Chapter 23
Megan
It was still early in the morning; Max was softly snoring in the chair next to the bed. I had only been awake for a few minutes when the door softly opened and in came a middle aged, blonde woman in a pair of teal scrubs, humming softly to herself. She looks over at Max asleep in the chair and smiles at him. A twinge of jealousy ticks in my chest. The woman doesn’t advance near him, which is good for her.
She makes her way into the bathroom, cleaning the toilet and the sink, grabbing the trash from there and making her way back into the room. She takes off her gloves and tosses them into the bag in her hand. I stir just a bit, hoping she won’t see, but I wasn’t that subtle.
“Oh, good morning hun, don’t mine me I am just cleaning up the room,” she says as she mills about grabbing the trash from the cans in the room before turning to me. “They should be bringing you breakfast shortly. Max has been choosing your orders every evening, so you had food for the next day. You have a good man there Miss.”
“That’s sweet of him,” I say lowly, she looks back at him and it’s starting to irritate me how frequently her eyes drink him in. Don’t be psycho Megan. She looks like she could be his older sister. Chill. “How do you know Max?”
“Oh, I don’t dear. I only know him the same way I know all the visitors here. I come in to clean, we chat idly for a little while and I leave. He’s been here day and night since you got here. Refusing to leave to even take a shower. I think his one buddy had to man handle him into the shower here just so he wouldn’t stink when you woke up,” she chuckles as she talks about the last few days. “That man admires you and looks at you like you are a goddess. I wish my husband looked at me the way he looks at you.”
“Oh, how long have you been married?” I ask, I didn’t see a ring on her finger so I wouldn’t have expected her to be married.
“Fifteen wonderful years with two baby girls,” she beams as she finishes up with the cleaning. She places a fresh blanket on the bed for me and must realize what I saw. “I don’t wear my ring on my finger while I’m at work. I don’t want it getting lost or damaged, but—” she reaches into her scrub top and pulls out a silver chain with a beautiful diamond ring set on it, “I keep it close to my heart.”
I smile at her, maybe I shouldn’t have assumed the worst. “Thank you for the blanket, it’s a little cold in here. Also, thank you for telling me about Max. We just started dating, and I guess I thought that this might be the breaking point for him. Seeing me constantly in the hospital.”
“Honey, if I may be so bold. Nothing is going to scare this man off. Honestly, he might scare off everyone around you if they even look at you the wrong way. He’s threatened every male nurse that’s come within five feet of you,” a deep chuckle comes from beside me grabbing both of our attention.
Max smiles at me, “There is no reason for another male to touch you unless the want their hands removed.” The nurse tsked him and he laughed. “What? I’m serious Millie. I can move her myself; they don’t need to.”
“I know, you act like I wasn’t standing in the doorway watching you grip Danny up by the throat and thrashing him against a wall,” she put her hands up in the air and sighs. “I’m glad you are awake, maybe now you can talk some sense into this man, so he doesn’t end up killing someone in your honor.”
“What if I say I don’t want to talk him out of that?” I ask, staring into Max’s eyes. I heard her make a very disapproving sound as she heads for the door.
“Your food should be here shortly; I probably won’t see you again since you’re getting out of here today. If I don’t, good luck out there and stay safe. Enjoy each other,” she smiles once more and leaves out of the room.
“How are you feeling?” he asks the moment the door shuts behind her. He gets up and inspects the room. I have no idea what he could be looking for.
“I’m sore, still tired and my brain is trying to come to terms with everything that’s happened to me,” I say honestly. What is there left for me to say? I got assaulted by a gun and by a doctor who last time I was in here I was making drooling eyes at. “Are they dead?
He stops his inspection and looks at me, “Yes.” A quick and clean answer, no bullshit and no fluff. I can only imagine how he must be doing. I don’t know who shot Sandra, but I know it must be effecting him.
“Are you okay?” I ask, expecting him to be sad or show some type of emotion, but instead he just looks at me and smiles, taking a seat on the bed next to me.
“Are you asking because you want to know what happened or because you genuinely want to know if I’m okay?” He asks me, his eyes dancing in the morning light. I sit up in the bed, slightly wincing as the pain shoots through my body.
