Waiting game
August 14 th , 2022
“He should wake up soon. The surgery went pretty well and because of his good physical state he should be back on his feet in no time,” Toby said to Oliver and Marta.
The three of them were currently standing next to Nate’s hospital bed, who was still sleeping because of the sedatives. His head was turned towards Oliver, his lips parted with some drool dripping out of them. Oliver smiled while watching his best friend.
Although the situation looked quite familiar to him, everything was different now. Nate’s whole life had changed within a year.
All because of Lynn.
The woman lying in the room next to this one.
“What about Lynn?” Oliver asked.
“Her body reacted better to the surgery than I expected. She was stable the entire time and Gary didn’t have a problem attaching the remaining parts of her liver to Nate’s donation. Of course there’s always the risk that her body rejects the donor liver, but let’s hope for the best. We kept her in a coma so that her body has enough time to rest. She’s still in a very weak condition.” Toby explained while checking the saline solution that was hanging on an IV pole next to Nate’s bed.
He adjusted the regulator and checked the IV on top of Nate’s hand as well. Everything looked pretty good and he was happy. He would check the surgery site later when Nate was awake.
As if on cue, he started to shift in the bed, furrowing his brow in pain and a loud groan could be heard.
Toby quickly grabbed a bottle with pain medication in it, hung it on the IV pole as well and connected it to the IV on Nate’s hand.
“I tried to not drug him up too much, but I’m not gonna lie. This is a very uncomfortable position for such a big wound. He’ll be in pain for the next few weeks,” Toby explained while placing his palm on Nate’s shoulder.
He was shifting more which obviously led to more pain, as he slightly crunched his abdomen. Not the best idea after donating a part of his liver.
“Butch,” Oliver said with a loud voice, trying to wake his best friend so that he stopped stirring around.
He got a loud groan in response.
“Is it possible that he’s having a nightmare?” Oliver asked, changing the side of the bed to place his hand on Nate’s other shoulder.
Together with Toby he tried to hold his upper body down on the mattress to prevent him from hurting himself more or ripping some of his stitches.
“No, I don’t think so. It’s very unlikely to dream on sedatives. I see this a lot. People stirring around before waking up. Most of the time they need a moment to realize what happened and they're confused, so be prepared for that.”
Nate threw his head from one side to the other and didn’t stop moving his upper body. If Oliver and Toby hadn’t held his shoulders down, he would’ve sat up in bed.
“Butch. Come on, pal. Wake up,” Oliver said with a loud voice.
Finally the brunet man in the bed opened his eyes a little, before closing them again with a loud whine. His brows furrowed and his mouth contorted in a grimace. Oliver raised his gaze from Nate and looked at Toby.
“The painkillers will work in a minute or two,” the doctor commented.
Another groan and Nate tried to open his eyes again. It was only a slit, but he managed to see a blurry face with blond hair on top of it.
“How’s Lynn?” he asked with a husky voice.
His mind was foggy, he didn’t know where he was and who was around him, but the only thing that mattered for him was the love of his life because even in his sedated state all he cared about was Lynn.
“She’s okay,” Toby answered.
The doctor wasn’t sure how clear Nate’s mind already was, so he hesitated to tell him the whole story now, just to repeat it several times during his wakening-process.
Nate opened his eyes completely now, letting his gaze wander around the room until he locked it with Toby.
“Can I see her?”
“Butch…” Oliver started but got interrupted by Toby immediately :
“You came out of surgery an hour ago, Nate and it wasn’t an easy one. There’s a huge wound on the right side of your body so no, you can’t see her now. Maybe tomorrow but only if your wound looks good and the pain is bearable.”
Nate’s face fell, tears glimmering in his eyes. The whole situation was overwhelming him. Oliver gently caressed his thumb over Nate’s shoulder and said,
“I’ll go and check on her and then come back and tell you everything in detail. Okay, pal?”
But before the man in the bed could answer, Marta cleared her throat and said,
“I’ll do that Oli, you stay with him until he’s completely clear again. Make sure he doesn’t panic. You’re his best friend, so you’re the best one for that job as long as Lynn is lying in the next room. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Nate turned his head and looked at the Deputy Director before he nodded a silent “thank you” in her direction. Marta gave him a smile, turned around and left the room.
“I’m so proud of you,” Oliver whispered after Toby had left the room as well to check on Lynn.
Gary, his colleague, was with her, but he wanted to see her himself.
Nate raised an eyebrow at Oliver.
“Why?”
“Because you decided to have surgery. After everything you’ve been through, this is something we should celebrate.”
