Chapter 33: Madison Wakes Up

Sam felt relieved as Becca pushed her down the hall, somehow sharing all the details of what her daddy did allowed her to start to process it all. She looked up at her mom walking next to her and saw sadness. There would have to be plenty of talks before her mom would be able to come to terms with everything. They would have time to heal, now that they were not afraid anymore. She grabbed her mom’s hand and squeezed, her mom smiled down at her, but Sam saw pain and guilt.

“I love you, mom.” Sam said softly.

“I love you so much sweetie, I am so sorry.” Sarah said.

“It’s over now mom, we can start working on getting better.” Sam said.

“Yes, my strong girl, we definitely can.” Sarah said and squeezed her daughter’s hand.

They moved into the room and Sam saw that Madison was back. Stacy was working on her tubing and the machines. Jordan was back and holding her right hand. Her daddy was hugging himself standing behind Jordan. Katie was on the other side of the bed talking to Stacy. Aaron, Alex, and Mr. Thompson were sitting on the rollaway, talking. She saw that Madison looked like she was sleeping, she was not moving. There were bandages over her eyes and half of her face.

“Hey, Sam, welcome back.” Stacy said as she looked over.

“Hi, Stacy, how is Madison?” Sam said as Becca rolled her next to the bed.

“She is good, the doctor said everything went well. She will be asleep for a little while.” Stacy said.

Sam moved into her bed, and it felt good to lie down. She suddenly felt a little tired, the meeting was harder than she thought. Stacy came over and looked down at her. She touched her face and ran her fingers around her head. It felt good.

“You are healing nicely; your pretty face is almost perfect.” Stacy said and Sam smiled.

“How do you know I am pretty? I didn’t know you before and I have not been very pretty while I have been here.” Sam said.

“Sweetheart, real beauty is impossible to hide. I can see it poking out all over your face. You are a very beautiful girl, and these little blemishes cannot hide that.” Stacy said and touched Sam on her cheek.

“Thank you, the nurses here are very cool.” Sam said and looked over at Becca, who was messing with her equipment.

“Yes, we are, but some of us need to go home and get some rest.” Stacy said and motioned to Becca. Sam looked over at Becca.

“Ok, I am going, you two can lighten up.” Becca said and moved closer to Sam.

“Thank you for everything, are you coming back tonight?” Sam said.

“Yes, ma’am, I will see you very soon.” Becca said and Sam motioned for her to move closer. Becca moved her head closer to Sam. Sam whispered in her ear.

“I am going to need another shower tonight.” Sam whispered. Becca moaned and stood up.

“You are a crazy little girl.” Becca said and Sam giggled. Becca moved away from the bed.

“Bec, I will help you close out so you can go.” Stacy said and walked out the room with Becca. They made their way to the desk.

“How did it go with the police?” Stacy said and Becca felt her throat tighten. Stacy put her hand on Becca’s arm.

“Stace, it was horrible, the things that evil man did to that sweet girl. It broke my heart.” Becca said, her voice cracking.

“Baby, I am so sorry, she got to you already?” Stacy said and Becca nodded.

“Yeah, she is really sweet, I find myself not wanting to leave her.” Becca said.

“I totally understand, that other one has already tugged on my heart, and I think she is not done. I will keep Sam comfortable until you get back tonight. I will take care of your paperwork. Now, get out of here.” Stacy said and hugged her friend.

“Thank you, I will see you in a few hours.” Becca said and looked at her watch.

“See you friend.” Stacy said as Becca walked towards the elevator.

Sarah pulled a chair closer to Sam’s bed and started to arrange the pillows.

“Momma, I am really tired.” Sam said and looked at her mom.

“I know baby, close your eyes and rest. We will all be here when you wake up.” Sarah said and squeezed Sam’s hand.

She saw her daughter close her eyes. She just sat and watched her sweet baby for a while, her face was almost healed and the bandage on her head was much smaller than the original one. She could not believe the things that her husband did to their little girl. How could Sam stay as normal as she did while she was going through all of that? She felt like her emotions were raw, and she felt fragile.

