I Never Planned On You

39- I'll Always Stay

Ben's POV:

"You should really come back with us and get some sleep, it's been a long day." Melissa says, standing up from the chair in Andie's hospital room.

"No, I want to be here when she wakes up." I insist, still holding Andie's hand.

"Okay, I'll ask someone if you are allowed to stay in her room." Mel says and I nod.

I rest my head on the side of her bed, starting to close my eyes, when I get a text from Melissa,

You're all good. Sleep well. Love you.

I put my phone on the bedside table and return to the position I was previously in, eventually falling asleep.

Andie's POV:

I reach up to rub my eyes, but am stopped when I realize a hand softly holding mine. I turn to my right and see Ben with his head leaning up against the side of the bed, his hair looking crazy, as if he ran his hands through it hundreds of times.

The sun peaks through the window and I reach my other hand up to cover my eyes. I soon get tired of waiting for Ben to wake up, and gently squeeze his hand.

Ben's head immediately shoots up and he looks at the door, before his eyes land on me, a relieved smile landing on his face.

"Thank God you're awake." He says, gripping my hand a bit tighter while yawning.

"Wha-What happened?" I ask, my throat a little scratchy.

Ben picks my chart off of a table, skimming through it, "You, uh, you had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which we already knew, but thought doctors fixed. Turns out, a few years after you were born, the left side of your heart- which has all sorts of important things- stopped growing and now, was underdeveloped. When you fell, you had started going into heart failure because of it. They think your heart had started to quit two or three days ago, but the symptoms weren't incredibly obvious." Ben stops, taking a moment to breathe, "When you got to the hospital, the doctors realized that you needed to have a transplant, they found a heart that was a match for yours and...that's pretty much everything." He says, placing my chart back where it was, going back to hold my hand again.

"Where's my family?" I ask.

"They got the earliest flight they could, but they'll be here soon. Evan is gonna text me when they land." Ben explains.

I nod. "Thank you for staying." I say, softly.

"I'll always stay, I-" He pauses, "Never mind." He looks down.

"What's up?" I ask, trying to get Ben to look at me again.

"When I thought that I-" He stops, "When I thought I would never see you again, I realized how much you really mean to me."

"What do I mean to you?" I wonder.

"You, you mean everything to me. I don't know how it is that it feels less like I'm getting to know you and more like I'm remembering who you are. Everything you do makes me more and more convinced that I've known you before. That I've loved you in another life. I don't know, I'm just being stupid, I guess."

"You're not being stupid." I smile lightly.

"Andrea, I lo-"

Just then, a doctor walks in the room, completely ruining the moment, "You're awake!" She says and I nod, very upset at the situation, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, you know, despite everything." I sigh as Ben looks down.

"Okay, that's good! Your surgery was extremely successful and we think you should be out of here tomorrow!" She says very peppy.