“Let me get a doctor for you, Dear.” They watched as the arthritic fingers slowly dialed a number, and she smiled sweetly at them as it rang.
“Emily Russo’s family has arrived,” she said.
“Ok,” she said, and hung up.
“I’ll show you to a waiting room. The ER doctor would like to talk to you,” she said. She stood up slowly and grabbed a small cane. The heku patiently walked behind her as she hobbled, unhurriedly, down a long white hallway.
“In there, Dears,” she said, pointing to a small conference room.
The three heku stepped into the conference room, and two doctors inside stood and shook their hands.
“Have a seat,” the eldest doctor said.
“Are you all relatives?” he asked.
Chevalier nodded, “Yes, I’m her husband. This is her brother, and her Dad.”
“Very well, you may all stay then,” he said.
“How is she? We don’t know a lot,” Chevalier said.
“Let me just say right up front, that there are no life threatening injuries, and the baby is fine,” he explained, and the doctor by him nodded.
“Ok,” Chevalier said, watching them.
“There’s no way to do this nicely, so we’ll just list the injuries.” He frowned and looked at the other doctor.
Chevalier winced.
“She has a fracture to her left arm, both bones in her lower right leg are broken, and broke out of the skin, and she dislocated her left shoulder. That’s it for her extremities,” the elder doctor said.
The younger doctor sat his elbows on the table and looked at Chevalier, “Probably her most serious injury is to her back. She has a compression fracture to four of her vertebrae, along with six broken ribs. We did an MRI, and her spinal cord isn’t compromised in any way.”
Chevalier nodded, fighting to control his anger.
“She has a serious concussion that we’re watching closely. Other than that, she’s full of cuts and bruises and has frostbite on the fingers of her good hand. It looks like she may have pulled herself to the road,” the young doctor said.
“Can we see her?” Quinn asked when Chevalier didn’t speak.
“Not right now, she’s in surgery. They are trying to repair her arm and leg, and will also try to stabilize her back so more damage isn’t done. We had… some… concerns,” he said, glancing at the older doctor.
“Such as?” Kyle asked.
“It’s concerning us that she keeps saying she was in a hiking accident.”
“Yes, so?”
“Well, we found her a long way from any mountains, or even cliffs large enough to cause that kind of damage. Most women who are pregnant don’t try to hike at all, especially in dangerous areas. Then… her clothes,” he said, glancing at the older doctor.
“Not hiking clothing or something?” Kyle asked.
“Well… not her clothing,” he said, and shrugged.
“What do you mean?” Chevalier asked.
The doctor reached under the table and pulled out a stack of blood soaked clothing. Chevalier reached out and took the once white shirt. It was a men’s button-up shirt, with the green Equites crest on the pocket, standard guard issue. He then picked up the pants, and laid them back down, they were also standard guard issue.
He nodded, “These are mine.”
“We had to call in CSI for this one, but they discovered that the blood isn’t human,” the doctor said, smiling slightly.
Chevalier kept his face calm and nodded.
“Does she always wear clothing that doesn’t fit?” the elder doctor asked.
Chevalier frowned, “No, something must have happened to hers, and she changed into mine. They were in her backpack because I was supposed to meet her tomorrow.”
The doctor nodded and stood up, “We’ll let you know as soon as she’s out of surgery.”
Just as he left, Kyle’s phone rang, “Yes?”
“Where?” he asked, frowning.
“Go there tonight and bring him here before taking him back to Council City,” Kyle ordered, and then hung up.
“They found Mark. He’s pretty beat up and has healed incorrectly. He told them where to find the helicopter and the other bodies. They should be here in an hour, and then they’ll take Mark back to the city. He’ll have to be re-adjusted.” Kyle said.
“What happened?” Chevalier asked.
“They didn’t say. We’ll have to wait until Mark gets here,” Kyle said.
The heku waited in the hospital’s conference room for any news on Emily. They waited in silence, and it wasn’t until Kyle’s phone rang, almost two hours later, that anyone spoke.
