True Love Down Under_A BWWM Romance
Page 16
“You did what you had to do.”
“And now this?” Sara whispered.
Caroline didn’t say anything after that. Perhaps, she was as scared as Sara was; perhaps she had doubts about her brother’s recovery this time. No, Zac was going to make it, like the fighter that he was, like the survivor he’d always been. Zac was going to make it for their second date.
Sara found herself praying, and she hadn’t prayed in a long time. Was it a last resort? A cry for help? Maybe… it was definitely a plea, a plea for his survival. It was a plea for his life.
The Final Chapter
Sara found herself falling off of her seat by the time she woke up. She straightened herself, wondering if someone had seen her. Someone did. A doctor was standing quietly in front of her. Caroline was nowhere to be found.
“Are you the kin of Mr. Turner?” the doctor asked her. He looked weary, but his eyes were bright.
“No, just a, just a friend. I have his sister’s number, I—” she said, quickly standing up, barely fixing herself.
“Doctor?” Caroline came in the room, carrying two cups of coffee. “How is he?” she sounded anxious.
“We found the clot and vacuumed it out. He’s being wheeled into recovery as we speak.”
“Oh, thank god!” Caroline’s knees nearly buckled. Sara found herself supporting Caroline, and then she quickly took the coffee cups from Caroline’s hand.
“Please expect a few hours before you get to see him. It’s best if you get some rest first. Staff will call your office.”
“Yes, yes, thank you, Doctor,” Caroline said, bursting into tears.
Sara stared at her. Gone was Caroline’s composure. She was trembling out of relief, and she was now calling her sisters and most probably her father to tell them that Zac had made it through surgery. Sara was glad that Caroline was too busy to notice her. She walked away from Zac’s sister.
It suddenly sunk in, and Sara found herself quietly sobbing alone, as she stood in front of the surgery theater’s doors. Relief flooded into her, and she had never felt that way before, ever. It was something uncertain, something beyond her control, like what had happened in Kakadu. Zac had cheated death twice, and it was what made everything seem so fragile and, even more so, precious.
The time she had had with Zac had been brief, and despite that, she had managed to fill herself with nervousness, like they had been lovers for quite some time now. And no matter how Caroline had assured her that Zac would be okay, she couldn’t calm down.
Shouldn’t I be calm right about now? she thought, shaking as tears poured down her face. Zac was okay, Zac was alive. He was just a room away, and she couldn’t wait to see him, couldn’t wait to tell him she was here, and that she didn’t mean to call him an idiot. Realizations were plenty, and her realizations had almost come too late.
She knew she was in love with him, and she knew that it wasn’t just because he was charming. Zac filled a void in her she never thought she had—he had made her laugh, the most she had laughed in years, and he had made her see things better, no matter how simple they were. She took deep breaths, calming ones, quickly checking if Caroline was done with her calls. Caroline was still on the phone. Sara quickly dried her tears away, and she took one cup of coffee from the table, drinking it to keep herself busy.
Finally, Caroline ended the call. “It’s been a long night, Sara. Why don’t we go home and rest for a bit?” she told her, her eyes and nose red from crying.
“Yeah, you go on ahead, Caroline,” Sara said, and it felt strange to even say his sister’s name.
“I can drop you home.”
“I’m fine. I’ll idle here for a while. I’ll tell you if anything else comes up.”
“We’ll have someone from the office in a few,” Caroline told her gently. “He’s fine, and he’s asleep. Let’s go home.”
There was something in his sister’s eyes that made Sara say yes in the end, and in a few minutes, she found herself inside Caroline’s car, with a driver at her beck and call. Caroline knew where the staff quarters were, and they rode in silence, right until reaching the front gate.
“I’ll see you?” Caroline said, sounding exhausted.
Sara nodded as she slipped out of the car.
“Sara?”
Sara spun around, wondering if she had forgotten something. “Yes?”
“Thank you.”
Sara waited until the car had sped off, then she let out a deep breath. It was past two in the morning, but the coffee had awakened her more than she had thought it would. She found herself taking a quick shower and changing into fresher clothes, and then she went out of the apartment and hailed a cab for the hospital.
*
There was another woman there, and from the back, Sara already knew who it was. She was standing outside of the recovery room, and despite the fact that the room behind the glass panel was dark, the woman still stood in silence, dressed in a soft pink dress and a white coat, with kitten heels.
Sara took another step forward, finding herself beside the woman who had been Zac’s girlfriend for years, the one who had broken his heart, even if he didn’t want to admit it. Even though she was in obvious pain, she still looked beautiful, Sara thought.
“Zac’s not the type to give up, you know,” Miranda suddenly spoke up. “I didn’t want to say yes when he asked me out in university, but he just didn’t know when to quit. I finally relented, after the eighth time he personally asked me out.”
Sara listened and said nothing.
“He was funny and charming, sometimes tactless… but I didn’t notice it at first, how annoying it had gotten. Perhaps, I thought I was too mature for him, and he was too childish. I’d waited for him to propose after the third year of dating, but he didn’t. So I told myself, he hadn’t matured well enough to match my priorities, and how his priorities didn’t include me in the picture… so I broke up with him. I never regretted it. Zac didn’t beg for me to take him back.