Sarah felt a touch on her shoulder and looked up to see Katie. She tried to keep a strong face and smiled at Katie. Katie knelt and looked at Sarah.

“Sarah, are you ok?” Katie whispered and Sarah just looked at her for a few seconds. She felt herself losing it and she shook her head slightly.

“No.” Sarah forced out the word, trying not to fall apart. Katie hugged her and rubbed her back. Sarah started to cry into Katie’s shoulder. Katie held onto her friend as she looked at Sam, asleep in her bed.

Dr. Jeffery walked into the room, and he was amazed again at the size of the crew around these two young girls. He stood in the doorway and smiled. He felt someone behind him, and he turned to see a massive man standing there with a pretty, young blonde woman. They looked a little lost, they were both wearing jeans, he was wearing what looked like a work shirt and she was wearing a nice white blouse. They both looked very much out of place.

“Excuse me, sir, is this Madison’s room?” The incredibly large man said as he held his baseball cap in his hands.

“Yes, it is.” Dr. Jeffery said and moved out of the door.

“Thank you, sir.” The woman said in a sweet voice. He nodded as they walked into the room.

Dr. Jeffery followed them in and then went to the side of Madison’s bed.

Alex looked up and saw two people walking into the room. They looked really lost. She jumped up and walked over to them. She held out her hand. The man looked at her and took her small hand in his.

“Hi, I’m Alex.” She said and smiled.

“Hi Alex, I am Johnny, and this is my wife, Sharon. I am Jordan’s uncle.” Johnny said and Alex nodded.

“Oh, ok, she is right over there with Madison.” Alex said and they all looked over. Alex noticed that Dr. Jeffery was standing next to Madison and checking her bandage.

“How is she?” Johnny said softly.

“We don’t really know yet, she just got back from surgery.” Alex said and Sharon put her hand to her mouth.

“What kind of surgery?” Sharon asked.

“Her left eye, there was damage from when she got hit.” Alex said and she saw Jordan moving towards them.

Jordan hugged Johnny and he wrapped his huge arms around her. Alex thought Jordan suddenly looked very small in the huge man’s hug. Jordan broke the hug and then hugged Sharon. Alex thought she heard Jordan crying as Sharon rubbed her back. Alex moved back and sat next to Aaron.

“Who is that?” Aaron said.

“Jordan’s aunt and uncle, Johnny and Sharon.” Alex said.

“He is huge.” Brad said.

“Yeah, I guess so, I am getting kind of used to huge guys.” Alex said and snuggled into Aaron.

“Jordan, sweetie, are you ok?” Johnny said and Jordan broke the hug with Sharon. Johnny saw her eyes were red.

“No, not really. She can’t catch a break. We thought she was good and then yesterday her eye started doing something wonky. She had damage to the orbital bone, I think they said. They operated on her this morning at 6:30, she just got back. That is her doctor, but he said she won’t wake up for another hour or so. We won’t know anything definite until then.” Jordan said, sniffling.

“Oh baby, I am so sorry.” Sharon said and hugged Jordan again.

“Madison has a lot of fans.” Johnny said.

“Yeah, they have quite a following. That is Sam over there.” Jordan said.

“Wow, so it is not out of the ordinary for people to fall in love with these girls?” Sharon said and smiled.

“Yeah, it is a big club.” Jordan said and took Sharon’s hand.

“Let me introduce you.” Jordan said and walked Sharon over to the rollaway. Aaron, Alex, and Brad stood.

“Guys, this is my aunt and uncle, Johnny and Sharon. This is Aaron, Alex, and Brad.” Jordan said. Johnny held out his hand and Aaron shook it. Johnny smiled as he rarely met anyone he didn’t have to hold back in his handshake.

“Glad to meet you guys, we met Alex but are you relations?” Johnny said and Alex giggled.

