Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
I’d been way too eager to take the escape I’d been given and had ended up practically running up the two flights of stairs to get back to Theo. My nursing side had taken a back seat in my brain as terrible images of Theo lying on the floor because he’d tried to get out of bed by himself flooded my mind.
He’d been exactly as I’d left him, but I’d been a fucking wreck as I’d dropped in the chair that had initially been a good ten feet from the young man… the chair I’d spent the entire night sitting in as I’d watched him sleep.
Lincoln, please…
I dropped my head and swallowed hard as I worked to keep the tears at bay.
“The past is in the past,” I murmured softly to myself as I leaned forward in the chair and began running my fingers through my hair. The hair tie easily came loose and fell somewhere, but I didn’t care. I had to get my internal shit together before I could think about my external appearance.
“Past is in the past,” I said again as tears stung my eyes. I pulled in a deep breath, then another one. It seemed to take forever for my heartbeat to slow and for the oxygen to easily move through my constricted lungs.
I held there for another minute just to make sure I was in control of myself before lifting my head to see how my patient was doing.
My now awake patient.
Fuck, how long had he been watching me lose my shit for?
“Good morning, how are you feeling?” I murmured as I made a big production of pulling the equipment from my bag that would allow me to check his vitals.
“When can I leave?” Theo immediately asked as he sat up. He kept his head down as he slowly swung his legs around so they hung off the side of the bed. He quickly maneuvered the sheet so I couldn’t see his skinny, frail legs. I wanted to remind him that I’d already seen them but kept my mouth shut.
I managed to keep my voice even as I responded. “You can return to your own room whenever you’re ready,” I said. “As to leaving the property, you need to give it a few days. Your body has been through a lot of trauma, Theo,” I added. “Less than twelve hours ago you were standing on the threshold of sepsis’s door… a door many don’t come back through.” I didn’t bother to look at his face as I spoke because I knew what I’d see there.
Nothing.
He chose me.
I almost laughed out loud at the voice in my head. Theo hadn’t chosen me. I’d been the lesser of two evils.
I needed to remember that.
Just like I needed to remember that going forward, I needed to always be in nurse mode when I dealt with Theo.
I took his vitals quickly but when he lifted his hand that had the IV in it, I said, “Not just yet.”
“I want—”
“It out,” I finished for him, unable to hide the irritation in my voice.
Nurse hat, Lincoln… nurse hat.
“It needs to stay in for another day so I can push antibiotics one more time. The hydration will help with getting you back on your feet more quickly. So will rest and sleep.”
We were both silent as I finished taking his vitals. As I’d suspected, his temperature was almost normal again and all his other numbers looked good.
I was in the middle of cleaning my equipment with sterile wipes when Theo impatiently said, “I need to go to my room.” He paused before adding, “Now.”
“Fine,” I said as I stood. A tiny, spiteful part of me wanted to take several giant steps from him, but thankfully the nurse hat quashed the thought. I reached for Theo’s elbow to give him some leverage when he stood, but not surprisingly, he pulled away from me.
I sighed and said, “Take it slow. Put one hand on the nightstand if you need to.”
He didn’t listen, of course. Instead, he used the mattress as leverage for his uninjured arm and pushed himself up. It took a couple of tries but I wasn’t foolish enough to offer to help him. Whatever life had thrown at this kid, he’d faced it alone. I had no doubt about that. He needed every victory he could get, even if they were tiny ones.
As discreetly as I could, I slid the IV pole out from between the bed and the nightstand and rolled it toward Theo. Technically the pole wasn’t designed to balance a person’s weight in any kind of way, but I’d be right there if Theo took the bait and used it to lessen the strain he was putting on his body.
Theo ignored it at first but after a few more efforts to get off the bed completely on his own, his left hand closed around the pole. He was breathing heavily but that didn’t stop him. I doubted that he’d noticed that I’d put my foot against the pole’s wheels to keep it from sliding away from him.