I woke up in so much pain that I let out a scream, and Nate jumped up immediately.
“What?! What’s wrong?”
I looked down, and there was blood everywhere. All over me, and all over the bed. Nate looked horrified, and I’m guessing I had a similar look on my face.
“Jesus! How did this happen?!” He yelled. He was panicking and running to the bathroom to get paper towels.
“I don’t know! I woke up like this!”
“You must have touched or something in your sleep,” Nate calmed down a bit, but I was still in panic mode. Nate reached over me and pulled the emergency cord.
“It’ll be okay, someone is going to come help us” Nate brushed his hand on my forehead. Two nurses came running in.
“What’s the matter?”
“I woke up to all this blood…”
“Okay let’s take a look.” She lifted up my shirt and looked at my wound, “Okay it looks like you scratched it in your sleep. It’s starting to scab, so it’s going to be itchy.” She cleaned it up, and put my shirt back down. The other nurse started taking everything off my bed, besides the sheets since I’m laying on them.
“Okay we’re going to have to get you off of the bed long enough for us to change the sheets. Carla, will you go grab a new pair of sheets from the closet?” She came over to me and put her hand on the bed, “We’re going to have to help you up, then I’m going to have you stand up, and Nate’s going to have to hold you up. You ready?”
“Yeah, let’s do it…”
“Okay, sit up, and hold on to me,” I did as she said, “Now on the count of 3 I’m going to help you stand up, ready?”
“Yup.”
“1...2...3,” She practically lifted me up, “Okay now I want you to stand on Nate’s feet and lean on him, because if you sit down again it’s going to be hard to get you up again,” I did as she said, and I buried my face into Nates chest because of all the pain. The nurses quickly took off the sheets. Nate put his arms around me and rubbed up and down my back.
“You okay?” He whispered to me.
“It hurts so bad to stand.”
“It’s okay, they’re almost done, Steph.” He pulled me in closer to him and wrapped both arms tightly around me. I’ve never felt so warm.
“Okay Stephanie, let’s get you back into bed. Sit down carefully, then you can just lay yourself down.” The nurse patted on the bed. I sat down on it as slowly as possible, because now the pain was so raw and extreme, I couldn’t do much of anything. “I’m going to have you wear these gloves to sleep so that you can’t scratch yourself,” the nurse handed me a pair of gloves...Oh great. The nurse instructed me to try to get some sleep, then she left.
“Are you going to be okay?” Nate said worriedly
“I-I don’t know,” I was in so much pain, “It hurts so bad.”
“Would you like me to sleep up there with you?”
“Sure, that would be nice,” I said shyly. He climbed in next to me, and I scooched over so he had room. He moved to his side, facing me, and looked me in the eyes.
“It’ll get better, I promise. This pain won’t be forever.”
“What’s going to happen after this? Will we still be friends?”
“I don’t know,” my heart dropped when he said that, “I was thinking of something a little different”
“What do you mean?” I was so confused. I’m obviously no good with men…
“Well… Steph, I don’t know. It’s crazy. I think you’re so perfect in every single way. You make me so fucking happy, and I’ve only been with you for a couple days. I’ve never met anyone like you. It seems like we have so much in common, and I want to learn even more about you. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, or if you even want to, but I hope you are willing to make this work with me.”
“R-r-really? You mean… out of everyone you could have… You want me? You like me? Nate I couldn’t have asked for anything more than that. You saved my life without even knowing it, and now you want to be a part of it. I would love to make this work with you Nate… You have no idea.” He smiled at me, and took my hand up to his face and kissed it. I couldn’t even imagine how badly I was blushing. Nate was so gorgeous, and perfect. I was amazed that he could ever want someone like me. I felt so close to him so quickly, and it was one of the best feelings I’ve felt in so long.
“Let’s go to sleep, Steph. We’ll see what’s ahead for us when we get there. For now, let’s get you better.” He held my hand in his, and we drifted off to sleep.