“He’d be on the news for the simplest things, like his travels, and his dates… yet, he never settled with one woman. I knew he was still in love with me. I thought he was still in love with me even if two years had passed… but I was wrong, because you came along, Sara Wright.”
“And you don’t want me in the picture,” Sara spoke.
“I don’t have a choice now, do I?” Miranda said. “I’ve always been in the picture, literally and figuratively. I thought I could easily win him back. It’s not about the fame that goes with being with him, I have enough cameras following me around as it is… it’s more of me falling in love with him again, and he didn’t even know it.
“I didn’t want him back until I saw him on the news, and I saw how pale his face looked and how mangled he was. I told myself, someone had to take care of him. And then they mentioned how he had saved someone from the jaws of a crocodile… and while I expected Zac to do his part, I didn’t expect him to, you know… handle everything. He’d always taken everything in stride, but this time, he was in command. He was risking his life…” Miranda stopped.
“It’s not like he’d never risk his life for anyone,” Sara said after a moment’s silence. “I think it’s always been in him.”
“And it’s something I didn’t see back then,” Miranda interrupted her. “Maybe we were too young. We weren’t compatible back then. We both thought it was love, but it was nothing compared to what I saw and heard earlier tonight.”
Miranda took a deep, shaky breath, and she shook as well. “You won,” Miranda said, her voice cracking.
“It’s not a contest,” Sara told her.
“It’s not,” Miranda said. “There was never a contest, anyway. I just thought, rather I hoped against hope that there would still be love left in there for me, that he had room for me.”
“We’re not together, you know.”
“I know. And that’s what inspired me to continue to pursue him. I’m not a nice person, Sara, but I know a nice person whe
n I see one. You two… no matter if you’re together or not, you two seem perfect for each other.”
“There’s a lot we both have to work on,” Sara said, her hand touching the edge of the glass panel. She could hear the machines whirr and hiss, monitoring Zac’s vitals. Neither she nor Miranda looked at each other still.
“I’m sure he won’t give up on that,” Miranda told her. “And I hope you won’t give up on him.”
Without another word, Miranda turned and walked away, her heels making tiny clattering sounds on the floor until her footsteps echoed away. Sara looked at the outline of Zac’s body, lying on the hospital bed.
I’m not giving up on you, she thought. I love you, and I’m staying.
*
Clark Turner hobbled about, and he saw someone sleeping on a chair, just outside of his son’s hospital room. Sara Wright, the intern, the young woman whom his son had declared his love for, had waited for hours on end for Zac. He didn’t want to wake her up, so he quietly went back to the nurses’ station.
“How long has the young lady been waiting outside my son’s door?”
“Mr. Turner, sir, good morning,” the head nurse greeted. “Since two in the morning, I believe. We offered her the lounge area, but she insisted on staying close to his room.”
“I was told his condition was stable,” Clark continued.
“It is, sir,” the head nurse replied.
Clark nodded. “Thank you.”
As soon as he left, a younger, newer nurse walked up to the head of the station. “Ma’am, who was that?”
“That was the man who donated this entire wing to the hospital,” the head nurse replied, “and we’re talking care of his son in three-fourteen.”
*
Sara was getting worried. Zac still hadn’t woken up. Was he supposed to be in comatose or something? It was past seven in the morning, and she walked up to a vending machine to get herself a sugary cup of coffee, just to wake herself up completely. She hadn’t told Danny that she was here, and she knew she shouldn’t miss work at all.
I’d best be heading back home in a few, she told herself, just so she could change once more and be ready for the zoo. Just as Sara spun around, she saw Cara Turner walking down the hall, bringing take-away from a local coffee chain. There were two paper cups in it, and she was alone.
Sara froze, not wanting Cara to see her, but she knew that Cara knew she was here. In fact, she had a feeling Cara knew she had been here the whole night.
“Good morning,” Sara found herself saying.
Cara smirked at her. “So, my sister drops you off at your apartment, and then you come back here to spend the night? Here, have a coffee. Vending machine coffee is icky as it is.”
“Thank you.”
“Drink up. Take a seat with me.”
“How did you…?”
Cara grinned and pointed a finger up the ceiling. Well, not the ceiling, Sara realized. But above the doors to the wing were the words “Lilian Turner Wing”.
It was Zac’s mother. The Turner family had donated this wing. Oh god. Of course people would know about her just staying outside of his room. It was as if they owned the hospital themselves.
“Our mother had treatments here, before she passed away,” Cara explained, taking a seat. Sunlight cast a yellow hue to the walls of the waiting room. “This wing was a special project of our father’s, apart from the zoo. Zac’s well cared for here.”
Sara nodded and took a breath. “It’s good to hear.”
“But you waited. Why?”
“So he could see a familiar face the moment he wakes up…” Sara’s voice faded. She shook her head. “I, I have to leave for work in a few.”
“You’ve barely had any sleep, I assume?”
