Something More (19 page)

“You are a sicko, you
know that? And I’ve had years of practice dealing with him.” He just smiles as
we continue our journey through the hospital, hunting down some coffee.

Returning to the ICU
with coffee running through our systems, Dr. Chambers meets us outside of
Charlie's room. It dawns on me that Drew's dad knew we were coming and that's
how they had a bracelet ready for him. I wonder how Drew got his dad here so
quickly. My thoughts are interrupted. “Charlotte's brain seems to be completely
intact and functioning properly. When she wakes up, we will check her again,
but everything looks good up there.”

I breathe out a sigh of
relief. No brain damage. Now we just need to see what the other doctors have to
say. Just as I'm about to ask if I can go in to see her again, Marcus pops his
head out of the room. He looks to see who is around and then his eyes lock on
me. “I think she's starting to wake up.”

I shove past Drew and
his dad, and rush in to see Charlie. Her eyes aren't open yet, but she's
stirring. I look over at Marcus and see him smiling with teary eyes, holding
Charlie's hand. It warms my heart to see him have such emotions over his
daughter. He's never been an emotional guy, but I know that deep down he cares.

Looking back at
Charlie, I see her starting to open her eyes. I quickly reach over and turn off
the light that is directly over her head. I never understood what those stupid
lights were for. They shine right into a patient's eyes. It would be better to
have those swivel lights like in a hotel room with a 3-way bulb.

Before Charlie
completely opens her eyes, she tries to talk. I pat her on her arm, “No,
sweetie, you can't talk. You have a tube in your throat.” She shakes her head
at me and frowns.

Marcus looks at me. “I think
she wants it out, Bec.”

“No shit, Marcus. Go
get a doctor or a nurse.”

He comes back with a
nurse and she looks at all of the machinery. I assume she is checking her
vitals. “I'll be right back with the doctor and see if we can't take the tube
out, okay?” The nurse says politely and walks out of the room.

Moving my attention
back to Charlie, her eyes look a little scared now. “You're going to be okay,
angel. Don't you worry. Are you feeling any pain? I can get the nurse back in
here to give you pain meds.” Charlie shakes her head and gives me an
okay
sign with her fingers.

The nurse walks back in
with a different doctor following behind her. He sees Charlie's
okay
sign still up and says, “Well, that's a good sign. Much better than the one my
wife shows me all the time. I'm Dr. Phillips.” We all snicker, except for
Charlie. The doctor holds his hand out to shake Marcus' hand and then mine. “Let's
take a look to see if we can yank that thing out of you.”

Marcus and I look at
each other, not knowing what to think of this doctor's choice of words. It’s
probably not the best bedside manner, but at least he's not uptight and spewing
a bunch of medical jargon that we can't understand.

“Everything looks good.
Let's take it out. Whaddya say?” He looks to Charlie and she gives him a thumbs
up. “Great. Your throat is going to be sore for a while, but it will subside in
a few days. We're going to need you to take a deep breath and then blow out
really hard on the count of three, okay?” The nurse moves around to the other
side, making Marcus move out of the way.

I step back to move out
of the way of the doctor and I move to the foot of the bed. I hold on to
Charlie's foot so she can feel me. They disconnect some things and then they
ask if she's ready. She gives the thumbs up again and I can't help but smile.
She's such a sassy little trooper.

“Okay. On the count of
three, Charlotte. One. Two…” Charlie takes in a deep breath. “Three.” She blows
out really hard and they pull the tube out of her throat. She coughs and the
nurse is ready with a cup of water for her to sip on. She takes a sip and
motions for me to come back over to her. Dr. Phillips tells us all that she
needs to take it easy on the talking until her throat heals a little. She gives
him another thumbs up and we all giggle.

Charlie grabs a hold of
my arm and pulls me in for a hug. There is nothing I want to do more than
squeeze her, but I can't because I might cause her pain. She plants a kiss on
my cheek and whispers, “Thanks for being here, Mom.”

