Bridge Jump (rewrite)

Chapter Seventeen: Hospital beds

Lindsey found herself pushing through the hospital doors right on the nurse's tail as she led her back to Austin's room. She was fairly sure she was crushing Dahlia's hand while dragging her along. When her eyes landed on the empty room she could feel her eyes well up, the severity of what happened finally sinking in. The Nurse smiled kindly at Lindsey before saying, "he should be back shortly, the injuries weren't too bad. The doctor will be in with him to talk to you."

Lindsey nodded thanking the nurse and settling into a seat after helping Dahlia. She nervously ran her hand through her hair, finger combing the ends and then smoothing it out over and over again.

An hour or so had passed before Austin was finally moved back to his room, he was still under the anesthesia. Lindsey shot up, walking over to the attending physician. Her words quickly and quietly spewing out, "is he going to be okay? What happened? W- "

The doctor cut her off, asking "Mrs. Lindsey?"

She frantically nodded her head, clutching tightly to her arms in hopes of keeping herself warm. She has long since given her coat to Dahlia. She aggressively chewed at her nail as she listened to the doctor explain what had happened and that Austin was a lucky man. Everything going in one ear and out the other, the only thing fully being comprehended was, "he should be awake in and hour, then the cops would like to talk to him and after that he'll be discharged as long as his vitals are stable and he seems in good shape."

She thanked the dark-skinned man, tightly hugging him before returning to the room. She looked down over him. As Austin lied in his hospital bed,  he looked peaceful. She'd never seen him so at ease, even when he slept he usually looked at if something was on his mind or bothering him. Even then he's mumble in his sleep, sometimes even sitting up and saying something before lying back down and returning to the mumbling. Now he was silent, the only sound coming from him were his soft breaths. Lindsey trailed a finger down the side of his face, then running a hand through his over grown hair. She softly chuckled remembering how she had told him it looked nice long so he decided in keeping it instead of buzzing it down. She sighed leaning down giving him a peak on the head before settling into her chair. Her body finally crashing to sleep.

Lindsey woke to the sound of giggles. She sighed at how sore her body felt. Slightly groaning in pain and she stretched her hands over head, her back loudly cracking. She rubbed her eyes looking out before her at Austin and Dahlia. She couldn't help but engrave the sight of  Austin actually smiling into her memory, the smiled directed towards her.  A loud "speak of the devil." Following suit.

Lindsey purses her lips, getting up from the chair more joins cracking and popping, to wish she groaned. She returned back to her faux scowl as she approached Austin. "You're in big trouble mister!"
Right as she approached the bed, she gathered his face in her hands softly pressing her lips to his, pulling away, a smile on her face and his.

"I should be in trouble more often." Austin joked, winking at Dahlia making her giggle more.  Lindsey shook her head, trying the fight the tears threatening to spill. Austin instantly pushed himself up, ignoring the pain coming from his side. He pulled the silently sobbing Lindsey to him, hugging her tightly. He smoothed his hands over her hair bringing her face up to his whispering,  "what's wrong baby?"

Lindsey just sat, staring at him through watery eyes, her cheeks burning hot, her chin trembling.

"You can blink, I'm not going to disappear." Austin chuckled softly, attempting to dry Lindsey's face.

"I thought you were gonna leave me." Lindsey whispered, "like everyone else."

"Never, we're locked. As long as there's a you, there's a me." Austin softly kissed her, brushing her hair away from her wet salty cheeks. Austin was about to saying something else when a nurses walked in with a clips board interrupting them.

"Mr. Houston, these are your discharge paper, all we need is your signature. And I'll go ahead and go over everything with you before."

—-
Lindsey struggles to help Austin up the stairs, he was about twice her weight and had a good half a foot of height more compared to her. Even though she knew Austin was doing most of the work, she tried to help nonetheless. She released a huff of breath as Austin dropped in bed. He was a bit out of it for the pain medication, he felt like he was spinning as he watched the fan turn round. Lindsey was making her way to leave when Austin softly spoke, "please spend the night. I'm really sorry about what I said earlier. It was uncalled for and idiotic."

Lindsey smiles softly dropping her bag from her shoulder. She looked at Austin lying in bed, eyes shut. She sighed pulling her shirt over her head and unbuttoning her pants, she pulled out one of Austin's shirts putting it in before slipping out of her sandals and dropping her pants. She crawled into bed next to Austin, they lied together silently the only noice from the city outside and the hum of the ceiling fan.
"I love you."
The words made Lindsey's open wide, she knew she had heard the words they weren't just a figment of her imagination, her deep brown eyes collided with Austin's icy vision.
She waited to see if he's repeat it, just to prove it was his lips they flew from.
"I said....I love you." He repeated.

It was as if time slowed as she watched his lips form the shapes of the word, she was tempted to believe was not hearing right and he had in fact said 'I need a tissue'. Her heart began to beat out of her chest as she tired to form the words herself. She wondered why it felt as is vines of roses had grown in her lungs, taking root in her heart stopping even the air from reaching her brain. Her vision blurred as she began to cry. Why would he do that, how could he love her. She covered her mouth as a sob slipped out. She could see the sad look on Austin's face.

Her mind raced as it tired to get its shit together to remember how to form simple sounds.

" I love you too." She finally croaked our catching Austin's attention, lifting a pound of weight off of both of their chests.