A Fire That Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  He let out another breath of pent up frustration. “We need to call dad to come back then,” Tom put his head in his hands. “He needs to be back for this now. Austin will need a parent more than ever and I don’t know how mom will react and I won’t risk Austin being exposed to mom’s behavior if she still doesn’t forgive her.”

  “We’ve tried already,” Dean commented, “We called dad. We need him to keep us grounded too. Regardless of how old we are, we need mom and dad on our side for this. Austin needs them on her side for once and not arguing about her.” They knew it was the plain and simple truth and they knew they needed a plan of action from here on out. “Whatever happens. I want Austin to always have us four,” Dean took it upon himself to lead his younger siblings to the right path in this situation. “If Austin is anything like she used to be, she will push us away and withdraw, but we need to stick by her.”

  “I can do that,” Daniel countered and quickly heard his sister and other brothers agreed with him. He knew that between the four of them, they could really stick by Austin and stop her from sinking to rock bottom.

  “Even if she really fights us?” Dean asked them. He knew what Austin’s fiery nature could do to her and he knew that if she wanted to she would close off and make them despise her. He needed to know they would dig their heels in and stay rooted.

  “We’re all made from Pearson genes, she’ll forget that,” Sienna teased lightly, remembering her sister’s plight to never let life stop for anyone even if hers had. Her smile fell as reality sunk back in again and one problematic area hit her hard. “We have another issue to go on top of this.”

  Tom nodded, “What about Tyler?” Tom asked sitting up and looked almost grief stricken. “He seriously can’t go ahead with the wedding can he?”

  “We have no idea about him, Tom. He was around, but he disappeared after he was cleared by the EMTs and Natasha, well she vanished,” Dean spoke with concern, remembering how he searched every face in the crowd for Tyler, but failed to spot him. “If tonight knocked any sense into him then he will realise his priorities.”

  “And if he doesn’t, I will be helping him,” Tom almost ground out and knew that after he received an update on Austin’s condition Austin, he was going to speak to his mother and then attack Tyler. His darkening thoughts dispersed as the doctor that had pushed him from the room earlier appeared and he felt grief stricken. “The docs coming,” he pushed through his siblings and towards the doctor. It worried him how suddenly the man had gone from looking fresh on the job to haggard and exhausted. The man that came out looked weary of the news he was about to deliver and that didn’t sit right with Tom.

  “Austin Pearson?” he asked looking to the entire group rather than just Tom.

  “Can I see Austin now?” Tom asked, it wasn’t a new question. He had been begging to be with her, even attempted to use his status as a doctor in the hospital as a gateway to getting into the room Austin had been rushed into in the emergency department. Every single attempt had failed.

  He shook his head, “I’m afraid not quite yet.”

  “Well is she okay?” Dean questioned, his tone biting free a bit too fiercely. “At least tell us that.”

  The doctor took in a deep breath, “We stabilized her and at the moment she is on her way up to the burn unit.” He saw each of the four faces before him become drawn and distraught and he knew that these predicaments were never good. “We treated her immediately for shock and we started checks to see how much fluid resuscitation she would need. Alongside this, we treated her for smoke inhalation and I’m afraid when she first arrived her airways were closing up and we had to put her on a ventilator immediately.”

  “Oh God,” Sienna murmured and she was grateful for Daniel as he kept her standing beside him and not weakening enough to fall to the floor. She was the feistiest of the Pearson family, full of tenacity and fight, but right now she had lost all of that.

  The doctor didn’t withhold anything as he continued, “Fortunately, she is fighting against the vent and I do believe that when the effects of the smoke inhalation subside a little she will be off the ventilator and breathing on her own. Her even showing these signs is more than promising at this stage.”

  The four of them didn’t quite know what to say. Even Tom, the one that worked in this hospital had no clue what to say now that he was on the other side of the deliverance of grim news.

  The doctor could see how difficult this was for the family having all of this information thrown at them and not given enough time to absorb it all, however, he had to continue and get back to work. It was one of the black areas of his jobs – the feeling of not giving enough passion.

  “The reason we worked for so long on her before getting her up to the burn unit is because with all burn victims we have to watch out for secondary injuries. With any burns we need to take into account the destruction of red blood cells. Austin’s left arm and side were the most badly damaged and I’m afraid she has third degree burns to the affected areas along with second degree burns.” The news just got grimmer for this family. “I know this is a lot to take in, but you need to be aware of everything your sister has been through.”

  “We need to get up there,” Tom suddenly sparked to life, ready to get up and get on board with his sister’s treatment and consequential recovery.

  “They’re strict up there,” The doctor warned, stopping their stride. “The chances are the surgeons upstairs will red line here to the OR to help make Austin’s wounds as pliable for grafting as possible. She needs to be watched for infection and any other complications that can arise with burns to this degree.”

  Giving quick instructions, the doctor parted from the small clan and allowed them to rush up to be by their sister’s side. He hated this part of his job because he knew what type of fate awaited them and he knew that the next few months of life would be like none other. The next few months would be tough and really test them as a family.

