Chapter 11 - Dom

"Dom."

"Dom."

I can faintly hear someone calling my name, but I'm just too tired to move or even open my eyes. Whoever they are can just come back later.

"Dom. Can you hear me?" It's a womans voice, so it has to be Alessia, she knows what I'm like when I'm sleeping. Why can't she just go back to her room and leave me alone?

"Dom, we need you to open your eyes, or squeeze my hand if you can hear me?"

What the hell. Why do I need to open my eyes or squeeze their hand? I'm just sleeping. But there is a small something in the back of my mind that tells me that this isn't Alessia talking. But I'm still just too tired to do what they are asking. I am enjoying my sleep too much. I am just too comfy.

"Dom, can you squeeze my hand?"

The female voice has changed to a male voice, but this person is definitely not a voice that I recognize, and because I really want to be left alone, I give his hand a small squeeze.

"Mr. and Mrs. Romano. There is brain activity, and he's given a sign that he can hear us. He's also breathing on his own."

Okay, is this person talking about me? To Momma and Papa? Is this why they've been asking me to open my eyes? I need to open my eyes and see what's going on, but I'm still just too tired, just too sleepy. Tomorrow. I will open my eyes tomorrow.

"Dom, darling, its Momma. Please, can you open your eyes?"

Momma sounds worried. I don't think I have ever heard her sound like this, and I know I need to see her. Using all my energy, I slowly open my eyes, but the light is far too bright, and I quickly close them. Hopefully that will keep them happy, and I can go back to sleep. My sleep is just so welcoming at the moment.

Wow, that had to be one of the best nights of sleep I've had in a long time, other than all the interruptions, but it's time to get up. I have a shift at the restaurant tonight. I slowly open my eyes, but the room is still bright, which makes no sense. My bedroom is never this bright. Closing my eyes again, I take a deep breath, and suddenly pain lances through my body, and I let out the breath quickly.

What the hell was that about? I take a deep breath again and the pain returns. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong with me. I open my eyes again, and this time I keep them open, making them adjust to the room, or should I say ceiling.

This isn't my bedroom, and what the hell is that beeping sound? Moving my head slightly, I can see from the corner of my eye that there's some kind of machine behind me. I'm also noticing that I can feel something going up my nose. I want to move, get to the edge of the bed, but nothing is happening, and I start to panic.

The beeping behind me starts to increase, and suddenly there is a flurry of activity. Then I hear a door open and I see a woman lean over me, and I can just make out the green trousers and shirt she is wearing, which looks like hospital scrubs, like a nurse would wear.

"Mr. Romano," the nurse states. "You are fine. You're in the hospital."

Hospital, how the hell can I be in a hospital? I was with Danil and Alessia just yesterday, but no, something else happened. I remember leaving the bar with Alessia and Danil, and then there was nothing. A blank space where a memory should be.

"Hospital," I mutter, but it's barely a sound. My throat feels so raw.

"I'll get the doctor to come in and see you. You had us worried for a while, and I will also see if the tube can be removed now that youre awake," the nurse states, and walks out of the room.

I'm in the hospital. But why? How long have I been here? Where is everyone?

I have no idea how long I've been laying here with these thoughts running through my mind, but I hear the door open again and soon another face is looming over me.

"Well hello Mr. Romano," a mans voice says. It's a face that I recognize, but from where, I have no idea. "I'm Dr. Winston. Do you think you can try to sit up a little?" And I nod my head in agreement.

The bed beneath me begins to move and I can feel my body moving into a more seated position.

"I don't want to sit you up too much, you still have some bruising on your ribs, but is this okay?" the doctor asks, and again I just nod my head in agreement. "I'm just going to quickly check you over, and I will then explain what's happened. The nurse is calling your family to let them know youre awake."

The doctor checked me over, and other than when he had to shine a light in my eyes, it was relatively painless, but all I want at the moment is answers.

"You gave us quite the scare for a while," the doctor says gently. "You've been with us for three weeks now."

"Three weeks?" I say, I've been sleeping for three weeks.

"Yes. It was very touch and go to begin with, but you Romanos are made of strong stuff. Well, some of you are," the doctor says, and a strange tone comes over his voice, and a sadness or maybe even pain flashes over his face. "Lets get this feeding tube out."

Dr. Winston gently removes some tape from over my nose and begins to pull on the tube. "This won't hurt but might feel a little uncomfortable for a second."

I don't feel the tube till it hits the back of my throat and it does feel very weird as it travels through my nose, and as the doctor pulls it out, I can't help opening my mouth wide and wiggling my jaw.

"I'll get the nurse to bring you some water," Dr. Winston states. "It will help."

A noise from the door has the doctor turning, and I don't miss the scowl on his face when he sees who it is, yet he manages to school his emotions very quickly. I just wish he wasn't blocking my view, and its only as Momma walks around him that I see who it is. So the good doctor doesn't like Momma.

"Domenico!" Momma exclaims, rushing over and pulling me into a hug. The sudden jarring makes me yelp with pain.

