An Elf's Rose

AUTHOR’S NOTES: To those folks who have a medical background: I don’t. So please be merciful if what I write is completely wrong! I did a little research, but certainly not as much as I could have, I suppose. I would never had started writing this fic if I felt I had to do tons of research. This isn’t a novel and I’m doing this for fun in my free time. I hope you can enjoy it along with me…







CHAPTER 10





Diego Aragon paced the kitchen, alternating between fury and fear. He had called the boy’s cell phone, but there had been no answer. The subscriber you are trying to reach is unavailable…



He looked at the clock again. Three thirty-one. An hour and a half late. He was mostly furious with himself for trusting the boy. He’d seemed so sincere. And the look he’d given Rose when she walked in the room – that had decided him that the boy was trustworthy.



Maybe they’re not late because they’re fooling around…. Better to choke off that thought. When faced with the actual choice, Diego would rather have a deflowered daughter than a dead one.



His wife sat quietly in one of the kitchen chairs, drinking a cup of tea. “Diego, I’m sure they’re just having fun and lost track of th – “ She was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the telephone.



They both froze, staring at each other. Marlena’s eyes filled with terror. Diego walked like a sleepwalker to the e ane and picked it up on the third ring.



“Hello?” he whispered.



“Daddy?” Rose’s voice sounded oddly muffled.



Diego’s body was galvanized by that tiny voice. “Querida! Where are you?

Are you all right? Dime que paso!”



“Oh, daddy! I think he’s going to die – “ Rose’s voice broke and then began to weep.



~~~



The emergency room waiting area not nothing like Rose had thought it would be. It definitely wasn’t like “ER”. It was small and claustrophobic, with a tiny window at one end that didn’t open up; it had a speaker in it for communicating with the nurses on the other side. Luckily the room was empty at the moment except for the five of them. Rose sat in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, with Amy, who still cried in spurts, on one side, and Sean on the other. He had his head buried in his hands and was moaning like a wounded bear. Rose herself had no more tears at the moment. She stroked Sean’s sandy blond hair absently and looked vacantly at the nurses’ window, hoping against hope that someone would come and tell them Orlando was ok.



The police had just left, after taking their statements. They had been satisfied that it had been an accident, especially when Sean had broken down sobbing saying that it was entirely his fault.



She felt bad about Sean. She’d given him a black eye, a split lip and some nasty nail gouges earlier when he’d tackled her to keep her from throwing herself off the balcony after Orlando in a blind panic. He’d barely kept her down with his two-hundred pound weight, accepting every blow and kick and scream she’d delivered in complete silence. It was only after she’d given up in exhaustion that they both succumbed to heart-rending tears. The police found them like that a few minutes later.



“Somebody’s gotta call his dad,” Marc was saying, waking Rose from her trance. Karyn visibly shuddered. “Not me,” she whispered.



Sean sat up at this, wiping his face with his untucked shirt. “Fuck. He’s gonna flip.”



“You know him best, Sean,” Amy told him. “You should do it.”



“Do I look like I’m in any condition to make phone calls?” Sean asked, his voice hoarse, and still on the verge of tears. “What am I going to say? Gee Mr. Bloom, I just knocked your son off a third story balcony. His back’s broken and may never walk again…”



“You don’t have to tell him that…”



Rose felt an odd feeling of déjà vu overtake her. “I will do it,” she whispered as they continued to argue. “I will do it,” she repeated, louder. They all stared at her. “Though I don’t know the number.”



Marc gave her his cell phone and showed her how to use it, telling her she would probably have to go outside the building to get a clear signal. No one followed her out. She was on her own.



Robert Bloom answered on the fourth ring.



“Mr. Bloom?”



“What is it? Who is this? Jesus, it’s two o’clock in the bloody morning….”



“It’s Rose. Rose Aragon? Remember me?”



The silence was so long on the other end, she thought the phone had disconnected. “Hello? Mr. Bloom?” She suddenly heard an animalistic whimpering coming from the other end.



“Please God no…” his voice came over the earpiece like a moan. The pain was so palpable Rose’s eyes filled with tears. She had shut off her own pain, but this was someone else’s.



“Where are you?” he asked finally.



“The emergency room at Cedars-SinaHe fHe fell off a balcony. He’s in surgery right now, the nurse said.” Rose congratulated herself for being very calm and her voice not shaking. She could almost see herself from a distance, like she was two people.



Rose pressed the red button on the phone like Marc had told her, then stood and watched as another ambulance drove up, lights flashing, bringing in another victim of the treacherous night.



~~~



Robert showed up disheveled and half dressed with pajama top untucked and dress trousers. He immediately began to demand information from the nurses hiding behind their little window. They wouldn’t tell him anything more than what the gang had been told, which was exactly nothing.



