Grace gently led him back to a chair, and she made him sit down, then sent Adam to check with the receptionist. She told Adam the doctors were with her right now. Eli put his head in his hands and tried to breathe calmly.
He didn’t even try to make sense of his prayers, just released all the fear and panic to God, begging for her to be okay. His heart pounded in his ears but he felt so cold he would have sworn there was no blood running through his veins warming his body. He barely noticed the hand on his shoulder or the murmuring around him. He tuned it all out.
A little while later, Grace grasped him hard by the shoulders and got right in his face. “The doctor needs to talk to you. Rachel’s parents aren’t here yet.” She grasped his hand and pulled him from the chair. That was good, he supposed. If it was bad news, they would be asking him to sit down, right?
The doctor quickly filled Eli in on what was about to happen. “Mr.
Wolf, we’ve taken Miss Lopez into emergency surgery. She had internal bleeding. Which we caught in time. Her spleen is ruptured and may need to be removed. We’ll take good care of her, Mr. Wolf. She’ll have X-rays as soon as possible, and we’ll be setting her fracture and checking for other broken bones as soon as we can. She’s in good hands.” The doctor assured him that he’d let him know how the surgery went as soon as it was over.
After that conversation, Eli began to focus better. Rachel was alive. That was enough for the moment. Eli stepped into the hall and called Rachel’s
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parents, who were still a couple of hours away, to give them an update.
When he came back, Ethan, Jack, Angel, and Mike were all sitting in the waiting room. There were a few others he didn’t know by name, but he thought he recognized her employer, Thorne Grogan, in the group. A lot of people cared about Rachel.
Eli was talking to Ethan and Mike when the doctor he’d spoken to earlier came and asked for him and Grace. This time, he was smiling. For the first time since the phone call, Eli felt like there was a little warmth in his body. The doctor explained Rachel’s complicated condition to them. It had been possible to repair the damage to her spleen, and they’d caught another bleed that had gone undetected from one of the large shards of glass that had penetrated the abdominal wall. She had a concussion, and they’d already set the broken bone in her left arm. They would keep her for several days, watching for signs of a blood clot or infection. She was sedated and would be for at least another day while they waited for signs of complications. The rest of her scans looked normal. The doctor said he was optimistic for a full recovery.
“When can I see her, Doctor?” Eli heard a slight tremor in his voice.
“They’re moving her right now, Mr. Wolf. A nurse will come and get you,” the doctor told him before excusing himself.
The relief in the room was palpable. Grace’s men took her to get a bite to eat, and the others dispersed. Eli walked along the hall until he found what he was looking for. Stepping into the quiet, softly lit chapel, he approached the front. He was no longer a child crawling on his hands and knees in the hope no one would notice him.
He sat in the second pew and rested his forehead in his hands and broke into quiet sobs. The tension leaked from his body with his tears as gratitude poured forth from his heart. He prayed in thanks for her continued presence in his life and asked for the chance to spend his life loving her and keeping her safe. As he prayed and wept, he felt enveloped in a warm, calming embrace. A memory of soft hands and deep blue eyes holding and
comforting him as a little boy came to him from many years before. An angel had been sent to him back then, and surely that angel was with him now. But he had been blessed even beyond that consolation. Another angel waited for him somewhere in this hospital, hurt but healing. He smiled, and another sob broke from him as he wiped his eyes.
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Heather Rainier
Chapter Twenty-four
Rachel woke to the sounds of quiet voices in the distance. She
recognized her father’s voice, then her mother’s. They were speaking so softly she was unable to make out what they were saying.
She tried to swallow, and her throat was pierced by a stabbing pain.
Reflexively, she tightened her hand into a weak fist and became aware of the large, callused hand holding hers. Only one person she knew had hands that big and warm. Blinking, she tried to turn her head, but that hurt excruciatingly. She grimaced and opened her eyes then slammed them closed again as the room spun around her. Nausea churned her stomach.
Her brow creased as pain affronted her from many different levels.
Rachel’s head pounded with a nauseating rhythm, her throat burned, and the stabbing pain surged when she tried to swallow unsuccessfully, and the whimper that escaped her throat made it worse. Her stiff body felt like she’d been bludgeoned with a cinderblock, and sharp pain lanced her from more points than she could assimilate. Her left arm was stiff and unmoving. Tears leaked from her eyes, and one of her cheeks began to sting like crazy.