Chapter Thirty Three - You're Awake
Lincoln's P.O.V -
I followed all the instructions that the nurses gave me until eventually I got to see Milo. I froze when my eyes landed on him, he was unconscious and had a breathing tube in his mouth which was attached to a ventilator. He had tubes coming out of his chest which was heavily wrapped in gauze and bandages. He was slightly pale most likely from losing a lot of blood. He had multiple machines attached to him which made a lot of noise in the otherwise quiet room.
"I was wondering when you'd get here." Gianna spoke from a seat beside Milo's bed, her eyes flickering to me briefly.
"I probably would've had a breakdown if I came here last night." I mumbled stepping forward and rest my hands on the frame of the bed.
"So you would've been the same as me then." She doesn't take her eyes of Milo as she talks to me.
"My dad wouldn't let me come here yesterday." I told her. "I was a bit in shock i guess, I couldn't walk without help and I was constantly being sick."
"It must've been hard." She finally looked over at me. "Seeing it happen."
I nodded looking away from her and to Milo. "I thought he was going to die."
She frowned looking back to Milo and reaching to grip his hand. "Why would he do this?"
Tears fell down her face suddenly. "Why would he shoot his own son?"
"He uh-" I cleared my throat. "He didn't mean to."
She looked up at me confused. "What?"
"He was aiming at me but I jumped out of the way." I spoke guiltily. "Milo was behind me."
"Why was he shooting at you?" She spoke concerned rather than with anger.
"Because I'm a werewolf and because he thought I made Milo gay." I bit on the inside of my cheek.
She took a deep breath. "This isn't your fault, you need to know that. This was all him."
I nodded although I wasn't quite sure if I agreed with her.
"How did he know?" She asked after a few moments.
"Huh?" I looked at her.
"How did he know you are a werewolf? Did you tell him?" She expanded.
"He was one of them, one of the hunters." I told her to which she gasped. "He beat up Milo and raped my mum."
"He's hurt Milo before." She spoke astonished.
"It didn't seem like he knew it was Milo." I added. "I'm not really sure how he didn't know, we'd have to ask Milo to find out."
She moved so that both hands were now clasped around his right hand. "I can't believe that I told him to go to that piece of shit's house."
I was slightly taken aback by her swearing. "You couldn't have known, Milo refused to tell us about it."
"He kept his father's secret even after everything he did." She looked at Milo.
I wasn't sure what to say to that so I decided to change the focus of the conversation to Milo's condition.
"So how's Milo doing? Has he woken up?" I asked walking to the side of his bed.
"The doctors say he's stable and that surgery went well." She kissed the top of his hand. "He's woken up twice so far, he just opens his eyes for about a minute before falling asleep again."
"He wont be able to talk or anything right?" I asked. "With this tube in."
I gestured to the one in his mouth. Gianna nodded as an answer to my question.
"Once he gains some more strength he could write instead." She suggested.
"Yeah." I breathed.
***
"You have shit luck." Lucy smiled sadly at Milo.
She was adamant that he could hear her, I tried to explain to her that he's not in a coma and that's what people think patients can here during.
"I mean, you got kidnapped a couple weeks ago and now you've got shot." She continued. "Maybe Lincoln's a bad influence."
I rolled my eyes in annoyance as I felt some guilt rise in my chest. This was my fault.
"Ooh he got mad at that, you should see his face." Lucy chuckled.
"I did not get mad, Milo ignore her." I said before sighing. "Lucy you've somehow got me talking to unconscious people now."
"You're such a downer." Lucy huffed.
"Oh shut up." I mumbled.
"Why are you getting so annoyed at me?" She crossed her arms.
"Maybe because my mate is lying in a hospital bed and i'm not in the mood to put up with you." I replied.
"Lincoln if you don't want to listen to me talking to Milo then just leave the room." She narrowed her eyes at me. "You're going to be spending the rest of the day in here, so can you not just let me have half an hour?"
I stayed quiet for a moment. "Fine."
I stood up from the chair about to leave when one of the machines started beeping. I looked around alarmed to see that the machine which showed his heart rate was the one making the noise.
"Lincoln." Lucy got my attention. "He's awake."
The machine was still beeping but I turned my attention to Milo his eyes were wide as he looked around the room, he raised his hand up to his mouth where the breathing tube was. His hand wrapped around it like he was going to pull it out but I jumped forward taking hold of his arm and placing it down on the bed.
"No don't do that." I told him.
A nurse entered quickly making her way to Milo. She spared a quick glance at the beeping machine before she became focused on him.
"Hell Milo." She smiled at him. "I'm gonna need you to try and calm down. You are currently in hospital, if you're wondering."
She walked to the other side of the room searching through the medical supplies until she came back with a syringe, she placed it on a little table before looking at the machine again.
"What's making you so panicked Milo? Is it the noise, the place?" She asked him.
He reached to touch the breathing tube again, at this point his eyes had began to well up. The nurse nodded.
"Alright, well I'm gonna give you some more sedation. It'll help you relax and accept the breathing tube." She told him as she injected the liquid into the IV drip.
Milo watched her cautiously although his heart rate had began to go back to normal.
"Hi Milo." Lucy smiled as she reached to hold his hand.
He looked over at her terrified.
"It's okay Milo, she's helping you." She reassured him.
