ACHE (Naked, Book 5) (5 page)

From the moment he was allowed into her room, he was focused completely on Caelyn. Immediately, he was at her side. “Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded gratefully, squeezing his hand when he placed it on hers.

“Tired,” she whispered.

“Don’t overdo it,” Elijah said, smiling. “We’re going to have plenty of time together, so just take it easy, kid.”

Immediately she felt her entire body relaxing in a way that hadn’t happened until now. A smile of complete and utter happiness came over her face.

Everyone in the room saw it, including Monroe, who walked over and looked at Elijah. “You’re her person,” she said to him.

“I’m her person?” he replied.

“When someone goes through an ordeal like what Caelyn’s been through, they need someone to lean on—someone to motivate them and give them strength when they feel they can’t walk another step. You’re her person.”

He nodded. “I hope so.”

“It’s a big responsibility, Elijah. I hope you take it seriously.”

“Of course.” He studied Monroe’s face as if trying to see what her hidden motives might be. “Is there some reason why you think I wouldn’t take it seriously?”

“I’m just making sure you get that Caelyn needs you to be strong and stable and dependable. No funny business.”

Elijah almost grinned, and Caelyn could tell he was offended by what Monroe was implying about his character. But he seemed to get control of his temper. “No funny business,” he agreed.

Deena snorted. “Good luck with that,” she muttered.

But strangely, after that, Caelyn was surprised to find that there was very little outward conflict between Elijah and her family.

In fact, they almost seemed to be working together as a team.

Over the next few days, each of them maintained a certain schedule, and when Elijah would go to take a long break, grab a bite to eat at the hospital cafeteria or something—her parents and Deena would show up and take over for a while.

It wasn’t that they sat around and discussed doing it that way—it just seemed to happen naturally. A rhythm developed.

It was clear that something had shifted once Caelyn had made her wishes known to everyone. Once she’d shown that nobody could force Elijah out of her hospital room, everything seemed to fall into place.

Elijah was her person—he was the one who stayed almost constantly by her side.

The moment visiting hours started in the morning, he was there, walking into her room with a smile and a cup of coffee. After a few days had gone by and she’d begun eating and drinking on her own, he always brought a second cup of coffee for her as well.

He’d stay all morning, working with her on the exercises that the hospital staff gave her to do in order to build her strength. Elijah was a taskmaster, and he had alarms set on his phone to remind them to do the required exercises every half hour.

The fun ones were word games—little goofy things to help get her mouth working faster and reminding those circuits between her mind and her body to begin to throw off the cobwebs.

Soon, she was able to hold a normal conversation, although her voice was still weak and she would often be tired after a few minutes of talking.

The hard exercises were getting up to a sitting position, lying back down, then pulling herself up again.

From sitting, she had to stand, then move to a chair, then stand, then sit. She did the repetitions like someone working out at the gym, and they were as hard as any gym exercises she’d ever done.

Just a couple of minutes of sitting and standing over and over again were enough to wipe her out.

Eventually she did slow laps around the circular hallway, moving around the nurse’s station with Elijah guiding her. It took her about fifteen minute to do a single lap in the beginning.

But having Elijah with her while she went through hell and back somehow made it all a little bit easier.

There were moments she got testy with him, though.

One morning she’d woken up with a cold on top of everything else.

“Hey sleepyhead,” Elijah said as he entered the hospital room carrying his usual two cups of coffee. He set the small cup down in front of her, and she made a face.

“No thanks,” she muttered, pushing it away and turning onto her side.

“I made it just the way you like it.”

“It smells burnt.”

“I think it smells like it smells every day. I’m drinking the same stuff.”

She turned over again and glared at him. “Stop being so fake, Elijah.”

He raised his eyebrows at her as he sipped his coffee, sitting on a plastic chair near her bed. “Fake? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That chipper voice you’re using. It’s so not you.”

He smirked. “Okay, kid.”

“It’s not okay, actually,” she said. “Don’t you think we should both admit that my situation totally sucks?” She sneezed and then slapped her hand on the bed. “I need a tissue. Dammit.” She sniffed, then sneezed again.

Chuckling, Elijah went and grabbed a box of tissues from nearby and brought it to her. “You woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

“I’m sick.”

“You think you have a fever?” He leaned over and put his warm hand on her forehead. “You don’t feel hot or anything.”

“My sinuses are all blocked,” she whined.

“That sucks,” he said.

“You don’t even care.” She knew she was being a jerk to Elijah, but somehow she couldn’t stop herself. “Nobody gets it. Everyone thinks this is easy, but it’s not.”

“Caelyn, nobody thinks it’s easy for you.”

They both fell silent. She lay in bed and blew her nose, crumpling tissues up and tossing them into the waste paper basket near her bed. A few just bounced and fell on the floor instead. Her nose was stuffy and her head ached worse than usual.

