Chapter 12

 

Chapter 12

 

I left Nikki to do what she wanted to do, I knew eventually that she would so the right thing. She had just gone of the track for a while. She would find her way back.

     Then a week later, my Mother died. It was such an emotional and devastating day for me. Laura was comforting me the entire time, even though she was very sad as well. It was peaceful, the cancer finally won the battle while my Mother was sleeping. I discovered her in the morning when I took a cup of tea to her. I fell to my knees at her bedside and burst into tears. Laura had heard me crying and once she entered the bedroom, she knew.

     The funeral was a week later, I wanted nothing more than it to be over with. Steve and Laura attended the funeral with me. A few relatives showed up, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was raining hard, just like in the movies. They did it to add a sense of misery, but today that had become reality.

     My solicitor contacted me to tell me that my Mum had left me the house in her will, along with a small fortune that amounted to about £200,000. At least now I wouldn’t have to search for a new place for my family. We now hired a baby-sitter to look after Emma when me and Laura went to work. Then, we had the chance for our honeymoon and we both decided to go to Hawaii and we used part of my inheritance from my Mum to pay for it, I think she would of approved with that. We left Emma in the hands of an aunt for the three weeks we were away, we both missed our daughter very much. I would have left my daughter in the hands of Nikki but since she lived a very dangerous life at the moment, I decided that was a bad idea.

     A few years later (no contact from Nikki at all. It seemed that she had just dropped of the face of the Earth and she had forgotten who her friends were and what I had done for her over the years) I finished medical school and in a few weeks time I would start an internship at the hospital Laura was based at. I would be doing that for a year before I could choose a special area of surgical medicine. Emma was now 4 years old and would be beginning nursery in the upcoming months. Laura and I often went out for a meal or to watch a new film which I believed was a quite important in a relationship, spend some quality time together and all that.

     I remember a day when some fabulous news reached me. It was just after Emma started nursery. Me and Laura was out at Steve’s birthday party when, while seated at a table in a bar, Laura reached of the table and held my hand. Steve was on the dance floor with two blondes (he always remained a bachelor).

“I’ve got some good news.” Laura shouted over the music.

“What is it?” I asked, growing continuously excited.

“I’m pregnant again.” She replied, now crying with joy. I gave a small, joyful laugh and my heart was going as fast as a rocket car. Steve came over to join us and he noticed that there was something going on.

“What’s up with you two? You look like you just won the lottery.” He shouted. Laura said nothing, just continued to stare happily at me.

“I’m going to be a father again.” I told him and he gave me a broad smile. He hugged Laura and me and bought me a congratulatory drink and he got Laura an orange juice, partly as a joke but partly serious as well. Me and Steve got absolutely drunk last night so Laura drove home. In the morning all I remembered was Laura telling me she was pregnant.

     About half way into Laura’s first trimester, I got my internship. Now I was a completely qualified doctor, it had been a very hard uphill struggle but when I finally got there and started my dream job, you can’t help but feel on top of the world.

     I was walking through the hospital grounds about 7am on a Thursday morning (that was usually quite late for me to start work, but on a Thursday I got a few hours spare. On any other day I would have to be at work by 4am, even on a Sunday, so I tried to spend as much time as possible with my family). I was heading towards the hospital entrance with a cup of coffee in hand when I saw Nikki standing outside the entrance. I frowned at her and just walked past, through the automatic doors she began to chase after me.

“Nick! Nick! Wait!” She shouted after me. I stopped and turned around slowly, I felt uncomfortable and frustrated at the same time, I did not really want to speak to her.

“What do you want?” I asked coldly. She tried to smile at me but couldn’t quite manage it or she thought it not appropriate due to our relationship at the moment.

“I’m so sorry, Nick. You will never know how sorry I am.” Nikki said as she began to sob. I hugged her and ran my hands through her hair.

“It’s ok. It’s ok.” I whispered to her; I did forgive her really.

“I really need your help. I am a crack addict, I don’t know what to do anymore.” She now began to cry so hard that it was difficult to understand what she was saying. I released her from my grip and dried her tear-soaked face with the heel of my hand. Then I took her into the hospital so that she could speak to someone about her addiction.