"Mrs. Romano, please," the doctor states. "Your sons body is still healing. We need to be careful."

"I will hug my son if I want to," Momma almost spits back at the doctor, so it looks like Momma dislikes this doctor too.

"But it's causing him pain. I must insist that you refrain from hugging him," Dr. Winston tries to say, a little more gently this time.

"Then give him more painkillers," Momma states back.

From the look on the doctors face I have a feeling that he wants to say something back to Momma but thinks better of it. I have no idea what is going on with these two, but at the moment, I want to be left out of it.

"Are you done?" Momma asks the doctor, but there is nothing friendly in her tone. "Because if you are, please leave now."

"Momma," I say, no longer able to sit here and listen to her talk to a medical professional like that.

"I'm almost done, Mrs. Romano," the doctor replies, not seeming to even care how he's being spoken to. "I just need to explain what has happened."

"We can do that," Momma states flatly.

"No, this is something I would like to go over with him," the doctor says, more firmly this time, and he proceeds to ignore my mother and turn to me.

"Mr. Romano," the doctor says to me, "You were in a car accident. Your injuries were quite severe. You broke a rib, which punctured your lung, which resulted in us having to put in a chest tube. Its why I haven't sat you up further, you will still be sore. You also hit your head. The pressure in your skull increased but we managed to treat this with medication, you were lucky surgery wasn't needed."

"Is this why I can't move my legs?" I ask the doctor, and I don't miss the gasp from my mom.

"What did you do to him?" Momma spits at the doctor, who seems to have now stopped listening to her.

Dr. Winston moves the covers from my legs and moves so that he's standing in front of my feet.

"Can you close your eyes for me, please?" Dr. Winston asks, and I comply. "Can you feel that?"

"Feel what?" I say back to him, but even I know that this isn't good. If he is touching my feet and I cannot feel them, I have to be paralyzed, right?

"It could be a result of the head injury. Your feet did react to the stimuli, so the nerves are working. I will need to run some tests, but I think the swelling has affected your body movements. But they should come back."

"Should?" I question.

"Let me run some more tests. When you first came in, your spinal cord was checked and no abnormalities were found. This is good."

"Good?" Momma almost yells at the doctor. "My son cannot walk."

"And we need to find out why," the doctor replies before turning back to me. "I'll leave you to rest."

The doctor turns and starts to make his way out of the room, and just as he passes Momma, she says, "You killed one child and paralyzed the other. What kind of doctor are you?"

The doctor pauses for one moment and I see his shoulders slump, and he doesn't regain his composure even as he leaves my room. I need to know what that was all about, and I'm about to ask Momma when my eyelids begin to feel heavy. How on earth can I be tired when I've only just woken up?

"Get some rest, Domenico, I will be here when you wake up." And I close my eyes, letting sleep take me.

Someone shouting in my room pulls me from my sleep.

"You are not welcome here," a voice that sounds like Papa's is shouting. "You and him can leave."

"Momma," I say slowly, opening my eyes.

"Ernesto," Momma says. "He's awake again."

"Here, let me raise the bed back up for you. We lowered it when you fell asleep," Momma says, and I feel the bed move beneath me as it pushes me up into a sitting position.

"Hello Domenico," Papa says. "We're very happy to have you back with us."

"Dom," comes a voice from the corner, but Papa has blocked my view.

"No. You are not welcome here. Leave!" Papa says.

"No." And it's then that I recognize it as G's voice.

"He is still our brother," Matt adds, "regardless of what you think." There's a pause. "I would think you would want a relationship with all your children at the moment."

"Momma, Papa," I say to them. "Please." I really want to see my brothers, but where is Alessia?

"We won't stay here with them," Momma says to me, "but we will let them visit for a while."

"Celeste," Papa says, and I think he's surprised that Momma said that.

"No, Ernesto. Let's go and get some coffee."

Momma kisses my forehead before walking out of my room, and completely ignores Matt and G, which is really pathetic, but I don't think I have the strength to argue with them at the moment.

"Where's Alessia?" I ask just as Momma reaches the door.

"You haven't told him?" Matt turns on her.

"We haven't had a chance," Momma says, but again doesn't look at Matt.

"Told me what?" I demand.

"You tell him, I still don't think I can say the words." And with that, Momma and Papa leave the room.

I watch as Matt comes and stands next to me before pulling a chair closer. It must have been the chair Momma was sitting in that I hadn't noticed.

"Matt, what's going on? Tell me what?" I ask.

"G, go see if you can find another chair. We'll probably need two in here anyway."

G nods his head and walks out of the room, only to appear mere moments later with an identical chair. He pauses to close the door behind him before he places the chair on the other side of the bed and sits down. Looking between the two of them, for the first time I see the bags under their eyes, they look sad.

"Dom," Matt starts, and I hear his voice break. "Alessia died."

"Died?" I repeat, and my first thought is that they are joking. Trying to play some sick prank on me, but as I look between Matt and G's faces, I know they're not. This is the sadness that is etched all over their faces.

