[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed

by Mary D. Brooks

“Eva...”

  “Eva?”

  “Uh...” Eva stopped and Tommy could see she was trying to remember her surname.

  “Don’t worry, we will work on that. Maybe in a few hours that will come back,” Tommy said with a smile and nodded. “Do you know where you are?”

  “Hoshpital.”

  “Good. Are you in pain?”

  Eva shook her head slightly and winced. “I know you’re in pain and you don’t want to tell me, and I know we are going to play this game.”

  Eva opened her eye. “Tommy.”

  Tommy stopped and looked down at his charge. “Ah, you remembered me.”

  Eva blanched suddenly. Tommy very quickly brought up the dish and held her as she vomited. She groaned while he gently cleaned her face.

  “Your stomach should settle soon,” he said as he resettled Eva. “Go to sleep now.”

  He took Eva’s chart with him and left the room.

  ***

  Tommy entered Eva’s room with Stella to find Eva asleep. “I thought you had gone to the doctors’ lounge for some sleep?”

  “I just wanted to have a final check before I got some rest,” Stella replied. She looked at the chart. “How did Theo convince Zoe to go home? I thought we were going to have quite a deal of trouble getting her out of here.”

  “He didn’t. Mama did.”

  “Ah.” Stella smiled. She checked the readings on the heart monitor. “Your mama has a way about her.”

  “I thought that was a miracle.” Tommy softly chuckled.

  “No, my son, the miracle is right here.” Stella shone the light into Eva’s eye. “This woman should be dead right now.”

  Tommy stayed quiet while Stella conducted her checks and then wrote in the chart. “Alright, I think I’ll go to sleep. Wake me if there is any change.” She kissed Tommy on the cheek and left.

  “I bet not all doctors get to kiss their nurses, eh Evy?” Tommy whispered. He took another look at her before he left the room, leaving the door wide open.

  ***

  The room was quiet; only the sound of the heart monitor broke the silence. The rustle of the trees outside added to the calmness before a figure materialized before Eva. The figure stood beside Eva’s bed and watched her sleep.

  CHAPTER 18

  Zoe strode down the hospital corridor oblivious to the early morning hospital rituals that went on around her. Her only thought was of Eva and how she had coped during her first night in hospital. She slowed down when she approached the private ward that bore the Lambros name above the door and shook her head in amazement. She stopped for a moment and tried to focus on how she should act with Eva. The last thing Eva needed was to see her worried. She put her hand up on her beanie-covered head and smiled. She knew Eva would get a laugh out of seeing her bald once she got over the shock of not seeing the red hair she loved so much. Seeing herself bald was so strange. She looked different and yet the same.

  She entered the ward, which was extremely quiet compared to the chaos outside. She passed the nurses’ station and was greeted with a smile before she turned into another closed area and entered. There she found another nurses’ station and a familiar face sitting behind the desk, his head down and writing notes.

  Tommy looked up and his face creased into a beaming smile.

  “Good morning,” he greeted Zoe and left the notes he had been writing. He walked around the desk and embraced her.

  “Good morning, Tommy. How’s Eva? Did she wake?”

  “She did, several times, and a couple of times I had to wake her.”

  “How is she?”

  “It’s what we expected. Every time she woke I would ask her who I was, what her name was and so forth. First time she didn’t answer any of my questions, third time she called me Karl and said her name was Eva Muller, and then switched to Tommy. Fifth time she didn’t want to reply to my questions and didn’t want to talk.”

  “Oh, boy. What does that mean?”

  Tommy glanced at Eva’s door, which was closed. “Eva being belligerent. That’s a good sign. I’ve seen her do this before.”

  “In Aiden Hospital, right?”

  “Yes. It happened after every electroshock therapy session Eva had for her melancholy when she was there. It takes a few days for her brain to adjust.”

  “Any sane person would have melancholy if they were subjected to torture,” Zoe responded. “She didn’t suffer an electric shock here.”

  “No, she suffered a brain injury, and Eva’s responses are the same. She’s also had surgery so it’s going to take some time for her to adjust.”