     Nikki told me that she had got rid of her crack head boyfriend and that she was trying her hardest to avoid the drugs, she had been clean for seven months after the hospital encounter. After a while, there was an article in the newspaper which caught my attention. The bold title was on the second page, it read: ‘Drug dealer gunned down by rival gang.’ As I read on, I discovered that this drug dealer was Josh. He had been making a sale in some back alley when two men entered the alley and shot him three times in the chest and twice in the head. There was blood spilled all over the alley walls and Josh laid, with his back against the wall, motionless and cold as ice. I never told Nikki this and I don’t think she ever did know.

     Laura went into labour the following month and we endured that familiar experience again, she always told me that, in the end, the pain and suffering of giving birth was all worth it in the end. This time, Nikki was with us in the delivery room and even Steve was sitting in the waiting room. The birth lasted about 9 hours or more and when it was over, I was the father of another girl.

“Come on then. What’s her name?” Nikki asked. Me and Laura looked at each other for a moment and then she turned to Nikki.

“Stacey. This is Stacey.” She replied quietly, her forehead sweaty and her face drained of energy. I smiled happily at the two of them and then Laura passed Stacey to me and I held her for a while.

     The following year was crammed with events. Firstly, Emma had finished her nursery schooling and had a place in Upton Lower School, which she would start in September which was two months away. Secondly, I had finished my internship and would now have to choose a speciality which would have to be soon, even though I hadn’t made up my mind at all.

     I was walking through the hospital one morning, eating an apple and wearing my sacred doctors coat and my stethoscope hanging around my neck. My route was interrupted when the PA sounded:

“Dr. Irons to the ICU please, Dr. Irons to the ICU please.” This seemed odd to me because I had no patients in the intensive care unit at the moment. I rushed to the ICU as quickly as I could to satisfy this scary curiosity. When I got to the ICU I went over to the nurses station.

“What’s the problem?” I asked a nurse behind the desk.

“There’s someone who wants to see you in room 12, Dr. Irons.” The nurse replied cheerfully. I frowned and proceeded to room 12 where a devastating sight awaited me.

     In room 12 I saw Nikki laying in the patient bed. I began to cry. She was awake but very weak. I rushed over to her side and pulled up a chair beside her bed.

“What the hell happened?” I asked her through my wave of tears, I held on to her hand for dear life.

“I’m so sorry, Nick. I had a fix again. I had an overdose.” She replied weakly.

“When did this happen?”

“About a week ago, the nurse told me I’ve could have died. But she said that I’m not out of the woods yet, my organs are quite damaged.” She told me croakily. We sat there talking for a while.

“I’m so sorry.” She kept on saying to me and no matter how many times I told her that it was ok, she kept apologising.

“I’m am really so-sorry.” She said, then her eyes rolled back into her head and her heart-rate monitor started beeping crazily. I jumped up out of my chair.

“Nikki?! I need some help in here!” I shouted. Nikki started seizing, foam seeping from her mouth. Four nurses rushed in, two began helping me turn Nikki on her side while the other two rushed drugs into her body. Nikki’s body continued to violently shake before finally, she became still and her heart went flatline. I was so hiked on adrenaline that emotion seemed to have been prevented from getting to me.

“Crash cart, please!” I directed a nurse while I examined Nikki’s heart with my stethoscope. Then the crash cart came in, a nurse began ventilating Nikki’s lungs and another nurse charged the defibrillator. I grasped the paddled in my hands.

“Ok, charge to 200!” I hollowed. Electricity buzzed, Nikki still motionless despite the fact that two nurses were still pumping every drug on the planet into her.

“Clear!” I pressed the buttons on the paddles and Nikki’s body jumped.

“No response.” Said a nurse.

“Charge to 260!” I replied, I was not giving up on her. Now, tears streamed out of me like the Fountain of Youth, the tears falling on the bed.

“Clear!” And again, Nikki’s body jumped. I tried three more times. Nikki never did respond, her body already starting to turn cold. I couldn’t be around her anymore.

“Time of death: 2:17.” I whispered and rushed out.

     Nikki died that day, she died of multiple organ failure, the drugs just completely mangled her body until it finally it shut down on her.

     I made sure her body was treated with the respect she deserved. I dished out £10,000 to ensure she had a good funeral. She was buried about 7 meters away from my Mother’s and my Father’s grave. I later received a letter from Nikki’s workplace, it seemed she had left everything in the world she had to me. Her career had progressed so well since she had been off the drugs. Nikki would have continued to rise with her career. As a final gift, Nikki had given me £600,000.