What the Heart Remembers Most by M. Ullrich

Author:M. Ullrich [Ullrich, M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635554021
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2020-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

14 days, 23 hours, 14 minutes

Jax pressed her fingertips into her temples. Her mind was reeling, and not one bit of the information Dr. Melendez threw at her helped. “What does this mean?”

“Like I said, sustaining an injury to the occipital lobe—”

“English,” Jax said firmly. “Just tell me if this set everything back or if…” Every ounce of hopefulness drained from Jax’s heart. “Did we ruin our chances of Gretchen recovering?”

“Having a seizure at this point isn’t detrimental, and it’s better it happened now rather than later, when we were less prepared for it. It’s impossible to say how it’ll impact her, but we need to stay positive.” Dr. Melendez grabbed a pen from the pocket of her lab coat and jotted something in her notepad.

“That’s it?”

“Until she wakes up again, yeah.”

Jax felt like she was living in an infinite, frustrating loop. She ran her fingers through her hair. “Okay.” A hollow knock caught Jax’s attention. She spun on her heels and smiled when she saw Gretchen was awake. She was grateful this wait was considerably shorter than the first. “Hey,” she said, walking to Gretchen’s bedside. She touched Gretchen’s forehead gently. “You’re awake. You gave us quite a scare.” She looked into Gretchen’s drowsy eyes.

“Gretchen? Can you hear me?” Dr. Melendez took her spot across from Jax. “It’s me, Dr. Melendez.” She encouraged Gretchen to open her eyes and shined her penlight into them.

She hated watching the way Gretchen winced and tried to pull away from the bright light.

“Do you remember me, Gretchen?” Dr. Melendez asked as she slid the light back into her pocket. She and Jax waited patiently for Gretchen to answer.

Jax studied Gretchen’s face. Apparent on the surface were frustration and fear. She felt relieved at Gretchen’s small nod.

Dr. Melendez smiled softly, showing her relief, too. “Do you know where you are?”

Jax laughed at Gretchen’s incredulous look. Her face was so expressive, it said more than words ever could. She imagined Gretchen wondering where her doctor received her degree from and if it was real. The humor of the moment fell away when Dr. Melendez’s expression turned to concern.

“Can you talk?” the doctor asked.

Jax’s heart dropped when Gretchen looked at her with desperate eyes instead of answering. “Can you answer Dr. Melendez? One word, that’s all we need.” She took Gretchen’s hand. She hated how awkward it felt to do something that was once second nature.

Gretchen’s eyes started to tear, and her chin quivered. Her brow was pinched together, and she looked like she wanted to scream. Gretchen held her hand so tightly it hurt.

Dr. Melendez stepped back from Gretchen’s bedside. Jax started to speak, wanting to demand answers and for them to do something, anything, to help fix her, but Dr. Melendez stopped her with a tilt of her head. She stood and followed her to the doorway of Gretchen’s room.

“What the hell is going on?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Gretchen’s main injury is to her occipital lobe, but in her scans we did notice faint bruising to the cerebrum.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.