Give Me Love (COMPLETE)

TWENTY

TWENTY

The next afternoon was spent with me bustling through the hospital corridors with a huge breakfast for two in my arms, along with three helium balloons that said the very generic phrase “Get Well Soon!” on the fronts of its metallic lining. I inhaled deeply before bursting through the door of room 206A, snapping Jason awake.

“Were you sleeping?” I questioned in disbelief.

He rubbed his eyes and smiled sheepishly, his hair obviously messy from sleeping. “Maybe.” He paused, eyeing the smile on my face. “What?” he asked cautiously.

I shrugged, kicking the sliding table in his direction before setting the food down on it. “Your hair is just adorable right now.” I laughed, reaching towards him and patting his messy hair - that was curled in weird places – down. “It’s cute,” I winked assuringly. “Oh, and I brought breakfast, I know it’s almost three pm but since you just woke up I guess it works.” I rambled, taking out the warm pancakes from the store’s paper bag and popping the lid open for him. I took out a hashbrown and an omlete, followed by two cups of orange juice and some cutlery (and syrup).

While Jason dug in, I took the liberty of opening the blinds to let the sun brighten up the bland white room. I barely got any food in before Doctor Marcus burst into the room, much like I had earlier. He surely caught our attention with his frazzled features, which began to nag at me. What was wrong? “Hi, Dr. Marcus…” I smiled politely. “Is everything okay?”

He just looked at me, then at Jason, and then stepped forward to retrieve his chart and flipped through the pages, taking off from where he stopped last night, I assumed. He made little sounds, many ‘mhmm’s and ‘aha’s, which once again began to freak me out. After setting the chart aside, he looked up at me. Then Jason. “The labs came back this morning,” he began, walking toward Jason. “and it shows signs of an epidural hematoma –“

I stood straighter, “Woah, a what?” I exclaimed frantically.

“To put it simply, somewhat of a hemorrhage… in his frontal lobe.” The tips of his long bony fingers pressed against Jason’s forehead as he looked back at me. “We do want to operate, it’s extremely good that we caught it when we did, had he not had broken limbs, we probably wouldn’t have discovered it until much later… when it would be beyond repair.”

My tongue darted out and brushed against my dry lips. “Surgery?” I whispered, mortified.

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his white coat and pursed his lips. “Yes, m’am. This surgery has been done many, many times before so the risks are extremely low. However, because it is his frontal lobe that we’re working with, it’s a little riskier than others. That’s the area where his personality, speech and majority of his memory consists.”

“And one mistake would mean either of those on the line.” I spoke his unspoken words and cast my eyes to the white linoleum flooring. It was silent in the room, and then Jason spoke up.

“I guess we have to try it.” Doctor Marcus looked at him and nodded, clasping his hands together.

“Okay, good. We’ll schedule you in for surgery tonight, sound good?” he asked, glancing at the both of us. Jason sat up in his bed and his left hand found my right one before he nodded. “Good, have a good afternoon, guys.” He nodded, too, before leaving us in silence.

I looked down at Jason after the doctor left, uncertainty swallowed me whole. “Jason?” I mumbled, my throat feeling thick. He squeezed my hand in response. “You promised you’d be okay. I’m still holding you to it, mister.” My eyes began watering against my will and I looked away from his gaze.

He sighed, “Baby – no, don’t cry on me. Charlotte? Char?” I blinked a few times before meeting his soft gaze.  “I told you this before, I’m not going anywhere. At all. And God forbid, if this surgery went wrong and I ended up losing my memory or something, then I’d just fall in love with you all over again.” The genuineness in his voice made my heart constrict, and I know I should’ve been melting at his words, but instead, tears welled in my eyes and spilled over, rolling down my cheeks and splattering on the floor. Unable to stand there and watch him watch me cry, I kicked off my flats and pushed the thin sheets aside, crawling into bed beside him.

I buried my face into his hospital robe, feeling embarrassed and upset. “I’m sorry – I shouldn’t…” I sniffled. “I shouldn’t cry, but I love you and I don’t want to lose you.” I choked on my words, curling up into a ball and crying some more. His arms wrapped around me, but carefully enough not to get his IV wire caught in my hair.

He kissed my hair, then my forehead, and then my nose. “Charlotte, I swear to God I’ll be alright. I just have a feeling, you know? Baby, I’ll be perfectly fine after tonight.”

When my sniffles wore down, I frowned into the crook of his arm. “They’re going to cut your hair…” I looked up from under my lashes and reached out to fist my hand in his hair. “I love your hair.”

He smiled, his eyes greener than usual, and winked. “I didn’t know you liked it that much. I’ll grow it back.” He chuckled. “it’ll look sexier.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “How do you manage to be irritatingly cocky even at the worst of times?” I was aiming for seriousness, but my smile gave me away. “I feel horrible, I feel like Noah should be here, but I dropped her off at your moms after we saw you last night…” I whispered, nibbling on my thumb, anxiously. He shuffled and wrapped his arms tighter around me.

“That’s okay, sweetheart.” He whispered back, his breath hot on my ear. I gasped, feeling ticklish and turned my face to look at him. “I love you.” He said for the thousandth time.

He pressed his lips against mine, then against my temple, holding me in place with my face in the crook of his neck, our bodies pressed together. We lay there for what seems like forever, before my eyes begin to droop. “I love you, too.” I murmur before I forget.