February 2024
"I don't know how to do this." He admitted, standing just beyond the threshold of the hospital room that held one of his deepest darkest nightmares. There was a part of him that was convinced he was dreaming. For the past few hours, since the moment his phone rang, he prayed he was. Prayed that she would be okay, that this was all some twisted joke or a horrible, horrible dream.
"You don't have to say anything, just sit with her." The nurse offered, she was a younger woman, probably not much older than Arabella, and her smile was both encouraging as well as reassuring.
"Can she hear me?"
"I'd like to believe she can." She said after a breath, her gaze was fixated inside the room. Her eyes kept rolling over the monitors and tubes, making sure they were all working properly. "There are cases where patients wake up from anesthesia with the memory of everything that was said to them or around them, then there are patients who don't remember a thing." She turned back to Lando with a shrug.
"When will she wake up?"
"The anesthesia should wear off in an hour or two." The nurse smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "She's young and healthy, and the procedure had little to no complications. Those are all really good signs." He nodded, taking a deep breath and a tentative step into he room. "I'll leave you to it, I'll be down at the nurse's station if you need me."
Once the nurse had left, Lando took a few more steps into the room. It was plain, with nothing more than the stock hospital decorations along the walls, and a small vase that sat empty on the table beside the only window. A curtain separated Arabella's bed with the one next to her, and another curtain separated her from the two others along the other wall.
It all looked so foreign to him. The hospital bed, the tubes, the gown she was wearing. Event he way he head was sitting on the pillow with her hair spread out around her. He had never seen her look like that, not in the months that she had been sleeping beside him.
"Hey." He said, pulling a chair up to the side of her bed. He felt awkward talking to her while she slept, he had only done it once before, usually while she was on her side, her arm tucked under her cheek and her hair a mess around her from rolling around so much in her sleep. Now she looked pale, sickly, wrong. "They said you should wake up in a few hours, and your brother didn't want you to be alone, and well, let's be honest I couldn't wait to see you." He smiled, leaning forward he took her hand in both of his. It was too cold.
"They told me you might be able to hear me, that you might remember this." He let out a breathless laugh as he looked over her face again. Something inside him that had been slowly building since his phone rang was starting to break free and he felt his breath leaving him. "How is this real?" His eyes starting stinging. "You were fine, you were completely fine. I watched you fall, and I thought my heart was going to stop, but then you got up. You were fine." A sob broke free and he lowered his forehead to the blanket.
"I don't know what I would have done if you weren't okay." He admitted, his tone barely above a whisper. "I couldn't breath while you were in surgery, I couldn't..." his voice broke and he paused, leaning up to look at her. He brought her knuckles to his lips. "Thank god, you're okay." He breathed, shifting he stood leaning over her. Brushing his fingers along her cheek. "All you have to do now is open your eyes. That's it." Lando brushing his lips against her forehead. "I'll be here, waiting, I promise."
"Just open your eyes for me baby."
February 2024
"I don't know if I can do this." Lando said, pausing at the threshold of her room. It was the first time he had hesitated to enter in the time she had been there. It had become easier to talk to her, to tell her all about what was going on as if she would open her eyes and they could just continue their life together like nothing had happened. Like one day she would open her eyes, he would kiss her, and they would walk out of the hospital together. Back to their home in Monaco, back to their life.
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He's my teammate
Fanfiction**There will be some edits over the next few months** Arabella Van Dijk is a well-known Dutch snowboarder, especially after taking her place on the podium at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. As a Red Bull sponsored athlete no less. After her...
