Stay (19 page)

             
Before everything starts to fade away I faintly hear Jason’s voice one last time, “I love you, baby, I always have, please stay with me…”

             
I succumb to the quiet and this time I just hear—nothing.

Chapter Eleven

              Death is peaceful.

             
Or maybe that’s just what I heard in that one vampire movie.
I mentally shrug.

             
It’s definitely not peaceful. I feel like shit, like I had one too many horrific Long Island’s and puked my guts out in front of an audience while no one held my hair and my ass cheeks were hanging out of my dress. Too much? I’d have to agree.

             
Point is, right now I feel like my head is exploding and my temples are being smacked by drum sticks.
Holy shit-ballz! Am I hungover?

             
I try to move. I can’t.
What the fuck?

             
I can feel my eyes moving franticly back and forth but I can’t open them.
Weird.

             
I try to open my mouth but it feels like my mouth is weighed down by something or something is chocking me.
What the shit?
Why does my body feel like cement?

             
I can feel myself start breathing more rapidly because I’m freaking out.

             
I start to hear a rapid
beep…beep…beep…
What the hell is that? I try to calm myself down to focus on the sound but then I hear something to my left that catches my attention.

             
Is that music I hear?
What the fuck is OneRepublic doing playing ‘Come Home’ around me? Am I that hungover or am I really dead?

             
Whatever it is, this fucking thing I feel in my throat is starting to piss me off.

             
I try to reach for my throat but the only thing I feel are my fingers moving but nothing else.

             
Then I hear a strange male voice, “She’s moving!!! Someone get in here, NOW!!”

             
Who’s moving? This would all be a hell of a lot better if I could see what the fuck is going on.

             
Wait…who’s voice was that? That sounded familiar. Maybe not.
Damn!
I think I still must be drunk.

             
For some odd reason it feels like someone is by my side and holding my hand. The touch seems familiar but I can’t quite place where I know it from.

             
All I know is that it feels good—warm and comforting. Again…weird.

             
I try to move my fingers and I feel whoever is holding my hand, squeezing it. I find myself squeezing back.

             
It feels like whomever it is, their helping the beeping slow down.

             
As I start to focus on the touch of this person’s hand I hear commotion.

             
“We need everyone to clear out,” says a second strange male voice.

             
This one, I don’t find familiar.

             
“I’m not going anywhere, take all that shit off. She’s moving. That means she’s awake!!” Says the familiar voice that’s still holding my hand.

             
“Sir, we have to ask you to step out, NOW!” Yells a female from somewhere around me.

             
I pick up another familiar voice around me. “Come on, man. Let them help her. Let’s get you outta here. You don’t want to see this--”

             
“NO!” He interjects sternly.

             
I start panicking—again—that voice sounds too familiar. Where do I know it from? Why is everyone yelling? Why can’t I talk?

             
I feel the hand that’s soothing me start to slip through my fingers. I try to hang on and bring their hand back but I can’t. I don’t have the strength.

             
I shake my head or at least try to. I try to talk instead and for some reason it seems like I’m gagging.

             
“I’m not leaving! Take it all off or I fucking will! I’m here, baby. I’m here!” The familiar voice yells when I feel his hand soothing me again.

             
Further away, I hear footsteps and then a door shut.

             
All of a sudden everything hurts. My eyes feel like their being peeled off and my throat feels like its being pulled out. I gag loudly. This time I can hear it.

             
I cough and feel a shooting pain in my head.

             
I make to rub my temples but I hear someone nearby speak so I stop, “Ma’am, try not to move too much. It’s going to be extremely painful.”

             
No shit, Sherlock!
Ma’am? Where the fuck am I?

             
“Alexandra!? Talk to me, baby. Open your eyes, angel…open them, please,” the soothing man says desperately.

             
What the fuck is going on? Who is that?
Alexandra? Nobody’s called me that since Elizabeth.

             
Ignoring my thoughts, I try to move my head and this time I can feel it moving from side to side, so I try my eyes next.

             
Slowly but surely I feel my eyelids lifting.

             
Man, I must’ve had a really good time last night because everything is so blurry right now. I’m probably still drunk.

             
I try blinking several more times.

             
“Miss, I’m going to need you to open your eyes for me really slowly and tell me where you are,” says a strange male voice.

             
I try to say “shouldn’t you tell me that?” but all I hear is mumbling coming out of my mouth.

             
“Alexandra, I’m here—please look at me—“
Who keeps calling me that?

             
I start to see clearly now but all that catches my eye is a bright ass yellow light shining directly into the inside of my retina.

             
I lift my arm up and push the hand holding that shiny light away.

             
“What the fuck are you doing? That’s fucking blinding me,” I finally manage to say with a voice I have never heard come out of me before.

