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For a while I must’ve napped because the scuffing sound of a chair sliding closer to my bed startled me awake. I sat up. A hand on my shoulder pushed me back down. My breath rushed out of me because Albion was pale and his face was a stone mask. I’d thought he looked serious at work, but that was nothing compared to this. He reached over and took my hand, tucking it between his.
“Are you okay, Sir?” I mumbled.
He snorted and stood so he could plant a kiss on my temple.
The warm press of his lips against my skin felt good, and I leaned into it.
“What’s going on?” Albion asked. I thought about having Nurse Cline explain to him, but when I glanced around, she wasn’t there.
“Uh.” I licked my lips because they felt dry.
Albion handed me a bottle of water from the tray table. No one had said I couldn’t have beverages, so I sipped it, then tucked it in the bed at my side.
“Well, they gave me a bunch of medicine.” I shrugged.
He grunted. “Like what?”
I shrugged again. “Not entirely sure what all it was. They’re checking my heart and stole some of my blood to test, too. They don’t think it’s a clot causing my heart issue because of my family history, so they said they’re giving me anti-anxiety meds and something to make my heart not work as hard. And they told me I’m going to have to go on an extra healthy diet when I’m done here, which I already knew because that’s how my brother should eat. But he doesn’t.” I felt exhausted from all the talking and snuggled back against my pillow.
He caressed his thumb softly along my throat. “Will they need to cut you open?” he asked. His lips were such a thin line they were almost white.
Oh, hell. There was a thought I didn’t want to have. A wave of fear rolled over me, but it disappeared faster than it usually would’ve. I blamed the medicine. “They don’t think they will right now, but they’re going to send me for imaging. I might never need it. Or I might need it eventually. It’s what killed my mother.”
“And what killed your father?” he asked, staring intently at me.
“Grief. And whiskey.”
He grunted and slowly sank down into the chair, still holding my hand. “Um.” He tipped his head back and blinked his eyes, and I was shocked when a tear rolled out of the corner of his right one. He rubbed the dampness away on his shoulder. “Did the stress at work... do whatever this is?” He waved at the EKG machine and grimaced.
Puffing out a breath, I squirmed on the inside. I didn’t want to make him feel bad, but I also didn’t want to lie. The idea of not telling him the truth was like nails on my mental chalkboard. “Not really. I mean, yeah, it didn’t help, but I probably have a wall in my heart that is thicker than it should be, the same as my brother. Dr. O’Quinn said that since I’m responding well to the meds, they’re likely right about that, because if it was something else, they would’ve needed to take me into surgery or give me different medicine.” I shivered. “It’s upsetting.”
“What is?” Albion asked sharply and glared around the room as if he would put an end to whatever was bothering me.
“Well, they won’t say anything exactly. Everything is really fuzzy until they get back these tests. They keep using phrases likeour best guessorI think.”
He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand. “Relax. I’m here.”
“I had to ask a bunch of times before they would let you come back here,” I murmured.
He scowled and held my hand tighter.
I wanted to drift off, especially since he was here to help me deal with everything, but I was still scared. I helped Neil. If I needed surgery, too, then not only was I screwed, so was Neil. If I needed expensive meds that my insurance wouldn’t cover, and he did, too, then what? The thoughts swirled through my brain in a loop, and I started to feel worse.
“You’re not relaxing,” Albion said. He reached up and rubbed his hand over the top of my head, then dug his fingertips in against my scalp. I wanted to melt into a happy puddle of joy, it was so good. “I’m here. It’s all gonna be fine,” he snapped, and I didn’t think he’d meant to sound angry, but it was funny enough that I grinned at him.
“What are you going to do? Yell at my heart and tell it to get back to work?” I snickered at my own bad joke.
Albion sighed, then kissed my cheek. He leaned back enough to glare into my eyes. “Yes.”
We chuckled together, and I couldn’t remember, but I thought maybe this was the nicest I’d ever seen him act.
* * *
Albion refused to leave my side, and after one very tense conversation with Dr. O’Quinn, no one came around to kick him out. He’d been almost unbearably smug after winning a battle of wills with the hospital staff, but I’d just been happy to have him near.
The next day the hospital kicked me out after about seven hundred more tests, and on the way back to Albion’s place we had to stop at a pharmacy to pick up a big bag of pills. I had no idea if they cost anything or not because Albion had gone inside for me. I was feeling overwhelmed with the bag of meds sitting in my lap on the ride back to his place.
“How will I remember it all?” I asked, poking at the bag.
