by
Mark 'Ponyboy' Peters
Chapter Thirty-Nine
It was almost twelve by the time I made it to the hospital, where I found Raffa's family, his parents and Leandro, all waiting.
Leandro and I bumped fists like old friends, while I received hugs from both of Raffa's parents.
'Has there been any more news?' I asked, half hopeful.
'Nothing yet,' Antonio replied. 'They've told us that they have him strapped into some sort of brace, to help minimise the chances of him moving and further damaging his spine, but apart from that everything else is stable.'
'So, no news is good news, right?'
'Yeah, something like that.'
'Has anyone been allowed in to see him?'
'They let us in for a few minutes,' Katherine said.
'Do you think I . . .'
'Oh yes, we told them that they will need to let you see him. They were a bit reluctant at first, but eventually agreed,' Antonio said.
'Thank you,' I replied. 'I can't tell you how much that means to me.'
'Son, we have a pretty fair idea. The two of you are so good together . . . we think you need each other, so it's the least we can do.'
What did he call me? Did he just call me, son?
'I . . . ummm . . . thank you,' I replied.
I looked at Leandro and he gave me a wink. It seemed that the entire de Silva family had now accepted me as one of their own.
'How about I take you up there now?' Leandro said to me.
'Th-thanks,' I replied. 'That would be good.'
With Leandro leading the way we followed the same route as we had been taken last night, before arriving at a door that said Intensive Care Unit, with another sign below it saying, Press buzzer to enter. I didn't recall seeing this door last night, perhaps it had been opened already and we had been ushered straight through?
Leandro pressed the buzzer, then moments later a voice came over a speaker directly above us.
'ICU. What can we do for you?'
'Here to see Rafael de Silva please,' Leandro said as he pressed another buzzer to respond.
'One moment please.'
A couple of minutes later the door opened and a male nurse emerged. He looked at Leandro and said, 'You've already visited, haven't you?'
'Yeah, I have. I'm just bringing Raffa's partner up to visit. We arranged it with the nursing sister earlier.'
'Oh, right,' he said, as he looked me up and down. 'Errr . . . Grayson, isn't it?'
'Yeah.'
'Okay, come through then,' he said, before then turning back to Leandro and saying, 'You'll have to wait here I'm afraid.'
'It's all good. I'll wait for him.'
With a nod the nurse opened the door and ushered me in.
The room where Raffa had been last night was just past the next doorway, but the nurse led me through that door and into the ICU.
'He's in this first ward,' he said to me, as he stopped at the door. 'You'll just need to put this gown and protective wear on over your clothes. It's probably not really necessary, but rules are rules and it's more than my arse is worth to not follow them.'
'That's okay,' I replied, as he handed me a blue gown.
Once I was ready he took me inside, where we found Raffa still in exactly the same position as he had been last night. The curtains blocking out the hallway outside the room were drawn shut and the room was only dimly lit.
The nurse pointed at the chair beside his bed and said, 'You can sit if you want. You can try talking to him as well, if you want. They say it helps the patient know that you are there. I'm pretty sure he'll appreciate it.'
'Has there been any change since last night?' I asked.
'No, nothing I'm aware of. When a patient is in an induced coma like this there usually isn't much to report. Once they think about waking him up they'll know more.'
'And when will that be, do you think?'
'Not before forty-eight hours I wouldn't think. So far it's less than twenty-four hours, so I reckon that'll mean sometime Monday.'
'Right then.'
'I can give you ten minutes or so, but if I happen to get called to another patient or something, you might get a bit more time, if you're lucky,' he said, giving me a wink as he did so. I took it that he was meaning I might indeed get lucky. I was certainly hoping so.
When he left us I sat down in the chair beside Raffa. It was on Raffa's right side, and as most of the damage to his body was on his left side it meant that that I was able to hold his right hand without any risk of pain for Raffa. I reached out and took his hand in mine, gently letting my thumb run back and forth over the smooth skin on the back of his hand as I held him.
The nurse said I should try talking to him. So what should I say?
'Babe, I hate seeing you like this,' I said to him. 'I feel like it's all my fault. It would never have happened if I hadn't hooked up with those guys in the first place. I wouldn't blame you if you thought that. I really wouldn't.
'But I want you to know that I love you so, so much. I love your family. Your brother is really cool. I probably shouldn't say this, but we shared a joint last night while we were sitting outside waiting for news. Did you even know he smoked weed? Christ, don't tell him I told you about that.'
