Chapter 11: While You Were Sleeping

“Aidan!”

Kate watched in horror as Aidan’s feet shot out from under him. He flailed his arms wildly, trying to regain is balance. She reached out to try to break his fall, but her reflexes were too slow. She stood by helplessly as his head hit the corner of the slate tile shower seat with a loud crack.

“No!” Kate cried out, kneeling beside where he lay limply on the floor. “Aidan! Aidan, are you OK?”

His eyes were closed and he made no response as she cradled his head in her arms. His face had gone slack. Peaceful. If it weren't for the stream of crimson blood that poured out from the back of his head, she might have thought he was sleeping.

“No,” Kate whispered. He wasn’t waking up.  Oh no, he wasn’t waking up. No no no no no. Was he breathing? She turned her head and brought her cheek next to his mouth, letting out a brief gasp of relief as she felt the faint whoosh of air being exhaled.

Still breathing, but the blood… so much blood. He looked so fragile, crumpled naked on the tile shower floor.

“Please wake up,” she whispered to his motionless body. “Please Aidan.”

It was her fault. It was all her fault. She’d sprayed the water at him. She hadn’t meant for him to fall. Oh no, Aidan. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. She’d been upset before – angry and upset – but she’d never meant to hurt him. All of the bitterness she’d felt earlier had evaporated the moment she saw the blood. If he was hurt... if anything happened to him....

“Please Aidan,” she whispered again. “Please be OK.”

She needed to get him to a hospital.

“Phone,” she said to herself. “Where’s the phone?”

She dashed out into the bedroom and picked up her cell from the bedside table, but it hadn’t charged enough to turn on before the power when out.

"Dammit!" she swore, as she flung it back down on the bed and began looking helplessly around the room.

“Phone phone phone,” she chanted. Where was his phone? She didn’t see a landline. She had to find his cell. Where had he left it?  It could be anywhere! The room was strewn with discarded clothes.

“Phone phone phone,” she said aloud again, keenly aware of the precious seconds ticking away. She felt herself beginning to panic. She closed her eyes for a moment, forcing herself to take a deep breath and think.

The living room! They’d both heard it ringing in the living room, just before the power went out. He must have left it out there. She dashed into the next room and her eyes landed on the blazer he’d been wearing last night, balled up on the floor next to the couch. She crossed the room to it in two steps and jammed her hands into the pockets, letting out a cry of relief as she felt her hand close around the familiar rectangular shape of an iPhone.

She flicked it on and punched in 911 as she dashed back to where Aidan had fallen. His face was white as a sheet. The blood had formed a dark puddle of sticky red beneath his head, but he was still breathing. She could see the rise and fall of his chest as she knelt back down beside him.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“Help!” Kate exclaimed into the phone. “I need an ambulance!”

“Please tell me your location.”

Location location location… Kate’s mind whirred uselessly, suddenly blank. Aidan’s address. What was his address? She’d just given it to the cab driver this morning, but for the life of her she couldn’t think of it now.

“Ma’am? Ma’am, are you there?" the operator said on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, I'm here."

"I need an address.”

Address address address. A memory clicked into place. “3120 Ledgewood!” Kate cried out.

“Can you say that more slowly, please?”

Kate took a breath and forced herself to speak slowly and clearly. “3120 Ledgewood Drive,” she told the operator. “In Hollywood. Please! Please hurry!”

“The ambulance is on its way now. What’s your emergency?”

“My—“ Kate broke off for a second. My what, exactly? My boyfriend? My ex-boyfriend? The man I love more than anyone or anything on the face of this Earth? “My friend,” she said at last. “He fell in the shower. He hit his head.”

“Can you tell me if he lost consciousness at any time?”

“Yes, he’s unconscious. He’s bleeding. Please hurry!”

“The ambulance is on its way. Can you tell if he’s still breathing?”

“Yes, he’s breathing. Oh God,” she sobbed into the phone, “he’s bleeding so much!”

“OK ma’am. Do you have any sense for how long he was unconscious before you found him?”

“I didn’t find him,” she responded. “I was there. I was there when he fell.”

“You were in the bathroom?”

“I was in the shower with him. “

She heard a loud knock at the front door before the operator could say anything further.

“They’re here!” Kate said into the phone. “OK, OK, they’re here!”

She raced to the front of the house, hastily wrapping a towel around herself as she flung the door open as wide as it would go.

Her eyes fell first on the ambulance parked on the street in front of the house. Then on the two paramedics standing before her at the door, carrying a stretcher.

And just beyond them, racing up the front drive, at least half a dozen paparazzi – flashbulbs blazing.