Chapter 28
Claire woke
up the next morning feeling like she’d hardly slept at all. She’d lain awake for what seemed like forever
the night before, tossing and turning, her mind bombarded with thoughts from
all directions. On top of the stress of
moving, which she’d been battling all week, Nick was in the hospital, and even
though she had done her best to hide it around him, she couldn’t help but
worry. The infection seemed minor
compared to everything else he’d been through in the time she’d known him, but
she knew only too well that little problems could easily escalate into big ones,
serious ones. She had tried to reassure
herself with the knowledge that at least he was in the hospital, where he would
be taken care of and treated, and eventually, she’d drifted off into a restless
slumber.
Now awake,
yet still bleary-eyed, Claire sat sleepily at the edge of her bed and tried to
find the motivation to stand up. You’re
supposed to meet Di and Jamie in an hour, she reminded herself, knowing she
would hardly have enough time to shower and get ready by then. She’d probably be late for their
breakfast. Oh well; it wouldn’t be the
first time. Knowing this about her,
Jamie had purposely arranged for them to meet early, giving him plenty of time
before he had to be at the airport to catch his flight home to Iowa.
Still, she
didn’t want to be too late, so she finally forced herself to her feet and
staggered into the tiny bathroom across the hall. Last shower in the apartment, she
thought as she quickly removed her clothes and pulled back the plastic shower
curtain, turning on the water in the shower.
Then she laughed at herself – why was she being nostalgic about the
stupid shower, with its walls that always seemed to get streaked with
soap-scum, despite her best efforts to keep it clean, and its slow drain that
was forever clogging up on her? She was
trading this tiny old apartment for a huge house filled with luxuries, and even
so, she knew she’d be doing this all day – last meal in the apartment… last
time washing dishes in the kitchen sink… last night sleeping in my own bed… She was looking forward to living with Nick,
but it was going to be kind of hard to leave this place behind – it wasn’t
much, but it was her first apartment, and in the three years she’d lived there,
she’d grown to love it.
She took
too long of a shower, savoring the feel of the hot water pounding against her
tired body, the softness of her hair when it was lathered thick with shampoo
suds, and the silkiness of it as she rinsed it free of sweet-smelling
conditioner. By the time she reluctantly
climbed out, wrapping a large towel around her dripping form, she was running
very late. She dried quickly and threw
on the first articles of clothing she could find in her near-empty closet, then
went back into the bathroom to try to make herself look presentable. She dragged a comb through her wet hair and,
deciding she would not have enough time to blow dry it, opted to slick it back
into a short ponytail in the back of her head.
She slid a couple of bobby pins in on each side of her head to keep the
shorter locks of hair from falling loose as they dried, and then haphazardly
slapped on some makeup – a light coat of powder foundation to even out her
complexion, a dusting of blush along her cheekbones, and a touch of mascara to
darken her eyelashes. She brushed her
teeth, smoothed on some lip gloss, and darted out of the bathroom to find that
she would have just enough time to make it to the restaurant on time.
She made it
with a minute to spare and found Jamie already there, sitting by himself at a
table set for three. She nearly groaned;
of course Dianna was late – it had always been she who was the least
punctual of the three. Claire was used
to it, but she couldn’t help being annoyed that morning – couldn’t Dianna have
hurried just a little, to spare Claire the awkwardness of having to sit there
alone with Jamie? After what had
happened on Wednesday night, she was almost nervous around him, but of course
she tried not to let it show, pasting a smile on her face as she said hello and
slid into a seat directly across the table from him.
“Morning,”
Jamie greeted her with a quick smile.
“Sleep well?”
“Eh,” she
muttered vaguely, not wanting to get into why she hadn’t slept
well. She had already decided not to
tell him what was going on with Nick; after what his jackass of a friend had
called Nick, she didn’t feel like mentioning him or anything that had to do
with his amputated leg.
Jamie
snickered at her response. “You never
have been much of a morning person.”
“Yeah,
well, who is?” Claire retorted flatly.
A minute
later, Dianna appeared. She was dressed
cutely in a pair of loose-fitting white capris that showed off her deep tan and
a low-cut top in a bright shade of aqua.
Her dark hair was dried, curled, and spritzed into place with hairspray
– styled to perfection, as always. Her
makeup was equally perfect, and as usual, Claire felt very plain sitting next
to her. As usual, Claire did not really
care.
“Morning,
y’all,” Dianna chirped, setting her purse (which coordinated with her outfit,
of course – the girl had as many purses as there were days in the year, or so
it seemed) down on the floor beside her seat.
“Sorry I’m a couple minutes late.”
