Chapter Fourteen
Hayden
“You aren’t staying.”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” Grace said.
“I’ll be fine. I’m in the best doctor’s care for this.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You aren’t needed until I get home.”
“You keep telling me I’m not needed, and then you call on me thirty minutes later. For all I know, you’ll wake up in the middle of the surgery and demand a cup of coffee,” she said.
“You’re not staying.”
“You don’t have a choice. You’ll be out in twenty minutes anyway. So focus on that,” she said.
Grace was stubborn, and the last couple of days had been rough. Every time I turned around, that woman was angry at something. And it wasn’t doing wonders for my mindset for this surgery. For a nurse who touted that my mental state was important, she sure was doing a number on it.
“Okay, Miss Hunter. It’s time to get him into the O.R.”
Grace reached out for my hand and squeezed it, then she turned around and left. The doctors rolled me down the hallway and into the freezing room, and the last thing I remembered was being asked to count down backwards from ten.
And when I woke up, the pain was unbearable.
“Breathe, Hayden. Deep breaths.”
Grace?
Was that Grace’s voice?
I heard footsteps around me and people poking me with different instruments. Tears were welling in my eyes as the pain ricocheted up my side. It felt like I’d been hit by that damn car again. Like my body had been catapulted off the side of the Empire State Building. I felt someone petting my head as people pulled up the sheets that covered my body, and soon a wave of pain caused me to heave.
“There you go. That’s it. Let it out.”
Grace.
With her fingers running through my hair.
I wasn’t sure how long the surgery had been or if I was even alive. There were times where there was nothing but darkness and then there were times where I could hear my mother’s voice. My sister’s voice.
Grace’s voice.
“You sure you’re talking about our Hayden?” my sister asked.
“I am. He was stubborn in the beginning, but he warmed up to things. I’ve gotten him out to see two movies,” Grace said.
“I can’t believe it. I couldn't even get him to move away from the window,” my mother said.
Then darkness overtook me again and I slipped back into a slumber.
In and out I went until I didn’t know what day it was. What week it was. What month it was. And every single time I came to, just for a moment, I could hear my mother and my sister grilling Grace.
And she was answering every question in stride.
“So he’s your first private patient?”
“Is this what you want to do with the rest of your life?”
“Really? We should change those flowers? I never knew. I might give it a shot.”
I wanted to jump in and tell them to stop throwing questions at her. I knew what they were doing. They were trying to dig up information on me, or push her away, or try to convince her she wasn’t needed any longer. But I wasn’t about to go back into the care of my mother and my sister.
I’d rather burn in Hell than experience that again.
“He’s been dead for a few years,” my mother said.
“Ironically enough, he died in a car accident,” my sister said.
“I’m so sorry,” Grace said. “What happened?”
My father’s accident.
They were talking about my father’s accident.
I didn’t want to be awake for that conversation. I’d relived that horror enough in my life. I slowed down my mind and stopped fighting the darkness creeping at the corners of my mind. I allowed the slumber to take me back under as images of him swirled around in my mind.
But when my mind stopped, it wasn't on my father.
It was on Grace.
She was smiling and laughing as she reached for my hand. The two of us were running up a hill. Towards a massive tree covered in snow even though the sun was shining bright in the sky. She pulled us underneath the cool shade of it and wrapped her arms around me, and I could feel her soft body pressed against mine. I watched her lips fall to my chest as my hand stroked through her hair, but then I lost my balance.
Tumbled backwards.
Cried out for her as her hands reached out for me.
I jolted awake and started breathing heavily. The room was dark and the beeping of the monitors filled my ears. I fumbled around for the morphine button I’d felt Grace searching for before. The pain was excruciating and it was hard to breathe. My hand moved around as tears welled again in my eyes, and for a moment I thought I was alone. I thought she had done what I’d asked and left.
And I panicked.
“It’s okay. I’m right here. Settle down, Hayden. Hold on.”
Her voice. Filled with so much sleep and so much worry. I felt her breath pulsing against my ear. I pressed my head against her, feeling the warmth of her lips as she reached for the control in my hands. The beeping of the button rang out into the room, and I quickly felt sleeping taking me under again.
I turned my face towards her and our eyes connected, and for a brief moment I debated on whether or not to kiss her.
She was here. And my heart soared at that fact.
“Sleep, Hayden,” she said. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
That was the phrase she kept chanting to me. Over and over again, every time I woke up. My recuperation in the hospital took two weeks because of complications, but I weathered every single one of them with her at my side. The onset of infection, the draining of fluid. The fear of my body rejecting the implant. All of it, weighing on my mind. And all of it fought head-on with her hand slid delicately into the palm of mine.
