Lukas Grant – Chapter 1.8 – I Take Paris Part 3

Norman arrived on Tuesday afternoon. He met me in the waiting room and I told him there had been no change but that her vitals were stronger and she hadn’t needed any transfusions in the last 24 hours.

 

He went in to see Elaine while I went down for some coffee. I stood there for a moment in front of the coffee machine, forgetting what I had come to do. There were so many memories running through my mind. “Wake up, Elaine. Please.. Wake up.” I reached out my hand to pour coffee. There were people crying in the hall for their loved ones. Things just didn’t seem hopeful anymore.

I put my head up, shut my eyes tight and desperately prayed to God that she would wake up soon. While my eyes were shut, I heard some footsteps running down the hallway. “Mr. Grant! Mr. Grant!” I looked over. It was Nurse Patrice Fontaine. She had an excited look on her face. “Your father-in-law… said you… would be here.” “Please, what’s going on?” I asked. “Sh- she..” “Yes?” then “Is she ok?”, I asked frantically. I could tell the nurse was out of breath from running down here. “She’s awake! She’s awake, Mr. Grant!”

Things started moving in slow motion yet my body was moving so fast down the halls and up the steps.

I stopped at the door to Elaine’s room. Her father was standing at her bedside. “Elaine….” I said quietly. She looked over at me and smiled a weak smile. “Oh, thank God!” I said as I rushed to her side.

Questions just came rushing out of me. “Are you okay? Are you hurting?” She opened her mouth to say something when Doctor Stewart came in and said he needed to examine her and ask her some questions. I looked over at him and then back at her. She took my hand and nodded her head in ascent.

Norman and I went to the waiting room and waited for the doctor to complete his examination and tell us when we could go back to see her. We were both sitting there silently for a while. Norman smiled faintly at me and said, “She’s going to be alright. Everything is going to be alright now.” I could tell there was hope in his eyes, but I don’t think he saw it in mine. I was happy, but it seemed all too good to be true. 

Doctor Stewart came in and said, “Everything looks normal but we are going to continue to keep a close watch on her for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. If her recovery proceeds on schedule, she should go home by the weekend or the beginning of the week.” “That is great news!” Norman replied. “Thank you, doctor. Can we go in to see her now?” Lucas asked. “Yes, of course. Go right ahead. But don’t get her too emotional.”

Norman and I went back into her room and just hugged her and each other and smiled because we were so overjoyed. “It was all going to be alright” I said to myself as I sat looking at her from end of the bed.

Several days of good progress had given the doctor sufficient reason to make Monday her release date. She was up and walking to the bathroom that morning when suddenly she curled over in pain. Norman rushed out to the nurses station down the hall to have the doctor called.

The doctor met us down in the waiting room some time later with some unexpected bad news. Apparently the trauma from the accident and some of the pain meds she had been on had caused a very early miscarriage. She would be fine but he would like to keep her in the hospital just a few more days to make sure she was ok.

Norman and I sat down and just sat in silence for a moment. Each of us grieving in our own way.

I got up and went into the room where Elaine was sitting on the side of the bed with Nurse Amelie Durand. Elaine looked up at me with such sadness in her face. This was the second child she had lost and my first. I could finally understand the depths of what she had been feeling for 4 years.

She stood up and I held her for a long time.