Sophia

Three years ago

"Doctor, how is he?" Enzo asked him as we rush to him. "We are hoping for the best?" the doctor said. "Ho-hoping for the best? You are hoping for the best ? You were inside the operation theater for last fours hours and you are still hoping. What were you doing inside?" I blasted at him and Enzo tried to hold me to calm me down and I jerked him away "Tell me he is fine, that he will live. Say it. Say it Now" I held the doctor by his collar and shook him. "Soph-soph control yourself" Enzo said pulling and I fell on the ground. "Please say he will live, he can't die, he can't die" I was crying and repeating the same thing. He can't die, he has to live. Enzo sat beside me holding me. He tried to console me but that is not what I want right now, all I want is Damon. I want him alive.

"Doctor just tell what is happening?" he asked standing up leaving me on the floor. "Look Sir, your friend in there had severe injuries, there are multiple fractures in his ribs. There was a lot of blood loss and the bullet in his right arm was for quite sometime. You guys brought him really late. We have taken out the bullet though but the damage has already been done. We are waiting for him to gain consciousness only then we can say with surety that he is out of danger" he said and crouched down to me "Look Ms. I understand your pain, but trust me we did everything we could. I am sure with your prayers your man will come back to you. Take care." he said calmly rubbing my arms and got up. "We will be shifting him to ICU, I am sorry you people can't meet him yet" he told Enzo and left.

He left and we heard other set of footsteps coming towards us "What happened? Tell me that he is okay?" Alysia asked all worried as she saw me on the floor crying. Enzo held her before she loose her footing "He is fine. He is fine. Okay?" he told her "B-but then wh-why is Donna crying like this?" she asked reaching me. She sat beside me and I hugged her too tightly "Your Donna is just scared, but don't worry Don will live, huh?" he said putting his hand on her shoulder. She nodded to him still holding me "How is Ric?" he asked her and that's when I came back to my senses. She was so quite "Why are you quite? Alysia how is Ric, Alysia?" I asked shaking her "Doctor said that the bullet was too close to his heart. He is alive but-but he slipped into comma during surgery. We can't say when he will come out of it." she told us and my eyes went wide at the news. No, "Cap-caprice?" I asked her and she just shook her head. I got up and went to Ric's floor. "Caprice!" I called out for her when I couldn't see her. She came from behind a wall. I looked at her for a moment and then she ran to me and hugged me crying. "I am sorry, I am so sorry Cap, I am so sorry. This is all my fault, I am so sorry" I was blabbering and she kept on crying.

I sat with her and she finally catch a grip. "Its not your fault. This would have happened anyway. The reason why Don wanted him to stay away from Mafia is right there behind these white doors. He didn't want his brother to die. But this would have happened anyway because the reason why Don kept him away was the reason why he came in. That day when Don burned Russo's cartel, Ric was not supposed to go there. I tried so hard to stop him. I even threatened him that I will leave him if he goes today, you know what he said" she asked turning towards me and I shook my head "he said I love you Caprice, enough to let go of this world for you but I love my brother too enough to let you go. So he didn't go for you, he went for his brother.", she said and she was right in a way "but if I wouldn't be there he would be inside, fighting with his brother and then Don wouldn't let him get hurt." I said and she shrugged. "Till he has a gun in his hand, no one could save him. It will end eventually." She was so devastated. "Don't say this Caprice. Ric will be fine. He can't leave us" I said holding her hand "Oh he won't, I wouldn't let him leave me but better Don make it through. If anything happens to him, I don't think I will ever get my Ric back." She said with tears welling up ,"or my Soph, and trust me I have no intention of loosing my best friend. So tell your husband to better wake up." She said holding me by my arm and them she hugged me as I started crying.

Soon they shifted Ric to a private room. Caprice stayed with him and I came to the ICU where they kept Damon. Enzo was standing there too. We weren't allowed to go inside. I stood beside him and he held my hand. The moment he touched my hand the tears started to fall again. I just couldn't stop them. He hugged me.

Time went by. Chuck was discharged and I asked Antonio to get him settled in our house, we had a nurse attending him. There is a lot of security at home so I don't have to be worried about him. Also Alysia told me he is recovering fast. Guess they have became friends. Which is a good thing. Atleast one of us is recovering. She comes everyday to hospital though.

Its been 72 hours now since Damon's surgery. Three days. Caprice has gathered herself quite strongly. She is staying with Ric but is handling the situation quite strongly. I am so proud of her. I, on the other hand is loosing my shit. I am so paranoid. The thought of loosing him is increasing by the minute. "Antonio can you please bring me a coffee?" I asked Antonio and he left nodding "Sophia you need to sleep" Said Enzo. "I am fine" I said pacing around in front of the ICU where he is. He pulled me towards him "Its been three days, all I have seen you having is coffee. You are not eating, not having water, you haven't slept in three days. You are just crying. How long do you think you can survive on coffee. Go home. Sleep. Just go home for sometime" "I will go when you will go." I said jerking his hand away. He is here too since three days. He hasn't left, hasn't slept. I know he is as worried as I am. He is his best friend. He loves him too as much as I do maybe more, in his own way.

"Doctor, any update" he said seeing the doctor coming out. Doctor just shook his head and left.

