[:::: Authors Note ::::]
Hi Everyone, Welcome to Part IV of the Double or Nothing series. As a new author, I've enjoyed writing and building a story. I've gotten so much feedback from so many people that it's been great. Some of you love the story, others not so much. But I've noticed that the comments and private messages have all shown me that you engaged with what I am writing for the most part. And that is what I have been aiming for!
One other point everyone brought up was the gap between parts. As a new author, I must plead some ignorance. When I posted Double or Nothing Part I, I had not started Part II, and in some ways, I did not understand the passion all of you had in wanting to see the next part so quickly. Thank you for that passion.
As always, a huge thanks to Kite for jumping in and editing with me, He's showing me a lot, and it's helping me to enjoy writing but to polish the story and close gaps that I have a hard time seeing.
One of the most significant criticisms outside of my grammar (yes, I know) is that the plot and dialogue are too long. Well, just to let you know, that's just the way I write. I like to work on my characters; I want to get their motivation and understand their thoughts or feelings. So, that takes time, making my stories a little longer.
What you're about to step through in Part IV is quite long in the telling, there is a lot that I want to get through in this part of the story, and I want to try a couple of different styles. There are a few elements that I would love to have explored further but didn't feel fit the main narrative.
I want to caution you that I've got both religious discussion and more legal scenes in this part. These scenes are to progress the story and are not written to offend anyone as I am sure most of you have different points of view to those that our characters hold. So please try not to be offended and just enjoy the writing.
You have been warned.
I hope that you enjoy Double or Nothing Part IV.
[:::: End of Part III ::::]
I looked at Harmony. My body was feeling tired, the edges of my vision blurry. Then, I heard a phone ring. Fast words were spoken. For a few moments, I lost focus and then felt the cool press of plastic against my ear as Harmony held her phone to my ear.
"Terry, baby, what's going on?" my other amazing girlfriend, Melody, started saying over the phone. I looked at Harmony into those amazing green eyes. I could be lost in them forever without ever having to take another breath.
"I punched the little shit, I mean the big dickhead, I mean doctor fuckwit," I was starting to lose it, slurring and mixing up my profanity. Harmony smiled.
"Harmony told me baby, Terry, Terry, are you listening," her voice was panicked, and we all knew I was fading.
"Yesssshhhh," I slurred.
"Baby, we need you to stay with us. We need you, our love!" Melody was crying through the phone. Looking at Harmony, she was openly sobbing as well.
"Terry, our amazing sweet, Terry, please don't go. We're not ready to give you up so soon after finding you." Harmony whispered.
"Tiiirrred," I replied.
By now, more doctors were swarming around Harmony and me. Finally, she was forced to stand away, taking the phone with Melody away with her. A couple of security guards lifted me onto an awaiting gurney at the doctor's direction, and I saw mum wrap her arm around a crying Harmony.
I had a final moment of clarity where our eyes met, "I love you!" I mouthed, and she returned the gesture.
"We love you too!" she replied.
They started moving me down the corridor. I could feel them pushing me fast, so I closed my eyes. Sight and sound drifted away from me as the drugs finished their work. I was loved and had found happiness, I wasn't alone, but as my consciousness ebbed into nothingness, I did wonder fleetingly if I would ever wake up.
[:::: Part IV ::::]
My mouth felt like I had been drinking Bundy rum for three days straight, you know that feeling when you can't quite get your lips together to try and rub some moisture in your mouth. That was the feeling I had as I slowly returned to the living world.
I was flat on my back in what must have been a hospital bed. I can also say that aside from the feeling of a dead cockroach in my mouth. Enormously heavy limbs and a monumental effort to open my eyes. I could feel that almost every part of me was beyond sore.
However, my hearing was working at least because as I came to, I could hear snoring. I tried almost successfully to move a little, and the snoring stopped, I felt the pressure lift from my torso, and I heard a voice that made me relax.