  “Are you saying she suffered the equivalent of that awful procedure and her brain behaved like it did before?”

  “Yes, in a way it was similar. I know you don’t remember what I said to you last night and that’s okay. It’s been a horrible night for you.”

  “Not as horrible as Eva’s was.” Zoe was at a loss to what to say or do, so she stood there trying to understand the situation as best she could. “So how did you treat it before?”

  “It was different then.”

  “What did you do back then?” Zoe repeated her question.

  “The electroshock therapy was used to treat her melancholy, Zoe,” Tommy admitted. “That was the treatment, and the nursing staff just monitored what happened and gave her medications for the pain.”

  Zoe stared at Tommy for a long moment. “What are you going to do now?”

  “Ma and Dr. Harvathe are seeing Eva now. He’s a neurologist and Ma called him to see how Eva is progressing.”

  “Why aren’t you in there with them?”

  “Alexandra is in there; she’s taken over from me. I was waiting for you to arrive.”

  “Oh.” Zoe sat down on the seat next to Tommy. “Thank you for waiting. What can they do?”

  “Zo, you have to wait—”

  “No, I want to know. What are the options? Just tell me.”

  Tommy sat down heavily in his chair and looked up at Zoe. “I’m not a doctor. You have to wait for Ma and Dr. Harvathe to come out.”

  At the mention of the neurologist, the door opened and an older man in a white coat came out, deep in conversation with Stella. They were talking so quietly, Zoe couldn’t hear what they were saying. Henry’s fiancée, Alexandra, was standing next to the two doctors and Zoe tried to attract her attention, but Alexandra deliberately avoided looking towards her.

  Zoe liked Alexandra as soon as they met. She was taken by the woman’s obvious love for Henry and her acceptance of Eva and Zoe’s relationship.

  The first thing you noticed about Alexandra was her height—she was almost as tall as Eva. The other thing Zoe noticed was her eyes. Alexandra’s eyes were a beautiful caramel color and she had light brown curly hair. She was a beautiful curvaceous woman with a personality to match. After the neurologist left, Alexandra’s eyes met Zoe’s and she smiled.

  “Well, if it’s isn’t Mrs. Lambros. Come to check up on Mr. Lambros?” Alexandra teased and embraced Zoe. “How are you, Zo? I like the shaved head,” she added and ran her hand over Zoe’s head.

  Zoe smiled. “If Evy has to have a shaved head, so do I.”

  “You look cute without any hair.”

  “Matching haircuts with Mrs. Lambros. Thank you for looking after Evy. How’s Henry?”

  “Cranky this morning,” Alexandra replied with a smile. “He doesn’t want to stay in bed.”

  “I’ll go and see him soon.”

  “I’m going to give Eva her medications while you talk to Dr. Lambros and then you get to see Eva.”

  Zoe nodded and waited for Stella to come back, which she did as soon as the neurologist left the ward. Stella smiled at her niece and indicated to her to join her in her office, where Zoe followed.

  “Good morning, darling. Did you sleep at all?” Stella put her arms around Zoe and gave her a kiss and a hug.

  “It feels like I haven’t,” Zoe replied. “Tessa has a great shoulder to cry on.”
<
br />   Stella smiled. “Yes, she does, and she shaved your head. It’s a little different. I’m glad she was there for you when you needed her. Now the doctor you saw me with is Dr. Ian Harvathe, one of the leading neurologists in Sydney.”

  “Tommy told me about Eva’s problems.”

  “Yes, she does have a few problems. Eva’s going to have a lot of memory problems over the next few weeks. Don’t expect her to remember things you’ve said, and expect her to ask you the same question even if you just told her the answer. Her short term memory is a little fuzzy and sometimes her speech is slurred, so don’t be alarmed by that.”

  “That’s only temporary, right?”

  Stella nodded her head. “Yes, it’s temporary and in time, Evy will be just fine. For the moment Eva will have some problems dealing with things. Possibly over a year.”

  “What kind of problems?”

  “She’s going to have problems with her memory, with dizzy spells and headaches, nausea, trouble sleeping, and she’s very sensitive to light or noise. She won’t be able to concentrate too much.”

