For the next few days, my time consisted of strengthening exercises with the doctor and daily visits from James. I told him he didn’t have to come and see me anymore but he insisted. I quickly learnt that James Owen Mathews was a very stubborn man. It was mid afternoon, almost a week since I had woken up in this hospital bed. I lay backwards on my bed, my feet propped up and my head almost hanging off. There wasn’t a lot to do in this room.
“What are you doing?” asked a confused voice from the doorway. I tilted my head to see James standing in the doorway with a paper bag and a backpack in his hands.
“I’m laying down. What does it look like I’m doing?” I asked rhetorically.
“I know that, smartass. I’m asking why you’re laying like that,” he retorted as he walked into the room, placing the bags on the bed with me.
“Cause I felt like it. What’s in the bags?” I asked as I sat up and faced him.
“Presents,” he said with a smile as he took a McDonald’s cheeseburger out of the bag and handed it to me.
“Oh my god. I love you,” I squealed and took the burger, hungrily ripping off the wrapping paper and taking a big bite. “Oh, sweet baby Jesus. It’s so good to have human food,” I mumbled around a mouthful of burger.
“Good thing I got a few of them,” James laughed, taking them out of the bag and setting it on the rolly bedside table. “I also brought you my laptop, an old phone that’s got my Spotify and a bunch of old games on it, a few books and an empty notebook and some pens. Figured you could use them so you wouldn’t be so bored in here.”
I stared up at him in surprise, the burger momentarily forgotten. “You didn’t have to bring me all this stuff, James.”
“I know I didn’t, but I wanted to,” James replied as he set everything on the small table by my bed. “So what’s the prognosis?”
“Doc says I can go home in maybe a week. Said I’m recovering nicely. Far better than was expected,” I said as I finished my first burger and moved onto my second.
“Well that’s good. I’m sure you’d be glad to go home,” James mused as he picked up a burger and started to eat.
“Yeah, I wanna get the hell out of here. But I’m not looking forward to leaving in a hospital gown,” I joked softly.
“Well tell me your address and where I can find a key and I will pick up clothes and things for you,” he said as he finished his first burger and moved onto his second.
“No way. You do too much for me already,” I said, shaking my head as I finished my second burger, well past full.
“Too bad, I’m doing it anyway. I don’t want you going home in a gown,” James said with his arms crossed, staring at me as if daring me to argue.
“You’re so damn stubborn,” I grumbled trying to hide my smile. I gave up and told him my address and where he could find the spare key. He wrote it down in his phone then made me get a chat app so we could text. “It’s a big place so you might get a little lost.”
“I won’t snoop too much. Promise.” he teased.
“You’re a good guy, James Owen Mathews. I’m glad you’re my friend.” I smiled at James as he sat in the chair by my bed, his feet propped up on the mattress.
“You’re a good girl, Haven Emory Thompson, and I’m glad you’re my friend.” James smiles, his blue eyes sparkling. I wrinkled my nose and fake pouted.
“When you say ‘girl’ it makes me feel like a little kid.”
“Well you are little,” he teased.
“ I am not.” I bugged indignantly. “I’m 20.”
“Yeah, and I’m 28 and 6’3”, so you are little compared to me.” James laughed at my facial expression.
“Hmm... glad I could amuse you, Mr. Mathews.” I snorted. Very lady like.
“Very lady-like, Haven.” James snorted in amusement.
“What, you can do it but I can’t? That’s hardly fair,” I pouted.
For the next little while we poked fun at each other and talked about random things. I liked having James around. He was easy to talk to and had a great sense of humour -not to mention I was developing a bit of a hero worship crush on him. I mean, who wouldn’t? The man saved my life.
As we were sitting on my bed watching shows on James’s laptop, the door opened and my doctor, Dr. Morgan, came into the room.
“How are you feeling, Haven?” Dr. Morgan asked as he checked over my chart.
