“Oh, honey, he will always want you to come home,” she tells me, with absolute assurance in her voice. “Trust me, Charlie. That man is crazy about you. Don’t ever doubt that.” Her tone changes suddenly.
“Hey, listen, sweetie, I need to get back to Paul but I wanted to tell you first.”
My body tenses and my stomach tightens. “Tell me what?” I ask. “Rachel, Is everything okay?”
“Well, mostly,” she says, and now I’m super confused, and also a little panicky.
“Is something wrong with Paul?”
“Charlie, don’t freak out okay? Because he’ll be fine,” she starts, and my heart rate skyrockets. “He’s in the hospital.”
“What?” I shout, jumping off the bed and letting the controller fall to the floor. “Oh my god. What happened? What hospital?” I pace the room, biting my lip and running my fingers through my hair. If something happened to him and I wasn’t there, I’ll never forgive myself.
“He has a kidney stone.” She doesn’t sound worried, so I relax a little.
“A what?”
“A kidney stone. Trust me you don’t want one. They’re painful motherfuckers and he’s drugged up on morphine. Son of a bitch drove himself here when he started having side-splitting pain. Apparently he just thought it was some sort of work injury at first, like he’d pulled a muscle or something, but then it got a lot worse. They did a CT scan and it’s not super big, so they think he should be able to pass it on his own. If they can get him comfortable with pain meds they can send him home tonight, if not they’ll have to admit him, and they may have to do surgery to remove it.”
“Oh, no.” My poor Papa Bear. I can’t believe he went through that alone. It’s all my fault. If I’d been there I could have taken care of him. I could have driven him to the hospital. What was he thinking, driving himself instead of calling an ambulance? “Why didn’t he tell me? Why am I hearing it from you?”
“He didn’t think you would come, Charlie. He’s convinced you won’t want to see him and he’s afraid of being rejected. But I know him. He wants you here.”
“He doesn’t know you’re talking to me, does he?”
“He thinks I’m in the bathroom.”
“Idiot,” I say, wiping my eyes. “I might be upset, but I wouldn’t leave him alone in a hospital.”
“I know,” she says. “Are you coming?”
“Of course I’m coming. But I might smack him when I get there.”
She chuckles. “Not too hard. He’s in enough pain as it is.”
“Fine,” I groan.
* * *
When I get to the hospital, I get my visitor's sticker and they tell me where to find Paul’s room. I told Rachel I’m there but she never told Paul I’m coming, so this should be interesting. He’s on drugs and we haven't seen each other in two weeks.
I reach his room and Rachel sees me from the open doorway before Paul does. She smiles and stands.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” she says, then squeezes my arm and leaves the room.
Paul’s eyes widen when he sees me. “Charlie?” He’s groggy from the pain meds and he tries to sit up straighter, but it doesn’t work. I notice he has more stubble than normal. I wonder if he’s been as depressed as I have and that accounts for the lack of shaving, or if he’s just going for a new look.
“Yeah, old man, I’m here.” I hand him the teddy bear I brought, and he blinks, his cheeks flushing.
“Is this for me?”
“Sure, I don’t think the little girl I took it from will miss it that much,” I tease.
He hugs it to himself and my chest clenches. God, I’ve missed him. “Can I sit?” I ask. He nods.
“I take it Rachel called you?” He turns his head to the side so he can see me. I nod.
“Yes, although I would have appreciated it more if you had.”
