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“Raina!” Diving, I caught her just in time to keep her from face-planting. Then I scooped her into my arms and settled her back on the bed.
“Now, Miss Bollen,” the doctor scolded sternly. “You can’t keep doing that. Do you want to be restrained to the bed?”
“No,” she wailed, shaking her head as tears rained down her cheeks. “I don’t want to be here at all. I want the captain.”
The doctor shook his head. “Who’s the captain?”
“Her dad,” I answered, which made Raina snap her attention to me. “He’s coming,” I assured, glancing at my watch. He could actually show up at any moment now, so I told her, “He’ll be here within the hour.”
She nodded as if reassured but then looked at me through her tears, asking, “But why areyouhere? I don’t know what you’re doing here. Am I dead?”
“I…” My heart started to pound hard. “No, you’re not dead at all. I was here visiting when you woke up, so I’ve been keeping you company until your dad arrives.”
“And he’ll be here soon?” she asked, sniffing down some tears.
I nodded in reassurance. “He’s on his way right now.”
“Miss Bollen?” the doctor broke in. “Can you tell me what color the walls are?”
I spun to him, narrowing my eyes. “Does she really need more questions right now? Questions are clearly agitating her.”
He sent me an irritated sigh. “We need to determine her brain function and what she’s capable of in order to properly measure our next course of treatment. I’d like to get her off as many drugs as soon as possible, but if she can’t even?—”
“Blue,” Raina broke in weakly, looking exhausted and beaten. “The walls are light blue.”
God. She was such a trooper. I could only imagine how the world looked to her right now. Everything had to be so disorienting and scary. But she just kept hanging in there.
I reached for her fingers and squeezed supportively.
Except she immediately pulled them away.
As she looked up at me as if condemning me for daring to touch her, I eased a submissive step back and tucked my hands into my pockets, cursing myself for trying to be so fucking familiar.
She clearly didn’t remember anything about me. I was just a stranger she’d seen in pictures. I had to keep reminding myself of that.
Nodding appreciatively, Dr. Shannessy flipped a page on his clipboard and wrote something down before murmuring, “Alright. You’re doing great. Now, I’m going to show you a sheet of paper with some words I just wrote on it. Do you think you can read them for me?”
As he turned the clipboard around and showed it to her, I was able to see that he’d filled the entire page by writing,The quick, brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
But when Raina looked at it, she hissed out a pained groan and turned her face away, grimacing.
“No,” she said. “I—I can’t. The words are too blurry. They hurt.”
“Okay,” the doctor murmured, taking note. “What about?—”
“Please stop,” she begged. “I don’t—I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t feel well.”
“Just a few more questions, Miss Bollen.”
But I ground my teeth and growled, “No. No more questions. Not right now.” He glanced at me as if to tell me off, but I lifted a stern eyebrow and said, “Sheneedsa break.”
I could tell he wanted to push but when he turned back and took in Raina’s face, he knew she was done. Rest was her number one priority.
“I’ll be back,” he said quietly and nodded once before turning away and leaving the room.
Raina hiccupped a sob and lifted both hands to cover her face, probably not even realizing she hadn’t been able to do even that small of a motor function only hours ago.
“You okay?” I asked quietly, but before she could answer, Darlene swept into the room, followed by a familiar figure.
