. My conscious is yelling that I've just made the biggest mistake of my life in letting her walk away, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

The nurses come rushing in to check me out shortly after her departure. The doctor comes in after the nurses leave to tell me about my injuries and how long I’ve been in a coma. He asks me simple questions like my name, date of birth, etc. He asks me what year it is and who I remember in my life. I tell him the best I can and he gives me a sad look. I can feel his pity thick in the air and I don’t like it. He explains that my short term memory is currently at a loss. That it is not in fact that year that I stated, but several years after. He doesn’t tell me anything about my personal life. I’m assuming he doesn’t really know shit about me. I can feel the rage boil inside of me; I’m pissed off about this accident. I’m mad at myself for not being strong enough to remember. I feel empty, like I’m missing something important. I start to get overwhelmed and the doctor has to sedate me. I’m passed out cold within a few minutes. I welcome the dreams that come, full of beautiful blue eyes glimmering hope.