Emmanuelle

"Mr. Mulaney is still in the operation room. Please, have a seat in the waiting room."

Marco turned to look at Tia and Marissa before he turned back to the nurse. "What can you tell us about his condition? Is it critical?"

I stood in silence, my head slowly moved into the directions of the others whilst the sound of my beating heart grew louder. I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know if he was safe. My lips quivered, wanting to part but they did not manage to escape the straight line that they were set in.

"Please—" The nurse pleaded.

"I just want to know where my brother is." Marco raised his voice again.

"Marco—"

"Don't." He shrugged his shoulders out of Christoph's grip.

"Sir, please—" The nurse spoke in a slow, calming tone. "Your brother is still going through the operation. Please, have a seat in the waiting room and let us do our job."

"Fuck." Marco yelled as he walked off. His breathing was heavy and unsteady. He was scared. We all were.

He stopped in front of a few chairs and threw himself back in one of the seats, placing the back of his against the wall, he had his eyes closed as he faced the ceiling.

Anthony led Tia and Marissa to the waiting room which was around the corner of where Marco was seated. The three of them sat together whilst Christoph and Emillio tried to comfort Marco. meanwhile, I was left standing on my own at the receptionist table.

"Miss,"

I swallowed hard. The same nurse that Marco had yelled at was standing in front of me. "Come on." She softly said.

We walked side by side, past Marco and turned to corner to where the others were sitting. Hours went by and we were still in the waiting room. I glanced down at my watch, it was around three in the morning. My eyes were heavy, but sleeping was made impossible by the sound of crying people and others talking around me. Tia had calmed down and was leaning back in her chair whilst Marissa had snuggled herself up to Anthony.

Anthony looked over at me and gave me a small nod, his facial expression questioned if I was alright. I was not, but I returned the small smile he had give me after that .

"Mulaney?"

Anthony lightly tapped Marissa's shoulder, walking her up.

"Yes." She answered the nurse in a shaky voice. "Uhm, Marco—"

Anthony left the waiting room and returned with the three other man. Marco was a complete mess, his eyes were red and though he had wiped away his tears I still knew that he had cried. Christoph and Emillio walked behind him, looking like his bodyguards.

"Mr. Mulaney is out of the operation room and is now resting in one of our private rooms. He is still unconscious and is in desperate need of rest. You can all see him, but not at the same time."

"They will go first." Marco beckoned the nurse at Tia, Marissa and me.

I frowned, when we first came in he was throwing a fit about wanting to see Dimitri and now he was passing on the opportunity to do so. I thought that he would be the first to run up to the room. I had already made peace with being the last person to walk in.

 "Did you call Gia?" Marissa asked him.

"I tried. I didn't get through."

Marissa responded with an understanding nod before turning to the nurse who led the way. With each step I took towards the room my heart rate increased, my fear and worry grew stronger and my breathing became more uneven. I slowly felt myself drifting into a state of panic. My mouth felt dry and my tongue felt tied in a knot.

God, please let him be okay...

My mouth fell agape and I almost crashed into the wall when the nurse opened the door. Tia let out a loud wail as she turned to Marissa who was not even stable enough to deal with her own emotions. The peeping sound that came from the heart monitor was the only sound besides our crying and heavy breathing that filled the room.

An endotracheal tube passed through his mouth and an infusion pump was stationed on the side of his bed of which its tube was put in his inner elbow. A large wound covered the outside of his left arm.  His right leg and arm were in a cast. He had a neck brace on.

His face— his gorgeous face was covered in a small cut above his eyebrow and a wound similar to the one on his arm rested on the left side of his face. The cuts and bruises were so severe that they would undoubtedly leave marks even after they would be healed.

I sniffled as the sadness that I was feeling by seeing him in pain rolled down my cheeks in the form of liquid. I was quick to wipe them away, but there was absolutely no point in doing that because my tears seemed endless. My emotions had nothing to do with the attraction I felt towards him or the fact that even though he had been a complete asshole towards me, I still saw him as family. I believe that my sadness had to do with the fact that he looked helpless and to be in pain which was scaring the life out of the others— my loved ones.

The nurse was filling Marissa and Anthony in on Dimitri's condition, but my mind was far too frazzled to be able to focus on any word that left her lips.

Marco came into the room, the two other men standing right behind him. The nurse then reminded us that we could not all be in the room at once, but no one wanted to leave. I did not either, but I felt that it was best that I did. I sat myself down in one of the of many empty chairs that lined the wall, just outside of the room. Not long after that Anthony came to sit right next to me. I was not in the mood to tell him to leave me alone. As much as I was still unsure of where we stood in our friendship there were much bigger and more important things going on at that moment.

"You okay?"

I shook my head whilst my foggy eyes were still staring at the white wall in front of me. I took my lower lip between my teeth as my shoulders slouched down. Anthony did not say anything instead he pulled me into a hug, a friendly one. The hug did not last long, but it was enough to keep me calm. 

"You think he's going to be okay?" I questioned.

"I hope so." He truthfully answered after a while of silence.

I do not know how many hours we stayed seated in the uncomfortable chairs or how I managed to fall asleep in it, but by the time my heavy eyelids opened the sun was already up. The hospital was more crowed, but the hall to the private rooms was still quite vacant. I rubbed my hands up and down my face for at least two times before I straightened myself. In the meantime Marco had walked my way, carrying two large brown cups of coffee. He handed me one as he sat next to me. He was awfully quiet,  staring into the distance and after taking two sips from the cup he just held it in his hand.