Jamie
glanced at his watch and then smirked up at Dianna. “More like five – but hey, that’s not bad at
all for you, Dianna.”
“Shut up,
James,” Dianna snapped sweetly and picked up her menu. “Do you two know what you want yet? I’m starving.”
“I don’t,”
Claire replied, realizing she hadn’t even looked at the menu yet. She picked it up and tilted it toward her,
flipping it open to read.
As she
started to scan the menu items, Jamie blurted, “Hey, lemme see your hand.”
Her chin
lifting sharply as she looked over the top of the menu at him, Claire realized
he was talking about her right hand, which sported a lovely rainbow of black,
blue, purple, and green around her slightly-swollen knuckles. Following Jamie’s gaze, Dianna gasped
aloud. “Claire! What did you do to your hand??”
Claire
smirked across the table at Jamie, and he smirked back, each wondering who would
be the one to tell their friend that story. “I punched his friend’s face in at a bar the
other night,” Claire answered Dianna matter-of-factly, before Jamie had the
chance.
Dianna’s
jaw dropped. “Are you serious??”
“Uh-huh.”
“Wow…” Dianna grinned, looking momentarily proud
before turning serious again. “Why??”
“Cause he
was an ass,” Claire replied simply.
“He kinda
dissed her boyfriend,” Jamie clarified.
“Not on purpose though – he didn’t mean it in a bad way.” This last part was directed to Claire, who
just shook her head.
“Right,”
she muttered sarcastically and left it at that, hoping Jamie would drop the
issue as well. She didn’t want to rehash
everything that had gone on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile,
Dianna kept glancing between the two of them, her eyes wide, and finally she
said, “Oookay then… forget I asked.”
She offered Claire a small smile and a look that said, You can tell
me later, when he’s gone. Claire
nodded shortly, offering her friend a tight smile back before she returned her
attention to the menu in front of her.
With Dianna
there, the tension between Claire and Jamie took a backseat, and once they’d
ordered their breakfast, the three of them had talked and laughed the way they
always had. Jamie was himself again, not
the stranger she’d seen in the bar, the rude show-off who would do or say
anything to get a laugh from his friends.
And when it came time for him to leave, she was sad to see him go.
Standing
next to his rental car in the parking lot, she hugged him and felt his arms
envelop her tightly, the smell of his cologne tickling her nose as he pulled
her up against his firm chest. She
pulled away after a few moments and took a step back as he released her,
looking up at him with a weak smile.
“Have a safe flight home,” she said.
“Yeah… hope
your move goes well,” he replied.
“Thanks.”
They smiled
awkwardly at each other, and after a moment of silence, Jamie said, “Well,
ladies… I better get going.”
Dianna and
Claire both nodded, stepping away from the car to let him get in. He did so, putting down his window once he
was inside.
“Take care
of yourself, Jamie,” Dianna told him through the open window.
Jamie
nodded, smiling slightly. “You too,” he
replied, and then his eyes shifted to Claire, giving her a meaningful
look. “Both of you.” Claire smiled a little and said nothing. “Well… see ya around,” said Jamie, and the
engine of the car sprung to life as the automatic window went up. Claire shook her head as he put the car into
gear and backed out of his parking space, giving them a single wave through the
windshield before pulling away. That was
Jamie for you – he hated saying goodbye, so he just didn’t say it. It was always something like “see ya around,”
then a quick escape, before things had a chance to get emotional.
She and
Dianna stood in silence for a moment before Dianna finally turned to her. “So,” she said, “care to give me any more
details on what happened Wednesday night?”
Claire
shrugged. “It really wasn’t anything. His friends were jerks, one of them called
Nick a rude name, and I kinda flipped out and hit the guy before leaving. That’s all.”
“Good for
you,” Dianna said with an appreciative smile.
“Think his face looks anything like the back of your hand?”
Claire
grinned. “I hope so.”
Dianna
laughed, then asked, “So, speaking of Nick, how will you two be spending your
Friday night? Just getting everything
ready for tomorrow, or do you have plans?”
Sobering,
Claire quickly filled Dianna in on what had happened to Nick and how he’d
probably be stuck in the hospital for most of the weekend.
“Oh man,
that sucks,” Dianna said sympathetically.
“Well, if you need anything, girl, give me a call. We can do something Saturday night if he’s
not gonna be home and you don’t feel like staying in that big house all by
yourself.” She winked, and Claire
smiled sheepishly, knowing exactly what she was thinking of.
