Durango (Reed Hawthorne Security #5)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Durango

“Wake up, brother,” a voice calls out.

“Why isn’t he waking up?”

“They said it could take a while.”

“He has to wake up!”

I try but cannot open my eyes. The voices sound muted, as if I’m underwater.

“Durango, please, baby, wake up.”

It’s Willow. I’m trying! I really am trying.

“You did not come back into my life to leave it now,” she says.

I try to take a deep breath, but something is stopping me. I try again. But I can’t. My chest hurts. My arms hurt. Hell, everything hurts. Why does everything hurt?

“Just open your eyes,” Willow says.

I try again but can’t. She takes my hand in hers.

“Can you move your fingers?” she asks.

I focus all my attention on my right hand. Move dammit!

“Did you see that?” Willow asks. “His fingers moved!”

“Let me see,” an unfamiliar voice says.

“Do it again, Durango,” Willow says.

I focus all my energy again.

“See! They moved again!” Willow says.

“This is a good sign,” the voice says. “Hopefully, he’ll open his eyes soon.”

I’m trying! Why can’t I take a deep breath? Slowly, I come to a little more. That’s when I feel something down my throat. It’s choking me. I try again to take a deep breath and can’t. My eyes finally pop open as I try to sit up and breathe deeply. But it doesn’t work.

“Help!” But that’s not what comes out. Only a moan escapes my lips.

“He’s awake!” Willow says.

“He’s panicking. Mr. Myers, you need to calm down. You have a vent in your lungs.”

My eyes meet his. A doctor.

“We are going to have it removed, but it will be a minute. Okay?”

I force myself to calm down and give a small nod. But that hurts. Why does everything hurt?

My eyes focus, and I take in my surroundings. Piper and CT are off to my left. Willow is on my right. The doctor is at the foot of the bed, looking at something.

“You called?” a woman in scrubs says as she enters the room.

“Yes, we need to take his vent out,” the doctor says. “Please, everyone, leave the room for this.”

I watch as Piper, CT, and Willow exit. The next few minutes are not pleasant, but once the vent is out, I try to take a deep breath and still can’t. It causes me to cough, but that hurts like hell, too. My throat is raw.

“Here’s some water. Please sip it slowly. The last thing you want is to throw up right now,” the nurse says, handing me a cup.

I do as she says and sip it slowly. “What happened?” I croak out.

The doctor steps up beside me. “You were in an accident. Do you remember?”

An accident? I shake my head.

“You got caught up in a river and went over a waterfall.”

Well, that explains why everything hurts.

“You’ve been sedated for a few days. You have a number of broken bones and injuries.”

I try to lift my arm to touch my head, but immediately, pain shoots up to my shoulder.

“Try not to move too much. You are still healing. Now that you’re awake, we will be taking you down for another MRI. You had a concussion when you arrived,” the doctor says. “I’m going to check on a few things.”

He shines a light in my eyes and asks me to follow it as he moves it. “Good. Now tell me, can you feel this?” He pokes my right hand.

“Yes.”

He pokes my left hand.

“Yes.”

I close my eyes, and the room is silent.

“Mr. Myers, do you feel anything now?”

“No.” I open my eyes. The doctor is poking my right foot. And I don’t feel a thing. I try to move my toes. Nothing. “I’m paralyzed?” No. That can’t be. If I can’t work with the guys, hell, I don’t have anything else I can do.

I close my eyes again. Whatever is wrong, it has to heal. I’ll work extra hard to make sure of it. Please don’t take my work from me.

“We don’t know anything for sure until we run some more tests. But you had no damage to your spinal cord when you arrived, which, considering your other injuries, is a miracle.”

No spinal cord injury. That means this could be temporary. Perhaps something is swollen. Something similar happened to a friend once. “So, I’ll be fine soon?” I ask.

The doctor steps up next to me. “Your body experienced a great deal of trauma. As for being fine , you have a long road of recovery ahead of you. We will take it day by day.”

He didn’t answer my question. I shouldn’t be surprised. He can’t make promises.

His brows pull together. “You did have some swelling in the brain. It’s possible the swelling is causing these symptoms. What’s important is that you stay positive and let your body heal. We’ll do another MRI soon and see if the swelling is decreasing.”

The doctor turns to Piper. “Please make sure he stays calm. He really does need to rest.”

As worked up as I am about all of this, I’m exhausted. I try to stay awake, but I can’t. I’m in and out, hearing some of what is said, but I forget a lot of it a moment later.

Some words stick with me. Brain swelling. Broken ribs. Abnormal results.

One thing I’m certain of is that Willow has been here anytime I’ve opened my eyes. Except this time. I glance around my room, and no one is here. I’m still hooked up to a bunch of monitors.

My stomach growls, and strong hunger pangs hit. There is no food on my table. I wonder if they will let me eat. Wait. I had some applesauce yesterday. Was that yesterday? There’s a fog over my brain that I can’t quite shake.

The door opens, and Piper steps in, wiping her eyes. “Oh, you’re awake. He’s awake,” she calls out to the hallway. Piper smiles, but it’s her fake smile. Something is wrong.

“What happened?” I ask.

The doctor steps into the room. “I’m glad to see you alert.” It’s the same doctor as the last time. “Can you tell me your name?”

I frown. “Callan Myers.”

“Good. And do you know why you are here?”

