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I nodded, grateful for her kindness. “Thank you. I appreciate it, Natalie.”
“You’re very welcome. If you need something, let us know. The doctors should be in soon to make morning rounds.” She moved around and checked his monitors one more time.
I opened the first bottle and drank half of it before replacing the cap. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” she said, stopping at the end of his bed.
I glanced over at Patrick and touched his hand. “You’ve seen a lot of patients. How long will he be out like this?”
“Everyone is different, but hopefully it won’t be long now. He was out of surgery at five, and it’s seven now. So maybe soon. He’ll wake up when his brain is ready. Talk to him. He can hear you, Mr. Bradley.”
I shook my head. “You can call me Cole. Mr. Bradley is my dad.”
Natalie chuckled, then turned to leave, but stopped. “Don’t worry about privacy here. You’re safe from the media’s attention outside.”
“What media attention?”
She gestured toward the TV that was turned off. “He’s all over the news.”
It hadn’t occurred to me this would be a big news story.
“Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it.”
Natalie gave me a soft smile, then left the room after pulling the curtain over the doorway again.
I took Patrick’s right hand and held it. Simon told me to talk to him, so I would. “Good morning, babe. I’m here with you, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Standing up, I kissed his forehead. I could still smell a faint hint of his shampoo and his aftershave. I knew he’d showered and shaved before coming to Seattle, and it killed me that I’d turned him away.
Before I could go down that rabbit hole of self-loathing, Simon entered the room with another doctor I didn’t recognize. I stood and got out of the way as the other doctor checked on Patrick.
Simon walked over to me and handed me a tote bag with the Pirates logo on it.
“What’s this?” I asked, looking into the bag.
“Just some things we thought you might need. Phone charger, change of clothes, some snacks. Parker and Jackson put it together for you this morning before he took him to school. When he dropped it off to me, I didn’t have time to check for random contributions from Ava.”
I smiled for the first time in I don’t know how long. Ava, their three-year-old daughter, was cute as hell. A handful, but cute as hell.
“How are you holding up?”
I shrugged. “Tired, but fine, I guess.”
Simon put his hand on my shoulder, then turned to the other man, who was checking the pressure monitor. He was about my height and wore dark blue scrubs under his white coat.
“Dr. Chris Navarro, this is Cole Bradley.”
I held out my hand to shake as his blue eyes widened in recognition.
“Nice to meet you. How’s he doing?”
“The pressure has receded some, which is a good sign.”
Relief flooded me at the tiny bit of good news, but he still wasn’t awake. The longer he was out, the more it worried me. “How long do you think it will be before he wakes up?”
“With a moderate brain injury, it can be anywhere from minutes to a few days.” He looked at the tablet he was holding. “Surgery lasted five hours, and he’s been out up here for another two. I’m sure Dr. Taylor told you to talk to him. Keep that up and let’s hope it will be sooner than later. We’ll know more when he wakes up.”
I looked at Simon and tried to gauge his expression, but he wasn’t giving anything away. Dr. Navarro asked Natalie to call respiratory to have the breathing tube removed, then went back to his neurological exam as I watched for any signs of movement from Patrick. Simon stood with his arms crossed as he watched. I’m sure he’d be doing those same little tests on him at some point.
