I finally find it in myself to chuckle. “That’s a fair point.”
“But you were there after.” Her eyes get wide, her voice hushed like she’s having some huge revelation. “I remember. You were there. You...You held my hand.”
There’s something hot burning behind my eyes.
“Yeah, I did.”
I know it’s just the painkillers messing with her emotions, but when she starts crying, I can’t stop the tears that blur my vision too.
“W-would you d-do it again?” she stammers, and I’m out of my chair in a heartbeat, reaching for her good hand and cradling it in both of mine.
I look at the translucent bandage covering the needle sticking into her vein, and I start to think I’m really going to break down and lose it. I’m going to end up sobbing next to this hospital bed like I haven’t sobbed since I was a kid. It’s all catching up with me now: the terror and panic back at the accident, the hours and hours of anxiety clawing at my chest while I waited for news from the nurses.
I still can’t even fully believe she’s all right.
“Bonsoir, Paige. How are we—”
A man in a lab coat steps around the curtain and freezes before clearing his throat.
“Excusez-moi. Should I—”
“It’s fine,” I interrupt, swiping at my eyes as I keep my grip on Paige’s hand. “All good. Are you her doctor?”
“Yes. And you are the boyfriend?”
“Uh...” I feel Paige tugging on my hand, but I don’t look at her. “Yes. Yes, that would be me.”
“And will you be caring for her when she goes home?”
Paige starts yanking on my hand so hard my whole arm shakes, but I just nod. I’m not going to say anything that will risk them taking me away from her.
“Okay, let me get you up to speed, then.”
I force myself to pay attention as he explains everything they’ve done to Paige. The woman in the Old Port was right; her shoulder was dislocated, so they fixed that up and also did something called a reduction to move the two broken bones in her hand back into place. My skin crawls when the doctor describes it, and I’m glad she was full of drugs at the time. Apparently she was lucky; her hand is on track to heal fully without any surgery, and since her arm took most of the impact from the fall, she avoided what could have been a life-threatening hit to the head.
“We don’t see any signs of concussion, but you’ll still need to keep an eye on her. The nurse will go over all that with you. Her bruising is going to get a lot worse than it is now, and she’ll be very sore for the first few days, but it’s my opinion that she’ll make a full recovery in about six weeks.”
Full recovery.
She’s going to be okay.
I repeat it to myself, latching onto the words like a lifeline even as images of her lying splayed on the sidewalk keep playing over and over again like some sick version of a highlights reel in the back of my head.
I don’t know if you can ever stop seeing something like that.
The next couple hours go by in a blur of nurse visits, prescriptions, and information pamphlets. I’m shocked when I find out they don’t want to keep her here for another night. I even try arguing with the nurse about it, but she explains that since Paige didn’t go under general anesthesia and isn’t showing any signs of complications, there’s no need to keep her, and she’d be more comfortable at home.
I glance down at the stack of papers and pamphlets in my hands and start to wonder if I’m in over my head.
“Youssef,” she murmurs from the bed. She’s been dozing on and off for a while now. Some of her logic has come back now that the sedative is wearing off, but the more lucid she gets, the more grumpy she’s become. “Listen to the lady. I want to go home.”
The nurse shoots me an ‘I told you so’ look and gets started on taking out the IV.
Dawn has broken and slipped into morning by the time we’re outside waiting for an Uber. The hospital is perched partway up Mont Royal, giving me a clear view of the sunlight turning the city a brilliant gold as it wakes up for the day. There’s a crisp chill in the air, and I can hear birds singing not too far off.
I just lived a night from hell, but the morning is blissfully unaware.
An orderly is gripping the handles of the wheelchair they put Paige in to take her outside. Her head keeps lolling forward as she fights to stay awake. Just watching her try to get out of the hospital bed was exhausting. Her body is completely sapped of strength.