Claire had
been seventeen at the time, and her parents were out of town for the
weekend. Jamie had come over to hang out
for the evening, and they’d rented the movie Scream, which had just come
out on video. Claire had never seen it
before, and after Jamie left that night, she’d freaked herself out, imagining
masked killers lurking the in the dark outside, watching her through windows
she could not see out of, plotting to break into her house. Every noise made her jump, and her blood ran
cold every time the phone rang. She’d
nearly been in tears by the time she had called Dianna and demanded that her
friend drive over to pick her up. Dianna
had faithfully come over to calm her down and bring her back to her house to
spend the night, but she’d never let her live it down. It had been a joke between the two ever
since.
“Thanks,
Di, but I’ll be fine,” Claire asserted.
“I’m a big girl now.”
“Okay,”
Dianna smiled. “Well, I better let you
get going; I know you’ve got plenty of stuff to do. Give Nick my best.”
“I will,”
said Claire, returning the smile. “Well,
I’ll see ya whenever. You should
definitely plan on coming over to the house sometime next week or something.”
“Oh yeah,
for sure! I can’t wait to see the
place,” Dianna replied enthusiastically.
“Good luck getting all moved in tomorrow.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you if I get bored tomorrow night,
but chances are, I’ll be too tired to do anything.”
“Understandable,”
said Dianna. “Well, catch ya later.”
With that,
the two women parted, walking across the parking lot in opposite directions to
their cars.
When Claire
had climbed into her Toyota and started the engine, her eyes slid over to the
digital clock. It was going on
9:30. Nick had told her Howie wasn’t
expecting to get into town until early afternoon, so Claire decided to head
straight to the hospital. She could
spend a few hours with Nick, then head home to finish up the last of the
packing and give Howie and Nick a chance to visit.
Pulling out
of the parking lot, she turned in the direction Tampa General.
***
Within his
private room at Tampa General, Nick sat up in bed, picking at his
breakfast. It surely wouldn’t compare to
the breakfast Claire was eating with her friends, but then again, even if he
had a heaping pile of homemade pancakes, slathered with butter and drowning in
maple syrup, sitting on the tray in front of him, he wasn’t sure he would have
been able to eat much of it. Somehow,
this place just seemed to ruin his appetite.
Still, he
had to admit, he was feeling a little better that morning than he had the day
before. The fever he’d been running had
broken, a sign that the antibiotics were doing their job. The infection, however, was painful. The nurses had kept the ulcer on his leg
covered by a sterile dressing, but beneath the large bandage, the whole end of
his limb burned and throbbed uncomfortably.
It had bothered him the day before, and he’d finally complained about it
after Claire had left in the evening.
The pain meds they had given him helped, but they’d also made him groggy
– which was great when he’d been trying to sleep, but he didn’t want to be in
some drug-induced haze when Howie got there later that day, so he’d turned down
the pain medication that morning.
He was just
beginning to regret that, when a familiar voice called, “Gooood morning!”
He looked
up to find Claire leaning into the doorway and smiled, the pain in his leg
instantly fading from his mind.
“Morning, sunshine,” he replied, as she walked into the room, dropping
her purse and bending over to kiss him, just as she had done the day before.
“Not a good
morning?” she asked.
He
shrugged. “Not especially. Better now that you’re here though.”
“Aww,
you’re sweet.”
“How was
breakfast?”
“Fine. And yours?”
“Eh.”
She looked
at his tray. “I see.”
He pushed
the tray aside and scooted over a little to his left, patting the empty space
on the right side of bed for her. She
sat down and reached out to pat his good thigh beneath the thin blanket that
covered it. “So,” she said, “did you
sleep okay last night?”
“Surprisingly,
yeah,” he answered. “They gave me some
drugs that helped.”
“Ahh… drugs
are good.”
“Yep.”
They talked
for awhile longer, in between interruptions by the orderly who came by to pick
up his hardly-touched breakfast and the nurse who breezed in shortly
after. “Hi, I’m Karyn,” the nurse
introduced herself. “How are you doing
this morning, Mr. Carter?”
“Fine,
thanks,” Nick answered mechanically.
“Good. How would you like to get up and take a
little stroll around the floor?”
Nick
snorted to himself, amused by the way she phrased the question. How would you like to? As if he had a choice. Ha.
He’d been in the hospital enough recently to know that was not the case
– these people forced your ass out of bed and got you walking around whether
you wanted to or not. Something about
blood clots forming if you laid around for too long and didn’t move.
He nodded
reluctantly. “Yeah, okay,” he agreed
dully.
“Great. Hang on one minute, and I’ll be right back.”
Karyn left the room, and Nick immediately looked over at Claire. “I hate this,” he told her.
