Love and Laughter

Chapter Nine

Ryleigh turns to me and smirks, then at the same time, him and Kyle say, "I know." Then turn to each other and glare as if a puppy was murdered. 

"Oh my god!" I groan. "I'm gonna get out of this bed and knock your heads together as hard as I can." I growl. Ryleigh walks to my bedside and sits in his chair. 

"Shy. You're gonna need surgery. There's fragments of the bullet in your bloodstream and they have to flush it out." He pauses to take my hand as the prick of tears pains the back of my eyes. "We'll be right here waiting for you to come out of the operating room." He finishes. 

"Is that what you were arguing about?" Ryleigh says.

"So .... why you?" I ask, feverishly swiping at the unfallen tears. 

"I'm the reason you got shot in the first place." He whispers.

"Ryleigh..." I whisper, playing with his hair to relax him. 

"I'm just sorry, Shy." He says. He lays his head on my stomach and sigh heavily as his fingers brush the sutures. 

"Ryleigh I'm perfectly fine. Just sore. Lets get this surgery." I say. Kyle nods and walks out to go get the nurse. After a few minutes, my nurse comes in and smiles at me.

"Are you ready?" She asks. I nod once and she hits my morphine button to knock me out, rolling my bed to the operating room. The morphine kicks in and knocks me out before we even get the monitors attached to me again. 

Under the anesthetics, I can almost taste the anesthetic they're using to keep me under to do the surgery. Unconsciously, I slow my breathing and still my body, kicking in the "out-of-body" experience. My "spirit form" comes "out" of my body and I watch the surgery go down. I check the clock and notice the surgery took eight hours to get through. I close my "eyes" and force my body to move, forcing my "spirit form" to return to my body, falling asleep from the effort it took. 

After about four and a half hours, I wake up refreshed. "Hmm." I mumble happily. Ryleigh jumps up and rushes to my side. 

"Baby!" He yells. 

"Hi." I laugh, smiling and taking Ryleigh's face in my hands and kissing him roughly. After we part, Ryleigh slowly whistles. 

"Wow." He whispers. 

"I love you." I say

"I love you, too." Ryleigh replies. 

"You do love her. Don't you?" Kyle asks. 

"Yes." Ryleigh replies. 

"Then I approve of your relationship." Kyle sighs. 

After a long time of me screaming and laughing and crying in pure happiness, my nurse comes in laughing at all of us. 

"You ready to go home?" She asks. 

"Yes, Please." I say. She laughs again and helps me get dressed with Ryleigh's assistance in keeping me standing straight so I don't lose my balance. They offer me crutches but I decline those and a wheelchair.

Kyle's sent out to sign me out and when I'm finally dressed and ready, Ryleigh and I walk out to meet him and go home. 

"Hey, Ky." I say, walking slowly so I don't pull the stitches.

"Hey, Shy" He says, hugging me and Ryleigh. 

"I'm gonna enjoy this life." I whisper.