Page 56 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
It was something to hold onto at least, but they were all still in a state of suspended devastation.
Until, two hours later, and the entire surgical team came into the room. It looked dire. It looked hopeless. Until they heard the words.
“We had some issues. That’s why it took so long. But the surgery was successful.”
Everybody was ready to cheer. All except for Nikki. “What does that mean though?” she asked urgently. “Is Teddy out of danger?”
“Absent any setbacks, yes. He’s going to make a full and complete recovery,” the lead surgeon said and everybody sighed relief by thanking God and with cheers and high-fives.
Nikki stood up. “I need to see him.”
“He’s still in Recovery, Nikki.”
“I have to see him,” Nikki insisted.
“But I’m afraid,” the lead surgeon began to say.
But Mick stood up too. “She’s going to see him,” he said.
And the surgeon, understanding who had just spoken, nodded his head. “But only you,” he said. “And only for a couple minutes at best.”
Nikki agreed, and then hurried behind the lead surgeon. The other surgeons remained in the waiting room to answer the mountain of questions the family still had.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The lead surgeon had already attempted to prepare her. But when she walked into that recovery room and saw Teddy laying on that hospital bed with so many tubes coming out of him and all of those machines around him, she realized she wasn’t prepared at all. Her knees buckled as soon as she saw him, but she didn’t fall. She made her way over to his bedside and sat in the chair the surgeon provided for her.
As she sat there and held and rubbed his hand, music was playing softly over the room’s stereo system, and Nikki remembered how it was so not Teddy’s taste in music. And it bothered her. But then she wondered why would it? He took eight bullets for her. Eight bullets! And she was worried about the music? What was wrong with her? Tears fell down her face.
She looked at Teddy. He had tubes everywhere. And it broke her heart. “I’m so sorry, Teddy,” she said as the tears fell down like rain. She knew he was in that bed because of her and her reckless past. She knew had she told him when they first met and let the chips fall where they may, this would have never happened to him. He might have decided she was too much trouble for a new relationship and left her where he found her, but at least he wouldn’t have been shot eight times because of her. At least she wouldn’t have to carry that burden to her grave.
“Oh Teddy,” she said as she held his hand. She kept wiping her tears away, but they still kept coming, and coming in bucketsful. She couldn’t stop crying.
And then Luther Vandross came on singing that Stevie Wonder-pennedSuperstarsong she knew Teddy just loved.And song to her at their last anniversary dinner. And her heart soared:
“Don’t you remember you told me you love me, baby.
You said you’ll be coming back this way again.
Baby, baby, baby, baby oh baby.
I love you.
I really do.”
It was too much for Nikki. Now she was crying tears of joy because it was like a sign to her. He was going to be just fine. The doctors had already told her that, but when she saw him she didn’t believe it. Now she believed it. He was coming back to her. He was going to be just fine. She believed it!
And even when the surgeon tapped her on her shoulder and told her it was time for her to go, she smiled at Teddy and kissed him, and lingered. She couldn’t pull herself away from him. Until the surgeon insisted. And then she left.
But as soon as she walked out of those doors and made her way around those halls back to the waiting area, she felt that heavy load of guilt again. Because something could go wrong. He could get an infection. A stitch could come undone and he could start bleeding internally.
Instead of going back into the waiting room, she went to the chapel and prayed. For nearly half an hour she prayed and cried until she had no more tears left. And then she went to the restroom across the hall from the waiting room, pulled herself back together, and came out again.
But just as she walked out of the restroom, Hoke Bianca, their security chief, was coming toward the waiting room. “Nikki hey,” he said. “I heard from the guys downstairs that he’s out of surgery and is expected to recover. That true?”
Nikki managed to smile and nod. “It’s true,” she said.
“Well hallelujah! More good news finally.”
