Every Second Counts

“This is my fault,” I heard Parker say. I tried to open my eyes, but it felt like they were covered in cement, preventing me from forcing them open. I continued listening, wondering what Parker thought was his fault. “I should have been behind her. I should have had her back,” he continued, and I still had no idea what he was talking about.

“Parker, it’s not your fault,” Fiona told him, and I once again tried to pry my eyes open, which wasn’t working. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I open my eyes? “Mara was doing her job. She wouldn’t blame you. Some psycho injected her with some drugs. How could you have prevented that?” she questioned, and suddenly things started coming back to me. I remembered running after Montenegro and then something going into me. It must have been drugs, like Fiona had said. Was that why I couldn’t open my eyes right now?

“What if something happens with her?” Parker questioned. “What if she never wakes up?” he asked, and I heard Fiona sigh. So was that what was going on? Was I in some sort of coma? That would explain why I could still hear everyone else. I tried to talk, to tell Parker and Fiona that I was okay, but my voice wouldn’t come out.

“Parker,” Fiona began but she suddenly stopped, and I wondered what was going on. Why had she stopped talking? “Kris?” I heard her suddenly say, and it felt like my heart stopped beating. Kris? My boyfriend Kris?

“How is she?” I heard Kris say, and I was completely in shock. Kris and I hadn’t spoken since the whole Christmas fiasco, and I couldn’t believe he was here now in the hospital. He should have been at practice or something, but he was here visiting me instead.

“She’s in a coma,” Fiona told him. “The doctors are running tests to try to figure out what drugs are in her system so they can try to get her to wake up, but right now, there’s not too much good news,” she said sadly, and I did all I could to speak once again.

“What happened?” Kris inquired. “Why is she here right now? Who did this to her?” he questioned, and I could tell by his voice that he was angry and scared and worried about me.

“We were going after a suspect,” Parker began, and I listened intently, hoping he could fill in the gaps in my mind after I was injected. “He was a doctor, and we went to his house to find him. He jumped out the window before any of us could catch him, and he started running down the street away from us. Mara followed him, and I was behind her. He turned the corner, and so did Mara. When I caught up with her, she was on the ground, a syringe in her arm. He’d injected her with something, and then he took off, leaving her there to die. I called 911, and they brought her here,” he explained. I couldn’t believe this had happened. After everything, Montenegro still got away, and that was something that I was angry about.

“How could you let this happen?” Kris questioned, and I wondered who he was talking to. “Why’d you let her go off after him?” If I had been awake at that moment, I would have smacked Kris in the back of the head for saying that. He knew I hated when people thought I was some fragile thing and didn’t think I could do things on my own.

“Kris!” Fiona scolded, and I smiled to myself at my best friend. “Don’t you dare blame Parker. Mara was doing her job, just like Parker was. There was no way either of them could have known that Montenegro was waiting with a syringe around the corner,” she told him.

“How can you be so calm about this?” Kris cried. “Your best friend is in a coma right now, and you’re defending your boyfriend?”

“Yes, my best friend is in a coma right now,” Fiona practically yelled, and I knew if Kris didn’t back off of her soon, she was bound to punch him in the face. “And, I am scared for her, just like you are. But, blaming Parker isn’t going to do anything. He did nothing wrong. And, he’s just as scared for Mar as both of us are.”

“If something happens to her,” Kris began but then trailed off. I grew even more frustrated, wanting to just open my eyes and tell them I was okay and to stop fighting with each other.

“I know you’re scared,” Fiona said, her voice calming. “We all are. But, we shouldn’t be blaming each other. Let’s just wait on the tox reports to get back and pray that they can counteract whatever drugs he put in her,” she continued.

“I never apologized,” Kris said suddenly. “I never apologized to her for saying those things to her.” I could feel my chest constricting. That was what I had been waiting to hear for the past couple of weeks, a true apology. And, now that Kris had finally said it, I was in a coma. “I just want to tell her that I’m sorry,” he continued.

“Kris, you’ll get your chance to,” Fiona promised him, though I could hear the uncertainty in her voice. She wasn’t positive that I would wake up.

“She hates me,” he mumbled, and I couldn’t believe he was actually saying that.

“She didn’t hate you!” Fiona exclaimed, and I was grateful that she was able to say all the things that I was thinking at the moment. “She was pissed off at you, yes,” she said with a small laugh. “But, she doesn’t hate you. She was just waiting this whole time for you to apologize.”

