A Fire That Burns (14 page)

“This way,” Tom said as they reached the right floor, they sprinted for
the nurses’ desk and he hit his hands down on the top to gain attention quickly.
“We’re looking for our sister. Austin Pearson, she was just brought up.”

The nurse behind the desk looked at them and offered a sad smile, “Let
me just go and grab the doctor. We’re just getting Miss Pearson as comfortable
as possible.” She disappeared promptly to a room nearby where most of the
activity appeared to be gravitated towards.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Daniel murmured as he looked
around at the mess fire created in peoples live. He had never considered the
full extent of the damages a fire could do until today. He just wished he never
would have had to.

“Are you here for Austin Pearson?” A new doctor spoke out as he
approached. He was younger than the last with pale, caring eyes, evident
laughter lines and an air around him that exuded confidence when it came to his
job.

“Yes,” Dean replied, the only one with a voice in their group now. “How
is she?”

“She’s comfortable and I have to admit she’s a fighter,” he praised his
latest patient with confidence. “Right now she is weak and our hope is to take
her off the vent by morning, but her burns need an immense amount of care and
we are prepping her for surgery right now.”

“We’ll wait,” Sienna spoke up, panicked and just wanting to see her
sister. “We can stay here until she’s done. I can do that.”

“We all can,” Dean soothed her, taking her hand in his and squeezing it
tight for support.

“I’m sorry but we are just taking your sister to surgery. So I would
advise you to go home and prepare for the fall out of this. I won’t be allowing
more than one visitor right now, and I’m afraid that is final. I also won’t
allow people to stand around this late at night when there are other patients
in this unit. I will keep you as updated as much as possible but I can only
allow one person to stay until your sister is completely settled.”

Dean, taking his stance as the older brother, spoke up, “Tom, it has to
be you.”

“What?” Tom gasped and looked to Dean. “What do you mean has to be me?
You’re the oldest.”

“And you’re the one she came home to,” Daniel added in, finding himself
weirdly agreeing with Dean even though he knew this could be an argument. He
knew they all wanted to be here, but this wasn’t about them. This was about
Austin.

Sienna bit her lip, she wanted to be here but as she caught eye contact
with Dean she admitted defeat, “It should be you, Tommy. You’re the best one to
be here for her.”

“Okay,” Tom spoke up, taking on the responsibility. He looked to the
doctor feeling more like a man doomed than a worried sibling. “Where do I wait?”

“I’ll take you to the family room and I will come back to get you when
she is settled in her own ICU room,” The doctor told him and took it upon
himself to ease all of them before he rushed off. “I know it’s a distressing
time, but I promise you this unit has the best doctors and nurses and I assure
you that Austin will be well looked after.”

All of the Pearson siblings remained motionless. To the doctor this was
a normal effect of such situations. Once the shock settled in for families it
rendered even the loudest people quiet. He didn’t wait for them to press for
more, he just continued with a supportive tone.

“She is going to need a support network around her and as minimal stress
as possible. She is going to be fragile for a while and she needs to be looked
after and not upset. If you can guarantee that then I want you around her as
much as possible when we have this first surgery done and have her comfortable
with pain management. If not, I will put a ban on visitors until she is
completely stabilized.”

“We will do that,” Dean spoke up eagerly, trying to be optimistic.
Knowing the doctor had to rush back to his job, Dean shook his hand. “Keep us
updated,” Dean commented to Tom, “I won’t be sleeping tonight.”

Tom agreed and accepted a slightly prolonged farewell before separating
from his brothers and sister and allowing the doctor to take him to the room
where he would feel like time stood still.

Meanwhile, the three siblings had to fight with themselves to go home.
All of them just wanted to see their sister, but they all knew they had to be
ready to fight for her.
 

They just hoped their sister would do the same.

Chapter Twenty-Five

WHEN
Tom found himself
led to his sister’s hospital room hours later he nervously wrung his hands
together. His palms stuck to one another, glued together with his sweat.
 
What he found both terrified him and relieved
him of his nervous energy. She was asleep still, heavily drugged apparently for
the pain and she was hooked up to a heart monitor, various IVs, and multiple
other machines. Yet, the one thing he was thankful for seeing, was Austin
breathing
on her own –
had he not seen that, he would
have panicked. Suddenly he had an influx of reality; for once he hated knowing
the medical profession so well when someone he loved was on the receiving end.
As he remembered what every machine, noise, light, movement did, he realized
how grim this was for Austin. Especially as he took in the sight of her left
arm and saw how heavily protected it was with bandages and he could only guess
her side was the same.