"Terry?", the question came from one of the two voices in this world that could wake me from the dead. Indeed, that's what I felt like now. But her voice stirred me further awake.
Melody!
Eyelids fluttering, I pushed myself and worked hard at opening my eyes. It was dark out that much was sure as the light in the hospital room was entirely dim and artificial. As my eyes started to focus, one of my two beautiful girlfriends was lying on my hospital bed with me, her usual spot curled up on my right, holding onto my torso. Melody had always loved to sleep on my mid-section. Ever since we first met, that was her place, and despite my laying here in a hospital bed, she had managed to curl herself like a cat onto the bed without affecting my prone position, ensuring her claim on me.
"Harmony," Melody whispered so someone on a chair beside my bed, "I think he's waking up."
Almost immediately, a second vision of beauty, the identical twin of the woman who was until a few moments ago, laying on my torso, stepped in and looked at me. I tried to focus on her, my second girlfriend in the dark. There was no difference between the two women, I loved them both without reservation, and I knew without a doubt they both loved me.
"Well, hello there, handsome, welcome back." Harmony smiled, softly grabbing my hand, squeezing it. I lightly pressed it back, the effort feeling monumental. Finally, she leant in and looked into my eyes, smiling, seeing me try to focus.
"It's okay, our love." She said, using the term of endearment that the sisters had adopted as our relationship developed. "Don't try to move or talk yet. You have been out of it for a while, and we need to walk you through a lot. But for right now, you don't need to do anything but try and relax!" my sexy nurse girlfriend told me.
I tried to smile but found it hard around the tube down my throat. I started to feel like I would choke until both girls tried to calm me.
"Try to relax, Terry. We had to get a tube down your throat to help you breathe. It will feel uncomfortable. But now you're awake; I am sure the doctors will remove it quickly." Harmony explained.
"You scared us so much, Terry, but you amazed us by pulling through," Melody said. Her eyes held a sternness and pain that spoke about how worried she was about me. Then she smiled, leant in and kissed my forehead. "It's okay, our love. I know you have questions, but right now, relax, we are here, we're not going anywhere, and the answers are coming."
Harmony again looked me over for a moment, then looked up at a drip, summoned the duty nurse, and together they pressed a few buttons on the dispenser.
"Go back to sleep, Terry," She spoke softly. "We will be here when you wake up, and trust me, baby, you will feel a lot better after a few more hours of sleep."
She was right. I went back to sleep and woke up a few hours later as the sun was rising when a doctor came in the check on me. Neither of my girls had moved. After doing some initial tests, Harmony helped him remove the tube from my throat, an altogether unpleasant experience. He then followed up with a few more tests while Harmony handed Melody a cup of ice chips. Melody fussed over me for the next half hour, fed me ice, and waited until it melted in my mouth before feeding me another one.
I tried a few times to speak, and it took me a while before I could find my voice.
"What happened?" I said in a gruff voice.
The girls looked at each other, "Terry, there is no easy way to say this, but you died." Melody teared up as she spoke.
"What?" I rasped out.
Harmony nodded. "Twice actually and almost a third time before the hospital staff figured out how to stabilise you."
At that moment, my memories of the brief fight with Dr Dickhead, aka Stephen Morrison, came back to me. Harmony interrupted my thoughts about what happened and continued.
"The emergency team managed to get you to the ER within minutes. I think you passed out on the way. Then," she said, the sorrow she showed on her face as she relived the memories. "They managed to more or less figure out one of the drugs fairly quickly. It was a common anesthetic meant to knock a patient out for an operation. The second drug, though, was much harder to identify." She was holding my hand for all its worth.
"Based on the fact the moron was a surgeon, they worked on the assumption that he was trying to dose you with something causing the heart to slow, where an overdose would cause your heart to stop beating all together." She sighed, "We still don't exactly know what was in the second one, and both syringes are in a lab being analysed for the police."