             
I smack my lips together and it’s no wonder I sound like a fucking fifty year old smoker, I have no saliva. It’s like a fucking desert in my mouth.

             
“Water…” I request from whoever is by me.

             
“Ma’am…small sips.” I look over to where the voice is coming from and see a chubby lady lifting a cup with what I assume to be water, to my lips.

             
She has brown hair and she’s wearing all blue—they look like scrubs but that can’t be. I shrug it off.

             
I take a small drink and it’s so refreshing that I feel energized and more able to talk now.

             
I finish the water and start to look around when I see a man standing next to the chubby lady with a white coat and same blue outfit as hers.

             
“Why are you guys dressed the same?” is what comes out of my mouth first.

             
“Ma’am—“

             
“Please stop calling me Ma’am…I’m not ninety,” I interrupt.

             
“Sorry, Miss. Can you tell me where you are?” He asks softly.

             
“No. Can you?”

             
“You are at St. Mary’s hospital. Do you remember how you got here, Miss?”

             
I look at the stubby bald man standing by what I assume is my bed with a confused look on my face.
Hospital? What the fuck am I doing at the hospital?

             
“What the fuck am I doing at the hospital?” I ask out loud.

             
I feel my hand being squeezed, suddenly.

             
Oh Shit!
The man—that voice—
where do I know that voice from?
I panic but slowly turn towards my left and look down at my hand to see it being held by someone.

             
I hear that annoying loud beeping again.

             
“Sir, I think its best you leave she seems to be having a reaction to you that can only cause her more harm,” says the older man next to me.

             
The man holding my hand ignores him.

             
I finally get the courage to look up—slowly—and see…What.The.Fuck.

             
My sight is met with the deepest blue set of eyes I’ve ever seen—correction-- there’s only person on this planet with those eyes--
oh my God!
Jason?

             
“Ja—“

             
“I’m here, baby…I’m here,” he whispers, his face full of concern.

             
I’m sure my mouth is hanging open right now like an idiot but what the hell is he doing here? When did he get back?

             
I close my eyes to get a better understanding of what’s going on right now. I try to remember but it seems like I keep hitting a road block on my memory.

             
“Jason—what—how—I don’t understand. What are you doing here? What
am I
doing here?” I ask, still shocked that he’s right beside me.

             
Baldy speaks suddenly, “Sir, we have to finish her check-up. She just woke up from coding the night before and she’s been out for two days. She needs to be examined. Please leave so we can continue to make sure she is getting the care she needs.”

             
Coding? What the fuck is stubby talking about?

             
I look back at him with my nose scrunched up. “Wait…what? What are you talking about?”

             
“Ma’am,” I try to roll my eyes but I wince at the pain this causes me. “You’ve been unresponsive for two days to be exact and last night you flat lined so we had to use a defibrillator to bring you back,” he explains.

             
“Jason?” I am so confused that I look at him for answers.

             
He turns his eyes on the two strangers, “Can you guys give us a minute? Obviously she needs to know what’s going on—I’m sure the exam can wait. She NEEDS to know what happened if she doesn’t remember.”

             
“Sir, that’s not the—“

             
“Please! Just give me thirty minutes with her…alone,” he turns his pleading eyes on stubby who only sighs heavily.

             
He looks at the brown haired woman and motions to the door with his head.

             
“Fine…thirty minutes and then we ARE going to finish this exam,” Stubby huffs as he and chubby start walking towards a door with a small window on it.

             
I suppose I should have gotten their names so I don’t have to keep calling them that.

             
As they walk out I see the woman turn back and look through the window and wink at me.
Strange.

             
I take this time to look around the room I’m in and see that it’s all white aside from a bunch of colorful flowers sitting in what seems like every corner.

             
I spot a small ass cream colored couch up against the wall to the left of the door and it has a blanket and a couple of pillows on it. I look further left and see my iPod player sitting on the window sill next to some red roses with a ‘Get Well’ balloon on it.
So that’s where OneRepublic was coming from.

             
Finally, directly to my left, I see a machine with all these different lines on it and I hear that familiar beeping sound…then it hits me.

             
“I really am at the hospital, aren’t I?” I ask Jason as my eyes meet his again. 

             
He looks at me with sad eyes and whispers hesitantly, “Yes.”

             
“Why?” I ask, truly not knowing how or when I got here.

             
He looks away from me and looks down at our entwined hands. “You don’t remember? Magda’s wedding?”

             
I try to shake my head. “What!?—no—I, uh…”

             
He squeezes my hand and I close my eyes again but this time, I remember looking up at Jason and seeing the pain in his eyes as I was struggling to keep my eyes open—