It had been hours since taking his seat bed her bedside and he just
didn’t move. He sat watching her sleep off the
anesthetic
and multiple rounds of other drugs they had given her and he prayed that she
wouldn’t wake up a destroyed soul. He had taken a quick break to call Dean and
give him the rundown of what was now going on. He let them know that the first
surgery was a success, but it was the start of what could possibly be many, and
now she was in the ICU resting and off the ventilator already.

Since then he had become overtaken with the sounds in the room, with the
sight before him and he couldn’t wait for the rest of the family to arrive. He
didn’t know about Austin needing them, but he needed them too. Amongst the hubbub
of machine noises and Austin’s
labored
breathing,
Tom’s thoughts cast over the night’s events. It seemed like such a mess and
even he was left confused by Tyler’s heroics when he had been closing off from
Austin for days. If he married Natasha, Tom knew he would never be able to
understand the man’s logic and he would never be able to forgive him either.

His thoughts darkened onto the cause of this mess and he was trying to
work it all out. Why would someone go to this extreme? Why sabotage? Why murder?
Why end Austin’s life?

Everyone that had entered that house had been beyond sensible to make
sure the vacant house was looked after and that there was never any safety
hazards waiting to happen. As a result, Tom had remembered Natasha’s words in
the diner and in his head all of the things that seemed minimal and minor slips
of the mind were actually framing a culprit. The windows being left open, the
paint droplets on the floor, the ripped wall paper – the covered heater.
Everything seemed to take Tom back to Natasha.
You’re a murderer, Austin and
I will make sure no good comes to you.
Natasha had publically announced
only a few nights ago and now this.

Well, Austin was definitely having the worse luck now.

He placed his hands to his head in anguish over everything that seemed
to be
spiraling
from six years ago and wanted to just
give in and run. God, was this what Austin had felt back when loss of her baby
became unbearable?

He guessed he would never truly know.

Hearing his sister’s breathing deepen, he bolted to sit upright and
alert. He leaned in from his seat and he watched as Austin groaned a little as
she woke up. He had no idea how long he had been sitting beside her but he
counted his lucky stars that it was looking better for them. Even with that positive
vibe, her chest was still struggling with each new inhale and Tom couldn’t stop
his inner doctor for noticing.

“Hey,” Tom said as he stood up and went to take her good hand.
“How you feeling, Austin?”

Austin, pulling her hand away, she used it to take the oxygen mask away
from her face, “When can I go home?” she asked him weakly, not even bothering
to answer the question.

“Sorry, Aus,” he replied with a sad smile, “You’re not going home
anytime soon.” He then rested his hip on the bed so he was balanced on the edge
of the bed. “You’re not stable enough for that and the damage was more
extensive than they anticipated, but they have everything under control.
They’re confident.”

Gulping, Austin feared the repercussions for this, her eyes watered, “I
don’t want to be here.”

“Soon, you can leave soon,” Tom vowed to her. He knew she wasn’t, but he
had to calm her woes however he could. “You just need to rest up a little bit
for now,” he told her and smiled down at her.

“You should go,” Austin replied tiredly and sucked in a deep, difficult
breath as she tried to move a little. “You don’t need to be here through this.
No one does. I don’t need anyone to be here.”

 
“I’m not leaving,” Tom told her
sternly and honestly. He knew she would be like this, take this as a reason to
push everyone away, become depressed but he wasn’t about to allow her to sink
alone.

 
“You can go home and forget about
me, like everyone else.” Austin told him quietly, “There’s nothing left for me
now.” She took in a shuddering breath, “I know that now.”

Tom knew where she was heading and decided that he was going to still
her tirade before she did any verbal damage. He snapped unwillingly at her.
"I never took you for the girl to wallow. You were always the one to
fight," Tom said as he rested back in his seat watching his sister battle
between staying awake, staying calm and dealing with the lasting buzz of
anesthetic
and drugs.

“I've lost the same fight too often,” Austin told him quietly, her voice
still hoarse from the smoke inhalation and surgery. She was exhausted but, she
didn’t want to fall asleep. She was scared to relive the moments of her life
that were so full of hate and hurt. She didn’t want to be reminded more of what
she had lost.