“No, Brad here is Henry’s boss. Henry is Madison’s father. He is right over there.” Alex said and Johnny looked at the man standing next to Madison’s bed, looking very sad.

“This guy is Aaron; he is Brad’s driver and a friend of the girls. He saved them after Sam’s dad attacked them.” Alex said and looked at Aaron with pride in her eyes. Aaron felt his heart skip a little.

“I am just Aaron’s girlfriend.” Alex said and smiled.

“Honey, we are never just anything.” Sharon said and smiled.

“I’m going to like you.” Alex said.

“That over there is Sam and her mom is Sarah, sitting in the chair. The lady hugging her is Katie, she is Brad’s wife.” Alex said.

“I hope there is not a test later.” Johnny said and Alex laughed.

“No but stay around here long enough and you will pass it easily. Come, I will introduce you to Henry, if that’s alright with Jordan.” Alex said and looked at Jordan.

“Oh, please. I don’t mind at all.” Jordan said and stepped back, holding onto Sharon. Alex pulled Johnny over to Henry.

“She is a little spitfire, that one.” Sharon said and Jordan laughed.

Henry saw Alex walking up, dragging a massive man behind her. He looked even larger behind Alex, who was not much bigger than Madison. He chuckled at the contrast.

“Henry, this is Jordan’s uncle, Johnny.” Alex said and the huge man held out a huge hand. Henry took it and suddenly felt really small.

“Nice to meet you Henry, you have a wonderful daughter, and she sure has my niece all twisted up.” Johnny said.

“Thank you, yes, your niece is a very nice girl and I appreciate her being here for Madison.” Henry said and Johnny heard the sadness in his voice.

Johnny looked at the girl in the bed and he knew she was the little sprite that bounced around his farm and seemed to tame all of his animals, but she looked very small and helpless in the big bed. Her head was wrapped in white bandages, and he felt his own heart fill with sadness for her.

“Henry, you let us know if you need anything.” Johnny said.

“Thank you.” Henry said and turned back to look at his daughter.

Katie saw the huge man and the pretty blonde girl walk in and hug Jordan. Sarah continued to cry on her shoulder so she would have to wait to meet these new people. She felt Sarah pull back a little.

“Sarah, is Sam ok?” Katie said.

“Yes, but I don’t understand how. Her father has been doing terrible things to her for months right under my nose. She never let on that she was being hurt. How is that possible?” Sarah said and looked up at Katie.

“I don’t know either honey, other than you have a very strong daughter. These two girls are surprisingly resilient.” Katie said.

“Yeah, but I am not sure I would have been able to survive those things.” Sarah said and Katie started to wonder exactly what had Sarah so shaken. What did he do other than rape her and get her pregnant?

“She is past it now, we need to look forward and start healing, all of us. We will help you.” Katie said and hugged Sarah again.

“Thank you so much, we don’t deserve all of this kindness.” Sarah said.

“We will have to agree to disagree on that one. With what you two have been through it would border on cruelty not to help you.” Katie said.

“Thank you again.” Sarah said and squeezed Katie’s hand.

“Now, sit and hold your daughter’s hand and get some sleep yourself, you look exhausted.” Katie said and put Sarah’s hand over Sam’s.

“That sounds like a great plan.” Sarah said and smiled. She leaned her head onto a pillow and closed her eyes.

Katie walked over and Dr. Jeffery was talking to Henry. She went and stood next to Henry.

“Hi, Mrs. Thompson, I was about to give Henry the details on the surgery, I am glad you are here as well.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“Thank you doctor.” Katie said.

“Ok, so first of all, everything that we wanted to do worked fine and we are very happy with the repairs.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“I hear a but in there.” Katie said and the doctor sighed.

“Yes, we found more damage than we thought. She had an orbital floor fracture as we suspected but she had it in both eyes.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“I don’t understand, her right eye was fine.” Katie said.