My sister and my mother were there frequently, but she was the one staying with me at night.
And for some reason, that gave me peace.
After three weeks of lying in a hospital bed, my physical therapy started. It was almost unfathomable that they wanted me already up on my feet at this point, and it was frustrating. If the pain wasn’t blinding, then it was my leg. Wobbly and unstable, and nothing like I thought it would be. It was like I was having to retrain myself how to walk. Like I was some idiotic toddler who was struggling with the basics of moving.
And every time I went to fall to the floor, Grace was there to catch me.
Sometimes, I could feel her body trembling with exhaustion. Catching me time after time, making sure my knees didn’t hit the floor. I was thankful to have her there, but I knew how much this was all weighing on her. She would’ve never had to do all this had I just listened to her.
Guilt poured into my chest every time she struggled to get me back up onto my feet.
“This isn’t working,” I said through my teeth. “It’s too soon.”
“Even with the replacement, you would’ve been up after three weeks. Complications or not. You can do this,” Grace said. “I know you can.”
“No, I can’t. We’ve been at this for an entire week, and I can’t even hold myself upright without these damn bars.”
“What did you expect?” she asked. “That you’d stroll out of here with your head held high after major experimental surgery?”
I grunted at her question, refusing to respond. Because the stubborn part of me did think that.
Even though the rational part of me knew it wasn’t possible.
“I have something we can try, if you’d let me take control,” Grace said.
“Fine. Whatever. Anything to get me through this damn hour so I can go back to bed,” I said.
“Put your arms on the bar and hold yourself up. I’m going to the other end.”
I propped myself up and lifted my head, watching her as she appeared on the other side. There was a small grin on her face as she stepped between the bars. Her hands fell to either side and she pushed herself up, then I watched as she did tricep dips right in front of me. Ten of them. Without batting an eye or getting winded.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Try them,” she said. “Then stand to your feet.”
“What?”
“Just do it, you stubborn man.”
I rolled my eyes, but I followed her command. I pushed myself up and did ten tricep dips, then I landed myself back onto my foot.
“Now, gently put your other foot on the floor and even out your weight distribution.”
“What?” I asked.
“Stand like a normal person, Hayden.”
“You don’t have to be so mean about it,” I said with a grin.
Gingerly, I planted my foot down onto the floor. Pain shot up my back, but I didn’t feel myself stumble. I looked up at Grace and I saw that twinkle in her eye. That twinkle that told me she was onto something.
“Okay. Do the dips again, but then come down on both feet.”
I quickly did what she asked before settling myself down. The pain was still there, but there was less of it. I stood assisted on both feet and my hip already felt more stable.
What kind of miracle was this woman working?
“Do you have it in you to do it one last time?” she asked.
“You seen these arms?”
“Plenty of times. They aren’t very impressive anymore,” she said coyly.
“Not impressive?” I asked. “I’ll show you impressive.”
I did twenty tricep dips instead of just ten before I sat myself back down onto my feet. Then, I got brave. I put my good hip forward and pushed off, then pulled my bad to the front and stepped down onto my foot.
Grace’s eyes were alight with happiness as I gripped the railings beside me.
But oddly enough, I didn’t feel like I needed them.
“I know you feel it. I see it. Drop your hands, Hayden. Trust me.”
I looked up into her eyes as my hands fell to my sides. I stepped forward with my good hip again, then paused. This was it. This was either the pinnacle of what we’d worked for or it was going to fail exponentially. And I was tired of failing. I steadied my arms out as I pulled my foot forward, and I could feel the implant underneath my skin. Rolling steadily along as my muscles worked in my favor. I placed my foot in front of me and took my first unassisted step, then brought my hands back down onto the railings beside me.
Grace’s smile was so broad it shut her eyes.
“Good,” she said. “Really, really good.”
“What just happened?” I asked. “What did you do?”
“I harnessed the two things in life that are highly underrated,” Grace said. “The magic of good blood flow and the unwavering dedication of a man to his ego.”
I bit down onto my tongue as a grin crossed my face.
“That’s enough for today however,” Grace said. “You ready to get back to your room? I believe it’s almost dinner time.”
“Will you be eating with me?” I asked.
Her eyes fluttered up to mine as she ducked underneath the railing. She came over and hooked my arm over her shoulders, then slowly backed me out of the contraption that was helping me to walk. She helped me back into my wheelchair and I grabbed her hand, forcing her gaze down to mine.
“Grace?” I asked. “Will you have dinner with me tonight?”
My eyes danced between hers as she turned my question around in her head.
“Sure,” she said. “I’d love to.”