Bombshell

Chapter Twenty

“Where’s surgery?” Merrick asked as he raced into the hospital.

“What’s the patient’s name?”

“Bombshell, I mean, Mona Lisa Flynn, I mean, Mona Lisa Van Dyke.”

“Just a moment, please.” The receptionist typed the name into her computer. “Sixth floor. Doctor Armavir.”

She handed Merrick his visitor’s badge. He thanked her, the hurried to the elevators, his heart pounding. All he knew from Tony was that Bombshell had some kind of reaction in the middle of the MRI, and has been in surgery ever since.

Stepping out of the elevator he spotted Tony right away.

Tony came over to Merrick and gave him a comforting embrace.

Merrick’s voice cracked, “How is she?” He dreaded the answer.

“I don’t know anything, yet. She still in surgery is all they’ll tell me.”

The surgeon appeared, looking tired. “Are you Mr. Flynn?”

“How is she?”

“She’s out of surgery and stable.”

Merrick let out a breath. He’d feared the worse.

“What happened to her?” Tony asked.

“There was a foreign object in her brain. The MRI made it move, and so we had to take it out.

He pulled a small plastic bag out of his pocket. Merrick stared at the tiny sliver of glass. Guilt twisted in his stomach.

“What is that?” Tony asked.

“It’s actually a sliver of glass with traces of a metallic film, which was a good thing or we would have never seen in during the MRI. You’re girl is actually very lucky. Any farther into the brain, and it could have been fatal.”

“Did you get it all out?”

“Yes, we did,” the doctor said with utmost confidence.

A nurse stepped into the doorway. “Doctor Armavir? Can I talk to you a moment, please?”

“Excuse me,” he said. “Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.”

“It’s all my fault,” Merrick said to Tony as soon as they left the doctor’s office.

“You can’t blame yourself, dude,” Tony said.

Merrick shook his head. “Yes, I can. I should have taken her straight to a hospital after the window was shot out. I never should have let some hick country doctor who was so blind he couldn’t even drive do the job. I never should have pretended to be her fiancé or made her come here in a vibrating helicopter, while a piece of goddamn glass was stuck in her brain trying to kill her.”

The doctor returned and continued, “Unfortunately, in order to get to the errant splinter of glass, we were force to cut through some healthy brain matter. It’s vital that her brain has a chance to heal, so we’ve induced a coma and we won’t release her from it until tomorrow at some point.”

“Then she’ll be alright?”

“Difficult to say. According to the information we had from her initial visit, she’s been experiencing severe amnesia, as a result of a car accident—is that correct?”

“Yes, actually—she’s forgotten everything about herself that happened prior to a few days ago.”