"Just a few minutes. She has just woken up. She doesn't remember anything."
The nurse turned back to me. "Where do you have pain?"
"My head and my throat and neck." I tried to lift my hand but my body felt tired as though I had run a marathon.
"That's to be expected. I'll get you some more pain relief and then I need you to get some rest." She checked the machine beside the bed before once more leaving.
"You gave us all quite a scare, Carrie." Aaron's voice broke through my thoughts and I turned to look at him.
"I didn't mean to..."
He grinned and sat in the chair near the bed. "This one hasn't slept since it happened. I've been trying to tell him that he needs to rest but he wouldn't listen."
I glanced over at David as Aaron spoke. For the first time I noticed that it wasn't just concern that was etched into his features. He looked exhausted. Where normally his clothes were immaculate, the ones he wore were crumpled and ruined. They looked as though he had slept in them and, judging from the tiredness on his face, he probably had.
"Where have you been sleeping?" I asked him.
"It doesn't matter..."
Aaron's voice cut across David's dismissal. "He's been sleeping here. On the sofa under the window. Refused to leave your side."
David shot Aaron a dirty look, shutting him up. The other man shrugged and closed his eyes, settling back against the chair he sat in.
"Take no notice of Aaron. I just did what I had to do... This is my fault..."
"David, I'm a little hazy on what actually happened, but what I am sure of is that none of this was your fault. You didn't do this to me."
"I may as well have..."
I tried to shake my head but the movement caused me to whimper and close my eyes until the pain subsided. The nurse hurried back into the room, pushing a small trolley in front of her. On it I could see several vials and small sealed packages. Seeing the look of pain on my face she began immediately ripping open little packages and pulled a small vial from the collection. I watched through a fog of pain as she prepped the needle and injected the clear fluid into the saline drip that was suspended above me.
"You need to rest."
"I don't really, I'm fine..." The moment the clear fluid passed down the line and into my arm I felt its effects. It washed over me, chasing the pain away in front of it like the crashing wave on the shore. Something tugged at my memory. Something about the beach and the water.
Without thinking I reached up and took David's hand. He jumped and looked at me startled. He was used to initiating the contact. The fact that I had taken his hand in mine spoke volumes. It was like a reassurance, he knew I didn't blame him. I never could. This wasn't his fault...
The nurse watched me for a few minutes more. She checked the machines beside the bed before turning back to me. "Does that feel better?" she asked.
"Yeah..." My voice was groggy and drugged. "I don't want to sleep, though... I want to be awake..." Panic threatened to grip me and I held onto David's hand a little more tightly.
He pressed his hand to my forehead and smoothed my hair back. "Sssh, I'll still be here when you wake..."
I smiled weakly and nodded before closing my eyes and letting myself drift away on the haze of drugs. The sound of David's voice tugged at me, I tried to stay awake to hear what he had to say but it was coming from very far away.
"They haven't picked him up yet."
"They will, David. Relax. He won't be back. What he did to Carrie was the last ditch attempt of a very desperate man."
"But I'd feel so much better if they had him in custody... Not knowing where he is, Aaron... What if..."
"He won't. Stop thinking like that. She's safe. Just be glad you got there in time..."
"Aaron, if he had succeeded, I don't think I could ever forgive myself... It's made me wonder if Carrie wouldn't be better off without me in her life. If I had left her alone none of this would have happened. Life would be normal..."
I stirred then, David's words penetrating the haze that filled my head with cotton wool. I wanted him to know that I was glad he hadn't left me alone. That without him in my life, I would be a shell.
"We shouldn't be discussing this in here. We should take it out into the hall..."
I tried to open my mouth to call David back. I didn't want to be left on my own. The sound of the door closing let me know I was, though. With a sigh I let the medication take me. Rest was the only way to get back on my feet. I needed to be better so I could show David just how much he meant to me. There was no way I was letting him go now that I had found him.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The first few days after I woke up seemed to blur one into the other. Once the pain started to lessen and my mind wasn't fogged up by the pain medication as much, I started to feel far better. The only thing I found myself unhappy about was the fact that I couldn't remember what happened that night on the beach.
David did his best to try and fill in the blanks for me. But without my own memory of that night it was simply him telling me a story. By the third day I was itching to leave. The doctor seemed pleased by my progress but was still a little anxious about my loss of memory caused by the head trauma. The one thing I was extremely grateful for was that the headaches had slowly begun to grow further and further apart.
The feel of a warm hand brushing gently across my cheek had me stirring. It seemed a little early for David to be here. Ever since I had found out about him sleeping on the couch I had insisted he return to the hotel and get some proper sleep. What had finally convinced him was my telling him that he was disturbing my rest.
I rolled onto my back and opened my eyes with a smile. The face that stared down at me wasn't David's, but it was very familiar. The curve of his lips and the boyish charm. The way his smile lit up his entire face but failed to reach his eyes. My stomach lurched as I stared up at him.
Cold, clammy terror wound its way down my spine and crawled up the back of my throat. I remembered the feel of his hands on my neck. The way he had tried to squeeze the life from me, choke me... The look of pure hatred that had filled his eyes. But more than that, the look of happiness as he had tried to kill me. The look of someone who enjoyed inflicting pain and who had just discovered their new favourite hobby. It was that look that had haunted my dreams. It was the look in those eyes that had me waking most nights in a cold sweat. And now here he was, standing over me.
I opened my mouth but Robert was quick to clamp his hand down on my face. He pinned me easily beneath him. I struggled, terror making me stronger than normal. But I was still weakened and he was determined.