Chapter 20: New Friends

David awakened this time to the sound of quiet beeping, and the hum of electronic monitors. Opening his eyes slowly, he realized he was in a hospital bed. One twitch was all it took to inform him that moving his head was one of those activities that for the time being, fell under the “not a good idea” heading. Still, he wanted more information that he was going to get staring up at the ceiling.

Slowly rolling his head to the right, he saw the girl from the restaurant dozing in the chair next to his bead. Wetting his lips as best as he could, he whispered, “Delilah”.

Her head snapped upright, and her face lit up as she said, “You’re awake!”

“Where am I?” he asked.

“You’re in the hospital”.

He grimaced. “And where, for the time being, can this hospital be found?”

“Oh! It’s in Atlanta. In Georgia”, she quickly added. “They flew you here in a helicopter”.

“How long have I been out?”

“Today is the 8^th day. They wouldn’t tell me ‘cause I’m not related to you AND because I’m a minor, but I heard the doctor tell someone on the telephone they were keeping you in a coma until the swelling in your brain went down.”

She began to cry. “I’m so sorry I hit you with that frying pan, I’m so sorry”.

“How bad is it?”

Delilah began crying harder, pulling her knees up to her chest, her pretty face screwed up into a mask of emotional pain and fear.

David reached out with his hand on that side of the bed. “Come here” he whispered. When she didn’t move he repeated more strongly, “Delilah, come here!”

She reluctantly got up off the chair and came to the side of his hospital bed. “Help be lower this bed rail,” he whispered.

She figured out how to lower the bed rail, but then said, “Wait, you can’t get out of bed. You’re too sick.”

“Delilah, I’m not sick, I’m injured. And I’m not getting out of bed, you’re getting in.”

She began to get into the bed with him even as she was asking, “Why am I getting in the bed with you?”

“Because while I’m only injured, you’re hurting, and you need to be cuddled. Come snuggle up to my side.”

The little teen snuggled up, putting her head on David’s chest and resting her right leg over his right thigh. He put his arm around her and held her in close to him in a hug that he didn’t let go.

“Mom says that you’re the cop that arrested my step-dad,” she said with her face against his chest.

“Yes, I am. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Oh, it’s no great loss. He wasn’t very nice. I mean, he was at first, but after a while, he wasn’t nice to mom or to me. I had to lock the door to my room or the bathroom because he was always finding reasons to come in when I was taking a shower or getting dressed. It was creepy.”

She picked her head up and looked at him momentarily before putting her head back down on his chest... “I don’t get it. How come he creeped me out, but here I am crawling into bed with you, and I feel perfectly safe? I mean, I’ve only known you for like a week!”

David chuckled. “It hasn’t even been a day for me.”

“Hunh. Strange, I guess.”

“Have you been here all along?”

“No, we just got here yesterday, Friday. I was in school all week, and we live, like, a million miles from here. We gotta go home tomorrow. Mom’s got the restaurant to run, and I’ve got to go back to class.”

David was rubbing his hand on her back in slow, comforting circles. “So, your mom owns the restaurant?”