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Chapter fifty-one
Consciousness crept through Saff as she slowly opened her eyes.
A dimly lit room, blurry at first before sharpening, slowly came into view.
Her eyes drooped, scanning over the white blanket neatly tucked around her legs. Then they dragged to her arm and stopped.
A clear tube ran from somewhere off to the side, down into an IV taped to her forearm.
She blinked, staring at it for a moment in disbelief.
Then her eyes moved farther to the side, before stopping again.
And if it weren’t for the sight of Maddie’s sleeping body, slumped in a chair beside her, she might have thought the whole thing was a dream.
Saff swallowed, and her throat stung against itself as it drew out a tight high pitched cough.
Maddie stirred in the chair, then suddenly shot up, fully awake.
“Saff?” she called out, blinking wildly as she leaned over the bed.
She tried and utterly failed to respond, her throat too dry to do much of anything besides release the incessant raspy coughs.
Maddie found her hand quickly, grasping it in her own before calling out over her shoulder. “Hey! We need help in here!”
A few seconds later, an older man stepped through the dark doorway.
He pushed thick black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose, stopping for a second as he took in the sight of her. Then he strode to the other side of the bed, grabbing something from a table behind her.
“Here,” he said, lifting a cup of water to her lips.
He poured some into her mouth before she took it in her own shaky hand, tilting the cup back farther and sucking down the liquid like a lifeline.
“Take it slow,” he murmured, stepping back to survey her.
She paused, taking one last gulp before lowering the glass. Wheezing breaths forced their way in and out of her burning lungs.
A flicker of understanding passed over the man’s face before he walked to the side table once again. And when he came back into view, he held out an inhaler in his hand.
She took it without question, not waiting another moment as she sucked in a deep breath of the medication.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, leaning against the side of her bed.
Her eyes flickered back down to Maddie, then refused to leave as she mumbled, “What happened? Where are we?”
“You’re at the safe zone on Fisher’s Island.” He watched her carefully for a moment, then nodded down at her stomach. “Do you mind if I take a look?”
It took her a second to realize what he was asking, and another second to remember why he would be asking that in the first place.
Mike.
The gunshot wound.
She blinked as the memories slowly flowed back to her.
“Yeah,” she finally muttered. “Sure.”
She glanced back to Maddie at her other side, still clutching her hand as if it was the last thing on earth.