Chapter 1
Beep, beep, beep. I blinked my eyes open, staring at the white walls that surrounded me, almost caving in on me.
Beep, beep, beep. I shifted a bit, or tired to shift, frowning slightly when I couldn’t, wondering what was stopping me.
Beep, beep, beep. And what the hell was that beeping?
I lifted my head, frowning even more as I saw the bed, the sheets, and the last thing, the damn IVs.
Of course, that was what was making that noise. But what happened? The last thing I remember was yelling at Rochelle on my cell phone, than swerving to avoid a wreck and skidded on the rain soaked road, and…that’s it.
I tired to lift my hand to rub my forehead, wincing at the pain that shot through my arm. I glanced down at it, seeing tons of scratches and more bruises than I could count. And shit, that was only one arm. I turned my head to take in the other side, seeing much of the same damn thing, tons of scratches and multiple bruises. This wasn’t painting a good picture. And why the hell could I not recall anything?
That thought was frustrating in and of itself. But the fact that I couldn’t move was starting to add to that irritation even more. And since I was in a damn hospital bed, where the hell were the nurses to check up on me?
I licked my lips and tired to make a sound, any sound; not even a croak came from my throat. What the hell had I become? Was I all of a sudden an invalid? One who couldn’t move, couldn’t speak…or at this point, couldn’t sing? That was actually impossible. I was AJ freakin McLean! This would ruin my career!
I finally lifted my eyes up to the door as it opened and watched as Rochelle walked in, wiping her eyes. I tried, once more, to lift my hand to take hers, but let it fall back down, the pain being too much for me to endure right now.
“Honey, you woke up. The doctor is coming in to see you and your mom flew in three days ago.”
Three days ago? I had been unconscious for three days? How the hell…why the hell…I lost the battle with trying to remember and closed my eyes again. I wanted to ask what happened, but once more, nothing came out. The silence in my ears was never something I could stand and right now, it was making my nerves even worse.
I opened my eyes again and looked up as the door opened and my mom walked over to the other side of the bed and gingerly took my hand. The doctor followed her and I watched as he offered me a weak smile. Of course, between that, the tears running down my mother’s cheeks and the fear I saw in my fiancé’s eyes, I knew something major was going on and knew, without a doubt, that I wasn’t going to like it.
“Mr. McLean, do you recall anything about what happened?” I looked around at the three faces surrounding my bed, cleared my throat a little and once more tried to voice something, anything. But still nothing came out. Instead of trying again, I merely shook my head.
“Try not to move hon. It’s best for you.” Best for me, mom? What was she talking about? How could not moving be best for me? Not like I could move much, because I couldn’t. But still…best for me? I just looked at her than looked over at the doctor as he cleared his throat to get my attention.
“You got into a serious major accident. Your car was totaled.” My car? My precious car? That was specially designed and custom made for me…was no more? Aw damnation that blew! Yet, that wasn’t the worst part. It had to get better, after all, I was lying here, and so more bad news was bound to come my way. He cleared his throat again, glanced at both Rochelle and my mom and than finally at me. “You wrapped the car around the tree, quite literally. In the process the airbags deployed at a much greater force and you severed your spinal cord in multiple locations. You had some internal bleeding, which we were able to stop right away. You did damage to some of your vital organs, but it won’t cause any more problems in the future.” My brows crinkled together, something sounding different and off about that statement. If I damaged my spine, like he said I did, recovering from that wouldn’t be easy.
I’ve seen enough people with back problems to know, that once you’re spine is screwed up, you are pretty much screwed up. So, where was he going with this, for it looked like he had more to say? I blinked a few times, trying to keep my attention on him, but could feel my body wanting to go back to sleep. Maybe, maybe I could dream about this so called accident I had, because I really could not recollect anything about it.
“Mr. McLean…” My sleepy eyes fought to stay awake and watch this older man, his hand running over the side of clipboard than flipped a couple pages, only to run over it again. He was nervous. He reminded me of the doctor I saw when I burned my throat with that stupid drink that was on fire and he thought I had burnt my vocal cords so badly that I couldn’t sing anymore. He was…scared to tell me the truth. And this doctor was acting the same way.
“Mr. Mclean…” I let out a sigh and felt my mom lay her hand on my shoulder, a comforting smile on her lips but tears pooled in her eyes again. “Mr. McLean…” If he said that one more time, I was going to ram my hand down his throat. Spill it already. What the hell was the problem? “There’s more.” No shit Sherlock! A blind man could see there was something else bothering you, something you had a hard time getting out. “With your cord being as damaged as it is…,” he took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose before going on, “you can’t move from the waist down. You’re paralyzed Alex., permanently.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is a different story in some regards for me. But it is one I've been working on for a while. Hope you enjoy!