Shaking his head, he leaned forward, his elbows going to his knees,
hands clasped in front of him, "Now's your time to win." He told her
with a steady tone, he had faith that this could be okay, even if his sister
was showing the doubts already.

Looking to her brother, Austin sucked in a deep breath and shook her
head. "No, it's not. He
hates
me. He thinks I killed their child,”
Austin told her brother in a low, exhausted, painful sob.

“Like she
did
yours all those years ago?” Tom replied to his
sister. It was said without thought and all of the malice and sadness he had
felt over six years ago was still slick in his tone.

“That never happened,” Austin whispered as the tears poured from her
eyes heavily. The wetness taking what was left of the smoky soot that the
hospital hadn’t fully gotten rid of.
 
Her
chest heaved even more in that moment as she tried to believe those words.

“Saying it didn't, doesn't mean it didn't. I was there through it all
and you need to stop fighting that to win this,” Tom reminded her. However
painful it was, it was the truth and Austin needed to set it free entirely.

Austin drew in a difficult breath and looked to her brother and broke
down completely, her harsh sobs coming out weaker than they felt. “I finally
told him, Tom, and he believes I was lying so really, it never happened,”
Austin sobbed and then heaved drily, drawing from the oxygen mask again. She
closed her eyes as the tightness in her chest loosened some and her chest
ceased sending her into a coughing fit. As she began to settle, she spoke up
once more, “How can I still love the man that I walked away from? The same man
that managed to fall in love and actually get the future that we dreamt of?”
She looked off as she asked him rhetorically. She closed her eyes in a
prolonged blink before whispering, “He hates me so much, Tom.”

Tom hated seeing her so pained and confused and wished he could, just
for a moment,
lift
the heavy emotions sitting on her
so she would remain calm. He was concerned all the emotional stress would cause
her condition to become unstable again.
 
“He will come around to the truth soon,” Tom pushed her gently. “But
Aus, you deserve happiness and maybe it’s just not with him after all.”

“But it is. It’s always been him,” Austin told him and closed her eyes
again as though it helped soothe the pain some, and she let the next thing slip
from her lips. “There are only two other people I really want right now, Tom,
and both of them hate me,” Austin spoke with so much misery that it physically
hurt to hear and her damaged throat did nothing to make the pain less palpable.

“Tyler and mom?”
Tom questioned and he watched Austin close her eyes again and nod. He
knew their mother’s absence was killing her. He knew she had probably spent
every day wishing that Tyler could just be there with her, and he knew it was
this that would well bring her to her knees entirely.

“It sounded like such a good idea back then to run, but I really have
lost everything,” Austin admitted sorrowfully. “I never meant for this, Tom.
Never.
I never meant to break our family up, or to hurt
Tyler. I never wanted anyone to get hurt. That’s why I left, but I still lost
everything regardless.”

“It’ll all come together soon. You’ll see. Mom will come here soon, and
Tyler,
and everything will finally be right,” Tom said and
it was the truth, he believed it would work out. However, he knew Austin had
given up entirely at this point and how could he blame her?

Austin looked away in disbelief, "Can you just go, Tom. He loves
her and that's final. He’s getting married on Friday to prove it." Austin
looked down at her bandaged arms, “I’ll still be stuck in here and maybe that’s
a good thing. I can keep out of everyone’s way. Everyone can get on without
seeing me around anymore. Tell everyone to leave me alone and get on with
everything. It’ll be a waste of time them coming here anyway.”

Tom sighed; he knew he had to talk to their mom about this. He knew he
could sit here and argue back, but he also knew Austin was not physically or mentally
strong enough right now for that. That didn’t stop him from being her support
through all of this and he wasn’t going to just leave her to get on with this
alone. "When you open your eyes to who he loves, I'll be here waiting to
help you fight her and when you realize that there are so many people who want
you back, I’ll be here. I'll be
back
later,
Austin."

Looking over his shoulder as he finally left the room, Tom saw Austin
squeeze her eyes shut as the tears began to fall again, her breakdown worsened
right now. He hated leaving her in this state, and he would easily stick
around, but he had things he had to do and he knew that before the sun rose in
a couple of hours, he would have knocked some sense into some people.

Then he would make Austin see sense.