"In the car accident. Alessia took the brunt of the force. There was nothing that could be done," Matt states.

"Alessia is dead," I repeat, and the words don't feel right on my lips. My sister cant be dead. She was alive only yesterday, but it wasn't yesterday, it was three weeks ago.

The room turns somber, the weight of what Matt just said filling the room. There are no words. What can I say? What can I do?

The sound of my room door opening has all three of us looking up, and we see Dr. Winston in the doorway.

"Oh, sorry. I saw your parents leave; thought you were on your own," the doctor states, and I see him look over to Matt and G as he goes to open his mouth before closing it again. "I'll come back later."

"No, doctor, please. We have wanted to see you," G says, going over to him. "We wanted to thank you for what you did for Alessia."

The emotional mask that the doctor had been wearing slips, pain and anguish rushing into his eyes, and I'm not sure if he's going to break down, as he comes into the room and closes the door behind him. I'm not sure if G senses this, but he pulls the doctor into a hug the second he turns to face him.

"I'm so sorry, Giovanni," I hear the doctor mumble. "I did everything I could, but it wasn't enough."

"We know, doctor. The police explained," G says.

"I couldn't save her. Why couldn't I save her?" There is no mistaking the hurt in his voice as he speaks now.

"Matt," I ask. "Can you please explain what is going on?"

"The doctor was one of the first people on the scene after the accident. I have no idea what would have happened if he hadn't been there. He quickly stabilized you, so you could get transported to the hospital, before working tirelessly to save Alessia. But she was pinned in the car. Even after she was removed, the doctor was doing CPR on the side of the road."

"Still wasn't enough," the doctor says. "I've managed to save you all, except her. Why couldn't I save her?"

Matt is up out of the chair before anything more is said, and I realize that's where I recognize the doctor from, he was the one that treated G after his accident last year.

"Dr. Winston. There was nothing you could have done. Alessia was gone. We don't blame you. You saved Dom," Matt says.

"I think Momma blames him." The words are falling from my mouth before I can stop them.

"What?" G and Matt say the same thing, at the same time, while looking over at me.

"Momma said something as the doctor was leaving," I mumble, and wonder if I shouldn't have said anything.

"Dom, what did she say? That woman. Seriously," Matt demands.

"She said that he killed one child and paralyzed the other."

"Youre paralyzed?" G exclaims, looking over at me before looking back at the doctor.

"We don't think this is permanent," Dr. Winston says. "We believe that it's a result of the head trauma."

"But you definitely don't think it's permanent?" Matt asks.

"We don't believe so. We still need to run some tests," Dr. Winston explains. "Early signs are that with some intense physical therapy, Dom should walk again."

"That's good," G says. "Dr. Winston, please ignore my parents. They are simply nuts."

"Yes, we don't blame you for anything," Matt agrees, and gets up from his chair and pulls Dr. Winston into another hug. "None of us do. We also saw you at the funeral. We wanted to come talk to you, but you vanished."

Funeral. Of course, I would have missed that. I missed my own sisters funeral. I was here lying in a hospital bed while my sister was laid to rest. I never got a chance to say goodbye.

"I wasn't sure how welcome I would be," Dr. Winston says.

"To be honest, we weren't welcome there, but we stayed," G says. "We wanted to say goodbye to Alessia and our parents weren't going to stop that."

"Dr. Winston," I ask, "When can I go home?"

"You will need to stay for a while, I'm afraid. But, I will get you moved out of the ICU."

"Um, are we able to limit my parents coming to see me?" I ask.

"Dom," Matt states, coming over to sit next to me.

"Matt, I just can't. I know that they're going to try and stop you and G from coming to see me. I need you guys more than anything now," I tell him.

"Momma let us stay today. I don't think she will stop us completely, and there is no way that we aren't coming to see you," G says. "Also, I was wondering if you are up to having some more visitors. Feliks and Danil came with me."

Danil. I hadn't thought about him once. How could I forget about Danil? He must have been there that day. How the hell did he explain being there? How much did he witness? My poor Danil.

"Yeah, I can see them," I say.

"Good, Danil has been really shaken up. He told us that you and Alessia and he had met up to get to know each other better," G explains, as he pulls out his cell and starts tapping at the screen.

Images of all of us being in the bar flash through my mind. We had just told Alessia that we were going out. She had been so happy for us and now she's gone. What am I going to do without her now?

A few minutes later there is a knock on the door, and as it slowly opens, Frank and Danil walk in. I could swear that my heart rate increases but the steady beeping of the machine stays the same.

"Dom," Frank starts. "You had us very worried."

"Sorry," I mumble, because I'm not sure what else to say.

Danil remains silent, just standing by Frank. Neither of us are sure what to say or how to act, and I want to hold him so much. I need to feel his arms around me, hear him tell me that everything is going to be okay, but I know that it's not. How can it be now that Alessia isn't here, and for the first time since hearing the news I feel the tears roll down my cheeks, but it's Matt who comes to hold me. He lets me cry until I become too exhausted, and sleep takes me.