  “Those will go away in time, right?”

  “Yes, in time.”

  “What about her eye?”

  “There doesn’t appear to be any damage to the eye itself although she is having problems with her vision, but that’s to be expected.”

  “Does Dr. Harvathe want to do more surgery?”

  “No. Not at the moment. The bleeding has stopped. The bruising will go down without any permanent damage other than a scar above her eyebrow.”

  “What about her heart?”

  “It looks normal, but I’m going to keep her on the cardiac monitoring machines until I can get a cardiologist to see her.”

  Zoe sighed. “Other than that, she’s fine.”

  “Other than that, she’s fine. You may have another problem.”

  “Oh?”

  Stella smiled. “I know you love Evy’s blue eyes, but this morning her eyes were light green.”

  Zoe blinked in surprise. “Light green?”

  “I thought she may be having a vision as well but they didn’t change color. They stayed light green.”

  “They were normal last night. Well, one was. Are her eyes different because she’s been hurt? Do Tessa’s eyes change color if she’s hurt? Is that a Gifted thing?”

  “No, Tessa’s eyes didn’t change color then.”

  “So it’s related to her brain injury?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think I’ll get an ophthalmologist to see her just yet.” Stella reasoned. “Try explaining that to a doctor.”

  ***

  Zoe opened the door to Eva’s room, which had its curtains drawn and was in semi-darkness. A light breeze was rustling the curtain. She noted that Tommy had remembered Eva liked having the window open when she slept. She entered the room to find Eva’s good eye was closed.

  She stared down at Eva for a long moment and watched her sleep. Zoe brought the chair that was near the corner of the room and sat down. She took off the beanie hoping once Eva saw her bald head, it would get a reaction. As if sensing a presence, Eva opened her eye and blinked. Eva’s good eye was indeed light green. Zoe marveled at the color for a moment before she leaned down and spoke to Eva.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  Eva hesitated and tracked Zoe as she sat on the bed. “Zoe,” she rasped.

  Without a word Zoe cupped Eva’s unbruised cheek. She captured Eva’s mouth and kissed her tenderly. “Try forgetting that.”

  Eva focused on Zoe’s face for a long moment. “Uh…hair…”

  Zoe grinned and patted her bald head. “Yes, I’m sure you don’t like it, but since we promised matching hair lengths,” she said grinning down at a very confused looking Eva. “It’s alright. I know how much you love my red hair. It will grow back.”

  Eva blinked and then closed her good eye and drifted off to sleep.

  “Oh, Evy,” Zoe whispered. She leaned down and kissed her. “We’re going to get through this.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Five Days Later.

  Monday, April 16, 1951

  The room was quiet. The bed table where Zoe had eaten dinner was placed nearby, and she was now settled in one of the chairs. The hospital had approved Zoe staying in one of the rooms near Eva. That news didn’t surprise her at all. Money always talked and Eva was wealthy. The hospital was more than willing to give them what they wanted especially since Eva had financed an entire private wing in their hospital. A private wing she was now using herself. Zoe was sure if they wanted a marching band to play in the morning, they would have had a marching band.

  The days since Eva’s accident were a blur and Zoe spent all her time with her. Tommy and Alexandra took turns in nursing Eva, in addition to another nurse that had come in to support them. One day was similar to the next and it wasn’t just Eva who forgot the days—Zoe was having a hard time remembering what day it was whenever she woke up in the morning.

  Eva would wake throughout the day. She was confused at first until Zoe, Tommy or Alexandra repeated the same information over and over. Each time Eva saw Zoe’s bald head she asked the same question. Zoe found it a little disconcerting, but she knew that this was a process they would have to go through.

  Zoe went to the window and looked out at the rain that splashed against the windowpane. She picked up the notebook she had taken from the nurses’ station and started to sketch. The curtain was pulled back just a little to allow the light to come through, even though the rest of the room was in semi-darkness in deference to Eva’s light sensitivity.

  Zoe yawned. She put the notebook aside and rested her head against the back of the recliner. Her eyes drooped and she drifted off to sleep.