“I don’t feel like celebrating, to be honest,” Nate groaned .
He tried to change his position but gave up, after another strong wave of pain shot through his body. He hoped that the painkillers would start to work soon.
“But you should. Butch, not only did you get your blood tested before the surgery, but also got an IV and went through surgery. Although Lynn wasn’t the surgeon, nobody paid attention to your fear of needles and tried to help you with it. But you managed to get that all done. Without a panic attack. That’s so awesome, pal!” Oliver was grinning widely and the adoration and pride in his voice was very present.
“I had to. For Lynn,” Nate mumbled, his eyes shining like sapphires with the tears in them.
“I know. I’m still proud of you. And she is, too. I know it.”
“I just want to see her. I need to see myself that she is okay.” A few tears had slipped out of his eyes, but he didn’t care and neither did Oliver, who only sighed deeply.
“You can. Tomorrow. It’s not helping her if you force yourself out of bed right now and rip some stitches and maybe even get an infection because of the reopened wound. You need to get back on your feet as soon as possible so that you can be there for her. She’ll need you and for that you need to listen to Toby right now.”
Oliver had always been the voice of reason for him, giving him support when he needed it, but also tough love when he felt Nate needed that as well.
“I know,” Nate said but he wasn’t able to shut the disappointment out of his voice.
“Get some more rest, sleep a little. Time will fly and you can see her. I’m pretty sure.”
August 16 th , 2022
Two days later Nate was so insistent seeing Lynn that Toby finally allowed him to get out of bed. Oliver, Tia and Birdie had begged Toby to agree to this because Nate was driving them nuts.
“She’s still under sedation so she won’t wake up today. You can see her for thirty minutes, then you go back to bed. Sitting isn’t good for the wound. Understood?” Toby explained while he and Oliver helped Nate from his laying into a sitting position.
That he still had his left arm in a cast, didn’t make it any easier.
The brunet man groaned in pain but quickly shut himself off so that Toby wouldn’t change his mind. With clenched teeth and his vision blurry because of the pain, he managed to move his body into the wheelchair. His stitches protested a lot and he was scared that he had ripped them, but Toby checked them over and gave him a thumbs up. Earlier that morning Oliver had helped Nate to change from the hospital gown into t-shirt and sweatpants.
“So that you look respectable for your girlfriend,” Oliver had laughed. Nate was very grateful for his support.
He hadn’t expected the recovery to be so long and painful and his recovery was nothing in comparison to Lynn’s.
“Her blood count looks much better and the discoloration of her skin is gone. I can still see some yellow shine in her eyes but it’s still amazing for only two and a half days,” Toby explained as he pushed the wheelchair out of Nate’s room.
“So her body’s accepted the parts of my liver?”
“I can’t tell for sure yet. We're still observing her closely but it looks like her liver’s started to work properly again.”
They halted in front of Lynn’s room and Nate took a deep breath. He’d been desperate to see her for the last 48 hours but now, that she was just a few feet away, he was scared.
Every time he had to see her lying in the coma it broke his heart and he wasn’t sure if there were enough parts left to keep him alive, if it got broken all over.
“Her condition didn’t worsen again. Her blood pressure is stable and we were even able to take her off the ventilator and put her on a nasal cannula instead. It means she’s breathing on her own. It’s good news, Butch. You should focus on that,” Toby said while opening the door.
He had noticed Nate’s tense shoulders and his unusually fast breathing.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Focus on the good things,” Nate repeated, mumbling.
Toby pushed the wheelchair into Lynn’s room and next to her bed.
She still looked so fragile.
It had only been a few days but Nate could already see that she had lost weight. Her jawline was more present than usual and she had big black bags under her eyes although she had been sleeping the past few days. The veins in her hands popped out and Nate was about to lean forward to grab one of her hands with his good right hand, when Toby intervened with a loud noise.
“No leaning forward! That’s not good for the wound. Wait, I can give her hand to you.”
And that was what he did. Nate clenched his own hand around Lynn’s as if he needed to pull her back to the land of living.
Thankfully the fingers of his left hand were outside of the cast so he was able to caress his fingertips along Lynn’s hand and arm.
“Hi, darling. Sorry that I haven’t been here the last two days. Toby didn’t let me out of bed, and you know what? I even listened to him. Can you believe that?” He chuckled a little before pulling her hand towards his mouth so that he could place some tender kisses on it.