“I’m sorry, sir, the patient is still in surgery. The doctor will come out to speak with you when he’s ready.” Bla bla bla.



Rose watched him as he took control, making telephone calls and speaking quietly to several people. She felt her own control slipping, giving it over to a higher authority. With a physical thump, she was back in her body and it started to shake uncontrollably. She squeezed her eyes shut. I will not cry. I will not cry’ she chanted in her head. Sean wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest.



Robert sat down in one of the plastic chairs.



“Now what?” Marc asked him.



“We wait a bit, while the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” He looked around at their faces. “All right. What the hell happened?”



~~~



Robert sat with his head in his hands, hoping that this was a nightmare from which he would wake up. The biggest fear of his life had come true. Terror of losing his son choked him, yet the terror of Orli being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life almost took precedent. His father-in-law had been in a wheelchair the last years of his life and it had been a terrible burden to the man himself as well as those who cared for him. He knew Orli would not easily accept that fate, having seen it close up and personal as a small child. Orli had a horror of such things, especially of being completely dependent on other people for his welfare.



Well, whatever will be will be, like the song said. All one can do is play theds ods one is dealt. If he ended up in a chair, so be it. Whether anyone liked it or not, there was nothing to be done. Robert knew that he would provide whatever would be necessary to make him comfortable. He sobbed a laugh. They were both going to need to see that shrink and soon.



~~~



Robert had tried to send the kids home but they wouldn’t budge, even though they were falling asleep where they sat. Only Sean and Rose stayed awake, their eyes burning holes in the door at the far end of the room.



“Rose, what about your parents?” Robert asked. “You should call them.”



She startled and turned those fathomless dark eyes on him. “They’ll come to take me home. I’m not leaving.”



“I understand, darling. You don’t have to go home if you don’t want. You should call them though. They must be worried.” He held out his cell phone and the door at the back of the waiting room opened.



~~~



The doctor was young, an intern, dressed in green scrubs and a cap.



“Mr. Bloom? Come with me please?” he said softly.



Robert stood up, then looked at the kids’ frightened faces. “You can tell us all. We’re all family here,” he replied, voice hoarse.



The doctor hesitated, but shrugged slightly camecame into the room. He cleared his throat.



“Ah, well. I’m, ah, Dr. Barry Cohen.” The men shook hands. “Your son is still in surgery. They’re finishing up now. We actually just worked on his heajuryjury. The spinal cord injury will be left until later when the swelling goes down and we consult our specialists.”



Six faces peered at him with varying degrees of hope and dread.



“He is in a coma and on a respirator, so we don’t know what the prognosis is right now. Brain injuries can be -- damn tricky. The next twenty-four hours will give us a better idea. The, ah, trauma to his skull is at the base, apparently from an old-fashioned sprinkler head. The bone was quite indented at the site but at this time we have no idea if there will be any brain damage. The worst case scenario – ah, that’s if he makes it -- is he may be blinded permanently, as that is the area where the brain processes visual input.”



There were several groans and sobs from the young people. The father stood stoically and asked him about the spinal cord injury.



“Ah, yes, well, I’m not an expert in that field, sorry to say. I couldn’t begin to hazard a diagnosis. We haven’t even touched that yet. He’s on a restraint board right now, and it’s all we can do at this time.“



“When can I see him?” Robert askeis ris ragged voice betraying him.



“I don’t –“ He hesitated, thinking about the phone call they’d received from the director. “I’ll find out for you. Within the hour I’m sure.”



He left them then, to their own thoughts. Rose was in shock, laying in Sean’s arms like a rag doll. If he makes it. The words tolled in her head like a death knell. Somehow, she never thought that there was still a chance of him dying, not after she’d been told he was alive.



Blind. Paraplegic. Two more words that rang loudly, the vibrations shaking her very bones. She was suddenly terrified. Half-formed thoughts scurried through her mind, leaving slimy trails that left her shuddering in disgust. Did she have the courage to be a good friend to him, after all this? The courage to stay at all? Or if she did, would he think she stuck around from pity? She knew she would be taking on a huge emotional burden. Could she do it for someone she’d known only three months? These feelings she had for him, were they really love, or just infatuation with his elvishness? Would she be betraying him if in six months she found she was too busy to come around?



Rose felt nauseous. She gulped convulsively, clutching at Sean’s shirt. She could feel him trembling against her. She wanted to go home, pretend nothing had happened, forget she’d ever met him. She wanted to see him, yet terrified of doing so.



“Rose. Rosie.” She was called out of her misery by Robert’s gentle voice. “Sweetheart. You must call your mum and dad. Maybe it’s better you did go home. There’s nothing to be done now.” She nodded, thankful he understood. She sat up and with trembling fingers, pressed the numbers on the tiny phone he gave her.