“Yes?”
“Ok”
Kyle turned, “They got us a rental car. It’s out front and Mark is in the back.”
Chevalier nodded and walked out, followed by Quinn and Kyle. They went up to the Jeep Cherokee and opened the back door. Chevalier looked at Mark and then frowned at Kyle.
“Mark,” was all Kyle could say.
Mark was lying down in the back of the Jeep. His upper body looked fairly normal, but his lower body was contorted into unnatural angles.
“Are you ok?” Kyle asked finally.
“Never better,” he said, halfway grinning.
“What happened?” Chevalier asked.
“It was Frank. He tried to take over the controls from the pilot. He and I got into a fight, and Frank ended up slamming into the controls. The next thing I know, we were hurdling to the ground. The pilot was able to pull up at the last minute, but we hit the side of the mountain.” Mark grew silent and looked down at his hands.
“I thought she was dead,” he said softly, and Chevalier could tell he was mad at himself over her injuries.
“When I finally found her, she was pretty bad. She had broken bones, and her head was bleeding,” Mark said painfully. “I wasn’t healing right and I couldn’t lift her, but she finally managed to crawl into a recess of the mountain to get out of the cold wind. I started a fire and dried out my clothes, and then burned hers. They were soaked in blood and frozen stiff,” Mark told them, looking up at Chevalier nervously.
“We were able to limp to the road. That’s when the car found her,” Mark said, sighing.
Chevalier watched Mark with great admiration, “Thank you, I owe you a great debt.”
Mark shrugged, “It’s my job.”
“No it’s not, you went way beyond the call of duty,” Kyle said softly.
“How is she?” Mark asked.
“She’s in surgery, we don’t know yet.”
“The baby?” Mark asked finally.
“The baby’s ok.” Chevalier smiled, “Get back to Council City, and take Equites 1.”
The heku driving nodded, “I’ll have your car back in a few hours.”
Quinn decided to go with Mark, so Chevalier and Kyle went back into the hospital. The doctors were just walking into the conference room when they arrived.
“How is she?” Chevalier asked, sitting down.
“Everything went well. You can see her, but I want to warn you… she looks pretty bad,” he said, standing up.
Chevalier and Kyle followed the doctor into the ICU, and he opened the door and let them go in alone.
Both of the heku stood in the doorway and looked at her. Emily’s right leg was in a sling attached to the ceiling, and her left arm and shoulder were casted and propped up on a pillow. A light sheet covered the rest of her body, but her face was cut up. She had a black eye and ice packs on her head. She was hooked up to monitors that beeped on the wall, and four I.V. bags were strung above the bed and dripped fluid slowly into her arm.
Chevalier sat down in a chair by her side and gently touched her right hand. Her fingers were bandaged on both hands because of the frostbite. Kyle stood back by the door, afraid to even approach her.
A nurse walked in and smiled at Chevalier, and then looked through Emily’s chart.
“Is she sedated?”
Chevalier asked.
“Not right now. She’s on pain medication though, and her concussion has kept her pretty much out of it since she woke up from surgery. When she wakes up, she keeps rambling on about something called a heku.” The nurse smiled at Emily and then left the room.
Chapter 2 - Recovery
Chevalier laid Emily down in their bed extremely slowly and gently. She winced when her back hit the mattress, but then relaxed as she settled down. He propped her leg up on a few pillows, and Kyle stuffed pillows under her arm.
“Do you need anything?” Chevalier asked, sitting on the chair by the bed.
“No, I’m good.” She smiled.
“Allen wants to see you,” Chevalier told her.
“That’s fine,” she said. Sam came in carrying Allen. He looked at Emily, and reached down from Sam’s arms and kissed her on the forehead.
“I love you, Mommy,” Allen said, looking at her curiously.
She smiled, “I love you too, Baby.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes.” She smiled slightly.
“Enough,” Chevalier said, and Sam took Allen out to the stables.
