He Won't Go

“Have you turned on the T.V lately Nicole?”

“No, I was studying, why?”

“You might want to see this. Come here.”

Peyton wasn’t good with breaking bad news to people but she was still trying to process the information herself when she realized that Nicole had to know. “You might want to sit for this.” Peyton spoke softly as she sat beside her best friend and turned on TSN. Dany and Nicole had not spoken since his draft, and the word around was Dany never wanted to speak to her again.

Nicole’s heart stopped and her eyes filled up with tears as she read what was on the screen. ‘Breaking News Hockey Stars Dany Heatley and Dan Snyder seriously injured in a Car accident’ Nicole’s blood started to run cold as she turned to Peyton. She didn’t know what she could say, or do. It all seemed like a dream.

“I have to call my parents.”

Just as the words escaped her lips the phone began to ring. Nic lunged over Peyton and grabbed the phone as quickly as humanly possible. “Hello!?” She said, her voice was panic stricken.

“Nicole, have you seen the news?” Her mother asked her calmly and quietly.

“Yes.” Nicole took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure. “Is he going to be okay?” 2 years had passed but there was no denying that Nicole would go to the end of the world to see him safe, or to do absolutely anything for him.

“They don’t know yet. Murray and Karin are gone down to Atlanta; they called a few minutes ago to say that he was in surgery. “

She went silent; her mother could barely hear her breathing. Laurie knew her daughter was going to take the news hard they had been friends for years and their love for one another was a lot deeper than anyone would possibly know. “Nicky, sweetie I know you have had your problems with Daniel but he needs you right now.”

“We bought you a plane ticket sweet-heart you will be leaving tomorrow at 12.”

“Thank you Mom. I love you; tell Dad I love him too.”

Nicole closed her eyes and her body collapsed in Peyton’s arms and she cried. She pictured all the moments, significant moments, fights, all the kisses, and special moments they shared together over 16 year friendship flooded her head. It was an impossible thought for him to be gone from her life forever, she knew that College and Hockey was going to separate them for a while but she always had hope that one summer they would meet again and everything would work itself out but that possibility having been taken away from her, she could hardly think about it.

“He will push through Nic, he’s a fighter.” Peyton stroked Nicole’s long blonde hair as she held her close and let her cry it out.

“I can’t thank you enough Nicky.” Daniels mother gushed as she hugged Nicole tightly, wrapping her arms around Nicole’s thin frame and squeezed her tightly.

Karin and Murray both looked utterly exhausted, and the worry was written all over their face. Nicole could only imagine how painful it must be for them having to stay in a different city and just wait for their son to wake up from the coma.

“Karin you know that nothing would have stopped me from being here with Dany, Murray and you.” Nicole held the hot cup of tea in her hands as she took a seat out in the hospital waiting room. The walls were white, and the hospital smelled made her nauseous. Nicole had been the past 3 hours trying to work up the courage to walk into his room but all she could picture was their last few hours together, when they had sat in silence even when they had parted there wasn’t even a goodbye. Neither of them could come up with the words to say goodbye so they had left each other silently.

That hadn’t been the last time they spoke, only a few months after Nicole arrived in Ottawa she had called Dany to congratulate him on all he had achieved and to gush about how happy she was for him but like every conversation they had since they had broken up ended in a fight. Daniel told her he never wanted to speak to her or see her again. Unfortunately Nicole had told her mother about a new guy she was seeing who lived in Ottawa and eventually with word of mouth Dany had found out. When Nic had broken up with Dany the thought of her seeing someone else never crossed her mind, she always assumed she would be hopelessly in love with Daniel and if she wasn’t with him she would be spending her days alone. So when someone had came along and made her forget about Dany even for the slightest second she took the opportunity to get as close as she could. Although he could never hold a candle to the feelings she had for Dany it was worth the attempt even if in the long run it hadn’t worked out.

Every time Nic closed her eyes all she could picture was Dany lying in the hospital bed, unable to move or speak or to make her laugh. She was scared, more than anything in the world she was scared. She knew she had to talk herself into seeing him eventually; after all she had come down hoping to give Karin and Murray a rest hopefully get some sleep because they certainly needed some. When Murray had opened up the hospital door Nicole’s head shot up and she was taken out of her trance.

“How is he?” Nicole asked eagerly.

“He’s still the same.” Murray responded.

Both Murray and Karin looked as if they had the life sucked out of them. They needed sleep, and this was Nicole’s opportunity to give them that.

“Karin, Murray if you want to head back to Dany’s I can stay with him for a while. I know you guys must be exhausted.” Nicole’s grip tightened on the Styrofoam cup while she thought about walking into the hospital room

“No sweetie, we are fine.” Murray responded.

“You are lying. I can see it in your face, you need to try and get some rest. I will stay here with him and the moment anything changes I will give you guys a call. I promise.” Nicole hadn’t given them an option when she turned around and walked into his hospital room.
When the door clicked shut Nicole’s eyes were glued to the floor as her heart began to race. ‘Alright Nic, just look up. It will be okay.’ She thought to herself as she took half a step forward. After a moment of hesitation she looked at the bottom of the bed and slowly her eyes made their way up Dany’s body, the moment she seen his face her eyes began to tear up. His jaw was swollen, and also shut because the broken bone had to heal. Maybe it was a good thing he couldn’t talk or see her because he would probably have a few mean things to say to her. She realized that she was going to have to grow a pair of balls because the moment Dany opened his eyes and could speak again she was going to be fighting with him. Deep down Nic knew he didn’t mean the mean things he would say to her, it was his way of not getting hurt.

As she took a seat in the chair beside his bed she immediately grabbed his hand, his skin was warm to touch and she relaxed immediately. She was still choked up as she looked over his body, to her knowledge Dany had suffered a concussion, a broken jaw, a bruised lung, and a bruised kidney and he tore three ligaments in his right knee. He was out of hockey for a while that much was confirmed. The doctors weren’t able to tell anyone why he had slipped into a coma but it had happened during surgery.

Absentmindedly Nicole was gently caressing his hand with her thumb. It all seemed like just a dream; as long as Nicole was in Atlanta waiting for him to be okay she knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep. It had already been a day without sleep, living on caffeine and vending machine food. Obviously it wasn’t the best diet but she had more on her mind then what she should be eating.

“Dany, please wake up.” The words were spoken softly; she was still caressing his hand while she spoke. “I know you can hear me, I need you to wake up.” She closed her eyes and rested her head on the arm that was holding Dany’s hand in hers. “Okay fine. I know you don’t want to wake up for me, but your mom and your dad really need you to wake up Daniel. Please.” Her voice grew louder and more confident in her words. “I want you to wake up so you can yell at me; I know you want to so come on.” She began to sob, there was no use in talking to him she knew that but if it did nothing to help him, it was helping her deal with everything that was going on inside of her head.

Nicole had sat in silence for half an hour when finally she began talking again and the nurse walked back in the room, Nicole’s head spun around quickly.

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. I guess I shouldn’t be talking to someone who can’t hear me anyway.” Nicole released her grasp on Dany’s hand and placed her cup on the night stand beside his bed; her tea was as cold as ice now.

“No the doctors say that can help a lot, actually.”

Nicole’s smile grew across her face if there was anything in the world she was exceptionally good at it was talking, and she could talk a million years. She was so used to talking to Dany throughout their friendship that it couldn’t have been a better way to help him. She could nag him out of his Coma if she absolutely had too. She was getting him better weather he wanted her help or not.