“Mr. Carter…Kyle, this isn’t doing any good, for either of you…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I shouted, moving closer to Lee’s lifeless body. “Leave us be.”
I needed them all to fuck off and give me two goddamn minutes to make a plan.
I needed a plan.
There was something…There had to be something someone could do to fix her.
I’d asked the surgeon who operated on Lee that very question when she’d come out of surgery.
And he’d filled me with bullshit; bullshit and sheer fucking terror.
“Mr. Carter, your girlfriend’s condition is critical. Whilst we were able to remove the bullet and stem the hemorrhaging in her stomach and repair her bowel without removing it, I’m afraid the wound in her back has proved far more serious.
She was shot directly in her left kidney, ravaging the organ, rendering it unrepairable. We removed the left kidney during the surgery, and curtailed spread of blood, but I’m afraid we found large amounts of shrapnel in her right kidney, which has caused severe damage to the organ, reducing its rate of function to an alarming eleven percent, too low for Delia to exist on.
We have equipped her with kidney dialysis, but, to be frank, Mr. Carter, without a kidney transplant as soon as possible, Delia’s prognosis, to put it mildly, is bleak.”
“Have they found a match yet?” I asked.
I knew the nurse hadn’t left, I could hear her breathing from behind me.
“Not yet, I’m afraid.”
I swung my head around to glare at her.
“How hard can it be, to find a fucking kidney? People die, every second of the goddamn day. Surely, someone out there is compatible?”
“Mr. Carter, you know it’s not that simple,” the nurse said calmly, as if she heard that question a dozen times a day, and in her line of work, she probably did.
But this was different, Lee was different.
She needed to live.
I knew that was a selfish way to think, but I didn’t give a fuck.
All I cared about, was getting that kidney for Lee. I’d been tested myself. I wasn’t a match.
“Why hasn’t she woken up yet?” I asked, again knowing the answer, but needing the reassurance of a medical professional.
“You know this, Mr. Carter. Lee’s body has weakened, her kidney is under extreme demand. The doctors have put her in an induced coma, to allow her body to repair itself and lessen the strain on her body.”
I turned back to Lee, ignoring the rising swell of panic that threatened to smother me.
“Do you hear that, baby? They’re going to make you better, and then you can come home to me. Please, Lee, I’m begging you, come back to me, baby.”
*****
“Your cocoa sucks, baby. I mean it, it’s really fucking disgusting,” I mused, as I wiped Lee’s face with a washcloth.
This was day five of coma-induced Lee, and I was getting pissed, and seriously considering buying a kidney online.
I’d heard they sold all types of shit on the internet.
“And don’t get me started on your taste in books.”
I combed her hair as gently as I could, while thinking up as many insults as I could, to try and get a reaction out of her.
I didn’t why I was bothering, considering she was in what I referred to as a ‘doctor coma,’ but I needed a response from her, and pissing Lee off was usually the best way to get one.
“Do you remember when we were in Louisiana, and you asked me where I got those bruises? Well, I didn’t tell you then, but I kicked that punk Perry’s ass.”
Lee moved her hand, or at least, I thought she did.
I couldn’t be sure if she was actually moving her hand, or if I was losing my fucking mind.
I suspected the latter, but I rambled on anyway.
“I loved you then, you know. Long before it actually, but that was the night I knew.
I watched you from the corner of the bar. You were all alone on the dance floor in that crummy bar. You were wearing that skimpy ass denim skirt, shaking those sexy hips of yours, and all I could think of was… Damn, this is her. This is my woman. That was the night when my future attached itself to yours.”
Leaning down, I kissed her freshly combed hair, before sitting down to continue my vigil.
My phone went off in my pocket, but I ignored it.
I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
I’d been ignoring all my calls with days, avoiding everyone.
Mike had come by the hospital, and Anna, even my father… But I’d told the nurse on call at the time to send them away. The only person I could handle right now, was Derek.
Derek had told me the cops had cleared our house, and that Mr. and Mrs. Frey were staying there while they organized the funeral.