"What the hell is wrong with everyone? Why hasn't he brought my coffee yet?" I screamed in the hallway sitting on the side bench. The doctors are useless here. Everyone is. People can't bring a cup of coffee in time, how will they treat patients. "Donna your coffee" I heard Antonio. "Where the hell were you? The machine is on the same damn floor and yet it took ages to bring one cup of coffee. Now keep it with you I don't want it anymore" I blasted at him. I didn't want to but its like everything is getting on my nerves. Enzo took the disposable white mug with a strap of brown paper in the center. Something that has became my routine and the only thing that seems to keep me together without loosing my sanity and giving me a break from this irritating hospital smell that seems to just had engulfed me. He nodded at Antonio to leave and sat beside me. "Here drink it." He said. "I don't want it" I said clenching my fist at the corner of the bench. "Sophia you need to catch a grip." He said getting irritated with me. No what I need is Damon. I got up irritated myself with this whole world. "Soph-", he held my hand and I jerked it away which made the coffee fall on his hand. "Oh My God, I am sorry I am so sorry, are you hurt? Is it burning too much?" I asked taking his hand into mine. "Yes it is hurting too much." He said "But not the coffee. Seeing you like this. You really want him to wake up and find his Doll loosing her mind." He added and tears started to fall again. The sound of him calling me Doll was echoing in my ears. "I-I am trying but I just can't take it anymore. Why is he not waking up? It feels like I will never see him again, never hear him again and this, this thought is killing me" I said and he hugged me. He was rubbing my back and I can't stop crying.

The wait is getting too much, the fear is getting too much. I fainted in Enzo's arms. I could feel him shaking me and calling out my name but I couldn't open my eyes and when I opened them I found myself on a hospital bed with a smiling Enzo. I got up with a jolt "Is he awake?" I asked getting off the bed. The smile I saw on his face faded and so did my hope. "Enzo, you were happy, you were smiling, tell me he is awake. Say it?" I kept asking him "He isn't awake yet" he said I sat on the bed again. Dejected.

"Soph" he said crouching down. He held my hand and wiped my tears with other "but I am happy." He said. "Why?", I said whimpering. "Because soon we will be meeting a little Sophia" he said pinching my nose and I looked at him confused, what does that mean? I thought "or maybe a little Damon" he added and I realized what he meant. My tears turned into my smiles. "Wh-what" I said and he nodded. He pulled me up in his arms and revolved me around. Our laughter echoed. For the first time I smiled harder than I cried in this place.

I came to the ICU and I turned the door knob but a hand stopped me. "I am sorry ma'am but visitors are not allowed inside." A nurse said "But I am not a visitor, you see me all the time here" I told her on the ridiculous thing she said. "Ma'am you cannot meet the patient right now". She insited. Her words just burned me up "He is not a patient, he is my life. So don't ever-" "Let her go." Said Enzo from behind us. "Sir it's against the hospital policies." "Look ma'am, I don't want to create a scene and I surely want that you go back to your family tonight. If you want the same let her go" Enzo said threatening her in such a soft tone that someone will think that he is actually trying to plead her. I ignored them and opened the door. She didn't stop me this time.

I reached closer to him. There were so many wires, so many bandages. He was breathing through an oxygen mask. His eyes were closed. I brushed my fingers at his hand that had the saline cannula. I sat on the edge of his bed. I brought my hand to his face. As my fingers touched his forehead, his cheek, his jawline and I leaned on to him and my forehead touched his. My tears fell on his face and I let out a chuckle straightening. "You know if we would have been in a movie, you would have woken up by that teardrop. Isn't that what happens in TV?" I wiped my tears remembering a scene I saw in a movie where the hero wakes up like this. But life is not TV and he didn't wake up. "I know how tired you are, it took so many years and now finally you had your peace. You won Damon. Laeila won. But you know you made a decision in your stubbornness and kept me. Made me fall in love with you, and now you can't have your peace so easily. So get up now, it's really enough. Don't test me more Damon, please. I can't live without you and now I can't even die because guess what, you are going to be a dad" I told him with a light chuckle "Wake up Damon, you know I will die without you and with me our child will die too. You can't kill us. Right? Come back Damon. I need you. We need you." I don't know why I was talking to him, I know he can't hear me. It's just felt like he can. I miss him. I just miss him so much.

I felt a hand on my shoulder "Child you need to leave now, he needs to rest" I turn to see the doctor. "Why aren't you waking him up?" I said between my sobs. I felt so helpless. "How can he leave someone who loves him so much? He will wake up surely" he said in his tender voice. "C'mon now let's not disturb him. I will bring you in when he wakes up". He said and I nodded. I kissed his forehead and left the room.

Another night passed and Damon didn't wake up. The doctor told Enzo that if he didn't wake up today too they won't be able to save him.

I was standing at the coffee machine when I heard Enzo called my name. Thinking of the worst the coffee mug fell from my hand and I rushed to him. "Enzo?" I called him as I saw him leaning on the opposite wall of the ICU.

I reached to him taking baby steps.

I saw tears in his eyes. For the first time since we came here, he cried for the first time. Why, please don't let it be what I am thinking. Please don't take him away God.