“I’m good. A little stiff but not much. I took a walk around the hospital last night and it didn’t tire me out,” I explained.
“Well that’s good, Miss Thompson. You heal fast so I’m sure you’ll be out of here in no time. And today we can take off the bandage on your neck.”
“Thank God.” I yelled, causing both men to chuckle. “Nothing against you, Doc. I just want to get out of here. And this thing itches so I’m ready for it to be off.” I smiled at him sheepishly.
“I completely understand, Haven. Just keep up with the exercises and you will be out of here real soon. Alright, let’s take this off shall we?”
He slowly undid the tape and carefully pulled off the bandage; it tugged on my skin slightly. I scrunched up my face at the feeling and stretched my neck and jaw a bit in relief. “Alright. It looks really good. Healed very nicely. Now, there is a bit of a scar but not nearly as bad as it could have been.”
I gingerly lifted my hand to touch the skin of my neck. It felt rough, and it felt like it ran from my collar bone to my cheek bone. I’ll admit the vain part of me didn’t want to look at it - or my hair, which was more uneven than I thought. I had been skillfully avoiding all mirrors since I woke up almost a week ago.
“There’s still a bit of healing and the redness will go away as it does. Over time, it will fade even more. I’ll come back to check on you later.” And with that, Dr. Morgan was gone from the room.
“You’re not going to look at it?” James asked gently as he watched me closely. I bit my lip and shook my head.
“I’m not ready to see all the scars. My hands aren’t bad, nor is my torso, but there’s quite a few on my back and legs. I know it could have been so much worse, but every time I see them I feel the pain all over again and I smell my skin burning. I don’t want to face that right now,” I admitted as I played with my hospital robe.
“Have you thought about talking to someone about your experiences? It might help you process everything.”
“Dr. Morgan sent in a referral for me to talk with a psychiatrist. Just waiting for an appointment to be set up.” I nodded before looking back up at James. He smiled at me gently before motioning to his laptop.
“Back to shows?” I nodded with a grateful smile and we settled back on my bed to watch. James reached into his backpack and pulled out some gummy worms.
“Here, I got the good stuff.”
“That you did,” I snorted with a laugh.
We passed the time by laughing and joking, having a good time. James was fun to be around. It was easy and comfortable. I didn’t feel like I needed to be ‘on’ all the time. He made me feel at ease. We sat for a little while in silence before another knock brought our attention to the door. A young couple was standing there with a small red-headed girl.“Haven, you’re awake!” the young girl cried, running into the room to stand by my bed.I stared at her in surprise, her pretty green eyes shining up at me. I could see small burn scars on her little arms, which were very minimal compared to what could have happened. I stared at her in surprise, glancing at James and the couple.“H-hi,” I replied, shocked to see her.
The moment I felt my body waking up, I knew I wasn’t in the hospital anymore. I opened my eyes to once again see the white room I woke up in after the fire. This time I was clothed in a small white dress that reached my knees, my wings spilled from my back in inky blackness. I glanced around the room absentmindedly playing with the feathers on my wings, wondering why I was here again.“You are here, my child, because I have need of you.” A deep soothing voice spoke from behind me. I turned already knowing who I would see. He was just as beautiful as ever. He was tall and golden, his eyes a fiery green, his wings as white as fresh snow. I felt very small standing in his presence.“Need of me how?” I asked, not completely comfortable around him.“You have training to do, my de
With that I closed the door and immediately took out my shower things and stripped before stepping into the water. It felt so nice to finally be able to scrub my skin with actual body wash and not small sterile smelling soap. I nearly moaned in pleasure as I worked the shampoo into my hair, sighing as I felt the choppy and broken strands of my burnt hair. Would definitely need to make a hair appointment. I did however, let out a little happy sound as I noticed the razor in my bag and immediately shaved the important bits.It felt heavenly to finally be groomed. After a good solid 15 minutes in the shower I got out and dried off with the ridiculously small hospital towels and got dressed, sighing as I finally felt a sense of comfort to be in my clothes. I stood in front of the sink, toothbrush with toothpaste on it in my hand and let out a sigh as I put it in my mouth and started brushing my tee