“I’m fine. I can manage,” Sara said. “The coffee will help.”
“How long until coffee makes you crash, huh?” Cara said. Then her face turned serious. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For staying here. For sticking it out with my brother.”
“We aren’t… dating. We aren’t dating.”
“If you aren’t, then you two must have some special arrangement, huh?” Cara said. “Why don’t you go home, get some rest?”
“I have to work,” Sara said, willing for herself to stay strong. This wasn’t a moment to break down and cry again. That would be the exhaustion talking if it happened. “Thank you for the coffee.”
She stood up to leave.
Cara nodded, saying nothing else.
*
She hadn’t heard of anything remotely related to Zac in the news. It felt like a media blackout. She had hastily applied concealer to cover up the bags under her eyes. It was past ten in the morning, and she had showed up for work on time. She was her usual quiet self, and she kept herself busy, checking the clock once in a while for the time. The zoo admin office was closing at five thirty in the afternoon. She would run for the hospital again after.
“Sara?” Danny called her from his desk. It was then that Sara realized no one else was there but him.
“Yes, Dan?”
“Come here for a sec, will you?”
Sara shuffled from her seat and walked towards Danny’s table.
“Did you get any sleep?”
“Yes, I did,” she replied quickly. She didn’t want to ask why.
“You know why I’m asking?”
“Why?”
“Because I just got a call from Caroline Turner,” Danny told her, his brows rising. “She told me to give you the day off.”
“But I—”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were at the hospital to look after Zac?”
“It’s not part of my scholarship grant.” Sara reasoned.
“Go home, get some rest,” Danny told her.
“But—”
“Go home, kid,” Danny’s voice was stern, and Sara found herself biting her lower lip as she took a deep breath.
“Danny, I—”
“I said go home, go home or I write a recommendation about your performance here. And it won’t even be a recommendation anymore.”
“This is a personal matter,” her voice rose.
“It is, that’s why I want you to go home,” Danny said, sighing. “Look, Sara, you’ve been through quite a… shall we say, you’ve been through quite an adventure, but you need proper rest to properly finish this scholarship, alright?”
Sara nodded. “I didn’t want things to get in the way of—”
“Go home, Sara. Go home and sleep.”
Sara found herself grabbing her things, mumbling her thanks and leaving the office. She wished she could feel numb, even just for a moment. The mere fact that Zac was still unconscious left her in a fugue state, and she was barely holding it together.
As soon as she arrived back at her apartment, she fell into a dreamless sleep.
*
It had been nearly three weeks since Zac had been rendered unconscious after the operation, and she hadn’t seen him since she left that morning. Sara had regretted she had. She shouldn’t have left, she shouldn’t have gone to work, and she shouldn’t have listened to Caroline’s request that she keep herself busy at the zoo while Zac was still in the hospital.
Were they hiding something from her? Was he in some permanent coma? He couldn’t be dead—Caroline’s voice sounded normal… too normal. She was desperate to hear from him, so on the thirteenth day of silence she called Caroline regarding Zac’s condition.
“Sara, he’s resting, that’s all that matters,” Caroline assured her. “We can’t have his fragile state disturbed.”
As bits and pieces of information began to surface as to why that happened to Zac, when he had been recovering quickly from the croc attack, Sara began to feel his fragile state was because he had been adamant about keeping her in his life. Therefore, Sara went on with her research, without leaving the confines of the zoo, refusing another expedition to Kakadu, with good reason.
She had rescheduled her ticket twice in the same week, unable to cope with the sudden separation from him and the lack of updates from his family. Were they doing this on purpose? After they had been so nice to her? Maybe they didn’t really like her. Or maybe they were hiding the true extent of his condition. People didn’t recover quickly from embolism, and recovery times varied. Sara realized Google had become both her best friend and her worst enemy, as she spent her spare time researching his type of embolism.
Sara wanted answers, and yet, she couldn’t have them. She had made up her mind to go back home way before Zac collapsed, anyway… stay with Zac, a voice at the back of her mind told her. Stay with Zac? How? If I can’t even be close to him, if they shut me away from him? She wanted to ask Danny about him, but it was beyond Danny’s control, she knew. Danny wasn’t immediate family, although she knew that Danny knew he was concerned for her.
Sara wanted to call Caroline once more, and it took all of her willpower not to. She could go to his villa, but which one was it? She hadn’t even been to his own apartment… it was clear where she stood in his life… no, he said he was falling in love with me. I want him to finish it. I want him to completely fall in love with me, she told herself, encouraging herself. Depression was looming, and she didn’t want it to win. How could she stop it? Zac, I just need to hear Zac’s voice, she thought.
Sara found herself sitting alone that Saturday afternoon, at the small garden inside of the building complex. Everyone had gone to a party at the beach, and she declined, saying she had to finish a few things. She stared at her phone, shaking her head, knowing it wasn’t going to do her any good.
“What’cha thinkin’ about?” someone asked her.
Sara blinked, and her heart stopped for a moment. She slowly stood up and turned around to find Zac standing in front of her. He was skinnier and paler, but he was there, smiling broadly just for her.