“I wish I could kiss you. Now that you’ve finally gotten rid of the tube coming out of your mouth, Toby said I’m not allowed to stand and lean over. Yet. So I'd better listen to him, or I won’t be allowed to be here when you wake up. I'd never forgive myself for that.”
Toby smiled at him before he finally left the room while mouthing “thirty minutes” into his direction.
For the next thirty minutes Nate talked to her, telling her about his own surgery, how they found out that he was a perfect donor, and nobody could believe it because the chances of that were so low. But here they were, he was able to donate a huge part of his right lobe. Sections VI and VII to be precise. He didn’t understand what that meant but Toby was eager to tell him all the details about the donation before he went under anesthetic .
Nate wasn’t interested. He would have given his whole liver if that would have saved Lynn’s life.
Even if that meant his own death.
Time flew by and it felt like only a minute before Nate was lying in his bed again, Toby leaning over him and changing the dressing on his wound to check the stitches.
“Everything still looks good. I’ll attach you to the painkillers again and you should get some rest. Your body is still recovering from a big surgery.”
Nate furrowed his brow while he shifted his body a little to find a more comfortable position. He hated lying on his back but his right side wasn’t a good idea with the wound and his left side was also uncomfortable because for some reason the wound hurt then too.
“When do you plan to wake her?” he asked with clenched teeth.
“We’re reducing the sedatives this evening. But slowly. If we see that she or her body isn’t ready yet, we increase the dose again.”
Nate’s cheeks pushed upwards while his lips curled into a tiny smile, making the crow’s feet next to his eyes appear. It was the happiest Nate looked in the past few days and Toby couldn’t help himself to copy the smile.
“I want to be with her when she wakes up,” Nate commented.
This wasn’t a question. It was a demand.
“Easy, Agent. I still don’t want you to sit for too long. You can’t even change your lying position without pain. Don’t think I don’t see that, although I have to admit that you try pretty hard to hide it. ”
“Shit, you got me.” Nate chuckled a little before groaning in pain.
Maybe his little trip to Lynn had been more exhausting than he thought. His stomach was screaming at him, angry about the movement and pulling on the stitches. He totally forgot that it wasn’t only the wound on his skin. Toby had removed a big part of his liver. His insides were turned upside down and they were protesting a lot about the disruption of their peace.
“It can take some time until she really wakes up and, most of the time, when patients open their eyes for the first time their mind is still not clear. I had to tell you about your surgery three times.”
“You did?” Nate looked at him with furrowed brows.
“Yeah. And every time you only asked about Lynn, which is cute though,” Toby snickered before he continued, “Of course I’ll let you know as soon as I think she’s really awake.”
“Thank you. I promised her that I’d be there,” Nate whispered, feeling the painkillers rushing through his body while his eyelids became heavier with every second.
“And you won’t break that promise. Close your eyes and rest. I’ll let you know as soon as you can see her,” Toby responded, seeing that Nate struggled more and more to keep awake.
He’d expected that because he’d given him a full shot of painkillers as soon as the IV on his right hand was attached again.
Nate had drifted off by now, his head lolled to the side and he was sleeping peacefully. Toby needed to make sure that he healed as fast and well as possible. He knew Lynn would need every bit of support she could get after a few days in a coma. Regaining strength in her whole body would be hard work and she needed mental and physical support for that. Nate needed to be fit.
August 17 th , 2022
“Butch.”
“Butch!”
The man lying in the hospital bed opened his eyes in shock and was about to quickly sit-up when an agonizing pain on his right side forced him to fall back into the mattress. He groaned in pain, tears forming in his eyes, because it didn’t stop hurting, like someone was stabbing a burning hot knife into his side.
“Oh shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to scare you,” Toby said and placed his hand on the Agent’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” Nate hissed between clenched teeth.
“It’s almost 7 am and I’m pretty sure she’ll wake up very soon. Do you want me to wheel you over?”
Nate opened his eyes immediately, looking at Toby as if he had spoken in a different language. He knew that this moment would come but it still took him by surprise.
Now?
Lynn was going to wake up now?
“Yes. Yes, of course. Please. I really need to see her.”
Tears of happiness were seen in his eyes and a smile appeared on his lips. Toby smiled back at him and helped him into the wheelchair.
Nate was still drugged with painkillers and the additional adrenaline of finally hearing Lynn’s voice again made it impossible for him to feel any pain right now.
“Toby?” he asked while Toby started to move the wheelchair out of the room.
“Mhm?”
“Promise me that I can kiss her as soon as she’s awake.”
“You’d do it anyway, even if I said no right now.”
“You got me.”