forever fades away

chapter 31

“Finn?” He could hear the voices surrounding him, but his eyelids felt like lead. And if that wasn’t bad enough he felt sick to his stomach. He tried to clear the heavy drug induced fog in his head but decided it took too much energy to do so. 

“Is?” 

“Yes! Finn it’s me. I’m so glad you’re…” Isabel finally broke down and wrapped her arms around her brother as best as possible. Alex stood beside her, rubbing her back gently. 

“Y-yeah I’m good.” Finn tried to smile but found himself dosing off. He had never felt this tired in his entire life. 

“I’m happy. I was so worried and I’m just…” Isabel tried to express her feelings but the only one that she felt above all was relief. It didn’t matter if he could play or not. The only thing that mattered was that her brother was safe. 

“We’re going to get going now. Everyone else wants to see you.” Isabel kissed her brother’s cheek softly before leaving the room. 

Maria and Michael were next. Maria was hesitant at first but the second she saw Finn she broke down just as Isabel did. Michael suspected that Maria had finally let go because Rachel was no longer around. Everyone was trying to be so supportive for Rachel's sake. 

“Hey don’t cry on my account.” Finn tried to joke. He was slowly coming to full consciousness. 

“Hudson, she’s a girl. She can’t handle hard shit like this and you know it.” 

“Ow! What was that for?” Michael whined out when Maria elbowed him in the ribs. 

“You are just so insensitive. Anyway, Finn we just wanted to make sure you were all good before we headed home. We’ll be back in the morning.” Finn nodded and watched as they left. 

Where was Rachel? That was his first question when he realized that everyone was coming in a few at a time. Did she not want to see him? Did he scare her off by telling her that he loved her? Finn had the sudden urge to rise to his feet and find her. He ached to see her beautiful face. He caught sight of his hospital room door opening and hoped that it was her…but it wasn’t. 

“Hey Drew.” Finn greeted him, sitting up a little higher against his pillows. 

“There’s the champ.” Drew comes to stand at the foot of Finn's bed. And as much as Finn is happy to see him here, he needed to see her. It must’ve been clearly evident in his eyes because Drew starts talking. 

“She’s outside waiting to see you. She wants to see you, man. She’s been going crazy for the last couple of hours, but she’s okay.” Finn nodded, not really sure what to say. He didn’t even know what happened with the surgery. All he knew was that he would go crazy if he didn’t see her in the next few minutes. 

“The rest of the team is here too, but I sent them away a few minutes ago. I told them you were okay and I’ll give them a detailed report later.” Drew tried to lighten the mood. He could tell Finn was on edge. 

“Good…that’s good,” Finn began but stopped mid sentence when the door opened once again. His heart was in his throat. It had to be her this time, he thought. 

But it wasn’t. His shoulders sagged in defeat. The world was against him today. 

“Mr. Hudson. I’m glad to see you’re awake. I wanted to let you know before I left for the day that…” 

“No! I don’t want to know anything until Rachel is here.” Finn shook his head fiercely. Drew was outside the room retrieving Rachel a second later. 

“Rach, wake up.” Drew whispered softly trying not to startle Rachel. She had apparently fallen asleep in the past few minutes. 

“What?! What’s wrong?” Rachel bolted from the chair and almost tripped over Drew. He reached out his arms to steady her. 

“Nothing. He wants to see you. The doctor is with him now.” Rachel nodded her head and tried to straighten out her extremely disheveled appearance. 

She practically ran to his room and swung the door open. Their eyes connected instantly and they both tried their best not to break down in front of the doctor. Rachel was by his side in an instant. Finn shifted over as best as possible giving her room to sit beside him. She looked into his eyes and smiled brightly at him, her eyes full of the complete and utter happiness and relief that he was okay. Finn reached out his hand to Rachel and she quickly gathered it in hers. 

“Now as I was saying, the surgery went great! We couldn’t have asked for anything better.” The doctor smiled and waited for some kind of reaction. When he received none he continued on. 

They both sighed in relief at the doctors words, but Finn had questions that he needed answers to. 

“Wait. When you say great, do you mean I’m going to be able to play again? Or great as in, I survived?” Rachel couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped past her lips. The reality was anything less than funny, but the way Finn delivered the question made her giggle…just a little. 

“You will be able to play Mr. Hudson. But you will need a lot of physical therapy. Over all this was a success and with the proper treatment you’ll be back on the court in no time.” The doctor smiled and decided it was getting increasingly difficult to watch the two of them staring at each other. He asked if they had any further questions before leaving the room.