Raising his hand up I held it to my cheek, gently kissing the back of his hand a few times as I held it there. I closed my eyes and for a few minutes I just prayed silently. Shit, it had been a long time since I had done that.
I prayed that when he opened his eyes everything would be okay. I prayed that he would have feeling in his legs. I prayed that his injured bones would mend quickly. And above all, I prayed that he would come back to me soon and that this whole experience would only strengthen the bonds that had developed between us.
As I thought back over the events of the last twenty-four hours I was suddenly struck with the thought that he probably didn't even know what had happened after his accident yesterday. Would he know that it was Animal who had struck him? Would he know that Animal was now in custody, or that it had been Mike who had ensured that Animal had been stopped?
There was so much he needed to know, so I began telling him everything, also that Hoppy and Nate had come to see him, and that my family all sent their love. I told him about Olly being in bed with me again this morning and that he was wanting to come and see his other brother. I wanted him to know that we all loved him and cared for him and wanted him back with us just as soon as it was possible.
Wow! It seemed I did have a lot to say to him after all.
When I had finished I gently kissed his hand once more and held it against my cheek, just as I heard footsteps behind me.
‘I’m afraid your time is up,’ the nurse said to me. ‘You’ve had almost twenty minutes with him. It seemed you did have a lot you needed to tell him.’
I offered him an embarrassed smile.
‘It’s okay. I’m sure that it works and that he heard it all. When he comes to he might just surprise you with how much he remembers.’
‘I’m not so sure about that, but it did feel good to get some of that off my chest. You weren’t actually listening to all that were you?’ I asked.
‘No. Only that last bit about you all loving him and wanting him to come home. That was the most important part of it.’
I gave him a nod as I stood up and faced him. ‘Thank you for that.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Turning back towards Raffa I took one last look at him before I would need to go, then I leaned over him and gently kissed his forehead, whispering, 'I’ll see you tomorrow, babe.'
When I looked back at the nurse he was smiling at me, but said nothing as he led me back to the exit door. I handed him the gown I’d been wearing and then he let me out, where I found Leandro still waiting.
‘You get special dispensation for a double-length visit or something?’ he asked.
‘Nurse got held up with something so I got to stay a little longer.’
‘Well, I’m sure that Raffa would have appreciated it.’
‘Yeah, I hope so. I had a lot I needed to tell him.’
‘Oh, I’ll just bet you did.’
* * *
Back in the waiting room we found that a crowd was beginning to gather, with my mother having joined Antonio and Katherine, along with Hoppy and Nathan, all eager to find out the latest news. As we were catching up and I was filling them in on how things were, we heard some more footsteps come into the room and turned to see two police officers arrive.
One of these I recognised as being the policewoman who I had spoken with last night, Constable Taylor, while I didn't know the other one with her.
Constable Taylor came straight over to me when she noticed me.
'Hello, Grayson. I'm Constable Taylor, do you remember me from the accident scene last night?' she said to me.
'Yes,' I answered as my mother came and stood beside me.
'I was wondering if we could have a chat please, to discuss what happened?'
'Yes, I guess.'
'What's this about?' my mother asked.
'Perhaps we could talk outside,' Constable Taylor suggested.
We looked around at the faces all turned our way.
'I think that might be a good idea,' mum replied.
We followed the police officers outside, all the way to the garden where Leandro and I had talked last night. Mum and I sat down then Constable Taylor also sat down beside me and continued.
'Based on what Grayson has told us, as well as the statement received from a Mr Devlin, who I understand is Grayson's employer, we are just trying to gather some more information about the relationship between Mr de Silva, Mr Devlin, Shane Williams and yourself.'
I looked at mum and could see her frowning.
'Do we need to call our solicitor for this?' my mother asked.
'No ma'am, not unless you feel you need to do so. What we know already is that there was some previous interactions between the four of you, which afterwards led to an altercation at your workplace, as I understand it?'
'Yes,' I replied. 'It also led to my being bashed one night after work, as I was going to my car.'
'Yes, we are aware of that. And that the perpetrators were also associates of Mr Williams.'
'So I heard,' I answered.
'So will you help us fill in the gaps here, Grayson? We know that you and Rafael are the victims here, so we are just trying to piece the whole thing together so our case against Mr Williams is strengthened.'
'Will I . . . will I need to go to court or anything?'
'Not if he pleads guilty. And given what we already know, he should probably do that, because the case against him is already looking quite strong. But you can never tell what they might do until they actually get into the courtroom.'
