Matters of the Heart

Chapter 29 Part 1

Abbey slowly opened her eyes in her hospital room. She felt extremely tired. She looked to her left and the chair was empty but then she heard the most amazing sound she'd heard in awhile. She was scared she might not ever hear it again.

"Hey you're awake. How do you feel?" 

Jesse. That was Jesse's voice. She then felt his touch. His hand over hers, gently cradling her hand in his. She was scared to turn her head, she didn't want to be dissapointed. But she knew it was him. It had to be. That was his voice. His unmistakable voice and that touch, It was definitely his touch, the soft way he would touch her, the tone in his voice that was only reserved for her.

"Baby? Can you look at me?"

She turned her head. And a smile broke out on her face. It was him. Jesse. Her Jesse. Sitting there in a chair beside her bed holding her hand, those blue eyes staring right at her, relief written all over his face.

"Baby how do you feel?"

He brought her hand up and kissed the back of her hand.

"I'm ok. What about you?"

"What about me Abs?"

"Are you ok? How do you feel?"

"Baby I'm fine. I'm a little concerned about you right now."

"I'm ok. A little tired. I have a headache but I'm ok"

"Leah called me. She said you collapsed. They're running some tests, they have been giving you some fluids. You've been sleeping for hours Babe. I was so worried."

"I think I'm ok. I don't remember. I was doing rounds on the surgical floor then I remember just waking up now. And you're here. Jesse why are you here?"

"Abbey youre really concerning me. Leah said your MRI and CT scan came out clear but that you did hit your head when you fell which probably explains the headache. But im starting to get more worried about you. Why wouldn't I be here? I came as soon as I heard. Of course I would be here"

"But how. You should be recovering. You should be in bed. You should be in the ICU still"

" The ICU? Abbey what are you talking about? Recovering from what baby? Are you talking about the mono? Abbey that was months ago,  it took a while but I'm fine now. It wasn't even that bad and you took care of me. I didn't even have to be in the hospital. I'm fine. Baby I'm going to get your doctor. "

She grabbed his arm.

"No Jesse. Don't leave me "

"Baby I just want you to get checked out. I'm worried."

"Jesse I'm fine. I don't know why I passed out but I'm ok. You said I've only been out for the several hours. That doesn't make sense.  But what about your surgery.?"

"What surgery baby? I haven't had in any surgeries. Not in years anyway."

"Your heart surgery. You were scheduled for surgery to replace your valve. But then you collapsed in our bedroom. And you were brought in by ambulance. Wait I'm so confused. If you were in surgery, there's no way I would be working. I would be waiting for you to come out of surgery. So I wouldn't have been doing rounds and I wouldn't have collapsed at work. This isn't making any sense. "

Abbey looked at him confused, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Abbey, baby you're really starting to scare me now."

Jesse pulls out his phone and begins texting.

"Who are you texting?"

"Leah. To get your doctor up here."

"I feel fine. I told you I'm worried about you though. Did everything turn out ok?"

" I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with my heart."

"Jesse I know what I'm talking about. Its been bad the last 2 weeks. But I was trying to take care of you and then I missed it."

"Missed what? Baby what did you miss? Talk to me. We can figure this out. We'll do it together like we always do"

"I should have caught it"

"Caught what? Abbey? What should you have caught?"

Jesse leaned forward still holding onto her hand tight, but gently pushing back her hair.

"Hey I don't know what you thought was wrong. But Baby I'm fine. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere, ok? "

Suddenly it looked like Jesse caught on to something.

"Abbey you keep talking about something being wrong with my heart the last 2 weeks. You're not talking about my aortic valve repair surgery that I was supposed to have are you?"

"Yes! Yes but you seem ok. You were supposed to have the surgery but you collapsed in our apartment."

"I had an abdominal aortic aneurysm that ruptured and I was rushed into surgery"

"Yes you remember?"

"Baby my hearts fine now. That surgery was 10 years ago."

"What?! No."

"Yeah. Everything went ok. I recovered and I'm fine now. And we don't live in that apartment in Lincoln Park anymore."

"We don't?"

"No we moved to a house in Logan Square. And then we ended up building an even bigger house on some land in Logan Square"

"I know we talked about it"

"No baby we did it. I mean we have 5 kids we had to have a bigger house"

"5 kids?"

Jesse kept talking to her acting like he wasn't scared that she didn't remember. She was obviously back several years ago.

"Yeah. You were pregnant when I had that surgery. We had Jaylee after that. Then we had Emme 4 years later. And then we adopted a little Asian girl from canaryville, Lily when Emme was still a baby. And we're fostering two little Italian boys from Cook County, Noah and Ethan. We're in the process of adopting them"

Abbey was trying to take everything in.

"How old are the kids?"

"Jaylee's 9, Lily's 6, Emme's 4 and a half, and Noah and Ethan are 7 and 3."

"So we've been married..."

"10 years baby"

" You're still doing Chicago PD?"

"Chicago PD?! That ended 7 years ago Abs"

"So what..."

"I created my own series. That i write, produce, and direct. It's about us. Hey we'll talk about all this later, ok. Right now you just get some rest"

She tiredly shut her eyes and nodded. But then quickly opened them again

"Babe it's ok, everything is going to be ok, I'm going to be right here. Just rest. You need to rest."

Her eyes slowly began to close again

"I'm scared."

"Abbey youre going to be fine"

"That's not what I'm scared of"

"What are you scared of baby?"

" I'm scared of not being with you"

"Oh baby that will never happen, I'll be here. Nothing will ever seperate us, I promise you. I'll always be here. Always."

She felt him lean forward and softly kiss her forehead.

Abbey heard an incessant beeping in her head as she finally began to succumb to sleep again.