A funny word called Love

Chapter 25

As soon as Yuri woke up, he rushed off to the hospital. He didn't bother eating breakfast and barely thought to throw on some of the clothes that he had packed before quickly walking the mile or so that it was to the hospital, passing the ice skating rink he had visited the previous night along the way.

When he got there, he was pleased to see that his grandfather was upright, looking downright exhausted, but upright. "Oh, hello Yuratchka, what are you doing here?" Nicolai asked, surprised to see his grandson here.

Yuri ran up to his grandfather and hugged him tightly until his grandfather seemed to be gasping for air. "Sorry Grandfather," Yuri said as he released him, "I'm here because you're in the hospital. I'm here because you had a stroke. I was so worried about you. I had to come and check in to make sure that you were okay."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that!"

"Yes I did, you're my grandfather. I don't know how I would've forgiven myself if I hadn't comed and you had passed away. I'm just so glad that you're still here. I'm so glad that you survived."

"Oh Yuratchka, don't worry about me. Now, how's training for the Grand Prix Final going," Nicolai said, and they chatted together for a couple of hours before Nicolai started nodding off.

"To make a full recovery, your Grandfather needs his rest. I'd suggest that you'd leave him to sleep now," a nearby nurse said pointedly.

"Okay, goodbye Grandfather," Yuri said, giving his grandfather a tight hug before turning to walk out, and asking the nurse, "I know that he's going to most likely have to use a cane to walk now, but is there any other complications because of his stroke that I should know about before I leave."

"Not that I know of, besides that people who've already had one stroke are at a higher risk for having a second one," the nurse told him.

'Fuck,' Yuri thought before he said to the nurse, "Thank you, tell my grandfather that I hope he recovers soon and to make sure to have his cell phone on and nearby so that I can call him!"

"Will do," the nurse said, and Yuri walked out of the hospital, thankful to be out of the wretched building that only made him think of illness and death. Rationally, he knew that hospitals were where people went to be healed, but he could never stand to be in one. They just made his head fill even faster with worst case scenarios, and the air in them always felt too stiff to breathe freely.

Yuri stopped at the rink, but far too many people were there for Yuri to be able to skate his worries away, so he went back to his hotel, his ears still ringing with the nurse's warning that his grandfather was now more likely to have a second stroke, and Yuri reached for his phone to call Otabek.