Page 20 of Kept By the Loan Shark

“You should go home and shower and have breakfast.” I gave Hagen’s hand an encouraging squeeze, and he winced a bit, drawing my gaze back down to his hand. The bruising that I had noticed last night was even worse today. “Did you get into a fight?”

“Yes.”

I wasn’t brave enough to ask if he had fought with Travis. I couldn’t even begin to handle the implications of that admission. Like a coward, I ran my fingers over his forearm. “I know you have work and you probably need some sleep. I’ll be fine here.”

He made a face and shook his head. “I wasn’t here last night. I don’t want to leave you alone again.”

“I won’t be alone. I’m surrounded by nurses and doctors. I’ll be having tests and evaluations anyway.”

He heaved a reluctant sigh and finally relented with a nod. “If anything changes, I’ll have them call me.”

“Okay.”

Hagen carefully leaned toward me and brushed his lips against mine. “I love you.”

I cupped his jaw and kissed him. “I love you, too.”

After he left, I closed my eyes to rest for a bit. My thoughts were muddled, and my headache was slowly returning. When Vicky returned a while later, she was followed by a pair of techs who took me to the imaging department for the ordered tests. The CT scan went quickly enough, but the thrumming thump of the MRI aggravated my headache. By the time I was returned to my hospital room, I was ready to beg for pain medication.

Thankfully, Vicky seemed to have known I would need something and was waiting with a syringe that went directly into my IV port as soon as I was settled. “You’re getting the good stuff today and part of tomorrow, but we’ll start to wean you down before you’re discharged.”

“How long?” I asked, already starting to feel the pain ebbing away as the medication worked its magic. “Before I get discharged?”

“A week, at least,” she said and disposed of the syringe in a container mounted on the wall. When she was done, she cleaned her hands and came back to my bedside to check all of the tubes and catheters snaking out of my body. “If you continue to improve, they’ll send you to a step-down unit and then out to the regular floor. You want to push yourself to reach the goals they set for you, but you also need to rest. Your body has been through a lot. It needs to recover.” She adjusted my blanket and patted my hand. “Why don’t you try to nap until lunch? If you need anything, the call button is right here.”

Even though it felt as if all I did was sleep, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I drifted off as the pain faded and woke up sometime later to the smell of beef broth. My vision seemed even blurrier as I glanced around the room, and a ball of worry thrummed low in my chest. What if I went blind? What if I could never see the stars again?

“Hey, you’re awake.” Kyle’s voice drew my gaze toward the right side of my bed. He sat in the chair Hagen had earlier vacated. Leaning forward, he put his hand on mine, his face a mask of concern. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I croaked, my throat dry. I tried to adjust the bed, and he hurried over to the controls, helping me settle into a more comfortable and upright position. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He gestured toward the rolling table. “They just brought your lunch. Do you want some help with it?”

“Please,” I said with a nod.

“Sure. Of course.” He pulled the table into place. “Do you want to start with the broth? Or maybe the Jell-O? Or this lemon ice thing?”

“The lemon ice,” I decided, my mouth watering as I imagined the taste of it. The reality beat my expectations. My right hand trembled a bit as I spooned the cold lemony ice into my mouth, but I managed not to make a mess. The realization that my body wasn’t behaving the way it normally did was hard to accept. Would it always be like this?

“Taylor wanted me to let you know that she’s coming by later. She’s already got her brother waiting to start your occupational therapy, and Danny gave her a list of speech therapists if you need one.” He gestured to the broth or the Jell-O and I pointed toward the Jell-O. As he peeled back the foil lid, he said, “I spoke to Dr. Symonds this morning. She’s handling everything school related. She doesn’t want you to worry about any of it.”

“Thank you, Kyle. I really appreciate that.”

“I brought your backpack and phone.” He pointed to the empty chair by the window where my backpack now sat. My phone was on the arm of the chair and plugged into the wall to charge. “Your phone was dead, but it’s probably got enough battery to make calls or texts.”

I grimaced. “There’s no way I can handle looking at a screen right now.”

“I can send messages if you need help.”

“Maybe later,” I said, planning to have Hagen help me with that.

Kyle hesitated before asking, “Have the police been here?”

“Apparently, they came earlier but were turned away.” Even with blurry vision, I could read the expression on his face. “Why?”

“They came to see me last night at my apartment. After I’d left here,” he clarified. “They told me Travis is in the hospital. This one,” he added with a stricken look. “He’s down the hall, actually. I don’t think he’s going to make it.”

“What happened?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

---