Complicated

Chapter Twenty Two: Reprieve

I try to be patient, but I'm hurting deep inside
And I can't keep waiting, I need comfort late at night
And I can't find my way, won't you lead me home
Cause I'm lost in this dream, I need you to hold me

Beyonce – Scared Of Lonely

Don was wearing his downtime clothes. Civvies, Grace called them, with a laugh and a joke about how he reminded her as a superhero. He was wearing dark blue jeans, and one of his long sleeved navy coloured T-shirts.

His eyes were closed, his head tilted to one side as he slumbered. His arms were folded over his broad chest as Grace watched the deep raise and fall of his chest. His face was lined with dark stubble, she wanted to run her hands over it, to kiss his mouth and tell him that it was all ok. She was here with him and she was staying. She could see how exhausted he was, how much of a toll this ordeal had and was still taking on him.

Grace shifted, trying to get more comfortable. Her ass was going numb from resting in this position, her was back stiff from being propped upright for so long. She hissed in pain through her teeth as she sagged back onto the pillows. She could barely move more than a few inches without the muscles in her stomach wrenching in agony. That and the crippling weakness that was so deep set in her muscles it rendered her practically useless, made her irate and exhausted..The doctors had told her to resist trying to be too mobile, she was to hit the call button if she needed anything.

"He's been out like a light for the past hour." Mac offered from the other side of the bed.

Grace jerked her head towards him in surprise, her cheek coming to rest on the plush pillow as she looked at him. He leaned forward in his chair, both hands clasped together as he reviewed her with clinical eyes.

"Jesus, Mac your worse than Batman." Grace uttered quietly, rubbing her hand across her forehead feeling her heart rate beginning to slow down as she took a deep breath.

"Sorry." Mac said with a small smile as he folded his copy of The Ledger. "How are you feeling?"

"One kidney lighter." Grace said light-heartedly, pressing her hand to the large cotton pad that covered her abdomen before adding. "In pain, sick and phenomenally tired."

"That's your body's way of starting to heal." Mac reassured her. "You remember much about what happened?"

Grace sighed as her hands came to rest upon her stomach over the standard issue hospital blanket.

"I don't remember much of anything from the past forty eight hours." she admitted. "Just snatches, but I'm told that's normal after surgery."

Mac pursed his lips sympathetically. Stella had already filled Grace in on the circumstances involving the past two days, he had wanted to see if there were any questions she needed answers to before he finished up from the night. In reality he wanted to see for himself how she recovering, it had frightened him to have her come this close to death all over again.

"Your parents are on their way here." Mac informed her. "They just got on the plane in Toronto, they're bringing your brother Jared along with them."

"Wow." Grace said, raising her eyebrows in mock surprise. "I feel honoured. I get to see him once a year at Christmas usually. I should get shot more often."

"I don't think Don or any of us could take it if it happened again." Mac submitted, a tone of warning in his voice.

"I don't think I could take going through the agony again. I only have one more kidney left." she reminded him before casting a curious glance at Don's sleeping form. "How is he?"

"He's hanging in there. I think this whole thing gave him a wake up he didn't expect." Mac said with his usual blunt honesty.

"So I see." Grace remarked, holding up her left hand for Mac to see the engagement ring perched on her finger. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't there when I got hit."