Chapter 38 #2
The room falls into an uncomfortable silence, and a sense of foreboding washes over me.
“What?” I ask when the unease threatens what’s left of my patience.
“Do you think, maybe,” Braxton is hesitating, and I brace for impact. “Grey, it’s been two weeks. Do you think that maybe we need to prepare for the possibility that she won’t wake up?”
My fist clenches the front of his shirt. I don’t even remember moving. “That’s not going to happen, and if that’s your line of thinking, you can leave and not bother coming back.”
“We’re not your enemy, Grey.” The sadness in Madi’s words claws at my chest—it’s an infestation of fire ants, and I want to douse myself in boiling water to get rid of the sensation.
“So that’s it?” I hurl the words in accusation. “You’ve just given up?”
“That’s not what we’re saying.” Braxton keeps his tone light and his body language open and relaxed. Who knew he was such a showman.
“It sure as fuck sounds like it to me.”
“I’m just saying we’ve spoken to the doctors—”
“Shut up.” It bellows out of me as though I’m possessed. “Just shut up or get the hell out of here. Savvy needs positivity and love. If you can’t give her those two things, just those two things.” A sob chokes me up. “Then, then get out.”
“We love her too, Grey.” Madi’s shaking, but my emotional intelligence is reserved for Savvy. Braxton will comfort her later. “Okay. Okay, Grey. You’re right. Maybe I’ll just sit and watch her favorite movie with her. How’s that? Maybe you could shower, or get something to eat while it’s on?”
“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?” I ask.
Madi’s smile is fragile and close to breaking, but she nods with watery eyes.
“I’m sure Savvy will appreciate that, but I’m not going anywhere. I only shower at five in the morning when a nurse is around because Savvy would never wake up that early.”
Madi’s jaw drops, and she stares from me to Braxton.
“Have you slept, Grey?” Braxton’s frowning, and he’s wearing the same expression he wore when Sage broke his collarbone in the fourth grade.
“I sleep enough. Put on the movie, Madi, but I’m not giving up my seat, so you’ll have to see if you can con a nurse into giving you another one.”
“I’ll go get one,” Braxton murmurs. I stop making eye contact with him because I don’t appreciate the way he’s looking at me—as though I’m damaged, broken, lost.
Madi signs in to a streaming service, but I ignore her and instead fix Savvy’s bedding the way it should be done. I hate the way Madi tucked her in. Savvy will be much more comfortable if I fix the corners so they’re not suffocating her.
“I need to be able to breathe, Patch. No more prison corners on the sheets,” she’d said to me once. After that, I learned how to make the bed to her specifications, but of course I never told her that.
I do now. “Remember when you told me no prison corners?” I wait in case she responds. She doesn’t. “Well, I watched you untuck all the edges that morning, and then from that day on, I made the bed the way you liked it.”
Walking around the bed, I start on the other side.
“It took me an entire week to get used to your loosey goosey bed sheets, but honestly, it didn’t really matter because we always ended up tangled in each other anyway.”
When she’s tucked in the way she prefers, I cradle her face in both of my hands.
“I’ll learn all your ways, Monroe, if you just wake up for me, okay? Come on, sweetheart. That’s a deal even you can’t refuse.”
A wet, garbled noise has me lifting her eyelids. Is this it? Is she waking up?
“G—Grey,” Madi sobs.
My name from Madi’s lips steals my hope—the damn grim reaper coming for my soul.
Hope is a dangerous thing. When hope dies, so does joy. And when joy dies…
“What?” I ask.
“A—are you okay?”
“I will be, just as soon as Savvy wakes up.”
She makes more wet, raspy sounds. I know she’s crying, but crying feels like giving up. I’ll rage with her. I’ll beg with her. I’ll do a fucking rain dance with her. But I will not cry with her.
“Savvy’s ready for the movie,” I say.
Madi hiccups and presses play.
Braxton enters a few moments later with a chair that he places by Savvy’s bed. Madi sits opposite me and takes Savvy’s hand.
I fight the urge to rip it away from her. I have no good reason to do it, and it would only lead to problems. Rationally, I know Savvy belongs to them too, but with so little of her to spare right now, I’m finding it really painful to share.
Braxton sits on the floor along the wall and stares blankly at the television screen.
They’re sitting vigil, but me? I’m still praying for a miracle.
With Matthew McConaughey’s voice in the background, I rest my head on Savvy’s bed, as close to her heart as I can get, and close my eyes.
She just needs a little more time.
I wake to the sound of whispers. The S-sounds hissing and harsh Cs and Ks somehow softer.
They weave through my dreams and conscious mind like a bad trip.
“Is it legal though? Will Austin be able to fight it?”
