Three days since Jade’s life support was turned off and there’s no change in her condition. Brian was convinced he had felt her squeeze his fingers a day back but there had been no repeat performance and he had been half-asleep at the time. He rests his head on the bed and closes his eyes. Jade’s parents have gone back to his place to shower and eat breakfast after spending the night with their daughter. He’s just falling asleep when he feels a light touch on his head. He looks up quickly to see Jade’s eyes open.
“Baby?” he jumps up so that he can lean over her. “Jady, are you ok?” he asks, pressing the call button above her bed. Jade closes her eyes again as a nurse walks into the room. “She’s woken up!”
“She has?” she walks over and checks Jade’s pulse as her eyes flicker open again. “Hello Jade,” she smiles. “It’s good to see you awake honey. I’ll go page the doctor,” she tells Brian and leaves the room.
Jade mumbles slightly and Brian moves closer to her.
“Sorry honey, say that again.”
“Water,” she whispers and he grabs the jug on the table to pour her a glass. He sits by her and gently lifts the glass to her lips. She takes a few sips and then sighs lightly. “Thanks,” she tells him.
“Had enough?” he asks and she nods so he puts the glass back down and just looks at her. “How do you feel?”
“Tired,” she murmurs. “Weird. Where am I?”
“Hospital. You had a car accident but everything’s going to be ok now honey.”
“Accident?”
“I’ll tell you about it when you’ve had a rest,” he whispers and kisses her head.
“Are you really here?”
“Of course I am,” he tells her.
“But I…”
“Shush baby. It’s over now.”
I can’t believe I’ve been in a coma for almost two weeks. I remember nothing of it. The last thing I remember is leaving Brian at Kevin’s place, thinking it was all over between us. And now I’m lying in hospital and I have my ring back and he’s here again. I pretty much slept through the first two days I came round. Just waking up to say hi to various visitors and check that Brian was still there. Ali told me he has barely left my side since I was brought in. AJ too. He’s been by a lot, talking to me about the dumbest things and making me laugh. The doctor kept coming in to examine me, waking me up and pissing me off. He says I should be able to go home at the end of the week, something I’m really looking forward to. Being in this place is starting to drive me crazy.
“Hey baby,” Brian walks in with a tray and sits by me. “You’re awake huh?”
“Yup. Please tell me that’s not crappy hospital food,” I beg.
“It’s not,” he chuckles and lifts the plate covering the food. “I pulled a few strings and got you a KFC.”
“You did?! Oh bless you!” I exclaim and start eating the chicken nuggets and fries. I am starving but I only manage to eat half before I feel full. I push it over to Brian to finish off and lie back in bed with a satisfied smile. “That was just what I needed. Thank you.”
“No problem,” he smiles. “You look so much brighter today.”
“I feel it. I can’t wait to get out of this place,” I sigh.
“I bet,” he grins. “I can’t wait to get you home.”
“Home? Our place home?” I ask and he nods. “You sure? I mean, we still have things to talk through before we can go back to the way we were.”
“We do?”
“Uh huh. Just because I almost died doesn’t mean the whole JC thing goes away forever. It’ll come back and I don’t want to be scared of that.”
“Jady, I almost lost you,” he says quietly. “I love you.”
“I love you too. But let’s take it slow?” I ask and he studies me a while before nodding slowly.
“How ya feelin’ today?” AJ asks as he sweeps into Jade’s hospital room with a bunch of flowers. “I picked these ‘specially for you!” he declares proudly and sticks them in a jug of water.
“That was my drinking water!” she exclaims with a giggle. “But the flowers look real pretty. Thanks.”
“So, you ok?” he sits by her bed.
“I’m good,” she smiles. “I’m still gettin’ out of here tomorrow!” she adds excitedly and AJ laughs.
“I bet Brian is drivin’ you crazy about it already.”
“Not exactly,” she says seriously. “I’m not goin’ back there.”
“Why not?” he stares at her.
“Well, just because this thing happened to me… It doesn’t make the whole JC thing go away. I told him we need to talk things through and move slowly, and he agreed. He offered to stay some place else but I said no. So I’m goin’ some place…”
“Where?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “The obvious place would be Ali’s, but Jay is there and he’s practically taken over my room already. But I mean, there’s always the couch.”
“You’re not sleepin’ on a couch!” AJ exclaims. “Come stay with me.”
“Thanks but…”
“But what? I have THREE spare rooms with king-sized beds. I don’t bite and I cook a little…” he adds with a wide grin. “C’mon Jady, stay with me.”
“You sure?”
“Uh huh. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
“Well, ok then. Thanks,” she grins.
“Cool. What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”
“I’ll just get a taxi.”
“No way. I’m picking you up,” he tells her firmly. “And then you are goin’ straight to bed.”
“I am?” she raises an eyebrow and he laughs.
“Good to see your mind hasn’t been un-guttered.”
“Mr McLean just called,” a nurse tells me. “He’ll be right here to take you home.”
“Ok, thanks,” I smile at her. I’m sat in a chair by the window – all dressed and ready to leave this place.
“I bet you can’t wait to leave here!” she laughs.
“No offence but no!” I grin and she leaves the room with a smile.
I look out of the window. The sun is setting slowly and the sky is a beautiful reddy colour. I’ve been in this room for three weeks and I am desperate to be outside and feel the cool air on my skin. Brian came by this morning and we talked about superficial things. It was kinda hard. I mean, I wanna talk to him about our marriage and how little JC means to me and how much I love Brian. But I’m too scared to. I’m scared that if I bring it up, he’ll just walk away. And I can’t let him do that. A sound snaps me out of my reflections and I look over at the door to see AJ. He smiles and walks into the room.
“Hey Jady, you ready?”
“Yup, I’ve been ready for days,” I tell him.
“Ok, let’s get outta here. I already spent way too much time here.”
“Ditto,” I tell him and he picks up my bag. He leads the way out of the small hospital room and out of the building. We head back to AJ’s place.