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“Raina?” I asked. “Raina? Can you hear me?”
“Mmph…” a garbled mumble came from her throat.
“Oh my God.” Fumbling, I found the call button and pressed the shit out of it before gripping Raina’s hand and squeezing. “That’s it. That’s the way, darlin’. Open those eyelashes. Wake up now.”
She made another sound and her fingers shifted within mine.
“Yes,” I encouraged. “Hold onto my hand. I’m right here. Come back to me . I’m right here, waiting for you.”
Her fingers squeezed back, and tears clouded my eyes. “Good. Good job. You’ve got it. You’re doing it. You’re doing so good.”
“What in tarnation?” Darlene’s voice exploded from behind me.
I spun to smile at her, wiping at my wet cheeks as I said, “She’s doing it. She’s waking up. She’s making sounds and squeezing my hand.”
“Well, I’ll be.” Nearing the bed, Darlene looked down at Raina just as her eyes opened briefly, only to close again. Then, with a smile, she lightly punched my arm. “I knew you’d bring her around.”
My chest swelled with joy. Reaching out to smooth back Raina’s hair, I asked softly, “Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes again?”
When she did, I whooped and then pressed my hands to my mouth. “That’s it,” I encouraged with a nod. “That’s it exactly.”
She blinked at me slowly before licking her lips and opening her mouth.
“Hurts,” she managed to rasp from a croaky whisper. When she tried to lift her hand toward her throat, I caught her fingers.
“Your throat hurts?”
She nodded slowly.
“I imagine it does,” the nurse announced sympathetically. “After being intubated for that long, it’s got to be as raw and sore and swollen as all get out.”
“Do you need a drink?” I asked Raina before lifting my gaze to the nurse. “Can she have a drink?”
While Raina nodded, letting me know that a drink sounded good, the nurse said, “I’ll get some ice chips.” And she hurried from the room.
When Raina struggled as if trying to lift herself, I gripped her arm, asking, “Do you want to sit up?”
She collapsed back against the bed in relief and closed her eyes briefly as she nodded her head.
“Okay. I think it’s okay for you to sit up.” She didn’t have any spinal damage to prevent it. So I found the button and started to tilt her bed up. “Just tell me when.”
Once she made it to about a sixty-degree angle, she lifted her hand an inch, and I stopped her there.
“Does anything else hurt?” I asked, taking her fingers.
She tugged them out of my grip, making me swallow in dread, but then she shook her head to answer me before opening her mouth and hoarsely asking, “What…happened?”
“You were in a car accident,” I told her.
Her eyes widened, and she started to breathe heavily as if about to have a panic attack.
“But you’re okay,” I assured her, smoothing my hand over her hair. “You’re okay. You still have both arms and both legs and no broken bones. There were a couple of scrapes and bumps and bruises. You just hit your head hard enough that they had to put you into a coma for a few days to let it heal. But you’re fine now. You’re going to be okay.”
She nodded and seemed to settle down with that explanation.
When she opened her mouth again, I had a feeling she was going to ask about her sister. She’d been pissed the first time when I hadn’t told her immediately that Kinsey had died. But I couldn’t tell her immediately this time either. She’d just woken up from a fucking coma.
I was never so relieved as when Darlene re-entered the room with a cup. “Here, you feed her while I check her stats,” she offered as she handed the ice chips over.