Claire
offered him a sympathetic smile. “I
know,” she replied.
The nurse
returned a few moments later, carrying – Nick nearly died when he saw it – a
walker.
“Ohhh no,”
he resisted immediately, “I don’t need that thing. I’ve got a pair of crutches over there.” He pointed to the far corner, where the
crutches he’d come on were leaning.
Karyn shook
her head. “I wouldn’t recommend trying
to walk on crutches when you’ve got an IV,” she said. “The walker will be easier to maneuver with
and will give you more stability as well.”
Nick
sighed. Yeah, she was probably right,
but he didn’t want to admit it, nor did he want to be seen shuffling down the
hall with a walker like an old man.
Karyn
didn’t give him much of a choice though.
She made him scoot to the edge of the bed and gave him a thin robe to
put on over the hospital gown he was wearing before setting the walker in front
of him and helping him stand up.
Reluctantly gripping the sides of the walker, Nick turned his head to
look back at Claire. “No jokes,” he
warned her.
Claire let
her mouth fall open, pretending to be shocked by his insinuation. “Aw, Stumpy, I’d never make fun of you,” she
said with a playful smile. He couldn’t
help but smile back, sticking his tongue out her afterward, while the nurse
glanced between the two of them, looking slightly appalled.
“Okay,
let’s just get this over with,” Nick said with a sigh. “Hey Ren, you comin’ with?”
“Sure,”
replied Claire, sliding off the other side of the bed and coming around.
“You can
wheel his IV pole along next to him if you’d like to help out, Ren,” Karyn said
kindly to Claire. Nick inhaled a
snort. She thought Claire’s name was
really ‘Ren.’ Classic.
“Okay,”
Claire said, winking at Nick as she moved over to the metal IV stand.
“Are you
ready, Mr. Carter?” Karyn asked. “We’ll
take this as slow as you want to.”
“Actually,
I’m fine,” said Nick, thinking how much of a breeze this was going to be
compared to the last two times he’d been in the hospital and had been forced to
get up and walk around. “We don’t need
to go slow.”
“All
right. Well, you set the pace then.”
‘The pace’
proved to be slower than Nick would have liked.
It was annoyingly time-consuming to move the walker ahead of him and
then haul his body forward to meet it, while Claire pushed his IV pole along
beside him. Still, it felt good to be
out of bed, up and moving around again, so he tried not to complain as they
slowly made their way up the hall.
At one
point, he looked over at Claire and teased, “Think this is a snapshot of how
it’s gonna be when we’re old and falling apart?” She just laughed, small creases appearing at
the corners of her eyes. He wondered if
those creases would turn into permanent wrinkles as she aged and surprised
himself with the thought. He’d never
considered how she would look later on in life, but now he found himself trying
to picture her as an old woman. How long
would it take for her red hair to fade and turn to silver? Would her naturally slender body pack on
pounds as the decades passed, or would she simply shrink and shrivel into one
of those stooped, frail little old ladies?
The
thoughts were strange ones to be having as he plodded methodically along the
hallway, but he found them interesting nevertheless. And perhaps most interesting of all was the
realization that he wouldn’t mind seeing her grow old, watching as her youthful
prettiness faded with the passing years.
And the reflection that maybe he wouldn’t mind growing old right along
with her.
“Doing
alright?” Karyn asked from behind him, jarring him from his thoughts.
“Yup, doing
fine,” Nick murmured distractedly, as he moved the walker forward and took
another step.
***
Later in
the day, Nick was back in his room and alone again, as Claire had headed home
after lunch to finish up all the last-minute things she had to do before
tomorrow. He was just flipping through
the afternoon soaps on TV when he heard a familiar voice out in the hall,
growing louder as it approached his room.
Sitting up straighter in his bed, Nick quickly changed the channel to
ESPN and looked up just in time to see his doorknob turn. He smiled as Howie’s familiar face peeked around
the door and called, “Yo, D!”
“Well hello
there, Forrest,” was Howie’s greeting as he walked into the room.
Nick cocked
his head to the side as he stared at his friend. “Forrest?” he repeated.
“Yeah,
Forrest. Forrest Gu-ump,” Howie said in
a horrible Tom Hanks/Forrest Gump impression.
“You know… ‘That boy sho’ is a runnin’ fool’.” He winked.
“Oh…” Nick got it now. “’Run, Forrest, run!” he added in a
high-pitched, thick Southern accent and smiled impishly. Funny, he felt more like Lieutenant Dan.
Howie
laughed and came up to Nick’s bed, leaning over to give him a big hug. “It’s good to see ya, Nicky.”
