CHAPTER FIFTEEN

As my eyes opened, I immediately felt a dull throbbing in the back of my head. The light in the room hurt my eyes so I squinted them as much as I could. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was in a hospital room. I slowly moved my head to the right and saw the entry wall was plate glass that looked over the nurse’s station. One young nurse was standing behind the counter with a clip board in her hand. A few seconds later, she looked up and I raised my right hand to acknowledge her. She quickly dropped her clipboard and ran into my room and to the bedside.

“Mr. Williams, can you hear me?”, she asked, looking into my eyes.

“Yes.”, I weakly responded.

“You are at Methodist Memorial Hospital in ICU. You have been here for ten days now. Do you remember anything?”, she asked.

“No, not really.”, I replied, the light hurting my eyes.

“I’m going to call Doctor Mohammad and let him know you are awake. I will be right back and check your vitals.”, she promised.

The next thirty minutes or so was extremely hectic. Nurses and aides were in and out taking blood, taking pressure and just about everything imaginable. Just as things started to ease up a young doctor walked in with a chart in his hand.

“Mr. Williams, I am Doctor Muhammad. I’m a neurologist here at the hospital. How are you feeling?”, he asked, leaning over shining a light in my eyes.

“Not good, my head hurts.”, I replied.

“That is understandable considering what happened. You were brought here with a fractured skull and a mild subdural hematoma. We have you sedated for over a week. We started backing off the medicine two days ago.”, he explained.

“What happened?”, I asked.

“That is what we hope you tell us. Obviously, you were struck in the back of the head with a very hard object. Do you remember anything?”, he asked.

“No, I don’t think so.”, I answered.

“Well, we are sending you to CAT scan to get an image of your head. We will bring you back here after that. I have been instructed by the police to make them aware you are conscious again. They want to talk to you about what happened.”, he informed me walking out of the room.

I was wheeled to imaging where a CAT scan was done and then taken back to my room. Nurses were still bustling about when two men who I knew were detectives walked into the room.

“Mr. Williams, I am Detective Bailey, and this is Detective Harper with the 2nd District. Are you up to answering a few questions?”, he asked.

“I’ll try….”, I responded.

“Can you remember anything was the night you were attacked?”, Bailey asked.

“Not really…. I remember walking to my car and then nothing.”, I replied.

“The gym night manager, Shelly is the one that found you lying in the parking lot. She called 911 and reported it. No one else was around that she could see. There are no cameras on the side of the building so there is no video available. I don’t think it was a robbery because we found your wallet, cell phone and car keys on you. Your car was not taken either.”, he started.

“A unit showed up several minutes later and secured the scene. You were loaded in an ambulance and brought here. We found out a few days ago about what happened with your mother from Detective Wilson. We also found out that you are dating Lexie Thomas?”, he asked.

“I kind of was…… not sure anymore.”, I mumbled.

“Well, if anything comes to mind you let us know. Detective Wilson is working with us on this…. he seems to think this is related to your mother.”, he stated.

I nodded my head in agreement. That is the first thing that made any sense that I had heard since awaking. I really didn’t associate with anyone other than Lexie. It had to be one of the idiots trying to get back at me. My head hurt too much from trying to reason so I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

I must have fell asleep right away because when I opened my eyes again, I could see it was night through the small window in my room. The nurse saw me moving in my bed and came in immediately. She handed me a small paper cup with several pills in it and poured me a glass of water.

“Here, take these and Doctor Muhammad is on his way up to see you.”, she advised.

Several minutes later Doctor Muhammad and several nurses walked into my room. He was looking at my chart and then closed it moving over to the bed.

“Your CAT scan looked good. Actually, better than I hoped for. You still having bruising on your brain, but the blood has subsided for the most part. What you need is rest and to get your strength back. But I need you to answer a question for me.”, he asked, strangely.

“Sure.”, I replied.

“When the results came in from your initial blood work…… we found large amounts of testosterone, Dianabol, Anadral and Anavar in your system. Now that does not surprise me looking at your physique, but I hope you know the side effects of what you’re using.”, he stated.

“Yes, I do.”, I replied.

“Then if you know the side effects why use them?”, he asked.

“Doctor, I’m a student / instructor in Muy Thai and an advanced level Krav Maga student. I trained six to seven days a week, I have to recover quickly and keep my muscle mass up.”, I replied.

“Ok Mr. Williams, but please be careful. One more thing, no fighting until my office clears you. I will remove the staples in the back of your head in two to three weeks. Then we go from there.” he instructed.

“Yes sir.”, I answered.

“Oh, I think you have a visitor waiting too.”, he said, walking out of the room.

I immediately thought the worst and couldn’t deal with having to see Lexie right now. I was not in any shape to even try to make sense of what had happened much less discuss it. Several seconds later, I was somewhat relieved to see Lexie’s mom, Jennifer Thomas walk in alone. She walked over to the bedside, leaned over and softly kissed my cheek with watery eyes. She sat down on the chair next to the bed and sighed deeply.

“I’m so relieved to see you awake…… you had me scared.”, she softly said.

“The doctor just left, I’m going to be fine in a few weeks.”, I replied.

“That’s really good news.”, she stated, smiling.

Then came the awkward pause between two people when you know the one subject you don’t want to talk about is coming up. But I was not going to be the one to bring it up.

“Lexie wanted to come but she is not sure how you feel about her. So, she didn’t want to upset you.”, Jen said.

“Well, that makes two of us because after the party I have no clue how she feels about me.”, I answered.

“I know Chris, she treated you horribly that night. We have been arguing about it ever since. Both her dad and I are furious with her. Neither of us are Cody fans to say the least.