“Yeah, I thought so too, it was responsive, and her vision seemed fine. However, when we got in there, we noticed there was a hairline fracture on the right side in addition to the fracture we saw on the x-ray on the left. The other issue was that there were some muscles and nerves that were trapped in the fracture, more in the left but there was some restriction on the right as well.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“So, what should we expect?” Katie said.

“That is tough to say. She will heal from the surgery in a few days, we repaired the fracture, and it should heal very quickly.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“But?” Katie said.

“But we did have to mess around with the muscles and the nerves quite a bit to free them. I am not worried about the muscles, but nerves can be tricky. They do recover and rebuild themselves but sometimes they manifest in different ways.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“Manifest how?” Katie said.

“Her vision will be compromised most likely at first, it is impossible to say how much. I am very convinced that she will recover completely, there didn’t appear to be any damage to the nerves, it is just they bruise easily and being trapped in the fracture was not kind to them. I am very glad we operated so quickly.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“So basically, we have to prepare her for anything. When will we know?” Katie said.

“As soon as she opens her eyes. I want to wake her up soon so we can evaluate.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“Ok, if this is not good, how long will she take to recover?” Katie said.

“That is a factor of many things, her youth will be a huge help, kids tend to heal way faster than us old people. The other thing will be the extent of the bruising to the nerves, we have no way of seeing that so the recovery time will be sort of dynamic. I am really sorry I can’t be more specific.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“It ok, doctor, we know you are doing everything you can. Thank you for telling us everything.” Katie said.

“Yeah, I found bad news is way better than surprises.” Dr. Jeffery said.

“What is worse case, doctor?” Katie said.

“Her vision may be seriously compromised for a while if the bruising is extensive or if there is swelling.” Dr. Jeffery said and Henry took a quick breath. Katie looked at him and he looked on the verge of losing it. She grabbed his hand. Dr. Jeffery nodded and left.

“Henry, we are here for you. We have to wait and see.” Katie said and squeezed his hand. Henry looked at her and she could see tears in his eyes.

“Come on, let’s go walk. I think Jordan and her folks can hold down the fort for us.” Katie said and took Henry’s hand. He allowed her to lead him out of the room. Katie saw Stacy sitting at the desk.

“Stacy, please get us if Dr. Jeffery comes back.” Katie said.

“Absolutely, here, take this. If this starts flashing come back.” Stacy said and handed her a small black device. She stuck it in her pocket and led Henry to the lounge.

Jordan walked over to Madison’s bed, holding Sharon’s hand. They stopped on the left side, Johnny standing behind them.

“Honey, she looks so little in that bed. Has she been awake?” Sharon said.

“Yeah, at first, we were all worried about Sam, she had a concussion and a lot of damage to her face. Madison was awake and fine Saturday morning, cracking jokes and doing her thing. Then the doctor came in and took the bandage off her left eye. She had blurry vision and her eye was acting weird, like she was not able to control it. It was scary.” Jordan said.

“Baby, that does sound scary. Was she in pain?” Sharon said.

“Yeah, when she first woke up it was bad. They gave her some pain meds and she was fine. They took her to x-ray later to confirm what the doctor thought. He says she has an orbital bone fracture; I think.” Jordan said.

“That does not sound good.” Sharon said.

“They said it was very common in car wrecks and when you get hit with a fist.” Jordan said and her voice broke. Sharon hugged her as Jordan cried.

“You know all this is not helping me calm down. Do we have any idea what Sam said to the police?” Aaron said. Alex and Brad looked at him.

“I don’t think Sarah has said anything yet, but she looked very upset.” Alex said.

“Yeah, I saw that. I think you may be right about what you said this morning.” Aaron said.

“I was afraid of that.” Alex said.

“Part of me doesn’t want to know. Now Madison is lying there with bandages all over her head. Why is her right eye covered, I thought that one was fine?” Aaron said and Alex felt his anger rising. She took his hand and started rubbing his arm gently.

“I don’t know, when Katie comes back, I am sure she will fill us in.” Alex said.