Carmen turned towards the voice, It can’t be she thought.

“Carmen, wait” he said.  When Carmen faced him, all the anger she thought was gone came rushing back.  Their meeting was brief, all of about 10 minutes. But there was no mistaking that it was in fact him, having the audacity to show his face in the hospital after the trouble he had caused those few months back.

Inside the therapy room, Shane was now back in her wheelchair, waiting anxiously for Carmen to return. Larry had since decided to end the therapy session since it was only about 5 minutes left and told Shane he would see if he could locate Carmen.  Shane knew that the woman didn’t mean to drop her.  Truth be told, she wasn’t in any pain which made her feel like the healing process was moving at a good pace.  She was hoping she would be released soon, only having to return for her hourly sessions.  She didn’t know what was keeping Carmen but knew that she needed to appease the Latina – make sure that she understood that Shane was not angry with her in the least.  In fact, she hoped they could have the rest of the evening uninterrupted.  She missed seeing her friends, but wasn’t ready to share her time with Carmen with anybody.

In the hallway, Carmen stared angrily at the visitor.  “Gabriel?” she questioned.

“Yeah, it’s me” he answered.  Staring at the floor, he appeared extremely nervous though Carmen couldn’t figure out why. After all, this was the man who was bold enough to tell Shane that she was no different from him. This same man blew in the night before their wedding, and was happy to play the part of the long lost father only to turn it into one big joke.  And, as far as Carmen was concerned, this same man was the reason she and Shane were not married right now.

“What the h*** are you doing here?” Carmen spat out, not realizing her voice was not close to being a whisper. Some nearby nurses looked up from the station with questioning glances.  Carmen looked to them and mouthed I’M SORRY. 

“I heard about the accident and came to….” Gabriel started before being cut off by Carmen. “You heard about the accident?  Well I didn’t call you and Shane didn’t call you which means that neither of us want you here.”