Thanks a lot to Techsan who edited the story pretty quickly and turned it into a better one.
*
The next thing Chris remembered was a very bad smell and a nurse leaning over him. He jumped up and went crazy thinking that the woman and the baby were still in the car.
"Woman, car, baby, woman in the car," he muttered.
"Calm down," said the nurse, "You've had a concussion, possibly because of the combination of alcohol and the excitement. As you mumbled about her right when you were falling, we reached them; your wife and unborn daughter are in the labour room under control. How was she so beaten up?"
Chris's first thought was, "Oh, God, they know that I am drunk!" Then came, "OH, GOD! They think that she is my wife and most probably also that I beat her to death!" and he frantically started to explain to the nurse that he had found her in an alley and that she wasn't his wife. In fact he didn't have a clue about who she was and what had happened. The nurse seemed a little relieved with the information that Chris might not be responsible for the state the woman was in but she was cautious.
"The police have been informed and they will be here in a short while."
"How is she?" Chris asked the nurse.
"The doctor will be here in a minute and although it is a policy not to give information to non-relatives, I will ask if we can make an exception since I have a feeling that you have a right because you brought her in and seem to be sincere in your concern."
"Where can I get a cup of coffee? And where can I wait until the cops come?" asked Chris rather timidly. He was afraid of being accused but he had to help the police find who did this to her. Whats more, he felt he had to see that the woman was fine, maybe reach her family and hand her to safety. The nurse showed him the coffee machine around the corner and told him to wait right by the side of it.
The doctor, who seemed disturbed about the whole thing going on during his shift, came after what seemed like an endless five minutes. After talking with the nurse and making sure that Chris was fine, he walked towards him.
"Hand your car keys to me. I'll get your car moved from the front of the ER to the parking lot of the hospital."
"Here you are. How is the woman?"
"She is in fact very badly beaten with a fractured leg, an arm and two ribs, is unconscious, is in labour but hemorrhaging. Given her situation we will do a C-section as soon as the operating room is ready. The baby fortunately is still holding on and seems to be coming just a little early. The nurse told me you don't know who she is." Then he continued just above whispering as if speaking to himself, "We should inform her family."
"I really don't know her but I'd like to stay until she and the baby are fine."
"You'll have to, until the cops come anyway." said the doctor surly.
Sometime during the short conversation, a uniformed guy headed towards them. He introduced himself as the cop assigned to the case and asked Chris what happened. Chris explained all that had happened from the time he left the restaurant until he reached the hospital in as much detail as he could remember.
"I have to check your statement with witnesses from the restaurant and check the alley where you found her before I can let you go and you can pray that the woman will wake up and tell her story soon. You are a suspect right now." said the cop coldly.
"Are you going to take me to the police station? Please can't I stay until I see that she is fine, and at least someone from her family has come. Please?" begged Chris to let them leave him there to see the woman. "After all the trouble and stress I went through for her, I want to see that she is fine until her family comes." He was also afraid of going to the station. The police were nice but who knew what waited for him in there.
The police consulted with the doctor first. On learning that the doctors should keep him under supervision because he had a concussion and shouldn't sleep until morning anyway, the officer decided to leave Chris in the hospital until he came back. He had all his communication information and had the dispatcher run a check on him. He seemed clean and afraid and they could easily find him in his workplace if he decided on running away.
After making the agreement with the police, Chris started to look for the woman. The doctor had hurried away, saying they were taking her into the operating room.
"Where can I find the woman?" Chris asked the nurse who had looked after him a while earlier.
She answered while hurrying to another curtain. "The operating room is on the third floor but you should wait until Jerry comes. He will keep an eye on you until the sergeant returns."
He dashed towards the elevator without waiting, pushed the call button restlessly a few times and thought about running up the stairs about ten times before it reached the ER floor and took him upstairs.
"Are you all right?" asked the nurse in the nurses station which was in front of the operating room. He was white as a sheet with the blood stained coat still on his back and looked about to faint again.
"I came for Mrs.Whatever. She should be in there," Chris spoke, indifferent to the question, pointed to the operating room and removed the coat.
The nurse showed him a seat. "Mrs. Doe is in operation. You can wait over there."
"Do you know who she is?" Chris asked amazedly.
"No, it's standard policy to call unidentified female patients Jane Doe, that's it."
Well, he really tried to sit down. He was tired and dizzy after all. But he was also uneasy. He decided that some praying could do good and that was what kept him sitting for a full five minutes before he jumped up and asked the nurse what took them so long.
Nancy, the nurse, was used to anxious fathers waiting for their babies to be born and started explaining to Chris about how a C-section is done starting with the incision. The details seemed to make Chris feel nauseous, so he ran towards the loo, emptied what was left of his small dinner, two and a half bottles of wine and the last cup of coffee. He felt better immediately. That was when the guy designated to keep an eye on him came in.
"Are you all right, sir? I am Jerry. I will be with you until the cops come back."
"That seems to be the favorite question around here. Yes, I am fine. Is Mrs. Doe out yet?"
"No, sir."
"Then, I'd like to go back to the front of the operating room to wait. Do you know if they've reached her family yet?"
"Nope. Maybe that cop will come up with some information."
Chris was dragging his feet to the seat across from the nurse when a man in green scrubs came out with a small baby in an incubator. She was so helpless and tiny but a beauty.
"Is it Mrs. Doe's baby? Is she all right?" Chris asked the man in green.
"Yes, she seems fine and healthy but we will keep her in an incubator for a while."
"Is Mrs. Doe all right?" Chris asked again before he let the man go.
"She seems so. She should be out in about an hour. Now let me go. I have to take this little one to the NICU."
Chris was puzzled.
"Where?"
"To neonatal intensive care unit."
"You just said that she is fine."
"Yes, right now she seems to be, but as she decided to come to world a little earlier than she should have, we have to keep her under control."
"Ok."
Turning to Jerry, Chris said, "I will wait until I see that Mrs. Doe is out alive and well."
"That's fine by me. I can doze off in this chair for a while. Wake me up when you're ready to go. By the way, why are you so interested in a woman whom you do not even know? Are you sure you are not the father?"