~~~



Robert had forced the others to leave. They wouldn’t be seeing Orli anyway, so why stay? He sat with an arm tightly around Rose’s shoulders, offering his strength as she waited for her parents. She trembled like a captive bird and he felt an overwhelming love for her, mixed with pity. She shouldn’t be forced to make such decisions right now. If he felt terror of the future, and Orli was his son whom he loved irrevocably, what of this poor girl who barely knew him? He was sure her parents would feel the same. They would keep her home, and rightly so. She was young, there would be other boys in her life. His heart squeezed at the thought. He knew Orli cared for this young woman and the thought of her leaving him behind in such a time of need was oddly painful. Ultimately, though, it was not his decision to make.



The door opened again, and Rose and Robert’s eyes swiveled to it. Dr. Cohen was beckoning to them.



“Ah, just you, Mr. Bloom.”



Rose got stubborn. “I want to see him.” She looked up at Robert pleadingly and he smiled lopsidedly at her, then turned to the doctor. “This is my son’s girlfriend. She should see him as well.”



The doctor frowned. “I don’t think – “



“Of course not. But Rose will be quiet as a mouse, won’t you sweetheart?”



“You won’t even know I’m there.”



Dr. Cohen sighed. “It’s not going to be a pretty sight. Shocking even.”



Tears trembled on the edges of her eyelashes. “I want to see him.”



~~~



Shocking did not encompass it. ICU was a large brightly-lighted circular room with beds along the periphery, separated by green curtains and the nurses’ station in the center, monitoring all the patients’ life support equipment.



Rose clutched Robert’s arm and he drew it around her, holding her tightly. Even through her own emotional distress, she became aware of his. He’s done this before, with Orlando’s mother, she thought suddenly. She looked up at him and saw his face was drawn and sickly pale.



They followed Dr. Cohen until he stopped at a bed surrounded by equipment making all sorts of different noises. The most dramatic was the whoosh of the respirator. Rose made a tiny noise in her throat.



The bed wasn’t a normal hospital bed. To Rose, it looked like the slab that Frankenstein had laid on before he awoke to hideous life. Orlando lay on it like a pale shadow of himself. He was strapped to the board at the chest, abdomen and hips, effectively immobilizing him from any sudden movement. His torso lay uncovered by the thin blanket, but peppered with white circles sending information about his heartbeat and breathing to the machines. Rose could barely look at him, focusing instead on the tattoo on the side of his upper right arm. It upset her, having never seen it before, a dark blotch against the pale marble of his skin.



Robert moved them both forward. He reached out and lay a hand on Orlando’s shin. There was, of course, no response. Robert moved them up closer to look on his face. Rose looked at the tattoo. It was a yin yang symbol with Japanese kanji script underneath.



“Orlando,” Robert breathed softly. “We’re here for you son. You’re going to be fine. You’re being taken care of.” He touched Orlando’s splinted hand, mindful of the intravenous tubing.



Rose finally dared to look at his face. He looked – at peace. His long golden- brown lashes lay against his pale cheeks, but there was no movement under the lids. The only movement was the expansion of his chest as the machine breathed for him. Slowly, Rose took in the rest of the scene. His head had been bandaged and to Rose’s horror, there were drainage tubes sticking out from the back, snaking their way down below the bed. His whole head was seized in a bizarre contraption like a cage, holding it over the edge of the restraint bed so it wouldn’t touch anything.



Rose’s legs gave out and Robert led her away. A young nurse walked up and took Rose away to sit her down in a chair.



“You going to be ok, sweetie?” she d kid kindly. Rose nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks. “C’mon, I’ll take you back to the waiting room.” The nurse grabbed a small crumpled paper bag from a counter as they passed.



“Are you his girlfriend, honey?”



Rose couldn’t answer that question truthfully. But the nurse looked at her scrunched face and made her own conclusions.



“This is for you,” the young nurse said, handing her the paper bag. “Don’t tell anyone I gave it to you. I’d get in trouble.” Rose nodded, not really paying attention.



Rose’s parents were in the waiting room when she was brought out. She ran to them and sobbed in their enfolding, safe arms.



~~~



Thankfully, her parents were silent on the way home. She didn’t have the strength to answer any questions. All she wanted to do was sleep for a million years.



She shifted on the seat and felt the paper bag rustle next to her. She felt mildly curious as to what the nurse had given her. It was too dark in the car to see inside the bag, so she stuck her hand in and pulled it out.



Rose cried out in her shock and grief, frightening her parents. They tried to soothe her but she was beyond comfort.



In her hand she clutched a long, silky, pale gold braid.