Page 38 of Her Loyalty

"Hold on. I think she's waking up." I heard someone say as I slowly opened my eyes, quickly closing them again once I saw how bright it was.

"The hell?" I spoke groggily, feeling an instant sharp pain in my left leg.

"Ow." I whined as the pain seemed to become unbearable once I'd pay mind to it.

"Ow!" I whined louder this time, finally opening my eyes.

"Baby, you're fine. You're fine." My mother stood there by my bedside, calming me as I grabbed at my leg.

The pain then slowly began to go away as I looked around the random hospital room and saw Deja sleeping in a lone chair.

"What's going on? What happened?" I asked, trying hard to remember what happened to me. All I could remember was having sex with Dominic in the car, everything else afterwards was blank.

"You were shot in the leg last night, Tiana." My mother spoke up, making me gasp as I instantly remebered.

"Oh my god." I covered my mouth as flashbacks from last night began to flood my mind.

"No. No. Where's Dominic?" I panicked, trying to get out of bed but she grabbed me, calming me again.

"Stop trying to calm me down."

"Where is he?!" I yelled, making Deja stir in her sleep before her eyes slowly popped opened.

"Tiana, Dominic is fine." My mother laid her hand on my shoulder while she assured me.

"I told him to go down to the cafeteria to eat. I recommended it because he really needed to take his mind off of you for just one second."

"He was so worried all night." She went on and I nodded slowly, sighing in relief.

"I need to see him."

"I want to see him. Tell him to come back." I demanded and she nodded, looking over to Deja.

"Deja, could you?" My mother asked and she nodded.

"Aight, I'll go get him." She spoke sleepily, standing to her feet before making her way out of the room.

When she left, my mother's eyes reverted back to me. She smiled small as she reached out and placed the palm of her hand onto my cheek.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" She asked, pushing stray hairs behind my ear.

"No. I just remember Dom and I talking in the car.." I trailed off, not really telling her what was actually going on before all of this.

"I just don't understand how this could've happened. Who would do this?" I spoke sadly, trying to remember if I saw a face or not but of course my memory fell short again.

Breaking me away from my thoughts, I watched as the door swung open and both Dominic and Deja came into the room.

"Baby." I called out in excitement as he quickly made his way over to me, hugging me tight. He didn't say anything, he simply held me as tight as he could while my mother and Deja both watched closely.

"Babe." I called after about five minutes, feeling my leg beginning to ache again.

"Baby." I whined as he sighed deeply, finally letting me go.

"What's up, T? It hurt?"

"How you feel?" He asked all at once while I turned my face up.

"Well right now it just started hurting really bad again." I whined to him and he nodded slowly.

"It really hurts." I complained, feeling an aching, burning sensation in my thigh.

"I know, ma. I know." He tried to calm me as I laid there, rocking my legs in and out.

"Whatchu need me to do?"

"Whatever you wun' me to do, I'a do it, baby." He expressed seriously, looking into my eyes.

"I just want you to lay with me and massage it." I spoke softly as I laid there in pain.

For some reason I was beginning to feel alone in this bed. Everyone was just sitting around looking at me, I didn't like it. I needed him next to me.

"You wun' me to lay witchu?" He asked and I nodded.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Dominic." My mother shook her head to him and I waved her off.

"Please, babe." I begged and he sighed deeply.

"Aight, baby. Whatever you want."

Saying nothing else, I watched as he pulled his hoodie over his head and put it in the chair beside the bed. I then moved over as much as I could and he slightly got in beside me.

"Spoiled." I heard Deja say under her breath, making my mother laugh.

Ignoring them both, I cuddled into Dominic, taking in his manly scent. The pain was excruciating but it slowly began to subside as I laid here with him. His presence was making it better.

"Massage it." I ended up telling him, just wanting to feel complete relief.

"I ain't tryn' hurt you, T." He spoke unsure like, grabbing at my leg and softly massaging it on top of all the bandages.

"How it feel?" He asked and I sighed in relief.

"Feels good, keep going." I spoke softly, relaxing my head on his chest.

He continued to do that for a while before it became tedious and he stopped all together. The pain has now returned and the massage was no longer helping anyway. I needed medicine.

"Where is the doctor?" I spoke muffled against Dominic's chest, beginning to get upset with this constant pain.

"He said he would be here at 8:45." Deja spoke up.

"What time is it now?" I heard my mother ask.

"8:43."

"Aight, baby. You got two minutes." Dominic coached as I whined loudly.