“I want to know that you are okay. I want to know where you mind is. I’m worried that you are going to spiral down because she was your fiancé at one time. You can’t just shut off all the love you ever had for her,” I start listing off multiple reasons I am asking, but he stops me with a kiss to my lips.
The door opens a few seconds later and in waltz in Alice and Ally. Our lips are still locked, but I can feel the questioning eyes land on me, I guess no one told Alice we are a thing now. However, the male voices that abruptly stop at the doorway have me pulling back from our kiss.
“You guys are buzz kills you know that” Max groans to the guys as my sister and Ally take up seats by the wall, quietly chatting like they didn’t just witness an intimate moment.
“We wouldn’t be buzzkills if you told us she woke up,” Tony replies as he walks over to Ally and sits next to her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders. I stare at her wide eyed, she smirks and mouths the word later to me. Hell, yes you will explain later!
Roark and Andy followed him to the room. Roark taking up residence at the door, Andy stalking over to the window as if he was on watch. “What the hell are they doing?” I whisper to Max, watching what felt like the changing of the royal guard.
“They’re making sure the room is safe and secure. I’ll be right back, now that they’re here, I’m going to use the bathroom. Unless you need to go first,” he looks at me with a questioning look.
“I can wait. Go,” I wave him off the bed. He laughs, kissing my head before fast walking to the bathroom.
Ally and Alice took this moment to climb onto either side of the bed and smother me in hugs. My sister hugging me tighter than normal. “Stop getting hurt,” she demands. I can only imagine the pain I’ve been causing her.
“I promise, this isn’t something I plan on continuing. Hospitals are expensive and I’m not a fan,” I say as I hug her back. Ally props herself on her hand as she looks me up and down.
“You are very lucky to have Max, if it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t be here right now,” she blurts out. I give her a shocked look as she nods, confirming that he was the one who shot her.
“I didn’t know you two were together. When the hell were you going to tell me?!” Alice shrieks from beside me.
“The next morning. He dropped me off at home and I was a little drunk, so I decided to go to sleep and call you in the morning. We didn’t come to terms with dating until earlier that night. What was I supposed to do? Call you at like two in the morning. I don’t think Mike would’ve taken that call to well.” I gripe. Her boyfriend Mike is a great guy, but he works construction and if I called at two when he had to be up at five just to tell her I was dating Cop McHottie. I can only imagine how upset he would be with me.
“I could’ve told him that you were drunk and happy. He would be happy for you, and you know it. Mike hated he who shall not be named and is glad you’re interested in someone who could protect you,” she says, a smile all over her face. I really need to see my sister more often than just when something big happens. We live close to each other and now that dicks McGee is gone, I can see her more.
“Is Mike doing okay?” I ask, she nods as the bathroom door opens and Max comes back out. Both Ally and Alice go to move off the bed, but he just puts up his hand.
“Stay there, you don’t need to move just because I’m back in the room,” Max takes Ally’s former seat next to Tony and they start chatting.
“Okay, I already like him,” Alice whispered in my ear. I chuckle at her. The few times I was able to get Ryan to go with me to family functions, he was like a shadow, never giving me a moment alone with my sister, my mother or even my father. My brother had threatened him, which only made us going to family functions a no go after that.
“Think everyone else will?” I asked, they both look at me with a very odd look on their faces. “What?”
“Mom met him already; they didn’t like each other. Mom came in and started her normal, this is my daughter, I know what’s best for her. Max just laughed and told mom to get out,” I glance over at him as he smiles at me. “To be fair, mom deserved it. She tried to tell him to get lost. Dad honestly respected his wishes and said he will be back when you allow it. Dad told Mike and Jason about Max standing off with mom. Jason about spit his beer across the room while Mike said about damn time.” Alice laughed. Jason has told mom plenty of times to fuck off, but she never listened to him. The fact that she listened to Max kind of worried me.
“You’ll probably be happy to know that officer stone face over there escorted your mother to her car and put her in her vehicle,” she pointed at Roark, and he chuckled from where he stood.
