Overboard: Somebody to Love #4

6

Justin’s POV

            Madelyn was wheeled away to surgery and I was sent to the waiting room. The whole time I couldn’t help but think, what if she doesn’t make it? What if our last week together was filled with constant arguing and bickering? I wouldn’t ever forgive myself if she didn’t make it through the surgery.

            I tortured myself for two hours before the doctor came out to talk to me.

            “Everything went perfectly. There was a little more tearing and swelling than I had anticipated, but we were able to reconstruct everything. It’ll be as good as new in a couple of months.”

            “And the baby?” I asked eagerly.

            “Perfectly fine.” I breathed a huge sigh of relief as soon as the words left his mouth. “Madelyn is being wheeled into recovery right now. Do you want to see her?”

            “Yes!”

Madelyn’s POV

            I woke up to searing pain in my knee. I looked down and I could see it was twice the size of my other knee, not counting the bandage that it was wrapped in.

It hurt, a lot. I wasn’t able to get strong pain medicine because of the pregnancy. I assumed I was still pregnant since I was in so much pain.

            “Hey babe.” Justin rushed to my side when he came into the room.

            “Hi.” I moaned, still sleepy from the mild drugs I was on.

            “The doctor said your surgery went really well. Your knee is going to be as good as new.”

            “And the baby?”

            “Perfectly fine.” He smiled. I felt tears well up in my eyes. My plan hadn’t worked. I was still pregnant, and I desperately did not want to be. “Mads.” He picked up my hand and kissed it. “We will figure this out.”

Justin’s POV

            Madelyn was released from the hospital later that day. She was on crutches and was strictly forbidden from bearing any weight on her knee. I knew it was going to be hard for her. She was normally constantly moving and working on something, so laying in bed all day and having to use crutches was going to drive her nuts.

            “Mommy! Hold me!” Stella pleaded on Madelyn’s first night home.

            “Baby girl, I can’t.” Madelyn hobbled up the stairs with her crutches.

            “Here Stel, Daddy will hold you.” I picked her up and tried to appease her.

            “No! Mommy!” She screamed after Madelyn, throwing a huge temper tantrum in my arms. She was kicking and screaming as Madelyn disappeared from her sight. Normally Madelyn was the disciplinarian, but she didn’t say a word.

            “Justin, just bring her up here.” Madelyn sighed. I walked in to our bedroom right as she was laying on the bed. Stella practically leaped from my arms onto the bed where Madelyn was and cuddled right up against her.

            “You’re just going to let her throw a tantrum for me and not do anything about it?” I asked, annoyed.

            “She’s just tired.”

            “So it’s okay for you to make excuses for her bad behavior, but heaven forbid if I make an excuse.”

            “Justin, just stop. I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to go to bed.”

            “I sleep here.” Stella smiled at Madelyn.

            “No no no.” I grabbed her from Madelyn and the screaming immediately started again.

            “If she wants to sleep in here, she can.” Madelyn reached for her. “I do believe that there are two kids downstairs waiting to be bathed and put to bed.” She sighed.

She was right. Since she couldn’t bend down or anything, I was left to do almost everything. I headed downstairs to get Aniston and Kingston ready for bed.

Madelyn’s POV

            I woke up in the middle of the night with pain in my knee so awful I was in tears. I bit my tongue and tried to breathe through the pain without waking Stella or Justin.

            I so badly wanted the real pain medicines that I was supposed to be getting, no thanks to the baby. I knew going into the surgery it would be painful with only a mild Tylenol, but I hadn’t expected anything this awful. It was almost worse than natural childbirth, which was supposed to be the most painful experience of life.

            Finally, after an hour of excruciating pain I was able to fall back asleep. The pain was still there, but I was able to sleep through it.

            The next few days the pain kept escalating. I alternated between laying in bed and laying on the couch. Stella continued to press Justin’s buttons by yelling for me every time he picked her up or told her to do anything at all. Normally she was a daddy’s girl, so this made him even more irritated.

            Kenny took me to my first post-op doctor appointment. Justin was supposed to, but he flaked out at the last minute to go play golf with Ryan and Chaz who were in town. I didn’t mind though, I would rather have spent the hour with Kenny than Justin anyways. I knew Kenny could sense the tension between Justin and I lately, and I presumed Justin had already told him everything, but at least he was polite and didn’t ask me to talk about it.

            The doctor thought my knee was healing fantastic. He put on a huge brace that would keep my knee from bending at all and decided to keep me on crutches for at least another week. After that, I could start physical therapy and be on my way towards running again. Eventually.