In Piece And Pieces (Completed)

Chapter 35

'The earlier you sit your ass up and get some solid or at least liquid down your throat,the better for you'.

Shifting uncomfortably in the hospital bed,Daniel groaned into the pillow at the voice of his sister,Gracie.

They'd been hovering all over him since the accident.
His other sister,Mattie and her husband had just left an hour ago and he was sure his mum was somewhere around waiting to get her own pound of his flesh.
They'd been nice to him the first few days after the accident.
But after seeing the news,which was of course now all over the place, he'd started getting 'pounded'.

Everyone had had something to say.

Mattie had been livid.
According to her,it beat her really hard that a full,grown ass man would deliberately drive into moving vehicles. She'd been so sure that had been a 'suicidal move'.
Before she left, she'd told the nurse taking care of him to watch him closely to avoid another 'episode'.

Gracie who was the more 'humane' one amongst them had been truly concerned,trying to know where he was hurting and all,even though she was a little too stern with her gestures.

His mum had been very angry but only the first day she'd visited. She was a lot calmer now,but that still didn't save his ass.

'Have I been speaking to myself?'. Came Gracie's voice again when he didn't stand up after the loud groan he'd just let out.
'Sit your ass up young man and have something to eat'.

Can everyone quit been dramatic?.
If a grown man like him needed food,he knew very well to request for it.
He didn't want food.

He wanted Macy!.

He'd been thinking about her since the accident.
From the time he'd woken up in the hospital bed with a bandage round his head,a broken nose and a twisted ankle,he'd been having a very hard time letting her out of his mind.

When Bryan had come to the hospital after he was informed about the accident, he'd been unconscious.
He'd stayed like that for close to six hours,as he'd been told and those six hours had been spent dreaming about Macy.

When he woke up,the first word he mentioned was her name.
He'd begged Bryan to help him get through to Macy because her phone was then,switched off.

Bryan had gone to his place and had come back with her switched off phone and news that she was no longer staying in his house.

Since then, he'd been hoping against hope that somehow, he'd look at the entrance door of the private ward and see her coming in, coming to him.

He looked up wearily and saw Gracie's eyes fixed on him,the look on her face telling him she expected him to jump on the bowl of mashed potatoes and carrot stew she was carrying.

'I don't want to eat'. He whined.

'Darling...'. His mother's voice was sweet;too sweet. '... Could you repeat what you just said? A little bit louder this time?.

He sighed and sat up.
He knew better than to allow his mum's angry sparks fly again.

The doctor came in few minutes after he had his meal,checked him and announced that he was OK to go home.

'I don't think I am doctor'. He argued while pointing out the many places he was still feeling pain in.

'It's completely OK to still feel pain, especially after the trauma you suffered but it's not something that the drugs you were given would not settle'.

It wasn't the pain that was the actual problem.
In truth,he didn't want to go home to meet Macy's absence. The pain of not seeing her when he got back would slice deeper than the one he was already experiencing.
The hospital felt way safer for him to stay,sulk and moan his loss of her, because as soon as Bryan had brought back her phone to him,he knew he'd lost her.
Macy had this kind of strong headedness and it was typical of her to drop everything he'd gotten her for him while she was leaving.

'I still insist to stay a little longer'.

'Daniel...'. His mother's voice was serious this time around. '...The hospital is no man's home. You have to go. Your home would give you some semblance of normalcy, don't you think? Besides, you've been here for two weeks. Aren't you already tired of staying?...Or, would you rather go back home with me?'

He shook his head. Going to Santa Monica was not even an option. He'd rather go to his own house and quietly lick his wounds.

Taking his silence as end of discussion,the doctor excused himself and left.

***

Pretending to listen to the conversation going on around her but not actually listening, Macy passed the thread on the scarf she'd taken the job of knitting for days now.

Her coming home and her parents' reactions to it had been nothing short of a miracle.

That day,after she left Daniel's home,she'd gone back to Mexico but had lingered in her neighborhood for days,dreading to walk up to her family's front door to knock.

Few days later,however,she'd bumped into her mother at the local drug store where she'd gone to get painkillers and that had been the end of the story.

Her mum had been shocked. Macy wasn't sure if it had been about her very obvious baby bump or the fact that she'd been with her one of her church colleagues when they ran into each other.

She'd been taken back home,from right there at the drug store.
Her dad had been so overjoyed to see her to the point that he even shed tears while narrating to her how their home had felt void and empty without her presence.
The topic of her pregnancy had fully been avoided and since then she'd been spending days in her father's house,knitting that particular scarf while staring completely into space.

It was already a month in Mexico yet she felt like a stranger.
In a neighborhood where she'd grown up in,she still felt like a foreigner.
She'd since realised she didn't belong here anymore.

She belonged in Daniel's arms.

The needle pricked her half-numb fingers and she let out a small sound.

'Are you OK? Darling'. Her mum was by her side before she could let out the deep breath she'd taken in to absorb the pain.

'I think you've done enough knitting for a day. Here,let me have that'. Her mum said and then took the needle and scarf from her willing fingers.

'You should go get some rest'. Her mum's church friend added.

Macy fought so hard not to roll her eyes at the two fussy women as she stood up and went to her room.

By the time she got to her room,a little blood had gathered in the finger where she just got pricked and she picked a face wipe to clean it off.

Looking at the red stain on the once white wipe,Macy couldn't help but remember how a fiery red liquid in the face of once white papers had orchestrated her and Daniel's meeting.

Since her arrival back home,every single thing had reminded her of him.

She found herself thinking about him every moment. Sometimes,it even brought tears to her eyes.
She wondered what he was doing,who he was with;wondered if he'd moved on with Lisa and is having his 'happily ever after'.

How could one person make her both happy and sad all at once?
Most of all,how could she have thought she could live without him?.

She lay face up on her bed,recounting memories;very happy memories with Daniel, until she drifted into a quiet sleep,her soft snores filling the whole room.

Copyright © Stacy Patricks