  ***

  Zoe’s eyes popped open and she was aware the room was flooded with light. She sat up on the recliner with a start. Nurse Avril, their third private nurse, was trying to keep Eva from getting up, but something was preventing her. Eva was awake and was struggling, judging from her moans. Zoe couldn’t see why.

  “What is going on?” Zoe asked in a panic and scrambled off the chair.

  When she came forward she was shocked at the sight before her. There was blood on the bed sheet, but it was Eva’s hands that were the focus of Zoe’s shock. Both wrists were in padded cuffs and attached to the frame of the bed. Eva was trying to pull on them and the sounds coming from her made enraged Zoe.

  “WHAT THE HELL!” Zoe screamed at the nurse. “Take them off! NOW!” She went to Eva’s side and pushed the nurse away despite the woman being bigger than her.

  “Mrs. Lambros, you don’t understand…”

  “Take them off!” Zoe yelled at the nurse. She turned to Eva, who was crying and terrified. “Evy, look at me, come on, look at me,” she urged. “You’re not in Aiden; you’re with me. You’re here; you’re not there.”

  Zoe tried to remove the restraints but she didn’t know how, while keeping Eva from pulling on her wrists and attempting to get up. “TAKE THEM OFF HER!”

  The door burst open and Tommy raced in with Stella in tow. Tommy put his arms around Zoe and took her out of the room.

  “No, Tommy, I want to be with Eva!”

  “Stop fighting me,” Tommy yelled and sat Zoe down on a chair. “Stop fighting me!”

  “She put Eva in restraints! What the hell are you trying to do to her? She’s confused and she woke up to find herself back in Aiden,” Zoe screamed. She put both hands on her head and shook it. “I can’t believe Aunty Stella would allow this!”

  “I didn’t,” Stella said as she closed the door to Eva’s room and made her way to where Zoe was seated.

  “Who the hell did?”

  “Nurse Avril…”

  “I want that woman fired! I don’t want her anywhere near Eva,” Zoe yelled and pointed to Eva’s room. “Isn’t it enough what she’s going through and now she has to be physically reminded of her version of hell?”

  “Zoe, please calm down.”
Stella gently pushed Zoe back into her seat. “Nurse Avril was doing what is normal procedure.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Eva is disoriented when she wakes and she doesn’t know where she is. It takes her a while to work it out, but before she does, she pulls out her IV tube. You saw what happens when it’s pulled out.”

  “She’s terrified, Aunt Stella. I would be terrified if I woke up in a hospital room tied to my bed.”

  “Yes, she is terrified, but Nurse Avril tells me that this has happened twice today…”

  “When? I was with Evy and she didn’t do it.”

  “When you went for some lunch and whilst you were asleep. She said she went out briefly to the nurses’ station and when she returned, she saw Eva was bleeding because the IV tube was pulled out. We knew this could be a problem, but I was reluctant to do it and didn’t order it.”

  “You didn’t order it?”

  “No, but there was a risk Eva would do this.”

  “Why now? It’s been five days and Eva didn’t do this when she was back from surgery. Why now? She is getting stronger and she is remembering things. Why now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Zoe took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself. “I don’t want that nurse anywhere near Eva.”

  “She was doing her job.”

  “I don’t care. I told you I didn’t want anyone who doesn’t know Eva to nurse her. She didn’t know what Eva’s been through.”

  Stella nodded. “Alright, she won’t be nursing Eva. Are you alright?”

  “No.” Zoe shook her head. “Seeing Eva struggle like that and the terrified look on her face…” She stopped midsentence and turned around. She put her hand to her mouth to stop bursting into tears.

  “It’s alright, Zo,” Tommy said quietly as he took her in his arms. “It’s shocking to see but it’s going to be alright,” he said as he rubbed her back.

  CHAPTER 20

  “She did what?” Tessa asked as she walked with Zoe through the hospital corridor after taking her to breakfast. They found Alexandra, who was coming on duty and on her way to the ward. Zoe glanced around at the many different faces of visitors and patients, each with their own fears and concerns—lives affected by accident or illness all congregated in several acres of land.