“How is Mark?” Emily asked. “You promised.”
“Ok, we’ll go get him,” Kyle said. They didn’t want Emily to worry about Mark, so they waited until he healed properly. The faction’s doctor had to re-break almost every bone in his lower body so it could reset properly.
Mark came in a few minutes later and smiled, “Heya, Killer.”
Emily looked over him carefully, “Are you ok?”
“Sure!” Mark said, spinning easily.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He touched her hand, “Any time, Kiddo. Did you bring my clothes back?”
Emily smiled, “You sure you wanted them back? They were covered in Valle goo.”
Mark laughed and left the room.
“Has Exavior called?” she asked quietly.
“No, he hasn’t,” Chevalier said, trying to sound concerned. He still didn’t trust Exavior, and couldn’t forget that he was there when the Valle and Encala tried to destroy the Equites city.
Emily shut her eyes and winced.
“Do you hurt?” Kyle asked, grabbing the bag the doctor gave them.
“No,” she lied, but her face told them the truth.
“You can’t even fight this off, so don’t try,” Kyle said, filling a syringe.
Her eyes grew wide, “Please don’t, I’m ok.”
“Mmhmmm,” he said, putting the bottle back in the bag.
“Kyle… don’t!” she screamed as he injected the pain medicine. She frowned at him, and then felt herself relaxing as the medicine flowed throughout her body.
Chevalier chuckled, “I appreciate you doing that. She’d never forgive me.”
“No problem, I’m sure I’m already in trouble for the council chambers. How much worse can it get?” Kyle said.
“Back in five hours?” Chevalier asked. Kyle nodded, and then disappeared.
Chevalier watched as Emily slept and looked through the doctor’s instructions for her. He chuckled when they suggested she may have a long-term brain injury because of her incessant use of the word ‘hekoo’ while under medication. He wondered how the four weeks on bed rest were going to go. Her back was taped up, and she had to remain as stables as possible for the entire time. She had six weeks in an arm cast and eight weeks in a leg cast.
Chevalier shook his head. He wasn’t sure how to make her follow the doctor’s orders. He guessed there was no way, and finally decided to just do the best he could.
Emily was compliant through the first three weeks. Any time she tried to move, her back caused enough pain that she dutifully stayed in bed. Kyle kept up the injections for a few days, and then backed off to only once or twice a day for the next few weeks.
The part Emily fought the most, was being fed. With one arm in a cast and the other’s fingers wrapped up and too stiff to bend from the frostbite, Chevalier had to feed her, and she found that humiliating and degrading.
“What do you want for lunch today?” Chevalier asked her after the movie ended.
“A sandwich, that way I can feed myself,” she said, and flexed her fingers. They were getting less stiff every day.
He grinned, “Ok, though I don’t mind.”
“I bet you don’t,” she said, looking around the room.
“We even got a new chef. I’m sure he’s going to love sandwiches, very easy,” Chevalier said, knowing her order had already been heard.
“How many more days until I can try to stand up?” she asked, for the second time that day.
“It’s still six days away.” Chevalier grinned.
“It’s sooo boring,” she said, frustrated.
Chevalier turned around and took the tray from the heku, then sat it on the table. He lifted the dome and handed Emily half of an egg salad sandwich. Emily ate slowly, her stiff fingers held tightly to the sandwich. She finished the half and ate the other half a little faster.
“Drink?” Chevalier asked.
Emily nodded.
Chevalier picked up the special cup they used for Emily. It had a lid and straw, so she could drink lying down.
Emily took a drink and then immediately spit red liquid all over the bed. Chevalier gasped and put the cup down quickly, and then grabbed a rag. Emily was gagging as blood dripped down her chin.
“Damon!” Chevalier yelled.
Damon blurred into the room and stifled a grin, “Problems?”
“The new chef gave her blood to drink,” Chevalier hissed, digging in a basket full of chocolates high on a shelf.
