Chapter 24
24
T he next morning, Sean woke up, opened his eyes, spent a moment looking around the room, and realized where he was. He was on a cot in the hospital. The bed squeaked when he rolled over and he froze. Turning his head slowly, the muscles in his neck ached. That was likely from the accident and not this terrible excuse for a bed, but he wanted to stay with Gloria and be here if Mina woke. He glanced up at Gloria and saw her watching him.
"Morning," she said.
"Good morning. How are you feeling? Do you need ice? Do you need..." He scrambled off the little cot, feeling every ache and pain from his spin in the SUV yesterday. He stood slowly, waited for his body to catch up, then immediately went to the cup on Gloria's table. There were fresh ice chips in it. He hadn't even heard the nurse come in and replace them.
Gloria lifted her hand and chuckled. "It's okay. I picked a couple ice cubes out of there for myself this morning, but go ahead if you need some."
He scraped his hands through his hair, stretched his back slightly, and then sat on the edge of her bed. "How long were you awake watching me?"
She smiled, "Not long, about a half an hour. The nurse said the doctor will be here shortly to talk to us about Mina, and they're going to help me get up so that I can go to the bathroom on my own today.”
"Oh, that's good to know."
"They're taking the catheter out in about a half hour, so I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to ask you to leave while they do that."
He chuckled and shook his head. "No, I don't mind. As a matter-of-fact, if you don't mind excusing me right now, I'm going to use the restroom myself."
She closed her eyes and lifted her hand, then dropped it. She was still groggy from the medication and likely still had a banger of a headache. He frowned slightly and stiffly sauntered toward the bathroom.
After he finished using the restroom, he glanced in the mirror to see the remnants of the accident. Scrapes and cuts from glass and a fine bruise on his cheek and temple. But, otherwise, he'd been fortunate. The way the other vehicle hit them, they spun around. But the tires caught the edge of the road and rolled them over. That's where Gloria and Mina had been hurt. He'd been jostled but didn't hit his head as they had. He remembered hanging on to the steering wheel tightly. That's likely why his arms were sore this morning. Good thing he didn't have to play today.
Taking a deep breath, he exited the bathroom to see Gloria had raised the head of her bed up and was now touching her face.
"You look beautiful." He grinned.
"Right. I'm sure I do. What color am I?"
He chuckled. "You're slightly purple and in a couple of days, you're probably going to be yellow."
He grinned. "On the other side of your face, however, you're your normal color."
He took up his spot on her bed next to her hip.
She shrugged her shoulder. "Did you hear anything about Mina at all, Sean?"
"No, nothing since last night. They did let me go in for twenty minutes to see her. You were sleeping. I wasn't allowed to touch her. She's connected to machines and wires. They only let me speak to her. Let her know I was there. Her heartbeat increased a little as I spoke to her. They said, that's a good sign. She can likely hear me or sense me. But other than that, I haven't heard anything. I was hoping for doctors to come in first thing this morning."
He stared into her eyes. They were slightly bloodshot this morning, but no less beautiful than they'd always been. He'd fallen for her years ago and one of his favorite things to do was stare into her eyes. He could see her in there. Her soul, her emotion. Plus, they were a beautiful color surrounded by thick, dark lashes.
She swallowed. "Oh, Sean, what a mess. What a terrible mess."
"Yep, it sure is, honey." He picked up her left hand and held it in his. "But if anything, it's made me realize some things that I thought were important aren't. And some things that I thought weren't as important, all my adult life as I was chasing this music dream, are. I told myself family wasn't important. It didn't matter that I didn't have a family. It didn't matter that I didn't have kids. I was living my dream. And, Oh, my God, how selfish that is or was. I know now what is important."
Gloria swallowed. "But you didn't know about Mina, so you can't blame yourself for those thoughts."
He shook his head. "I know, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I just justified my lack of family and settling down as being just fine. I had thought about it over the years. I'd wanted kids and a family, but I wanted fame more. And isn't that sad? That's not what's important, Gloria. How could I have ever thought that was more important than anything else? Than you? How could I have ever thought that? I'm just sick that I was so shallow to think that it was better to let you go." He sniffed. He sucked in a deep breath to calm himself.
He ran his hand down his face. He turned and stared out the window. His vision blurred as his eyes filled with tears. One slipped out and fell on his cheek. He angrily brushed it away and turned back to her.
"There's nothing more important to me right now than Mina and you."
"Sean," her lips quivered. "We don't know each other anymore. You can't say that I'm more important than your music."
"Here's what I know, Gloria." He shifted slightly to get comfortable. "Here's what I know." He inhaled deeply. "I know that we made a daughter, and I have her now. I know about her now. I know that you've done a great job raising her. She's smart. She's beautiful. She's resourceful. And now that I know about her, I will do everything in my power to be with her, to know her better, to spend time to be a father, to be a family member to her. And what I also know is that I would like you to be part of that, also. I've never fallen in love with anyone but you, Gloria. All these years, I mean, I've had women, you know that. It's the rock and roll rite of passage, I guess. It was all empty and meant nothing to me other than blowing off steam."
She swallowed, closed her eyes for a moment. When her eyes opened again, he saw her jaw tighten. "You can't be saying that you want to give up your music."
"No. No, I'm not saying that at all. No. We're finally reaching the success that we've all dreamed of. But I also know I can still achieve that success and be a family man. It might mean that we have periods of time when we're apart because I'm on the road, or you can come with me, or Mina can come with me. You can meet me in places when we go on tour, however we have to figure it out, we'll figure it out. But what it means is I have a family, and I want to be part of that family. I want my family to know me. I want us to spend holidays together. And when Mina has babies one day, I want those grandchildren in my life. That's what I mean. Is it going to be easy? Fuck no, it's not going to be easy. I mean, we've got so much to work on, you and me. But I do know there's nothing more important."
He watched her throat move as she swallowed. A tear rolled down her cheek and she just let it. She inhaled slowly, and he watched her face. She'd always been one to show her emotions to him. She never held back. That was one of the things he'd fallen in love with. She was honest and true. Until she wasn’t.
The door opened, and a nurse entered the room.
"Good morning, I'm here to take your catheter out."
He squeezed her hand. "That's my cue to step outside. I'll be back when you're all finished." He leaned toward her and kissed her lips softly. Then, without a word, he stood and left the room.