Chapter Seventeen
Levi “Ice”
It’s a struggle to open my eyes. I fight hard to open them. I can feel weight on my arm and voices talking.
I know the voices are people who are important to me.
I have this feeling I need to get back to them.
“What if he never wakes up?”
“Button, he will wake up and come back to us.”
“I just want him to open up his eyes and look at me again.”
“Me too, Button.”
They need me.
I can’t stand listening to the pain in their voices. It feels like they are losing hope.
It takes several more tries to get my eyes to open. The room isn’t too bright, which is good.
I look over and see the two people who mean everything to me.
They aren’t looking at me. Ana has her head in Viking’s chest, and he’s looking at the wall with a lost expression on his face.
They both have a hand on my arm like they can’t bare the thought of not touching me for even a moment.
The pain comes rushing through me. I feel like my body has been through some serious trauma.
I let out a grunt.
Both of their heads snap in my direction.
Tears well in their eyes when they see me looking at them.
“You’re awake,” Ana says with a sob.
Viking lets out a relieved breath.
I mouth the word “water” to them, and Viking leaves to grab a nurse.
“We just need to make sure you can have water,” Ana says softly.
I try to give her a small smile but everything hurts.
A nurse and doctor walk in to check my vitals and ask me some questions.
Once I have some water, it becomes easier to speak.
“How long was I out?” I ask once they leave.
“About five weeks,” Ana says with tears in her eyes. “I wasn’t sure if you would wake up.”
“I was worried you wouldn’t remember us when you woke up,” Viking says to me.
“How could I forget you two? You guys are everything to me,” I rasp.
“You had swelling in your brain. They weren’t sure if there was any damage, and they prepared us for the possibility of memory loss,” Ana says.
“I would have found my way back to you,” I tell them.
I remember riding, and then someone had come out of nowhere. The next thing I know, I was on the pavement before everything went black.
Walking away from them was one of the hardest things I had to do, but I needed time to think. Ana was right; I had to be sure I was all in before the babies got here because it would hurt everyone if I decided that what we had wasn’t enough.
It is enough. More than enough.
They mean everything, and I have been running scared and letting my insecurities get in the way of the only people that could truly bring me happiness in this life.
“We haven’t left this room since you have been in here,” Viking tells me.
I look at him in surprise.
“You needed to rest to take care of the babies,” I say, looking at Ana.
“Maverick has been taking good care of me. We had a cot brought in to sleep in at night, although we took turns because I didn’t want you to wake up without one of us awake,” she tells me.
“I’m sorry for walking away,” I tell them.
I can see how much worry and stress they have been through.
“We can talk about that later when you are home. You need your rest,” Ana says softly.
It’s crazy that I have been out for five weeks but still feel so fucking tired.
I really need to talk to them about everything, but it can wait until we are in our own home.
One thing before everything went black was regretting not telling them, or showing them, how I feel.
I’m going to change that the first chance I get.
“You just rest, and we will be right here,” Viking says before giving my hand a squeeze.
I don’t want to go sleep, but my eyes drop closed before I know it.
Ana
He’s finally awake. I feel a huge amount of relief.
These last five weeks have been so hard. We spent our time just watching and waiting for him to wake up. Once they stopped the medications that kept him in a coma, it was another waiting game to see if he would wake up.
Every day that he didn’t wake up, I started to lose hope that he would.
I already feel so much for him in the short amount of time we have been in a relationship.
It was the same thing with Maverick. He made me feel so much so fast.
I knew they were my people.
Maverick has been amazing throughout everything.
He has made sure I had plenty to eat and was resting as much as I could. He understood why I didn’t want to leave.
I’m not sure what strings he pulled to get us to be able to stay here during these five weeks, but I’m grateful for it.
After everything he has done since we have been here, I can really see that he has changed.
I was his main concern, and he made sure that he had all the information he could get on Ice.
Maybe we had to go through all that shit for us to get here with Ice.
I hope the talk we have goes the way I want it to go.
We all need to have a good, long conversation.