I take her hand in mine
and kiss the back of it. “Where else would I be, angel?”

“How long have I been
in here?” she asks.

“Since last night,” I
reply. “They called me as soon as you were brought in.”

“How did you get here
so quickly?” I glance up at Marcus, and Charlie gets the hint. We always could
read each other with just a look. She looks over at her dad and grabs his arm,
pulling him in to her the same way she did to me. “Thanks for being here, Dad.”

“I'm just happy you're
okay, pumpkin.” Marcus looks like he might tear up again. “I'm going to go grab
a drink from somewhere. I'll be right back.”

“Okay, Dad.”

Marcus heads toward the
door and I see him quickly wipe his eyes before disappearing out the door.
Turning back to Charlie, I see her beautiful face. Her coloring has come back
to normal and she's perked up.

“I've never seen your
dad get as emotional as I have today. It's nice to see.” Charlie looks at me
with a
gimme a break
kind of look. “No, seriously. I can tell he was
really worried about you.”

“Duh, Mom. I could've
died.”

“I know that, but even
still, he never shows emotions and I've seen him cry twice today.” I can't help
myself from leaning over and hugging my baby girl again.

“So, Mom, how did you
get here so quickly?” She's still whispering and being a good little patient.

I look down at my
hands, knowing that I'm blushing and she can read me like a book. “Drew brought
me,” I say, without giving away any more information.

“Mom? How did
Drew
get you here so quickly?” Charlie makes me chuckle the way she tries to pry
information out of me.

I peek back up at her. “On
a plane, Charlie. Duh.” We use the term “duh” too often, I've realized. I think
it's her that brings it out of me.

“Mom!” she shouts in a
whisper. It's really too cute.

“Hey, easy on the voice
there,” I scold her. “Okay. I flew on his private jet.” She gasps, carefully. “It
is really beautiful. It has a bedroom and everything.”

Charlie smacks me on
the arm and whisper shouts again, “Lucky!” I miss dishing with her face-to-face.
It's been a few months since we've done this because she left for college early
and then I moved across the country.

“What's he like? Is he
as perfect as he looks on Google?” Blushing, I look back down at anything
except her. “Mom. He is, isn't he? How the hell did you find him?”

Looking back up at her,
I can't help the wide grin that forms on my face. “Oh, Charlie. He's very near
perfect, as far as I can tell. I never knew love could feel like this.” I'm
feeling giddy, like a school girl.

Her eyes widen at what
I've just said. “You
love
him, Mom?” My face falters a little. I didn’t
actually
admit
it, did I? I think back to what I've just said. Yep, I did.

My grin reappears. “Yes.
I believe I really do.”

“Wow,” she says in her
hushed whisper. “I can't believe you love him. It's so soon.”

“I know it is and I
keep trying to be rational about it, but this draw to him is wicked crazy.”

She laughs. “Did you
just say ‘wicked crazy’?” I nod and we chuckle. “Does he know that you love
him?”

“Well, I haven't told
him that I love him yet, but I'm pretty sure he knows how I feel. And I'm
pretty sure he feels the same way. I think he's afraid that if he says it too
soon, I'll pull away. I'm just being stubborn and don't want to say it first.
So here we are, madly in love and refusing to say it out of fear.” We chuckle
again.

“Good. You've always
told me not to say it first. To make the guy chase
you
.”
Well, at
least she's remembered something I taught her
. A girl should never seem
desperate, even if she really wants the guy. Some guys like the thrill of the
chase, too.

“And that's what I've
tried to do with him. He keeps coming back for more, though. I must be doing
something right. This is definitely something different for both of us. Neither
one of us have ever felt this way with anyone else.” It sounds so cliché, but
it really is true.

“So it
can
happen, then?” she asks. “What happens in those books?”

I smile at her and nod.
“Yes, I guess it can. I'm not so crazy after all.” She smiles at me and I think
she's wondering if it will happen for her.

“Did he come with you
or did he just send you on his plane?”