  “This way,” Tom said as they reached the right floor, they sprinted for the nurses’ desk and he hit his hands down on the top to gain attention quickly. “We’re looking for our sister. Austin Pearson, she was just brought up.”

  The nurse behind the desk looked at them and offered a sad smile, “Let me just go and grab the doctor. We’re just getting Miss Pearson as comfortable as possible.” She disappeared promptly to a room nearby where most of the activity appeared to be gravitated towards.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Daniel murmured as he looked around at the mess fire created in peoples live. He had never considered the full extent of the damages a fire could do until today. He just wished he never would have had to.

  “Are you here for Austin Pearson?” A new doctor spoke out as he approached. He was younger than the last with pale, caring eyes, evident laughter lines and an air around him that exuded confidence when it came to his job.

  “Yes,” Dean replied, the only one with a voice in their group now. “How is she?”

  “She’s comfortable and I have to admit she’s a fighter,” he praised his latest patient with confidence. “Right now she is weak and our hope is to take her off the vent by morning, but her burns need an immense amount of care and we are prepping her for surgery right now.”

  “We’ll wait,” Sienna spoke up, panicked and just wanting to see her sister. “We can stay here until she’s done. I can do that.”

  “We all can,” Dean soothed her, taking her hand in his and squeezing it tight for support.

  “I’m sorry but we are just taking your sister to surgery. So I would advise you to go home and prepare for the fall out of this. I won’t be allowing more than one visitor right now, and I’m afraid that is final. I also won’t allow people to stand around this late at night when there are other patients in this unit. I will keep you as updated as much as possible but I can only allow one person to stay until your sister is completely settled.”

  Dean, taking his stance as the older brother,
spoke up, “Tom, it has to be you.”

  “What?” Tom gasped and looked to Dean. “What do you mean has to be me? You’re the oldest.”

  “And you’re the one she came home to,” Daniel added in, finding himself weirdly agreeing with Dean even though he knew this could be an argument. He knew they all wanted to be here, but this wasn’t about them. This was about Austin.

  Sienna bit her lip, she wanted to be here but as she caught eye contact with Dean she admitted defeat, “It should be you, Tommy. You’re the best one to be here for her.”

  “Okay,” Tom spoke up, taking on the responsibility. He looked to the doctor feeling more like a man doomed than a worried sibling. “Where do I wait?”

  “I’ll take you to the family room and I will come back to get you when she is settled in her own ICU room,” The doctor told him and took it upon himself to ease all of them before he rushed off. “I know it’s a distressing time, but I promise you this unit has the best doctors and nurses and I assure you that Austin will be well looked after.”

  All of the Pearson siblings remained motionless. To the doctor this was a normal effect of such situations. Once the shock settled in for families it rendered even the loudest people quiet. He didn’t wait for them to press for more, he just continued with a supportive tone.

  “She is going to need a support network around her and as minimal stress as possible. She is going to be fragile for a while and she needs to be looked after and not upset. If you can guarantee that then I want you around her as much as possible when we have this first surgery done and have her comfortable with pain management. If not, I will put a ban on visitors until she is completely stabilized.”

  “We will do that,” Dean spoke up eagerly, trying to be optimistic. Knowing the doctor had to rush back to his job, Dean shook his hand. “Keep us updated,” Dean commented to Tom, “I won’t be sleeping tonight.”

  Tom agreed and accepted a slightly prolonged farewell before separating from his brothers and sister and allowing the doctor to take him to the room where he would feel like time stood still.

  Meanwhile, the three siblings had to fight with themselves to go home. All of them just wanted to see their sister, but they all knew they had to be ready to fight for her.

  They just hoped their sister would do the same.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  WHEN Tom found himself led to his sister’s hospital room hours later he nervously wrung his hands together. His palms stuck to one another, glued together with his sweat. What he found both terrified him and relieved him of his nervous energy. She was asleep still, heavily drugged apparently for the pain and she was hooked up to a heart monitor, various IVs, and multiple other machines. Yet, the one thing he was thankful for seeing, was Austin breathing on her own – had he not seen that, he would have panicked. Suddenly he had an influx of reality; for once he hated knowing the medical profession so well when someone he loved was on the receiving end. As he remembered what every machine, noise, light, movement did, he realized how grim this was for Austin. Especially as he took in the sight of her left arm and saw how heavily protected it was with bandages and he could only guess her side was the same.

  It had been hours since taking his seat bed her bedside and he just didn’t move. He sat watching her sleep off the anesthetic and multiple rounds of other drugs they had given her and he prayed that she wouldn’t wake up a destroyed soul. He had taken a quick break to call Dean and give him the rundown of what was now going on. He let them know that the first surgery was a success, but it was the start of what could possibly be many, and now she was in the ICU resting and off the ventilator already.

  Since then he had become overtaken with the sounds in the room, with the sight before him and he couldn’t wait for the rest of the family to arrive. He didn’t know about Austin needing them, but he needed them too. Amongst the hubbub of machine noises and Austin’s labored breathing, Tom’s thoughts cast over the night’s events. It seemed like such a mess and even he was left confused by Tyler’s heroics when he had been closing off from Austin for days. If he married Natasha, Tom knew he would never be able to understand the man’s logic and he would never be able to forgive him either.