“And… you want some?” Damon asked, confused.
Chevalier growled at him, “Punish him. That is your job, is it not?”
Emily began stuffing chocolates into her mouth to get rid of the taste of blood.
Damon grinned when she looked at him, and then blurred from the room.
“I’m sorry, Em. I should have checked to see what he sent,” Chevalier said, stripping her covers off and throwing them in a corner. Servants appeared and threw a clean sheet and a blanket over her.
“That is so nasty,” she said, gagging a bit.
“It’s infuriating that he made such a stupid mistake,” Chevalier hissed.
“It was gross, but no harm done,” she said, eating another chocolate.
Damon appeared back in the room almost an hour later, and Emily glared at him.
“Cheer up, he’s been punished.” Damon was rocking back and forth on his feet, his hands clasped behind his back.
“What did you do?” Emily asked. The curiosity got to her.
“I made him eat what he’s making you for dinner,” Damon said, grinning.
“That should work.” Chevalier grimaced.
“What’s he making?” Emily asked skeptically.
“I don’t know what it is… red and stringy.” He shuddered. Damon looked around the room and continued to rock on his feet.
“Are you waiting for something?” Emily asked.
Damon looked at her, “Waiting, in case someone else tries to assault you.”
“Like you’d care,” she snapped at him.
“I would, most definitely,” Damon said, acting concerned. “I’d like to lessen the time we all have to carry you around the palace.”
“Get out,” Emily said, throwing a chocolate at him and missing.
“Nice shot.”
“Get out!” Emily screamed.
“Damon,” Chevalier sighed, and Damon blurred from the room.
“He’s infuriating!”
“Yes he is. Can I get you anything else?”
“Don’t suppose there are any popsicles in the place?” She asked.
“Popsicle?”
“Never mind,” she sighed.
***
“We all ready?” Chevalier asked.
Emily nodded, her eyes suddenly afraid.
The faction doctor
was in the room with pain medicine ready. Kyle had his hands under Emily’s injured arm, and Chevalier was lifting under her good arm.
“Ok, all on three…” Chevalier said, and counted slowly to three.
At once, the doctor swung Emily’s legs over the side of the bed, while Kyle and Chevalier lifted and turned her body. She cried out slightly and then sat up on the edge of the bed, breathing heavily.
“Need to lie back down?” Chevalier asked.
Emily shook her head. She didn’t want to have to do that again.
After just a few moments, she raised her head and looked out over the room.
“How are you feeling?” the doctor said.
“Just dizzy, give me a sec,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut.
They all watched her, carefully.
“Ok,” she said, and then opened her eyes.
“So?” Chevalier asked. He and Kyle were both ready to catch her if she fell.
“I’m sitting.” She smiled.
“Do you want to stand up?” the doctor asked, and Emily nodded.
“Ok, up you go,” he said as Kyle and Chevalier lifted her up so she was standing on her one good foot.
Chevalier braced under her casted arm, and acted as a crutch as she maneuvered over to look out the window. Her eyes scanned everything from the clouds in the sky to the grass. She’d been staring at the ceiling for four long weeks.
“Did they give me crutches?” she asked, looking around.
“Just one, you can’t use a crutch under your left arm,” the doctor told her, and handed her the crutch. She slipped it under her arm, and Chevalier let go of her. She hobbled slowly across the room as Chevalier stayed close to her in case she fell.
“Oh freedom,” she said, grinning.
“Great, now she’ll be slipping guards and sneaking out in no time,” Damon said from the door.
Emily frowned, “Why are you in my room?”
“I need to talk to the Elder,” he said, watching her. “Getting fat lying around, aren’t you?”
Emily grabbed a vase and hurled it at his head. He ducked and it shattered against the wall behind him.
“Damon,” Chevalier said. “Meet me in my office in ten minutes.”
Damon nodded, bowed to Emily, and walked slowly down the hallway.
“Ugh!” Emily screamed.
Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series Page 3
