Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty
Dex
I felt silly sitting in Otto’s hospital room and trying to make small talk with someone who couldn’t respond.
With someone who I wasn’t sure would even if he could.
Even though I didn’t feel like I belonged there, the hospital staff seemed to disagree.
Since Myke had cleared them to talk to me, the doctors regularly asked me if I had any questions.
The nurses were all super nice and very sympathetic, even going so far as to bring me meals, water, and snacks during the hours I was there.
On the second day, I arrived to find that the standard armchair had been replaced with a recliner type chair that was usually kept in the maternity ward to make my hours there more comfortable.
“Can’t have our little poppa-to-be going hungry!
” Otto’s morning nurse, Paula, chirped when I thanked her for a tray of scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, and juice.
“Now, I didn’t know if you need it, but I tucked a vitamin under the napkin, just in case.
” She sent me a sympathetic smile. “With everything on your mind, I wasn’t sure if you’d remember them. ”
“I actually didn’t this morning,” I admitted, slipping the tablet out of the blister pack and swallowing it with a mouthful of apple juice. “Thank you so much. I feel so stupid trying to talk to him, though. I have no idea what I should be saying or what’s going through his mind.”
Paula smiled warmly and patted my shoulder. “There is a library in the lobby in case you want to read to your husband. Some people find that easier than trying to keep a one-sided conversation going.”
“Thank you. That’s a great idea.” When Paula closed the door behind her, I started picking at the scrambled eggs.
“What do you think, Otto? Want to read for a while?” I sighed and swallowed the last bite of eggs, setting the tray with the rest of the food on the bedside table.
“I need to pee and then I’ll pop down and see what they have to choose from. ”
The library was across the hall from the non-denominational chapel, cozy but barely more than a closet with soothing cream-colored paint on the walls and dark wood shelves packed with books of every description.
I was scanning the stacks of books when the familiar spine of a well-worn paperback caught my eye.
“No way,” I breathed out, snatching it off the shelf. “Mortal Engines. I haven’t thought about this book in years!”
I caressed the cover lovingly, my mind flashing back to eighth grade when Otto had tossed a handful of pebbles against my window in the middle of the night, gesturing franticly for me to open it.
We had been on the waiting list at the library for weeks to read it when it came out and the minute his name came up on the list, he raced in to check it out.
I was grounded at the time and my dads refused to let me go to Otto’s house, so instead, Otto made the precarious climb up the privacy fence to my second-story window, and we’d hidden under the covers of my bed with his flashlight, devouring every word.
School on no sleep the next day had been absolute hell, but when the second book in the series came out? We read it the exact same way even though my grounding was long over by then. Ditto for the remaining two books in the series and my folks never had a clue.
Scribbling my name, Otto’s room number, and the title of the book onto the honor registry, I scampered back toward the elevator, feeling every bit like the middle schooler I’d been the first time I read it instead of the frightened, depressed, and very pregnant adult I actually was.
Escapism is a wonderful thing.
“Otto, you’re not going to believe this!” My voice was breathless as I pulled the door closed behind me and dropped into the recliner, gulping for breath. “They had Mortal Engines in the little honor library!”
Carefully balancing the book on my thigh so I could turn the pages awkwardly with my left hand, I reached for Otto’s hand with my right and began to read.
I read through the entire morning, only taking impatient breaks when the doctors and nurses made their rounds and then resuming the story where my finger was pressed against the line we’d stopped at.
At lunchtime, Paula appeared with a turkey sandwich. I thanked her and asked her to set it down, but she planted one hand on her ample hip and shook her head.
“No can do, sweetie. You barely ate the breakfast I brought you and you need to keep your strength up. You’re eating for two, remember.”
I sighed and tucked the napkin from my tray into the book to mark our page and dutifully tucked into the turkey on wheat while Paula flitted around the room, checking Otto’s vitals and filling them in on the little chart on the wall before entering the same numbers into an app on her phone.
“There we go!” she said with a smile, taking the plate from me as I finished the last bite of fruit salad. “Now I’ll stay out of your hair while you get back to your story, love.”
