"Nick - dead?" The thought of it made her sick. Aileen covered her face with her hands and lay back down in the bed. Not Nick. "Why?, how?"
"....the result of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head." the doctor continued.
"Self-inflicted?" she cried out. "Oh God, no!" She felt fresh tears hitting her cheeks. He couldn't have shot himself, not Nick.
"Intial attempts to revive Mr. Carter proved unsuccessful." The doctor looked at her. "The final attempt to revive Mr. Carter did produce a faint heartbeat, however." He smiled at her. Aileen looked at at him through a hazy film of tears.
"You mean...he's alive too?"
The doctor nodded. "He's doing well, the bullet did penetrate the skull, but somehow avoided the brain."
Aileen sat up and hugged him tight and then playfully punched him in the arm. "Next time maybe you could forget all the medical jargon and get right to the good news, okay!"
He laughed. "Deal! Now for your..."
"No, I want to see them, Kevin first, please." She went to get out of bed.
"Now wait a minute, miss..." She noticed his look.
"Please," she said patiently. "I need to see them. Kevin is my life and Nick is my best friend. Whatever you have about me in those pages will keep, won't it? I feel fine."
"Alright, you're about the most difficult patient I have you know!"
"Good!" she laughed. "You deserve it after that scare you just gave me!" Aileen slipped into a robe that the doctor held out for her and followed him down the hall to Kevins room.
Aileen gasped when she saw Kevin. He was hooked up to all sorts of machines that were flashing and beeping. Tubes and wires seemed to be hooked into him everywhere. His face was so pale, he looked like he had been dusted with chalk. Kevins mom, Ann was sitting beside the bed holding his hand and talking softly to him. His brothers, Tim and Jerald were standing off to the side. "Mama R." Aileen went over and gave Ann a kiss and a huge hug.
"Aileen, darling, you're awake! We've been watching over you too." Aileen embraced both of the brothers.
"Thank you Mama. I can't tell you how I felt when I heard that Kevin was okay!"
"We're relieved that you are both survived that nightmare. Go see Kevin, honey. We'll talk later."
She slowly sat down beside the bed and picked up Kevins hand. "Oh Kev, words can't express how I feel right now! I was so sure you were dead, I didn't care if I lived either. When the doctor told me you were alive, I was overjoyed." She traced her finger along his cheek and jawline, he was so beautiful. She'd give anything just to see his eyes look at her again. "Kevin, I hope you can hear me. I love you, baby. I love you so much." Aileen softly kissed his eyelids, his forehead, his cheeks, his lips. "I'm so happy you stayed with us, just come back to us now, open those gorgeous eyes of yours.."
The nurse poked her head around the door. "Time to go back to your room, miss."
"Already?" asked Aileen, a little annoyed. She hugged Kevin gently. "I'll be back sweetie, as soon as they let me."
"Can I go see Nick now, please?" Aileen asked as the nurse escorted down the hall.
"Mr. Carter has requested no visitors." The nurse stated.
"What? No visitors?" Aileen thought that after what he had went through, he needed all the support he could get. Recovering from their ordeal was going to be hard on all of them, but she imagined that mentally it would take the biggest toll on Nick. There must be some mistake, surely the guys had seen him, they had been here all week. She decided to ask the doctor when she got back to her room.
The nurse helped Aileen back into bed, much to her dismay. She hated being fawned over, especially when she nothing was wrong with her. "The doctor will be in shortly," said the nurse, bustling out of the room.
"Hello, no rest for the weary, eh?" She laughed as he returned to her room. Aileen got straight to the point.
"Why isn't Nick accepting visitors?"
"I'm really not sure." the doctor mused as he took her blood pressure. "He's been very unresponsive to the staff and it seems like he is upset that he survived the shooting."
"Does he know that Kevin and I are alright?" she asked.
"Actually, I don't think that he does. Do you think that knowledge would get him to open up?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure he blamed himself for Kevin getting shot. They are pretty close, like brothers. If he knew Kevin was alright, I'm sure he would be more open." The doctor finished jotting down the information she had just given him.
"I'll so see him as soon as I'm done with you." Aileen rolled her eyes.
"I knew you'd get around to me. I feel fine, what can possibly be wrong?"
"When you were admitted," said the doctor settling in the chair next to the bed. "you were suffering from a slight case of shock. Other than that, basically just bruises and scrapes, probably from your restraints. They went pretty easy on you."
She scoffed. "If you call repeated rape, easy."
"I understand that all five men raped you, is that right?" Aileen nodded her head, memories flashing in and out of her head. "And, they forced Mr. Carter to..."
"Yes!" she said loudly, interrupting him. "Those SOBs forced Nick to rape me! He had to, they shot Kevin right in front of him. They would have shot him too, he had no choice!" Her breath started to catch. "Why are you bringing all this up?" The doctor patted her arm gently.
"It's mandatory that when a woman has been raped we run a pregnancy test." She stared at him, wide-eyed. "What are you telling me?"
"You're pregnant."
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