'And are you going to talk to Mike Devlin as well?'
'If we can get hold of him we will certainly ask him to provide some more information. We just haven't been able to talk to him again as yet.'
'Yeah, sometimes he can be a bit hard to get hold of,' I offered.
'That's good to know. So, will you help us out here?'
'If it helps put that bastard away for what he did to Raffa, then yes, of course.'
Over the next half an hour I gave them most of the details of what had happened, beginning with that Friday night of three weeks ago. Talking about sex in front of my mother and two people I didn't even know was highly embarrassing, to say the least, and I have to admit that I did gloss over some of the more sordid details.
'So, what happened that night was consensual?' Constable Taylor asked.
I looked at my mother, suddenly unsure if I could continue, but she reached out to me and held my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
'Initially, yes,' I said. 'But then he started getting a bit rough.'
'This is Mr Williams you're talking about?'
'Yes.'
'And what about Mr Devlin? Was he still involved.'
'No. I'm pretty sure he had left the room at that point. Anything that happened between Mike and me was absolutely fine. Him and me are cool, and he had absolutely nothing to do with what Animal did. I need you to understand that.'
'Okay then. And what exactly did Mr Williams say or do?'
'I said no. Several times. But he just kept . . .'
'He kept going. He didn't stop,' Constable Taylor asked.
'N-no. H-he didn't,' I sobbed.
The two police officers exchanged a look, before the male officer scribbled the details down in his notebook.
Constable Taylor gently said, 'That is a serious matter, Grayson. That is sexual assault, which could result in additional charges being laid if you are willing to formally press for those.'
I didn't know what to say about that, so I remained silent.
'And what can you tell me about the relationship between Rafael and Mr Williams. We understand that something had also happened between them at one point, was that the same type of thing as what had happened to you?'
'I'm not totally sure of the details, but I think so. All I know is that Raffa managed to get out in time.'
'So that was the cause of the bad blood between Rafael and Mr Williams?'
'I . . . I guess.'
'And can you tell me what happened after that night you spent with Mr Williams and Mr Devlin?'
'W-what do you mean?'
'About the relationship between you all.'
'Well, that was when Raffa approached me and offered support . . . he saw me with them at the pub that night and was worried. That was when I found out about what happened with him.'
'Okay. And what about the incident that happened at your workplace with Mr Williams?'
'He . . . he was making a delivery one day and started going on about that night. It pissed me off, especially after I'd said no at the time and he was just treating me like a piece of meat, so I told him to back off and not come in, otherwise I would make a complaint to the police. He got mad and it was only when Mike came back and had words with him that he backed off.'
'Why did you say a piece of meat?' the male police officer said.
'Because that's how he talks to people. He thinks young guys like me are nothing but fresh meat . . . he has said it a few times.'
'Sounds like this guy is some piece of work!' Constable Taylor suggested.
'You have no idea really.'
'So, do you think this altercation,' the male police officer began, 'which we also understand resulted in him losing his job, was the reason you were subsequently assaulted.'
'Yeah. I’m fairly sure of that. Mike told me later that he was pretty sure the two guys who had assaulted me were other friends of Animal's.'
The two police officers looked at each other, before Constable Taylor gave a nod.
'I think we've got enough extra information now, thank you, Grayson,' she said to me. 'You've been extremely helpful.'
I was still shaking when they left us a few minutes later. Reliving everything had been harder than I thought it was going to be, but in some strange way it kind of felt good that everything was out in the open.
Mum and I sat there in silence for what seemed quite a long time after they had left. After a while she reached out and placed a hand over mine once more.
'You've been holding all that inside you all this time? You could have told me you know,' she said.
'It was embarrassing enough, mum. It's not something that a guy could easily talk to his mother about.'
'No, I guess not. Does Bryan know?'
'Most of it, yeah. It was good to have him to talk to.'
'Yes. Of course.'
'So what do I do now?' I asked. 'I have no fucking idea what I'm doing.'
'First things first, honey. All you need to do is concentrate on Raffa and you. Then, you let the police do their job to nail this bastard so he can't do anything like this to anyone again.'
'You know, when he was trapped in his car last night, I was kind of hoping it would catch fire,' I said to her. 'Do you think that makes me a bad person?'
'Not in my books, honey. I think it just makes you human.'
To be continued . . .
Authors Note:
Hi there. It has been a while since I have posted anything new on Nifty. I guess life gets in the way sometimes.
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