I remember saving a dog. I was stuck in the river. Then, the rush of water. Wait, I didn’t remember that before. Or did someone tell me? “I went over a waterfall.”

The doctor smiles. “Yes, that’s right.”

“I can’t stay awake.”

“That’s likely due to your brain injury. Sleep is good for healing.”

Brain injury? He must mean concussion.

“How much longer do I have to be here?” I ask.

The doctor’s smile drops. “At least a couple more days. We’ll see how you progress. We don’t want a scare like this last one.”

Piper wipes her eyes again.

“Last one? What happened?”

“The machines all went crazy. We thought we were losing you,” Piper says.

“Did I die?” I ask.

“No,” the doctor says. “But you did have to go in for emergency surgery.”

There is a knock on the doorway. I turn and see Ozzie grinning at me.

“Ozzie,” I say.

“Hey. Glad to see you are doing better. It was a good thing I was here. Apparently, you hadn’t told your doctor about the results of your bloodwork from a few months ago.”

What the hell is he talking about? “I’ve been a little unconscious,” I say.

“I told the doctor about the abnormality with your liver.”

“And I’m glad he told me. It helped in figuring out the reason your heart rate spiked. Were you aware you had gallstones?” the doctor asks.

“No.”

“There was also damage to the gallbladder from your fall that wasn’t apparent the first time we operated.”

I try to sit up, but it’s too painful. “First time you operated? How many times have I been under the knife?”

“Only twice,” the doctor says.

Only twice. He says it like that’s something to be proud of. Hell, I still don’t fully understand the extent of my injuries.

“We had to remove your gallbladder. It likely would have given you a lot of problems down the road.”

“Why did the monitors go crazy?” I ask Piper.

“Your heart rate shot up. They believe it was due to pain from the gallstones,” she says.

“But I thought I was on pain meds.”

“You are. But the stone you were trying to pass was very large,” the doctor says.

I remember I couldn’t move my toes, and immediately, I try again. But they are under the covers, and I can’t see them. “Can you move the covers from my feet?” I ask.

Piper exposes my right foot. My leg and foot are still in a cast, but I focus on moving my toes. Nothing.

The doctor grabs one of my toes. “Do you feel this?”

I slump down. “No. Why can’t I feel it?”

“While the swelling in your brain has gone down a little, it still needs to come down more. We just need to be patient,” the doctor says.

“It’s been days!” I yell.

The doctor frowns. “No, it hasn’t. I poked your hands and toes this morning.” He turns and glances at the clock on the wall. “That was about nine hours ago.”

Nine hours? It feels like days. “How long have I been here?”

“Three days.” Willow is holding my left hand. How did I not notice her there before? I take in her clothes. She’s wearing a royal blue sweater. It’s what she’s been wearing every time I open my eyes and see her.

“You’ve been here one day,” I say.

She nods. “I got in this morning.”

I groan.

“You will get less foggy as the prior medication works its way out of your system. It doesn’t help that we had to put you under for the emergency surgery,” the doctor says.

“What emergency surgery?” I ask.

“Removing your gallbladder.”

He already told me that. I just didn’t remember.

“And I’ll check your toes again tomorrow. In the meantime, you need to rest,” the doctor glances around the room. “You all can stay in the waiting room while he sleeps.”

“We’re fine in here,” Ozzie says. “We’ll be quiet.”

The doctor steps toward the door.

“Hey, do you think I’ll eventually be able to feel my feet and legs again?”

He shoves his hands into his lab coat pockets. “Hopefully, you’ll make a full recovery. Only time will tell.” The doctor gives one last small smile before he leaves the room.

My attention turns to Piper. “Why were you crying when you walked in here? What did the doctor say?”

Piper’s eyes move to Ozzie.

So, I look to him, too. “Ozzie, what’s going on?”

He scratches the back of his neck. “The doctor said you need to take it easy for a while. When I mentioned that our work can get physical…”

I wait, but he doesn’t continue his thought. “And?”

Ozzie doesn’t meet my eyes. “He said we should prepare for the fact that you might not get the feeling back in your legs.”

No. The doctor said it was related to my head injury. “Why would I do that? Once the swelling goes down, I’ll be fine. He just said I should make a full recovery!”

Ozzie nods. “He said he hopes you will. We all do.” He’s struggling not to show emotion, but I can see it in his eyes.

“The doctor is just being conservative. You know how they are. I have to be able to return to work. It’s who I am.”

I will return. I’m a SEAL, and I can handle hard things. The fact that Ozzie seems to doubt me hurts. He knows what we’ve been through.

If I can’t work with the guys at RHS, what else would I do? When I had to leave the service, thank God, Hawthorne took me on at RHS. Without this work, I would be lost.

After my father died, I swore I would never let any of my family suffer financially. And I’ve kept good on my promise. I need my job, but not just for the money. I need to be out there with my brothers.

“I have to work at RHS. It’s who I am,” I say.

“No, it’s not,” Willow says. “You are so much more than a job. And if it’s too dangerous, then we’ll figure something else out.”

We . She said we. But wait, she also called my work a job. “It’s not just a job.”

I glance at Ozzie. I don’t like how he’s looking at me. There’s pity in his eyes. No, this is not how my career ends. I understand I need time to heal. And I will do everything the doctor asks of me. But I will be back at RHS, no matter what it takes.