Page 107 of A Little Bit Uncertain

“Understand your mission?” he asked.

I smiled at Bennett through my swollen eyes. “Got it. Hey Bennett, I love you.”

He kissed the top of my head and picked up the phone he had forgotten. “Ah, my favorite Audra, you know I love you too, girl.” He walked out to give me privacy.

Bennett was right. I grabbed Donovan’s hand, took a deep breath, and began.

“Donovan James Wright. I have some things to tell you about. I know you’ve seen a lot of the world, but I’ve seen nothing. Here’s my adventure bucket list. Seeing as I’m planning on nursing you back to health, we will have lots of places to see. Even if you’ve already been there, I’m going to make you go again to show me. Number one bucket list item? Northern Lights in Iceland. But I want to stay in one of those glass ceiling hut things. I’d say I want to make love to you under them, but we kind of fail in that department. I want to have dirty, dirty sex with you under the Northern Lights in our slut hut,” I snickered as I thought about how much he would laugh at that. “Then I want to motorbike all around the island, stopping at everything we find that tickles our fancy, from the hot springs to kayaking the fjords. I want to take at least 2,000 photos per trip, so I’ll need a fancy camera. And I want to make a photo book of every place we visit, so I’ll probably need to buy a selfie stick for us too,” I continued, documenting all the places I wanted to go until Bennett and Trina walked in together.

“We have to head back to your floor for rounds, kiddo,” Trina said as she walked in with Bennett right behind her. I looked at Bennett, and he answered my question before I asked it. “I’m going to sit here with Donovan, and if anything changes, I’ll call you,” he promised.

“Ok, thank you, B. And thanks for the adventure idea. That was perfect. Hopefully motivating enough to wake him up, too,” I offered a gentle smile.

Rounds went as expected, and I was being forced to stay another night for observation. Honestly, I think my father put pressure on Trina to find a way to make them keep me, because I could have gone home. But after I got the news I would not be discharged, I begged my new nurse to take me back down to Donovan. After fighting me on it, I finally said I was going to sign myself out of the hospital against medical advice so I could sit with him. After speaking to the other nurses, I was finally granted permission to go.

When she wheeled me in, I was surprised to see McKenna, red as a tomato with wild, red-rimmed eyes, and Bennett, looking extremely agitated. They both turned to me, and my own tears welled in my eyes. All I could think of to say was, “I’m so sorry, McKenna, this is all my fault.”

It was like a reverse of last Thursday night when she was asking for my forgiveness. I stood slowly and painfully from my wheelchair, and she walked over to me for a hug,

“Don’t you dare say that; it’s not your fault in the least, Audra. I’m so grateful he was there to help you.”

Miles came in from the hallway right after and hugged the both of us. I didn’t know he was coming.

Bennett cleared his throat after we held on to each other for a while, “I, um, I’m going to run for now. I’ll text you, Audra,” he said as he scooted out of there.

“He looks terrible,” McKenna said as she sat down. “I didn’t tell my parents. Do you think I should?” I could read between the lines of her question. Was he going to survive?

“There’s no reason to think he won’t come out of this. It’ll be a tough recovery, but Donovan is a tough man. At this point, I don’t think having your parents here would be helpful to him,” I said honestly.

McKenna’s head nodded in agreement, as another tear slipped from her glistening eyes. “This is hard to see,” she said.

“It is. I was a wreck earlier. The guy who just left is the one who grounded me, and got me talking to Van about our future adventures. Because we’re going to have so many when he wakes up.”

“That asshole?” she questioned incredulously as she flipped her thumb behind herself towards the door. “I find that hard to believe,” she scoffed.

“He can rub some people the wrong way,” I answered, but I couldn’t begin to imagine what he said to her. Bennett Connelly was far from abrasive, and I would probably describe him as the most charming man I knew. He never rubbed anyone the wrong way. Something crazy must have happened between them.

“But you should tell Donovan about what your plans are now that the bar exam is out of the way. He can still hear everything,” I encouraged her, like Bennett had encouraged me.

“I won’t leave,” her voice got quiet as she said it. “I can’t leave until he is okay. My plan is to stay and help. Nothing else matters to me.”

“Oh, Kenna,” I hugged her again.

“Moving to the country, Mackey Mae? Never thought I’d see the day,” Donovan’s gravelly voice filled the room. Both of us turned to him, too shocked to speak.

“D-D-Donovan,” I stuttered out, as my heartbeat pounded. I was frozen in place for a minute, processing his voice and looking into his eyes. “You’re awake?” I hit the nurse’s call button immediately, and kissed him as carefully as I could before interlacing my fingers in his and hugging him. “I love you,” I said as the sting in my eyes returned. “God, I love you, Donovan. Thank you for waking up. I’m so sorry.”

“I love you, too, Audra. Sorry for the poorly timed declaration yesterday, but damn, I love you. And I love you too, McKenna. Miles? Wait, am I really dead? How are you both here?”

Donovan’s voice was hoarse, so I lifted the cup of water by the bed and gave him a small drink while McKenna came in to hug him, too.

“My bonus son was in the hospital and unconscious. Of course I flew in with Kenna. Plus, I needed to keep an eye on your sister, this is as foreign to her as outer space,” Miles said.

They told us the story of how he sped into the parking lot and jumped on the plane at the very last minute. It solidified everything they had said about Miles being like a father to Donovan.

“Thank you for being here, you two,” he said. “I wish it was under better circumstances.” Then, clearing his voice, he looked at me and spoke again. “So what’s going on with me? What’s this sticking out of my chest? What’s your status, Chaos?”

“Your lung collapsed, and you lost so much blood internally that you needed a blood transfusion. Those are drains sticking out of you. I didn’t have any damage to vital organs, so I’m just stitched up here.” I maneuvered my gown to show him my dressing. Then I moved it to show him a different part of me. “You’ll have scars like this.”