I walked around the bed so that I was stood beside Lucy. I smiled warmly at him.
"Hi." I reached forward to brush his hair out of his face.
"It's about time you woke up, you've been asleep all day." Lucy joked.
I chuckled as my phone began to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket seeing that it was Milo's mum before answering the phone.
"What's going on? Why's there beeping?" She asked immediately.
"Milo woke up, he was panicking a bit so his heart rate spiked." I explained.
"He's awake?" She asked.
Lucy let go of Milo's hand. "I'll swap with her now."
I nodded watching as she quickly left the room.
"The sedation might kick in before she gets here." The nurse spoke up. "You might want to put her on speaker so that Milo can hear her instead."
I nodded. "Gianna I'm going to put you on speaker, that way you can talk to him before he falls asleep again."
I put the phone on speaker holding it close to Milo. "It's your mum."
"Ciao Milo, spero davvero che tu stia andando bene. So che sei stanco, quindi puoi tornare a dormire. Devi solo sapere che ti amo così tanto e che mi dispiace tanto che sia successo." (Hello Milo, I really hope that you are doing well. I know you're tired, so you can go back to sleep. You just need to know that I love you so much, and that I am so sorry this happened.) She told him in Italian.
Milo had become increasingly tired as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
"Go to sleep Milo." I told him placing a kiss on his head. "I love you."
He looked at me for a moment before finally allowing the medicine to take over him. His head drooped to the side still looking in my direction.
I continued to run my hand through his hair smiling softly at him.
***
Milo's been in hospital for three days now and his condition hadn't changed much. He had another surgery last night but I went home to do some pack business.
I visited the hospital as early as I could when morning arrived. Wyatt had decided to come with me today rather than going to school like he had yesterday.
"You can both go straight in, his mother is not here at the moment." The nurse told me as we arrived.
I thanked her before entering the ICU. We both washed our hands thoroughly before walking to where Milo was. I was surprised to see that he was awake and staring up at the ceiling.
"Milo." I smiled.
He turned his attention to me as I walked over, I noticed his eyes light up slightly.
"Hi." I sat in the chair beside the bed. "You're awake."
He lifted his hand holding it out to me, I grinned reaching out to squeeze his hand.
"Finally." Wyatt exclaimed. "I was starting to think you weren't waking up to ignore me."
Whenever Wyatt has come to visit Milo he hasn't woken up for even a minute.
"I told you he wasn't avoiding you." I laughed lightly.
A nurse walked in, she smiled at Milo before checking all the machine to make sure everything was okay. "You've gained quite a bit of strength Milo, how about we try to see if you can write?"
I looked over at him but he stared at her blankly, I turned back to the nurse.
"That's sounds like a good idea." I told her.
She nodded leaving to retrieve a pen and paper, she soon came back handing them to me.
"I have another patient I need to check on." She told us. "So tell me how he does but don't push him too much into doing it."
She walked away quickly heading to someone else. I placed the pen in his hand before sliding the notepad beneath his hand.
His hand was shaky as he gripped the pen, Wyatt and I watched him eager to find out if Milo will be able to communicate from now on.
He slowly began to write on the paper before stopping and looking back to me. I picked up the notebook reading the sloppy handwriting quickly.
Dad?
"What about him?" I asked confused. "He's being held in jail at the moment."
I handed him back the paper and he began to write again.
I'm safe.
I smiled down at his words. "Yes you are."
Are you okay?
I frowned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"
You look sad and tired.
"Oh." I mumbled. "It's just been a stressful few days that's all, I've been worried about you."
I'm fine now, there's no one to hurt me anymore.
I blinked back a few tears. "Yeah, from now on everything will be okay."
Wyatt.
I waved him over so that he was reading the paper.
"Yeah?" He asked looking at Milo.
How is Lucy?
"She's-" He thought for a moment a small frown on his face. "About the same as Lincoln, worrying about you."
We continued to have a conversation with Milo for the next five minutes before he fell asleep once again.
"You're smile is sickening." Wyatt told me.
"Leave me alone." I said a smile still on my face. "I'm happy, really happy."
***
I had been here for a few hours now, Wyatt had gone to pick up Lucy from school and bring her here. I decided to take a small nap until they got here.
I woke to a bang, I jumped from the chair looking around. It was somehow night now and there were no nurses around. I looked around to find the source of the noise.
Milo's dad stepped into the room his gun in his hands pointing it at Milo.
"I have to finish what I started." He told me before pulling the trigger shooting at Milo.
The bullet landed between his eyes killing him instantly. I felt my breath getting caught in my throat as I stared at my dead mate.
"Your turn." I didn't even look as another bang echoed around the room and pain pierced through my heart.
I jumped up startled as I looked to where Milo was still asleep. My sudden movement must have scared the nurse who had been checking up on Milo. She yelped jumping away from the machine.
"Sorry." I apologized sitting back down in the chair my heart beating rapidly in my chest.
"Are you okay sir?" She asked now focused on me.
"Yes sorry again." I told her. "It was just a bad dream."
"That's common after witnessing this type of incident." She said turning back to the machines. "May I suggest that you visit the psychology department?"
"No." I insisted. "I'm fine really."
She hummed with a small nod before turning on her heels and leaving the room.
I stared at Milo for a few minutes trying to calm my quickened heart. Maybe I couldn't be happy and let my guard down yet after all.