"Alright, Tiana. We get it." My mother spoke up, considering I was being loud but I didn't care. I was horrible with pain, I couldn't take this.

"Baby, look." Dominic said, making me slowly look up at him.

"What?" I pouted, looking him in the eyes.

"Never mind." He snickered, instantly making me mad.

"Tell me." I begged as he laughed, shaking his head.

"Stop. I want to laugh too." I softly hit him as he went on, looking over to Deja as she began to laugh too.

I watched as my mom looked at the both of them weird and I just wanted to know what the hell was so funny.

"Baby." I huffed as he looked back over to me and kissed my lips softly.

"Na' we just fuckin' witcha. I was tryn' take your mind off of the pain." He said and I furrowed my eyebrows, realizing the pain had slowly went away.

"Oh wow." I rolled my eyes, mad that his stupid plan even worked.

We now sat in silence a while as we patiently waited for the doctor. About ten minutes went by before he finally came in.

"Alright." His loud, piercing voice entered the room, raising my anxiety.

"I see you're finally awake, Ms. Benson." He smiled at me as I peeked out from Dominic's chest.

"Hello." I spoke politely.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" He went onto ask as I pulled away from Dominic to show my entire face.

"I'm going to need medicine quick because the pain keeps coming and going. I don't know when it's going to start hurting again but I know I can't take it anymore." I expressed to him, pointing at my leg the entire time and he simply nodded.

"Don't worry, it's perfectly normal for the pain to come and go. What we're going to do is get you some more Motrin and you'll take two tabs, then the pain will quickly subside."

"Not permanently but for the time being." He explained and I sighed deeply with a simple nod.

"But right now, I'm going to take some blood to complete your bloodwork examination." He went onto say as I watched Dominic slowly pull away and get out of the bed so the doctor could do what he needed to do.

I watched closely as he made his way to the other side of the room, sitting in a chair next to Deja. He watched me hard as the doctor began to set up, pulling out multiple needles and different tools.

Fuck, I hate needles . I couldn't help but to think, making myself even more nervous. Not even including the fact that the pain in my leg had now returned.

Fuck.

"Alright." The doctor spoke up, making me look up at him.

"You're going to feel a small pinch, okay?" He asked as I nervously held my arm out, allowing him to wipe an alcohol swab over it.

"Relax." He instructed, pressing down onto the crease of my arm, getting a clear shot of my veins.

I looked down as he began to insert needle after needle, making me cringe. This feeling of losing blood felt horrible but I knew this wasn't even the worst part.

"Alright." He said, grabbing all of the full tubes of blood, placing them onto his cart.

"So now that we've collected the blood, I'm going to apply pressure to your left leg where you were shot." He told me and I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Wait, what?" I asked and he nodded slowly.

"Yes, I need to make sure there are still nerves there and no sense of paralyzation." He informed me and I couldn't help but to scare myself, becoming anxious at the word paralyzed.

"No." I shook my head.

"Tiana, let the man do his job." My mother spoke up as they all watched me, making me poke my lip out.

I knew I was being a pain in the ass but I'm such a baby when it comes to hospitals and pain. I just couldn't take this stuff.

"I promise it will be quick. You won't feel a thing, just pressure." He explained and I sighed deeply, slowly laying back.

"Fine." I abided, looking up at the ceiling.

"Alright."

"Brace yourself." He warned, grabbing at my leg.

"Ow!" I screamed out in pain as he began to press down hard around the bandages. He'd said there would be no pain but that was a lie, this was much more than just pressure.

"You feel that?" He asked and I nodded as I broke down, letting tears fall from my eyes.

"Fuck!" I screamed out as he began to squeeze harder.

"Yo. Watch that shit, nigga." I heard Dominic bark toward the doctor as my mother, Deja and I all looked up and over to him.

"Dominic." My mother called him in a warning tone as the doctor continued to press down on my leg as tears rolled down my face. This pain just seemed to be unbearable.

"Na' he hear her screamin' and shit and this nigga goin'." Dominic continued to complain as Deja laughed at him and the doctor finally stopped, looking over to Dom with a polite smile.

"No worries, sir. I'm just making sure that Tiana isn't paralyzed. Pressure is fine for the leg." He went onto to tell Dominic but you could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't listening to anything that this man was saying right about now.

"Baby, I'm fine." I lied, wiping my tears away and he nodded slowly, finally giving in.

"Alright, Ms. Benson. We're all finished here."