“I am not stone faced; I just have a good judge of character, and I knew your mother wasn’t going to leave without causing a scene. I wasn’t about to have that,” he shrugged his shoulders and went back to standing guard.
“So, you’re breaking out today huh. Any plans?” Ally asks, Max looks at us and smiles.
“She’s going to make herself at home at my place. She’s not going back to her house until I install a security system, better locks and better cameras. She will stay in my sight pretty much all day every day until I know she’s safe,” Max said, normally I would argue, fight back on the assumption that I’ll just submit. But he wants me safe. That means a lot to me to have someone who cares about me.
“Sounds good to me,” Alice chimed in. “That just means mom can’t invade your house and force herself on you. Dad can only do so much for you.”
“Yeah, I know. Please tell me either of you brought me clothes,” I plead with them both to move past the subject.
“Jeans and your favorite band tee are in the bag by Max’s feet. You black high-top vans are in there too. Not going to lie, but Melissa is starting to think you’re getting hospitalized to avoid coming back to work,” Ally laughed. I wouldn’t put it past Melissa to think that of me. The woman always acts like us younger librarians don’t take the job seriously.
We chatted for a little longer, before breakfast was brought in. The girls left me to eat with Max. He sat next to me, making sure I ate and left nothing on the plate. He threatened to feed me if I didn’t feed myself.
Everyone seems to be getting along, it’s odd that me being in the hospital has been a good thing for a few of us. I look over at Ally and Tony as they talk to my sister. Tony watches Ally, following her every move with his eyes. It was endearing, but I’m going to have to do the best friend threatening for good measure.
The hours ticked by when Doctor Silverman finally walked in. I honestly cannot wait to be away from this woman. She gives off this weird energy and I am not living for it. “Good afternoon, how are you feeling?”
“With my fingers,” I replied, my sister snorts in her chair. I crack a wide grin at her, while the rest of the room tries to stifle their laughs. “Sorry, inside joke. I’m in pain, but nothing that I can’t manage. I just want to go home and get on with my life.”
She was not laughing at my comment and seems to find me utterly annoying. Good. Maybe now she’ll get me out of here faster. She walks over to the bed giving Max a wide berth as she comes around and does a quick check up on my vitals. She lightly pressed on my ribs, and I knew better than to suck in a tight breath. She would try to keep me here longer. Not fucking happening.
“You’re looking good, and your vitals have vastly improved since the day you came in, I want you to check up with us in a few weeks, but if your pain gets too uncomfortable come back to the emergency room. I’ll come back with your discharge papers in a little bit. Do you have any questions?” She looked between Max and I, there is one question that I want to ask, but I rather not embarrass myself in a room full of people.
“Yeah, I have one,” Ally piped up. Dr. Silverman looked over at her, nodding her head. “Can she have sex?” Not only did my face go cherry tomato red, but so did my sisters. Max and the guys all looked away to give us some semblance of privacy.
“If she is comfortable with having intercourse, she can do so within reason. Nothing too rough,” she said, drilling a hole into Max. He just smirked, I can only imagine what he is about to say and do. Before he could say anything, she got up and made her way for the door. “I’ll send Millie in with your discharge paperwork and instructions. It was nice meeting you all.”
She shut the door before we had a chance to say the same. This group must have annoyed her so much while I was asleep. My sister, Ally and Tony left shortly after the doctor. Roark and Andy looked over at us and decided they needed to make their exit as well. “Don’t forget you have that meeting with Rick that you pushed off. I can come over and sit with Megan while you are out. If you’re okay with that Megan,” Roark says to us, I nod and that seems to be the end of the conversation.
Ten minutes later and we are discharged. I am so happy to get the hell out of here. I wish I didn’t have to be taken out in a wheelchair, but protocol is protocol. I am finally free from the damn hospital.
As Max helps me into the car, he gives me a kiss on my cheek. I buckle up and wait for him to get into the driver seat.
“Are you ready to go home, Megan?” He asks, lacing his fingers in mine.
“Yes,” I whisper back, kissing him on the cheek. “It’s time for our adventure.”