A Bump in the Road (COMPLETE)

Chapter Eight (updated)

We had decided that it would be best if Lorien stayed overnight at the hospital. Not being their biggest fan, she wasn't totally wild about it but she acquiesced. While they normally wouldn't have allowed me to stay overnight with her, I told them that after everything that had happened I wasn't going to allow her out of my sight. I think that had made the night easier for her. The last week she wasn't able to get any sleep in fear that something might happen to her, so it wasn't a surprise to us when she slept for almost twelve hours.

"I'm giving her a prescription for some pain meds," Doctor Fumoka said as he scribbled something on a notepad, "she's going to need a lot of rest and she'll need to do some eating since she was a little malnourished. She'll also need to drink plenty of water,"

"Of course," I nodded, taking the paper from him, "anything else?"

"It would probably be best not to take her to too many places for a little while. It may overwhelm her and cause her to have an anxiety attack. Here, I'm going to write her a prescription for anxiety meds just in case she needs them,"

"Thank you so much Doctor," I shook his hand as a nurse wheeled Lorien out in a wheelchair, "you ready to go?"

"As ready as I'm going to be," she smiled, but her smiled seemed so different than it had been before.

Wheeling her out the entrance to Takao's car, I put her in the back to lay down during the drive. Everyone was quiet and Takao drove as if he had a baby in the back, which was an odd thing to think. Looking back at Lorien in the rear view mirror, I began to think what might have happened if she were pregnant during this entire thing and how it would have affected her.

At that moment, I realized that the outcome could have been completely different than it turned out. She could have been missing forever or worse, killed. My entire world could have come crashing down around me with her absence and everything I had become accustomed to would have ceased to exist.

Once at the apartment, I lifted Lorien, who had fallen asleep during the ride, into my arms and into the elevator. Takao continued to walk with us, carrying her bags and opening doors for me as we went. He turned to look at me as we reached our floor and smiled a bit. I knew that his feelings for Lorien would take time to leave him, if they did at all, but I also knew that he was beyond happy not only for myself but for everyone that she was finally home. Opening the door to the apartment, I walked into the bedroom and gently tucked her in then walked out to the living room to Takao.

"If you guys need anything let me know ok?" He said, placing her bag by the door, "We're all here for you two,"

"Thanks man," I brought him into a hug, startling him for a moment since I really wasn't the type to express physical emotion like that, "Thanks for everything,"

"It's no problem," he smiled, patting my arm for a moment, "I'll see you later ok?"

I nodded as I watched him leave the apartment, then locked the door behind him. The apartment felt whole again knowing that Lorien was back. It almost made it feel that no time had passed and nothing had changed, but we both knew that it was exactly the opposite of that. I walked back into the bedroom and I sat on the bed watching her sleep. She looked so peaceful and yet again I thought about what my life would have been like had something happened to her. From that moment I knew that I didn't want to waste another minute not being completely with her; the next morning we would start planning our wedding.


As the sun rose the next morning, I had already been up for two hours. Rising early enough to place a few phone calls, I had scheduled the entire day for the two of us. Since I knew that there was no way Lorien would be up to leaving the apartment and going into public, I had arranged it so all of our guests would be making house calls to us who we could get everything accomplished.

Walking into the kitchen with her hair a mess and yawning, Lorien sat heavily in her usual chair.

"You look like you could still use a few more hours of sleep," I said, placing her breakfast in front of her.

"I don't know if I want to," she bowed her head to thank for the food, "I've pretty much done nothing but sleep the last three days,"

"It's fine, your body is just trying to get you back to where you were before," I nodded as I watched her tentatively dig into her food; normally she would attach her food as if she were a starving animal, but now she seemed to be more guarded.

"I hope that's soon because this is ridiculous," she shook her head, then stopped and looked at me with a questioning look, "what are you still doing home?"

"I took the day off today," I didn't look at her. I knew that she would flip out because of this since she knew how important my students' education was.

"Yamato you didn't have to do that," she didn't look angry at all; on the contrary, she looked guilty like it was all her fault.

"The school understands why, so don't feel back about it ok?" I touched her hand gently.

Though she smiled at me her eyes remained sad. For the entire time I'd known her she had always said that she didn't want to be a bother and I could tell that that was what she was thinking; that she had become a bother to me.

"I had an idea," I continued, turning back to my food, "I think we should start planning our wedding,"

At this she was taken aback, considering that we hadn't really talked about that since our engagement and it didn't help that I wasn't the most romantic man out there. I looked back at her and was shocked to see her crying. Walking over to her, I sat in front of her and tried to pry her hands away from her eyes.

"Lorien why are you crying?"

Without answering me, she reached out for my face and pressed her lips against my own. When she pulled away she had a slight smile.

"Is someone going to come over here to meet us?" Her voice was a little hoarse, "or are we going to video chat? I would offer to go out but..."

"Don't worry, you don't have to leave the apartment until you're ready. I have someone coming to meet us here in a couple of hours. Apparently Seaki knows her and has worked with her on some occasions,"

"What's her name? Maybe I know her."

"That's right, sometimes I forget that you're a licensed wedding planner,"

"Only because I haven't had any clients yet. I think that after I'm ready to go back out into the world that I'm going to really get started on that. Don't get me wrong I love working for my Uncle, but I think it's time that I get started on my life career, ya know?"

I did understand what she was talking about. That was the whole reason why I had wanted to jump on the planning of our future. I didn't want to waste another minute on useless shit when I needed to focus on her.