Chapter 49 Oak #2
I take quick glance at everyone around me and they all give me the same encouraging look followed by an array of smiles.
Holding Connor’s hand in mine I rise from the chair and smile back down at him. “Yeah, champ, let’s go see her.”
I allow Connor to lead me as we follow Trevor and Dr. Ambrose down the hall to the patients wing on the right hand side.
We come to a stop at room number 312. I can feel my heart beating of my chest with the anticipation of seeing her.
Trevor knocks on the door softly before entering.
Then, he says lowly to me, “I insisted for Gracie Mae to have a room of her own. She’s been through a lot and I didn’t want her under stress of being roomed with a stranger.
Especially not after what she suffered.” His thoughtfulness does not go unnoticed and I do not let it go by without appreciation.
I clap my hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Trevor. For everything.”
“No thanks needed. I’m just happy Hollows Point couldn’t add another tragedy.” In his voice I hear that he’s genuine, but in his eyes I see the sorrow of the tragedy Hollows Point did to him. He then turns to leave and so does the doctor after he rechecks the tubes and machines Grace is hooked to.
Stepping further in the room, with the door closed to the outside world, I see my woman for the first time since her attack.
And it’s fucking punch that knocks the air out of me.
An IV is hooked to her hand for medicine.
A heart monitor is attached to her chest along with a pulse indicator on her pointer finger.
Her left leg is propped up and wrapped securely in bandage wrap.
Her shoulder is propped by pillows and securely wrapped as well.
Discoloration covers her face as her lip is busted and her right eye is swollen shut.
An angry color of red collars her neck from the strangulation.
A surge of rage rises inside me and I want to hunt down that fucker and kill him all over again. Except this time I would make him feel all the pain in the world before he met his end.
His death was far too quick.
Connor lets go of my hand and rushes to his sister’s side. He’s cautious of her wounds as he gently lays his hand on top of her pale arm. “I love you, sis. And I’m still so proud of you.” Bending down he presses a kiss to her forehead and gently sweeps away the stray strands of hair from her face.
He smiles at her. The smile I feared I may have never saw from him again. “It’s okay, Oak,” Connor tells me gently. “You can come closer; you’re not going to hurt her.”
I swallow. “Wasn’t afraid of hurting her, champ.”
He raises a brow. “Then what is it?”
How can I tell the kid that I can’t believe she’s alive after I suffered the loss of people I loved?
How can I tell him that seeing her like this both kills me and revives me?
How do I tell him that after all the pain I’ve inflicted upon myself over the years that finding Grace when I got back to her home was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced?
How can I tell him that seeing her like that broke something inside me?
And how can I possibly tell him that seeing her like this, surviving, fighting, is reminding me of my days spent in the hospital doing the very same after the attack in Iraq?
“I guess everything is hitting me all at once,” I decide to say to him. He nods like he understands. And perhaps he does. He’s wise for his age. I swallow roughly. “And I just can’t believe she’s here.”
“Of course she is, Oak. We’re all a part of the future I see for us. No one was going to take her from us. And you made sure of that.”
I nod my head and finally move closer. I don’t stop until I reach the other side of her bed. Ever so gently I cradle the side of her face. And I swear I feel every cell inside me light up from just the sheer touch.
“I love you, Grace. And I promise you I’m never going to let anyone hurt you ever again.” I press a soft yet tender kiss to her bruised cheek. A tear slips down my face and falls on her cheek. Gently, I swipe it away.
Careful of the medical machines and her injuries I sit as close to her as I can with the chair they provided. I lay my hand on top of hers and soothingly run my thumb back and forth across her skin.
Connor takes a seat on the opposite side, holding her hand just as gently as I am.
Minutes pass yet they feel like hours but it finally happens.
A twitch of her fingers.
A twitch.
My heart stops beating as I hold my breath.
Another twitch of her fingers.
My eyes stay transfixed on the twitching of her fingers.
I try not to see their fingers twitching but the images are beginning to blur.
That is until I hear her coarse and groggy voice from the affects of the anesthesia. And I don’t care how strained her voice sounds, at this moment it’s the most beautiful sound I have ever heard.
“Oak,” she says my name.
She says my name and I can fucking breathe again.
Rising from the chair I then brace my hand by her head and lean over her. Even bruised she’s still the most beautiful woman to me. “Grace.” My voice breaks as a tear falls down my face.
Her fingers tighten slightly around my hand. Carefully, as if I’m handling a piece of glass, I raise her hand to my lips and press the most tender kiss. “Don’t cry,” she croaks out and another tear of mine falls. “I’m okay.”
“I know, baby. I know,” I tell her before a sob rips from my throat.
“The thought of losing you. . .” I close my eyes as pain tears through me.
“I didn’t know if you were going to make it, Grace, and it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced.
Finding you like that. . . Seeing you like that.
. .” I swallow roughly. “It ripped me to shreds. And I couldn’t stop the pain, Grace. I couldn’t stop it.”
Her sky blue eyes water with unshed tears and her busted lip quivers.
She opens her mouth to say something but I stop her.
“And I realized something, Grace. Losing you will be the greatest pain I’ll ever have to face in my life, but loving you, Grace, loving you makes all the pain in the world worth it.
” Tears finally break as they slide down her cheeks.
I sweep them gently away with my thumb. “You told me something months ago that I never believed. How every day is a gift, you remember that?” She nods her head.
“The most precious gift life has ever given me is you. You, Gracie Mae Vale, you’re everything to me.
I love you, and I promise you I’ll never let anyone ever hurt you again. ”
She blinks away more tears. Her lips try to pull a smile. “I love you.” Then, she turns her head and tightens her fingers around her brother’s hand. “I love you, too.”
“I love you more,” he says to her thickly. The emotion returning to get the best of him.
“Not possible,” she disagrees teasingly.
“I do, I love you more. And I’m going to love you more with each day that passes.”
“Promise?” She asks of him.
He nods his head. “I promise. This,” he waves his finger around the three of us, “is my family and it’s a family with love that will always grow. Right, Oak?”
I reach my free hand across Grace and connect with Connor’s. His eyes shine brightly to mine. There’s so much promise there. So much hope and love. There’s a future, a happy one.
And I see myself living it, too.