  His thoughts darkened onto the cause of this mess and he was trying to work it all out. Why would someone go to this extreme? Why sabotage? Why murder? Why end Austin’s life?

  Everyone that had entered that house had been beyond sensible to make sure the vacant house was looked after and that there was never any safety hazards waiting to happen. As a result, Tom had remembered Natasha’s words in the diner and in his head all of the things that seemed minimal and minor slips of the mind were actually framing a culprit. The windows being left open, the paint droplets on the floor, the ripped wall paper – the covered heater. Everything seemed to take Tom back to Natasha. You’re a murderer, Austin and I will make sure no good comes to you. Natasha had publically announced only a few nights ago and now this.

  Well, Austin was definitely having the worse luck now.

  He placed his hands to his head in anguish over everything that seemed to be spiraling from six years ago and wanted to just give in and run. God, was this what Austin had felt back when loss of her baby became unbearable?

  He guessed he would never truly know.

  Hearing his sister’s breathing deepen, he bolted to sit upright and alert. He leaned in from his seat and he watched as Austin groaned a little as she woke up. He had no idea how long he had been sitting beside her but he counted his lucky stars that it was looking better for them. Even with that positive vibe, her chest was still struggling with each new inhale and Tom couldn’t stop his inner doctor for noticing.

  “Hey,” Tom said as he stood up and went to take her good hand. “How you feeling, Austin?”

  Austin, pulling her hand away, she used it to take the oxygen mask away from her face, “When can I go home?” she asked him weakly, not even bothering to answer the question.

  “Sorry, Aus,” he replied with a sad smile, “You’re not going home anytime soon.” He then rested his hip on the bed so he was balanced on the edge of the bed. “You’re not stable enough for that and the damage was more extensive than they anticipated, but they have everything under control. They’re confident.”

  Gulping, Austin feared the repercussions for this, her eyes watered, “I don’t want to be here.”

  “Soon, you can leave soon,” Tom vowed to her. He knew she wasn’t, but he had to calm her woes however he could. “You just need to rest up a little bit for now,” he told her and smiled down at her.

  “You should go,” Austin replied tiredly and sucked in a deep, difficult breath as she tried to move a little. “You don’t need to be here through this. No one does. I don’t need anyone to be here.”

  “I’m not leaving,” Tom told her sternly and honestly. He knew she would be like this, take this as a reason to push everyone away, become depressed but he wasn’t about to allow her to sink alone.

  “You can go home and forget about me, like everyone else.” Austin told him quietly, “There’s nothing left for me now.” She took in a shuddering breath, “I know that now.”

  Tom knew where she was heading and decided that he was going to still her tirade before she did any verbal damage. He snapped unwillingly at her. "I never took you for the girl to wallow. You were always the one to fight," Tom said as he rested back in his seat watching his sister battle between staying awake, staying calm and dealing with the lasting buzz of anesthetic and drugs.

  “I've lost the same fight too often,” Austin told him quietly, her voice still hoarse from the smoke inhalation and surgery. She was exhausted but, she didn’t want to fall asleep. She was scared to relive the moments of her life that were so full of hate and hurt. She didn’t want to be reminded more of what she had lost.

  Shaking his head, he leaned forward, his elbows going to his knees, hands clasped in front of him, "Now's your time to win." He told her with a steady tone, he
had faith that this could be okay, even if his sister was showing the doubts already.

  Looking to her brother, Austin sucked in a deep breath and shook her head. "No, it's not. He hates me. He thinks I killed their child,” Austin told her brother in a low, exhausted, painful sob.

  “Like she did yours all those years ago?” Tom replied to his sister. It was said without thought and all of the malice and sadness he had felt over six years ago was still slick in his tone.

  “That never happened,” Austin whispered as the tears poured from her eyes heavily. The wetness taking what was left of the smoky soot that the hospital hadn’t fully gotten rid of. Her chest heaved even more in that moment as she tried to believe those words.

  “Saying it didn't, doesn't mean it didn't. I was there through it all and you need to stop fighting that to win this,” Tom reminded her. However painful it was, it was the truth and Austin needed to set it free entirely.

  Austin drew in a difficult breath and looked to her brother and broke down completely, her harsh sobs coming out weaker than they felt. “I finally told him, Tom, and he believes I was lying so really, it never happened,” Austin sobbed and then heaved drily, drawing from the oxygen mask again. She closed her eyes as the tightness in her chest loosened some and her chest ceased sending her into a coughing fit. As she began to settle, she spoke up once more, “How can I still love the man that I walked away from? The same man that managed to fall in love and actually get the future that we dreamt of?” She looked off as she asked him rhetorically. She closed her eyes in a prolonged blink before whispering, “He hates me so much, Tom.”

  Tom hated seeing her so pained and confused and wished he could, just for a moment, lift the heavy emotions sitting on her so she would remain calm. He was concerned all the emotional stress would cause her condition to become unstable again. “He will come around to the truth soon,” Tom pushed her gently. “But Aus, you deserve happiness and maybe it’s just not with him after all.”