I returned her smile sheepishly and reopened the book with my left hand, my right returning to where Otto’s lay on the blanket covering him.
“I didn’t mean to seem ungrateful,” I apologized.
“It’s just that this book was so special to us, and I haven’t even thought of it in years.
” I swallowed hard. “Um, do you really think he can hear me? That he knows what I’m saying?
If he’s in a coma can he remember that he knows this story or is it all just noise? ”
“There’s a lot we still don’t know about comas and we don’t really know the answers to all of those questions, but there are a lot of stories about memories seeming to trigger patients to wake up, so I think there’s a good chance that Otto can hear and understand you.
” She shrugged. “The only way we’ll really ever know for sure is if he tells us, love. ”
She was barely finished speaking when the Alpha pheromones that had been barely present in the room while Otto was unconscious began to increase. Then, the fingers under mine twitched and my heart leaped in my chest, the pressure was light, but Otto was squeezing my hand.
I gasped and looked down at him, swallowing when I saw a single tear tracking down his left cheek.
Was he really waking up?
Oh, dear god, please let Otto be waking up!
~*~
Otto
The holes in my memory were almost more frustrating than being trapped in my body, able to hear everything around me but unable to communicate or interact with the world.
With little else to do, I absorbed every word I heard, gleaning the information I could and trying to slot it into the puzzle of my situation.
Having Dex visiting again, hearing his voice, feeling his skin on mine when he held my hand settled some of the anxiety inside me but not all of it.
Especially when some of the information I received spurred my Alpha instincts to be there, to be able to comfort and protect my Omega in all the ways he should be able to expect from me.
There is a library in the lobby in case you want to read to your husband.
Dex and I were married? When? Why couldn’t I remember?
You’re eating for two, remember.
Did that mean Dex was pregnant? How could I possibly have forgotten not just marrying the Omega I always loved but also creating another life, our child with him? Why couldn’t I remember?
Until there was talk of husbands and pregnancies, the bear inside me had been content to slumber, almost the way he did during the cold months when he hibernated just beneath the surface, only pushing forward when I insisted on it but now he was waking up.
Slowly, languidly at first. Stretching and yawning, pushing me to inhale deeper to test the air, and then snarling when the tube in my throat kept me from cooperating.
Then fucking help me! I growled back when he snarled again. I’m stuck in here, too. Neither of us is protecting our family while we’re frozen!
I felt the slight twitch on the sides of my head as the bear’s ears flicked forward, listening intently even though the only conversation in the room was about the story Dex had been reading me.
The bear was fully alert now and I could feel him drawing our energy in, sending a wave of Alpha power through my body that would have made me weep in relief if I had been able. As it was, I could feel wetness on my face that told me some tears had escaped.
Shaking his head, the bear stretched again, this time flexing his paws one at a time, the power surging painfully through my cramped muscles. Drawing on every iota of reserve energy, I put all of my focus into a single act and tightened my fingers on the hand holding mine.
Dex gasped. “Otto?” His voice rose sharply. “Did you see that? He moved his hand! He squeezed my fingers!” There was a sudden weight on my chest and the sweet, clean scent that was all Dexter Boreal surrounded me, filling my nose and soothing the bear. “Otto? Can you hear me?”
“Easy, love,” the other voice said gently as Dex’s weight was pulled off me. “Don’t smother him. Let me get the doctor, okay?”
“Oh, right. Of course.” I could hear the tears in Dex’s voice. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be,” the nurse assured him. “Let’s just make sure that everything is okay and see if there’s a way for us to help him wake up more. Until then, you keep on holding his hand and talking to him, hm?”
Dex sniffled a small laugh, wrapping his fingers more tightly around mine. “Yeah, I can do that.”
The door made the open-close clicks and after a long silence, Dex started talking to me again. “Otto, I don’t know if you want me here. Or if you can actually even hear me, to be honest, but if you can hear me will you please, please come back to me? We..I need you to wake up!”
The air shifted around me and the mattress dipped under my left side, telling me that Dex had sat beside me on the bed. “Oh, hell. Are you crying? Otto? Are you crying?”