Stepping into the house I let out a sigh of relief and slowly made my way into the kitchen. It was most definitely slow going as the house was huge. Was it always this huge?! God who needs this much space? By the time I made it into the kitchen I shakely made my way to the breakfast nook and sank onto the bench with a huff.I reached down and massaged my sore leg muscles through my jeans, huffing in frustration byt how crippled and useless I felt. Couldn’t even make it across the floor without needing a break because I was cramping and winded. I felt ninety all of a sudden and growled in annoyance at the unwelcome feeling. I forced myself to stand with a grunt and hobbled to the fridge, opening it a crack and when I wasn’t met with a wave of stench I opened it fully and was very happy to see that it was clean and all things gross and expired had been disposed of. In fact now that I thought abou
Ezra ascended the stairs in silence and with ease, before I knew it he was on the fourth floor and paused, waiting for me to point him in the right direction. I motioned to the right, the last door in the hall. He made his way to it and opened it, holding me with one hand effortlessly. He made his way into the room, walking softly over the spacious hardwood floor and placed me gently on the small ottoman at the end of my bed, dropping my bag that I wasn’t even aware he had, at my feet before taking a step back and looking around my room. I looked with him, wondering what my room looked like and revealed about myself to a stranger.It was large, unnecessarily so like all the rooms in this house, and open, my bed directly in the middle between the doors to my walk-in closet on the right, and my bathroom and the left. The rest of the walls were mostly taken up by shelves of books, nicknacks, keepsake to
I woke the next morning, disoriented for a brief moment before a sense of familiarity washed over me, the smells and sounds of my room making it all come back to me in a rolling wave. I was back home finally, Ezra was now living with me, I had a nightmare and a huge panic attack last night and dark, calm and steady Ezra was able to help me out of it all.I rolled onto my back with a sigh and lifted my arms out of the blankets to run them through my rats nest of hair. Going to bed with damp hair always assured it would be a mess, adding a thrashing nightmare to the mix only made it worse. With a sigh I sat up and rolled to reach my bedside table, grabbing my brush from the drawer and blinking in surprise at the time being a little after noon. So much for trying to go grocery shopping and stopping by to see my boss today.Oh well, groceries were a need, boss coul
Two cart fulls and nearly four hours later, we were finally done. I got everything I needed to restock the house including some extras that Ezra pointed out he enjoyed and I was beyond exhausted. My legs ached and I had a headache forming and my back felt tight and stiff. We loaded everything into the trunk and back seat and Ezra put the carts away before returning and holding out his hands for my keys.“I will drive us back. You are exhausted and in pain. Sit and power nap if you can.” Before I could even open my mouth to argue there was a rush of air and then I was sitting in the passenger seat, buckled and Ezra was in the divers, keys in hand. I gaped at him, my mouth open and closing as I tried to form a coherent sentence. “I knew you would argue, so I saved us both time.” I scowled at him as he shrugged and began to drive out of the lot, a smirk on his lips.
The breakfast nook table was set with 3 place settings and the kitchen smelled heavenly as the radio played in the background. I went to the stove and stood beside Ezra to see what he was making. There was a pan of homemade meatballs searing with mouth watering spices, a homemade tomato sauce that Ezra was stirring, a pan of green beans also being seared with a light and fragrant oil drizzle and noodles on to boil. It all smelt and looked so amazing. Ezra turned and held out the sauce spoon for me to taste, his hand under it to catch anything that drips. I leaned forward and opened my mouth to taste the sauce on the spoon and swooned. It tasted so damn amazing I audibly groaned in appreciation.“God that tastes amazing Ezra. Everything smells so good! I have not been this excited for food in a very long time.” I did a little happy dance