I could practically see Kris running a hand over his face. “Shit,” he muttered. “I fucked up,” he said as I heard footsteps coming closer to me, and everyone grew silent. I heard the doctors tell Parker, Fiona, and Kris what drugs Montenegro had injected into me, some sort of mixture of about four drugs, and that now it was all up to me to wake up. I wanted to scream at him, say that I wanted to wake up, but I just couldn’t. “Thanks,” Kris told him. “Thank God she’s going to be okay.”

“Mara’s strong,” Parker spoke. “She’d never let some random guy keep her down for long,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

Once again, I tried my hardest to open my eyes, and slowly light came into my view. I blinked a few times, trying to accommodate myself to the sunshine from the window. “Mara,” Kris said when he saw me, and I tried to put a smile on my face. He was instantly at my side, grabbing my hand and kissing my knuckles. “Mara, I’m so sorry,” he began.

“Don’t,” I began, and he took a step backwards, afraid that I was still angry at him. “Kris, I don’t need to hear your apology anymore. And, I don’t want to fight anymore,” I told him, having heard enough when I hadn’t been awake.

He looked at me curiously, trying to figure out if I was tricking him in some sort of way, but I just smiled at him. “I love you, Mara,” he said, and I knew he actually meant it. He wasn’t saying it because he wanted me to forgive him or to end the fight or even because he was scared about me being in the hospital. He was saying it because he meant it.

“I love you, too,” I told him, before looking up at Parker and Fiona, who were standing in the corner, Parker’s arm around Fiona, pulling her into his side. “But, if you ever try to blame Parker for something that happens to me while I’m on the job again, or if you ever think that I’m not capable of doing something again, I will kill you,” I said, looking back up at Kris. His eyes widened for a moment, obviously trying to figure out how I knew he had said those things. “Just because I’m in a coma doesn’t mean I don’t hear everything that’s going on around me,” I told him before looking over at Parker. “And, don’t blame yourself. Listen to Fiona, she’s a smart woman,” I smiled at him.

“Thanks,” Parker returned the smile.

***

Twenty-four hours later, I was finally released from the hospital after they had observed to make sure I wasn’t going to have any severe adverse reactions to the drugs. However, the doctors told me that they didn’t want me going back to work for another week, just to make sure nothing happened. When they told me, I had tried fighting them on the matter, telling them that my job was way too important to me, but ultimately, Davis had taken the doctors’ side and told me that I was not allowed to step into the crime lab for a week.

Still scared that something bad was going to happen to me, Kris had urged me to stay with him for the week, something that he didn’t have to try too hard to convince me of. I had missed him in the time that we had been fighting, and now that we had finally made up, I wasn’t about to say no to his offer. Though, I had forgiven him overall, I knew we still had a lot to talk about, beginning with the fact that his mother hated me.

I laid on the couch watching CSI: Miami, screaming at the television when they found out who the killer was so quickly, waiting on Kris to get home from practice. “That would never happen in real life!” I screamed. “That would have taken at least four days to get back!”

I heard the door shut behind me, and I turned by head around to see Kris laughing at me. “Mar, you’re supposed to be resting, not yelling at the tv,” he said, dropping his duffle bag next to the door and making his way over to me. I sat up, allowing him to sit down where my head had previously been. “CSI: Miami?” he asked. “Really? Are you that desperate for some crimes?” he asked me.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I am,” I pouted, crossing my arms over my chest, and Kris simply chuckled, shaking his head at me. A few minutes later, I shut the tv off, turning around so I was sitting Indian style, my body facing Kris. “We need to talk,” I told him.

“Okay,” he said, looking over at me. “What’s up?”

“We need to talk about your mom,” I told him.

“Mara,” Kris began, but I cut him off.

“Kris, she hates me.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Yes, she does,” I argued. “She thinks I’m a whore.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Kris!” I exclaimed.

“Mara,” he said, putting his hands on either side of my face, causing me to quiet down. “She doesn’t,” he spoke slowly, as if he was trying to get me to understand. “I talked to her,” he said, and I looked at him curiously. “I explained that I’m a grown adult, and that I can have adult relations with my girlfriend whenever I want.”

I started laughing at him, causing him to simply stare at me. “Please tell me you didn’t use those exact words,” I said between my laughter.

“Yeah, I did, as a matter of fact,” he told me.

“Oh, Kris,” I said, still laughing.

“What?” he asked, not seeing how hilarious this all was. “Mar, what?”

“I love you,” I told him, leaning forward and kissing him.

“I love you, too,” he replied between kisses.

“So, how about we go have some of those adult relations you were talking about,” I said with a smirk. Kris didn’t reply but instead picked me up bridal-style, carrying me back to his bedroom.