Falling In Love: Of All The Dumb Luck (On Hold)

Part 3: J and K 2.0 - Chapter 16

Jared:

It took me a minute to focus on anything but Kelsea. When I first saw her she was sitting in the chair next to my hospital bed singing. Then, her with one arm at the foot of my bed, and the other gently set on the back of my hand, with her head resting on her one arm, and I finally realized, I had a tube stuck down my throat. A minute or so later, Kelsea lifts her head up, and a smile slides across her face, she quickly stands up, says, "He's awake," and then a little louder, running out a sliding door into the hallway, "He's awake." In an instant, Kelsea is coming back in, followed by my parents, Holly and a doctor, who looks a lot like Dr. Van Dyke.

I start pointing at the tube, as he's pulling his gloves on, "Just a second, and well get that out of your throat..." He takes the tape away and says, "As I pull out the tube I need you to cough, okay?" I give a slight nod, my parents by my side, and Holly and Kelsea, arms wrapped around each other, all of them have tears streaming down their faces. I let a big cough, which makes me gag a little on the tube. The doctor takes off his gloves and hands me a small glass of water. Looking at me he says, "Your throat might be a little soar, so go easy on the talking." I nod.

My mom wraps her arms around me, then my dad slides in and steals a hug, finally Holly pushes through to get a hug, and Kelsea just stays at my feet with tears still streaming down her face. The doctor continues to say to everyone else in the room but me, "He might not remember what happened, so just take it easy." My dad says, shaking his hand, "Thank you, Dr. Van Dyke." I guess I was here a little more than everyone thought. "A nurse will be in shortly to take you to get a CT and an MRI."

Dr. Van Dyke left the room, and we all sat there in silence, a second later my mom wrapped her arms around me again and cried into my shoulder, Kelsea said, "I'm going to leave you guys alone." I was about to protest but she was already shutting the door behind her. My mom let go of me and said, "I'm sorry, I just..." and more tears started streaming down her face. Holly quickly interjects, "So, what do you remember?"

I think about it for a second, and say, "It's a little foggy. Where is Asher?"

My dad and Holly had a slightly surprised look on their faces, my mom's use to this kind of the thing. Finally, my dad said, "With Aunt Madalyn."

"Can she bring him over?"

My dad said, "Holly and I can go and get them." Then it's just my mom and I in the room. "I missed you, baby boy." I responded, "I love you, mom." She leans in and kisses my forehead, then her pager goes off inside of her purse, she turns it off and sticks her head out the door and calls to one of the nurses, "Will you tell them I'm not on-call?"

The nurse replies, "They need all available personal, 12-car pile up on Madison and 4th Ave. pedestrians are involved."

"Mom, go. People need your help." I say.

"But you're my son who just came out of a coma an hour ago."

"They're going to be taking me to get a CT and whatever else. You'll just be a sitting duck here." I know that because of the accident I'll probably be waiting awhile, but right now, not a whole lot is making sense and us just sitting here is a little awkward, and I hope that Kelsea will notice and come in. Hopefully it won't be as awkward between us, but if what I remember of that day actually happened, doubtful.

After a minute of looking at me and thinking about it she said, "Okay." She came over and kissed my forehead again and went into the hall, telling the nurse at the desk, "Page me when he's done or if anything changes."

Kelsea:

I left them alone after he woke up. I didn't know what to say. I felt so out of place, but stayed in the waiting room. His dad and Holly got onto an elevator, and an hour or so later his mom was poking her head out the door and talking to one of the nurses, and eventually went, changed into a pair of scrubs, and rode the next elevator down.

I decided to go in and check on him. His head was laid back against the hospital bed, I opened the sliding door and shut it, Jared opened his eyes and lifted his head a little. I stood next to him and asked looking around the empty room, "Where did they go?"

"My dad and Holly went to get Asher, and I talked my mom into going down to the ER and helping with a big accident." He said in a slightly raspy voice.

I nodded, then he asked, "What day is it?"

"The fourteenth."

"Of...?"

"February." I say in a quieter tone. "Happy birthday." He said wrapping his hand around mine.

"You remember?" He nodded.

"So what else do you remember?" He thought about it for a second, "Everything, except..." He trailed off. "Why don't you tell me what happened and we'll see if the stories match."

"We were walking around downtown and we were crossing the street... A car came speeding down the street, I tried to push you out of the way so we could get out of it's path, but I was a day late and a dollar short." I let out a soft laugh and cleared my throat. "When you fell, your head hit the curb. When the car hit me, I could barely breath. You got up and ran over to me... and I guess my heart stopped. On the way to the hospital, they got my heart started again... Like a week later one of the paramedics came to check on us and, told me that after they got me back, you blacked out, I guess. He said, "Unresponsive. I had internal bleeding and a broken leg, you had a brain bleed."

Then, we just sat there for a second, I skipped over what happened before I blacked out. I just kept thinking, what if that was just because of the brain bleed? What if he didn't... doesn't really love me.

The next thing he asked me was, "What about Dallas?"

I took in a deep breath, "We broke up." I wanted to leave it at that, but then he said, "Care to share." I thought for a second, "I guess almost dying changes your perspective on life." I thought about telling him about the confessions again but stopped myself.

The sliding door slid open, Mr. Avery came in with Asher in his arms and Holly right behind him, he handed Asher to Holly and said, "They need my help in the pit. I'll be back as soon as I can." He ran back out the door. We were all use to this kind of hospital jargon. "The life of having parents who both work in the ER." Holly said. Mr. Avery is a trauma surgeon and Mrs. Avery is a trauma nurse, so they're use to this, I'm even use to this because of how much time I've spent with them.

Holly stands up, and hands Asher to me, "I'm gonna run to the bathroom. I'll be right back." Jared hasn't taken his eyes of Asher since his dad walked in the room with him. "Do you want to hold him?" I asked. He nodded and I handed Asher to him, then he said, "He's gotten so big. He wasn't this big earlier." I gave him a questioning look. Then he continues, "Long story."

"So, give me the short version."

"I guess I dreamt? If that's the correct word, while I was out, and things happened a little differently. The rest for another time." I had read an article about some people dreaming while they're in a coma, I had plenty of time to read while recovering, I still can't play volleyball until I finish three more weeks of physical therapy. Jared and I still have a ways to go before things can remotely go back to normal, whatever that is.