“You too,
Howie,” Nick returned the sentiments, patting Howie’s back. “Did you just get into town?”
“Yeah,
about an hour ago,” replied Howie, sinking down into a chair off to the side of
the bed. “I got checked into my hotel
room, dropped my stuff off, grabbed a bite to eat, and here I am.” He smiled briefly, the smile fading as his
eyes left Nick’s face and looked over the rest of him, from the IV line taped
against his arm to the bulge of his injured stump beneath the covers. “So… you told me what happened on the phone,
but…” He trailed off, shrugging, then
asked, “How are you?”
“Okay,”
Nick said. “Better. The antibiotics seem to be helping, so
hopefully I’ll be able to blow this joint sometime over the weekend.” Oh yeah, that was the other thing that had
happened while Claire had been there – the new doctor he’d been assigned to
after moving to his new room, Dr. Robson, had stopped by for a wound
check. In all honestly, Nick hadn’t
thought the infected ulcer looked any better, but the doctor had seemed
optimistic, especially after finding that his temperature was almost back to
normal. Nick hoped the new antibiotics
really were doing their job because he wanted to go home as soon as possible.
“That’s
great,” Howie replied, smiling again.
“So do you have any idea how long it will take for it to fully
heal? The ulcer, I mean.”
“I don’t
know…” Nick said slowly, wishing he did know. He made a mental note to ask Dr. Robson next
time he saw him. “I hope it goes away
soon, cause I can’t really wear my leg with it there.”
“Yeah,
that’s what I figured. It probably
hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it
ain’t too comfortable, that’s for sure,” Nick admitted.
Howie’s
large brown eyes were filled with sympathy.
“I’m sorry. I know this has gotta
be really hard for you.” Nick just
shrugged and nodded. “So, stop me if I’m
bugging you with all the questions, but I didn’t get a chance to ask you on the
phone… how did the running go?”
“Oh,” Nick
said, almost caught off-guard – sometimes he forgot that’s what had caused all
of this in the first place; that hour in the backyard seemed like it had taken
place years ago, rather than days.
“Well, actually, it went okay. I
mean, other than causing this mess.” He
motioned vaguely down the left side of his body. “You won’t believe it, D, but I was really
doing it. I was really out there
running.”
Howie shook
his head in amazement. “That’s
incredible, Nicky! How did it feel?”
“Good… really
good,” Nick answered honestly, smiling at the memory of how proud he’d felt in
that moment when he’d realized he was actually running, for the first time in
over a year. “Like, it was so weird at
first… cause I really had to think about it, you know. Think about how to run. It’s such a second-nature thing; you just do
it, right? But it’s not that simple for
me anymore. But even so, once I got
going, it wasn’t really that hard. I
mean, it was… it took a lot more energy than I thought. But it was just… cool.”
Howie, who
had been listening with interest the whole time, nodded slowly. “That is cool. Really cool.” Grinning, he reached out and playfully
punched Nick’s shoulder. “I’m proud of
ya, bud,” he said. “Have you told any of
the other guys yet?” Nick shook his head
no. “Me neither; haven’t talked to
anybody since you called yesterday. But
you should give them a call; they’d be thrilled. Brian especially – he probably can’t wait to
get back on the court and play some real basketball with you.”
Nick
chuckled. “Well, I dunno about that
happening anytime soon, but we’ll see. I
guess I should call them though. The Old
Man’ll probably freak out on me when he finds out I’ve been in the hospital for
two days without him knowing.”
“True,”
Howie laughed. “Maybe it’d be better to
wait till you get out, or he’ll want to fly all the way out here to lecture you
in person.” Now they both laughed at
Kevin’s expense. It felt so good to have
Howie there, and as they talked about the others, Nick found himself missing
them too, especially Brian and Kevin, who he’d not seen in at least two
months. They had all promised not to let
too much time go by without getting together, but with five men living
different lives with different, busy schedules in different parts of the
country, that was sometimes easier said than done.
“So, what’s
been up with you, dude?” Nick asked next, and the conversation turned to all
the recent happenings in Howie’s life, from what he was doing with the Dorough
Lupus Foundation, to the women he’d been dating, and everything in between.
“Speaking
of women,” Howie said finally, “Claire won’t be back up here anytime soon, will
she?”
“Nah, I
don’t think so,” replied Nick. “She was
here this morning, but I think she was headed back to her place to finish tying
up all the loose ends there.”
“Good,”
Howie said and winked. Smiling, Nick
pulled himself up even straighter and twisted to the side a little to face
Howie. They still had lots to talk
about.
***