Chapter 16

5 Days Later
Tank
I walk into Lilly’s room to relieve Goof from the night shift just as Dr. Mason walks in. “ Gentlemen.” he says in greetings to Goof and me. I nod as Goof shakes his hand. “ Is Mr. Viper coming in today?” he asks. “ He will be in later this afternoon.” I say. He nods “ Good. When he gets here, have him find me and I’ll update him on today’s progress.” Two nurses walk in just then. They give Goof and I a good look up and down. I don’t even give them the time of day. I’m not here for them. I’m here to check on Lilly. I have heard from a few brothers that several of the nurses have tried to flirt with them. None of our guys care about that shit right now. We aren’t at a bar or club. This is a hospital for fuck-sakes. We aren’t here for the pussy. We can get that anywhere. Hell, it is all over the club without the hassle of dating. We are here to make sure Lilly is getting the best care possible. Not to get our dicks wet. We expect some professionalism from the people caring for Lilly.

Dr. Mason notices one of the nurses eye fucking Goof, not that he is paying attention to her. “ Nurse!” he barks. “ Don’t you have a job to do? Or do I need to find you somewhere else to go.” The nurse jumps and goes to Lilly’s side checking her monitors.

“ My apologies, Mr. Tank,” he says. I grumble “ Just make sure they do their job. Or we will make sure they don’t have one.” “ Of course. But back to why I am here. We did another scan on Lilly an hour ago. I’m pleased to say the swelling in her brain has gone down significantly.” I have to keep my heart rate in check. This is what we have been hoping for. “ So what happens now?” Goof asks. Dr. Mason responds “ Now we are going to slowly back off the medication keeping her in a coma. It may take a day or two for the meds to work out of her system. It depends on how her body metabolizes the medicine. But when it does we are hoping she will start to wake up on her own.”

I see Goof do an air fist pump. I look over at Lilly laying motionless in her bed hooked up to so many machines and Iv’s she has wires and tubes going all different directions. The one that gets my attention is her breathing tube. “ What about her breathing?” I ask. “ Again once the meds wear off I hope her body will catch on and try to start breathing on its own. I’ll warn you that if that happens she will start to cough and make gagging noises. If she is awake she may even grab for the tube. It is imperative that you don’t let her pull it out. It could cause damage to her throat if she does. Make sure you call a nurse immediately. I know this has been a trying time for you and your family. I can’t stress enough that we aren’t out of the woods yet but we are in the right direction. She does need more time. But I’m confident she will recover. She seems to be a very strong young woman.” I smile for the first time in a long time “ Yea,doc. She really is.”

While the doctor and nurse mess around with the machines I step out to call Viper. I know he wouldn’t want to wait till this afternoon for an update. He answers on the second ring “ Report.” Yea, right now he is all business. And he knows I am at the hospital. He knows who is on what shift with no caps in coverage. “ Dr. Mason is with her now.” I fill him in on everything the doctor told me, right down to what to do about the breathing tube. When I finish he lets out a long sigh. “ That’s good, Tank. That’s good. Tell Lilly I’ll be up later to check on her.” “ Will do, Viper.” I hand up and go back in. The doctor is just finishing up. He tells me he will come back in a few hours to reduce the medication again. They are reducing it every few hours to give her body time and make sure she doesn’t have any adverse reactions. I send Goof home to get some rest. I pull up a chair to the least wired side of Lilly.

I hold her hand in mine and look her over. The left side of her face is still completely bruised but the swelling in her eye seems to have gone down. She has several butterfly bandages in various places on her face from when she hit the windshield. Her knee is bandaged and in a brace and propped up on a pillow. If it wasn’t for the wires and breathing tube you would think she was sleeping peacefully. You know what though. Even with everything she is still the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. I know I have it bad for her. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that it took this happening to her for me to wise up and face the truth. Seeing her like this I know I will do anything I have to do to win her over. I have wasted too much time already. I won’t waste a second more.

“ Hey, Sweetheart. Viper says that he will be by this afternoon to check on you. And I think Lug Nut is bringing Dez up today.” Dr. Mason and Dr. Ryans say it is important to talk to her so she knows we are here for her. They said it can help the healing process to know someone is waiting for them to wake up. After what went down I’m not sure us talking is going to help. I’m sure she feels like the club abandoned her. I know I did wrong by her but I keep asking her to open her eyes. I keep telling her that she is wanted. We need her to come back to us. I tell her how much she is missed by us. I tell her things that are going on at the club. I heard Merigold telling her the same thing yesterday so I’m hoping Lilly hears us and comes back soon. At this point I would take her waking and yelling at me as long as she wakes up.

“ I need you to wake up so I can tell you how sorry I am for how I treated you. I was doing what I thought was best for you. I was an ass that kept you away because I thought you could do better than me. I know you can do so much better than me. Hell, I know you deserve better than me. But I can’t stay away anymore Lilly. I can’t be without you anymore. This past year has been torture. I’m going to make it up to you for how I treated you. I’m working on getting right with the club. I am going to do everything in my power to be the man you deserve. I’m going to show you I’m not the man you think I am. I know I have made some horrible mistakes when it comes to you, Lilly. Even if I did them for what I thought were the right reasons. I thought if I pushed you away I could get over my feelings for you. That you would find someone better to be in your life. Even if I wanted to rip apart any guy that came near you. But my feelings for you never left no matter what I did. All the drinking in the world couldn’t wipe you from my heart.”

I lift her hand to my mouth and give her a light kiss. “ I have already started. I know it has only been a few days. I have stopped drinking. I shower daily again. I gave up the bunnies. I even have been looking at houses so when I finally win you Lilly we will have a place to call home. I want to find one with a big kitchen because I know you like to cook. A nice backyard where we can have barbecues. And enough extra rooms for the future. If you want to have kids. And even enough space we could add a studio for you. I saw you up on stage. Wow. You lit up the room and I’m not talking about the spotlights either. It was all you. And that guitar battle you did. It was crazy good. You had that crowd eating out of the palm of your hand. Men wanted to be with you and women wanted to be you. And you voice. It is incredible. I was so proud of you when I saw you up on stage. I know the others were too even though we had a shitty way of showing it. I’m shocked none of us ever knew you could do that. You have been good at keeping it hidden. Not that I blame you. ”

I lay my head on her hand and think back to that day. It was only five days ago but it feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened in that short time. But thinking back. The way we all handled confronting Lilly. It was just all wrong. We accused her of lying. Lilly never lied to us. She was keeping something deeply personal to herself. Which she had every right to do. And the way she looked at Lug Nut. She must have felt so betrayed. I get why he wanted to show the club what Lilly could do. He was proud of what she had accomplished and wanted to show her off. But just like I made choices for her without thinking about it. Lug did the same. It should have been Lilly’s choice to tell us. Lug should have never forced the issue.