My head snaps up at the mention of Austin. His mother definitely should have swallowed him.
“Fight what?” My voice is rough with sleep, and my head feels as though it’s floating.
Perhaps I do need more rest, but that will come when she wakes up.
I blink the blurriness from my eyes.
Either everyone is sneaking in, or the CEO of the hospital finally got my message because Madi, Braxton, Sage, Moose, Pops, Clover, Roman, and even Valen are crowded in like sardines.
And no one seems to mind.
There are folding chairs lined up under the windows for Braxton, Sage, Pops, and Moose.
Madi and Clover huddle together opposite me at Savvy’s bedside.
Sage is sitting on the floor next to me while Valen hovers behind Clover, and Roman stands guard at the door.
What the hell?
My frown deepens as I scan the room.
“Elle and Cian are in the cafeteria feeding Keela,” Madi says. “They’re taking turns coming in.”
They’re not why I’m so disoriented though. Where the hell are Savvy’s doctors? The clock on the wall says they should have been in to see her an hour ago.
“We submitted your marriage license to the hospital,” Roman says, wiping all other thoughts from my mind. The edge that drew me to him in the first place is absent though. Is that because he’s taking on my guilt over Savvy?
It’s not his fault. I’m the one who insisted on sending the men home.
“And we have our attorney, Mr. Coop, notifying her family.” Braxton has the confidence I’m lacking these days. “If they try to fight anything, he’ll take care of it.”
“I had no idea her family was so…horrid.” Clover’s voice is barely more than a whisper, but I notice that Valen moves as if on autopilot to squeeze her shoulder.
“What’s he doing here?” I ask her.
I haven’t even finished my sentence before she’s tugging a navy-blue cardigan with white stars more tightly around her middle.
“Clover received another package three days ago,” Braxton says. “He’s…ah, staying in a camper van outside her house because we didn’t think you’d want anyone in Savvy’s side of the duplex.”
“I don’t want him in there with her stuff, but she’s not going back there, so if you move all her shit to our house, then I don’t care what he does with the space.” Turning to Clover, I frown. “Are you sure you want him that close?”
Clover bites her lip but nods.
I turn to study Valen. “Does that mean you remember who she is?”
His jaw twitches, and his eyes glaze over. It’s as though he just shut down the ounce of humanity he had in himself, and then he shakes his head in jerky movements that appear unnatural to me.
Moose stands and hands me a coffee. “Not scalding hot anymore, but it’s warm. It’ll help ya wake up.”
“Thanks.”
“The marriage license. It’s legit?” I ask.
Roman nearly smirks. “It’s legal, and as legit as a forgery can be. But our guy is so good not even the CIA could tell the difference.”
“So, Savvy and I are married. She’s mine?”
“I’m not a dog. I don’t belong to anyone.” Her words are muffled around the feeding tube, but they’re there.
I drop the coffee to the floor and cup Savvy’s face in my hands as I scan every inch of her.
Why aren’t her eyes open?
“You heard that right?” I’ve lost control of my emotions. The floodgates are opening, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. “Right?” I shout. “Please tell me someone else heard her. Savvy, please. Please open your eyes.”
Madi jumps out of her chair. I can feel her hands sliding all along the bed, and in my periphery, I see her pulling a red emergency cord.
“Did you hear her, Madi?” Each word is a plea exhaled on a painful sob. “Someone fucking tell me they heard her too.”
“We heard, Grey.” Madi has tears cascading down her face, and this time, I succumb to them as well. I shudder and shake as hope fills in the cracks of my damaged heart.
“Why won’t she open her eyes?” I’m pleading, begging, for answers. I thought I felt fear when I saw her fly into the air. But this is almost worse. “Monroe, open your goddamn eyes.”
The door bursts open, and the nurse pauses to take in the number of people disobeying their two-visitor rule.
“Forget about them, get over here,” I yell. “She spoke. Two whole sentences. We heard her. We all heard her.”
The door opens again, and three doctors barrel into the room.
“Everyone out. Clear the room,” one of them shouts.
“I’m not going anywhere.” The vehemence in my tone startles him, and he swallows thickly before nodding.
“We need everyone else out then, give us some room to work,” the doctor I recognize says.
“Out. Everyone out,” I bark.
“Easy, Grey.” Two words spoken by an angel. My angel.
“See?” I can’t control the hysteria in my tone, and I don’t have the bandwidth to try.
As our family filters out of the room, Savvy’s eyes flutter open for less than three seconds.
But it was enough to see her, to know she’s in there, awake, and coming back to me.
The doctors crowd the bed, but I keep hold of her hand and drop to my knees.
She came back to me.
She didn’t leave.
She kept her promise.