“He came with me. He
arranged everything for me to be here. He even talked to my boss and had his
dad, who's a neurologist, come to check on you. He was there with me when I got
the call.” My face falls when I think about that horrible late night phone
call. “That was the worst phone call of my life, Charlie.” Tears begin to form
again. “I never want to experience that again.”

Charlie puts her hand
out for me to take. “I'm sorry, Mom.”

“What happened anyway?
No one told me anything, except that you were in an accident.”

She takes a deep breath.
“I don't remember everything, but I do remember that I was at a stop light and
this man came up to my car and knocked on the window.” My heart is beating out
of my chest just hearing that someone approached her car. You always hear of
carjackings on the news, but I never knew of anyone that it had happened to. “It
was late so I just ignored him, thinking it was just a bum looking for a
handout, but then he started cussing at me to open up or he'd break the window
and drag me out.”
Jesus, I don't know if I want to hear anymore.
This
asshole was threatening to hurt my baby. The anger in me is building and the
pain I feel for her having to deal with this is overwhelming. A tear escapes
and Charlie clutches my hand harder. “Do you want me to finish?”

“I think so, but it's
killing me to hear it.”

“There's not much more
to tell.” I nod for her to continue. “I refused to look at the guy, but I
should've so I could identify him. I was just too scared, and then he started
beating on my car and window. That's when I freaked out and just slammed on the
gas to get out of there. I don't remember anything after that.” Leaning over, I
hug her as tight as I can without hurting her and I kiss her on the forehead. I
can't believe she went through something like that. I've never been through
something so scary.

“You should've thrown
the car in reverse, backed up, then put it back into drive and ran over the
fucker. Jesus, Charlie! There's no telling what that asshole was going to do to
you. I can't even think about it.” I'm so mad and frustrated at the whole
situation. And since she never got a look at him, he's probably going to do it
to someone else. Maybe even countless times. It's infuriating!

“Mom, I'm okay. At
least I think I'm okay.” Charlie tries to lean up to kiss me, but can't quite
make it. Realizing I don't really know anything that's wrong with her because
I've just been focused on
being
with her, my anger turns into a nervous
feeling down deep in my belly.

Just then, there's a
light knock on the door and it cracks open a tiny bit. Drew peeks his head in. “Can
I come in?” The nervous feeling I just had instantly goes away and a little
fire ignites. I look to Charlie and she raises her arm up as high as she can
get it, giving a thumbs up once again. Drew closes the door behind him and
walks over to us. I hear Charlie take in a sharp breath as he gets closer.
Yes,
Charlie. Nearly perfect, isn't he?
He wraps an arm around my waist and
gives me a kiss on the cheek, which I lean into. I've missed his touch. He
whispers into my ear, “I've missed you too, baby.”

“No whispering in my presence.
Well, except for me because I have to.” Charlie is showing her true self to
Drew right out of the gate. You've got to love her sass.

Drew smiles. “You must
be the infamous, Charlie. I've heard a...” Drew pauses. He hasn't heard a lot
about her because we haven't been together long enough for him to have heard
much, “little about you.” We all giggle. “It's nice to finally meet you.”

Charlie lets go of my
hand to shake Drew's. “Likewise. You look good online, but better in person,”
she says and I'm a little taken aback by her bluntness so soon.

“Charlie!” I scold her.

Drew just laughs. “I
see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.” He winks at Charlie and gives me
a little squeeze. “Babe, if you're okay, I was going to run out and get us some
lunch and grab my laptop.” I nod. “What would you like to eat?” I shrug. I'm
not really in the mood to eat, but I know I need to.

“Something light. A
salad maybe, with honey mustard dressing. Or a turkey and swiss sandwich.” He
smiles, knowing I always eat turkey and swiss.

“Mustard and light on
the mayo?” I smile back him. He knows how I like my sandwich already.
Can he
be any more adorable?
“Charlie, when you're able to dive into some food,
I'm buying.” She shoots him another thumbs up and he gives her another wink.