She tried to frown, but even that she couldn’t manage fully. “What? What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been in surgery for seven, almost eight hours.”
“Oh. It’s been that long? I didn’t realize.”
She slowly lifted her hand, which still had a little needle taped to it, and gingerly touched the side of her nose.
“There is a tampon in there, I think,” I commented unnecessarily.
Her eyes darted around the room and spotted Raymond a moment later. “Oh, Ray. Hi.” She paused as if waiting for the right words to come to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
Ray.
I gripped the bedrail, wondering what the hell was wrong with me that all of a sudden I was acting very unreasonable, especially since it wasn’t the first time she had called him Ray.
He stepped forward with the damn balloons, and Rose’s smile got wider.
“You brought me balloons? Thank you so much.” She looked up at me. “Jack, he brought me balloons.”
I hadn’t brought her shit. I gave Raymond another murderous look.
“They’re not from me, I’m afraid,” Raymond started. “I dropped by your shop before I came here, and Sally wanted me to get them to you so you could see them when you woke up. How are you doing, kiddo?”
I relaxed further at Raymond’s nickname for Rose and watched as her smile got all wobbly. “I’m okay, I think…a little dizzy, and I feel a little off. My head hurts…did I say that? Still better than what I expected. I must look like hell,” she mumbled and tried to chuckle, the sound nothing like her warm laughter.
I squeezed her hand, and her eyes came to me as I softly said, “You look beautiful.”
She groaned, trying to sit up a little straighter. “Uh oh, I really must look like hell.” She looked back at Raymond. “Jack’s usual compliments are more like You look awful, You look tired, You look like hell, or You look like a mess.” I scowled at her and she flashed me a small and tired smile. “Did I miss any?”
“I’ll give you new compliments you can add to your list as soon as you’re out of here. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you for trying to make me feel better.”
Raymond’s suppressed laughter got my attention, and I looked up from Rose.
He patted her leg, two gentle thumps. “He isn’t lying. For someone who just came out of a seven-hour surgery, you look great. I’m going to leave you two alone. I just wanted to say hi and see how you’re doing.” His eyes met mine. “If you need anything, I’ll be waiting close by.”
I nodded and, after another look at Rose, he left.
Her eyes were starting to close on their own, but when I gave her hand a gentle squeeze, she turned her head toward me.
“Jack—”
“How are we doing?” An older red-haired nurse named Kelly walked in, and she started checking Rose’s blood pressure. “Everything okay?” she asked with a generous smile.
“I think so,” Rose replied.
“Your blood pressure looks good. Let’s see if you have any fever.”
“Is the doctor coming?” I asked, and she turned her smile toward me.
“He’ll be here soon enough. We need to start another IV on you, so you can just sit back and relax now. If you have pain, I’ll get you a painkiller after you have your dinner. Sound good?”
“Okay.”
“You don’t have a fever, so that’s great. I’ll come back and check everything every hour. Okay?”
The nurse walked out, and Rose’s head rolled toward me on the pillow. “Hi, Jack.”
Looking into her eyes, I reached out with my right hand and ran the backs of my fingers across her cheek. “Hey.”
“How bad does it look? You don’t have to lie.” Her voice was still cracked and hoarse.
“Bad enough.”
Her lips moved up an inch or so, her eyes closing.
“That’s more like you.”
The nurse walked in with the IV bag, so I had to pull my hand back from her face.
The doctor came in two hours later when Rose had had small naps with her mouth open in between the blood pressure and fever checks. Every time she woke up, she’d look around the room and say my name when her eyes found mine. Every one of those times I got up and went to her side to assure her I hadn’t left.
I looked like hell. Even more than that, I felt like I was living in hell. I wasn’t cut out for stuff like this. I didn’t know the right words to say. I was more likely to mess things up.
“How are we doing?” Dr. Martin asked.
Rose had just woken up so she pushed herself up in the bed.
“Not too bad,” she said. “My stomach hurts a little.”
“Yes. You remember what we talked about before, right? To patch the leak, we needed cartilage and other tissues from either your nose, your stomach, or the back of your ear, and—”
“I thought you said it was going to be from the nose,” I cut in.
“Yes, that was the initial plan, but the tear was bigger than what we’d hoped for.”
“Is that why it lasted over seven hours?”
“Again, yes. The tear was bigger and farther back than we expected, so it took a while to patch it, and if we had taken the tissue from the nose, it wouldn’t have been enough. I didn’t expect the operation to take that long either. Like we discussed before, it’s usually a few hours at most, but it was successful, and that’s what’s important.”
“I can’t really breathe through my nose,” Rose said, getting the doctor’s attention.
“That’s normal. You have packing in it right now and it’ll have to stay in at least two, maybe three more days.”
“When can I get out?”
He flashed Rose a smile. “Trying to get away from us so quickly?”
“No, I just—”
He patted Rose’s arm. “That’s fine. You’ll be our guest for a few more days, maybe a week. We need to keep an eye on you for a while and see how things are going.”
They had operated so close to her brain and because of the tear in the membrane, there was no protection. “Is infection a concern?” I asked.
“Infection is always a concern with any operation. Because we were so close to her brain, we just need to keep a close eye on her to make sure everything is healing smoothly.”
“When will we know if it’s still leaking?” Rose asked.
“I’ll order another CT scan in a few days after we take the packing out and see how things are looking. After you get out of here, I’ll need you to do another MRI scan in a few weeks.” Rose stiffened in bed. “I know you have trouble with that, but we need to see if everything is okay.”
She nodded and I took her hand. It seemed like I couldn’t control myself anymore.
“Okay. I’ll be checking on you every day, but a few things you need to know before I go: I need you to take a few pills morning and night. The nurse will get them to you before you take your meals. Also, there will be a syrup for constipation that you need to have two times a day.”
Rose groaned and I tightened my grip around our linked fingers.