We sat in complete silence, neither one of us were feeling chatty but I did not mind it. Silence was what we needed. The silence was good. But, the then the clicking sound of heels on the tiles came from our right, disturbing our peaceful silence. Gia stopped right in front of the door which was to Marco's right.

"Is he in here?" She panted, her voice broken.

"Yes." Marco mumbled.

She quickly disappeared into the room but less than ten minutes later she was standing in front of us again. She paced around whilst she asked a million questions at once as though we had all the answers when we were clueless ourselves. Marco was trying his best to ignore her annoying behavior, but all it did was irritate him even more. His jaw flexed and a growl rumbled in his throat. She was still talking through her crying when Marissa and Anthony came out of the room.

"Gia— calm down." Marissa attempted to calm her down but it had the opposite effect on her.

"How did this happen. Why didn't you guys call me last night. I—I." She rambled on.

 Marco rose from his chair,  beaming with anger. "Can you just shut the fuck up?"

Gia let out a gasp as she involuntarily jumped back. Anthony stepped in between them, placing his arms against Marco's shoulders. We gained the attention of those around us. People were whispering to each other, some were more courageous then the others and quickly yelled out a reminder that we were in a hospital.

"Calm down."

"No, tell her to calm down. I called you more than needed and left you messages, so don't come here and pretend to be a perfect fucking girlfriend." He shoved Anthony's arm back to him. "Keep asking a million damn questions." His voice became more inaudible the further he walked away from us.

Gia stormed back into Dimitri's room, closing the door behind her. Marissa loudly exhaled, tucking her hair behind her ears whilst Anthony sat down next to me. He had his face in his hands as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Where's Tia?" I softly asked.

Anthony lowered his hands and slightly turned to face me. "We had Christoph take her home."

"And Emillio?"

"He— Emillio has gone down to the police station."

A man in a long white coat and a stethoscope hanging around his neck approached us. "Goodmorning, I'm doctor Henry Gardner." He spoke in a firm voice. "I have been assigned to attend to Mr. Mulaney."

Anthony stood up to shake hands with the middle aged man. I followed Anthony's lead and stood up as well.

"My apologies for not coming to you any sooner, it has been a very hectic morning. I'm going to do a check up on Mr. Mulaney and afterwards I would like to discuss his condition with— are all of you family?"

"I'm his sister. This is my partner and this my youngest sibling. We have another brother but he isn't currently here." Marissa voiced.

The fact that she had referred to Anthony as her partner bounced between the walls of my brain but as soon as Dimitri once again became my focus that thought was pushed out. The doctor nodded and then beckoned for us to follow him. The moment the door was opened Gia stood up from the recliner chair. By the looks of it she had been on her phone the whole time. She gulped when she saw the doctor who asked if she was family as well to which she proudly mentioned that she was the girlfriend.

The doctor checked the IV tube, breathing tube, the heart monitor and then shined a tiny flashlight in  Dimitri's eyes. He then inspected the bruise on Dimitri's face and arm. His expression was touched by worry, but within seconds he had covered it by relaxing his face again.

He took out a note pad from one of his pockets and scribbled something down before he turned to us. "Mr. Mulaney needs his rest, I think it'll be better to discuss his condition in my office. I suppose it be best to talk to the siblings first. Ms. Mulaney?"

"I will call my brother."

The doctor walked out and awaited us outside of the room. Gia and Anthony had stayed behind whilst Marissa and I left the room as well. She tried to call Marco numerous times but it kept going straight to voicemail. After the sixth or seventh attempt she gave up and decided that it would just be the two us.

Just as we were about to leave Christoph and Tia came walking towards us. Marissa then informed them that they could go to see Dimitri whilst she and I made our way to the doctor's office. The doctor cleared his throat as he sat down in his chair and we took a seat in front of him. He first pulled out a file after which he typed something on his computer.

"Okay, I first want to discuss the operation."

I nervously bit down on my lips.

"The operation has been successful, but like I've mentioned before he will need a lot of rest to be able to heal properly. The crash your brother was in was terrible and we are lucky that he is even alive. He came in with broken ribs and internal bleeding that we had to quickly attend to which is why you were contacted whilst he was already going through the operation." He showed us a scan of Dimitri's rib cage.

"Apart from this he has also suffered from broken limbs on his right side hence why his arm and leg are in a cast and a fractured neck. It is miracle that he still with us. Not a lot of people make it alive after being in a car crash during which the car flipped over more than once. Mr. Mulaney is strong man."

Marissa took my hand in hers. "Will he survive this?"

"I can't give you an exact answer, because like I've mentioned before Mr. Mulaney managed to survive this crash. He is stable, but all I can do is  provide him with the needed care and I can assure you that I will do as best as I can. But, the rest is up to him."

"And if he does manages to pull through?"

"He will need to be looked after to regain his strength and be able to deal with the changes that his body has been through. His leg has been broken in several places, therefore he will most likely need assistance to be able to properly walk again. But, all of this we will deal with in time. Our focus for now is to regularly check up on his vitals, breathing, heart rate and the healing of his body."

"How— how long can it take for him to recover?"

"However long his body needs. The answer to this question differs from patient to patient. What we can do is be there for him."

Marissa bit down on her lip as she nodded. I on the other hand had many questions to ask the man, but not one of them left my lips. All I wanted was for Dimitri to make a full recovery, because at the end of the day I would rather have him be rude to me than for him to not be around me at all.