Elijah sat and calmly drank his coffee.

And then the alarm on his phone went off, and he stood up. “Okay, kid. You ready to get started?”

She looked up at him with something approaching rage. “I’m not doing that, Elijah. I’m not doing those stupid fucking exercises right now.”

“Caelyn, we have to—“

“You don’t have to do anything. I do it all.”

“Fine,” he said, still the picture of calm. “
You
have to do this. Otherwise you’re not going to improve and heal. Remember what Monroe told us?”

“I don’t care.” Her eyes narrowed. “Just leave me the hell alone. I’m so fucking sick of this!” She threw the box of Kleenex at him and it bounced off his elbow.

They stared at one another for a long moment, both stunned at what she’d just done. And then Elijah’s lip twitched and he started laughing. “I know that wasn’t supposed to be funny,” he said.

Then Caelyn realized how silly she was acting, and she started laughing with him.

Both of them were turning red, laughing harder and harder. Soon, neither of them could stop. It was as if they were laughing together instead of sobbing.

Elijah went over and hugged her, kissing her cheek. “You’re hysterical, you know that?”

“I think I’m going crazy.”

“It’s okay if you do. Temporarily, anyway.”

“What if it’s permanent?”

“It’s not. I promise.” He smiled at her, rubbing his thumb across her cheek.

She sighed. “Okay, let’s start the exercises.”

Somehow, Elijah always found a way to make what was happening okay. He found a way to make her laugh, to force a smile to her face, even when some serious doctor was telling her about all the possible long term effects of having a traumatic brain injury.

He refused to let her wallow in despair, and as a result, she was improving quickly.

The doctors said they’d never seen a patient come out of a coma and recover as quickly as she was recovering.

During one of the final treatment team meetings, Doctor Goldfarb, the neurologist in charge of the team, said it simply.

“Caelyn’s been an absolutely model patient. She’s inspired everyone who’s worked with her.” Dr. Goldfarb briefly rubbed the tip of his nose and then looked around to see if anyone had anything to add before continuing. “We think that the time has come to talk about discharging Caelyn, and how to plan for her continuing rehabilitation.”

Around the table sat the rest of the team, which included Monroe and Amit Ramachandran and one of the other nurses. Caelyn, Elijah and Caelyn’s mother and father were also in the room to hear what the next steps were.

“This is fabulous,” Caelyn’s dad said. He wiped his eyes. “I mean, when everything first happened, we felt like her life was over. The way she looked that first day we saw her…” his voice broke off as he choked back tears.

Caelyn squeezed Elijah’s hand. She was sitting next to Elijah, leaning against him and trying her best to stay composed. Just sitting up in a chair for this long was a major adventure for her, but she knew she had to stay strong.

She wanted to get out of the hospital and she didn’t want to have to go to an inpatient rehabilitation center. If she couldn’t even sit up straight for a few minutes at a time, that might sway the team’s decision.

Elijah squeezed her hand and gave her a quick glance of reassurance. She loved the feel of his strong, solid body next to hers. He was like a rock, literally and figuratively.

“So what’s next?” Caelyn’s mother asked the doctor. “It seems like a good idea for her to do inpatient treatment at a facility.”

Dr. Goldfarb and Ramachandran exchanged glances. Amit shifted in his chair before answering. “Miss Murphy, it’s not completely up to us. We can make recommendations of course, but we cannot tell Caelyn that she must do this or that.

Some of it’s up to her.”

“But we want to hear your recommendation, don’t we?” she asked, looking around.

Everyone nodded.

“Well,” Amit said, “an inpatient program could be beneficial, but it can be costly.

Insurance doesn’t always cover everything. Also, some people do better at home where they can be more relaxed and surrounded by friends and family.”

“It depends on the supports that are in place,” Monroe added.

“We’re happy to bring her home, if that’s what she needs,” Caelyn’s mother said.

“My husband and I’ve talked about it, and I’d be willing to take a leave of absence from work to help Caelyn recover.”

Caelyn felt her entire body grow tense and she squeezed Elijah’s hand again.

Wasn’t anybody ever going to ask her what she wanted? Did anyone even care, or did they still consider her brain dead and comatose?

But then Monroe made eye contact, and she must have seen it in Caelyn’s eyes, because Monroe looked to Caelyn’s mother and father when she spoke. “It’s also important to find out what your daughter wishes to do.”

“Yes, of course,” Caelyn’s mother said stiffly. “We want to talk to her about it.

It’s just been hard to find the right time.”

Everyone turned and looked at Caelyn as she took a deep breath to control her speaking voice. Even now, after she’d made so much progress, Caelyn was still sensitive to the fact that her voice sometimes shook and trembled after she’d been using it for a little while. And if she grew tense or frustrated, the effect was magnified tenfold.

“I want to be with Elijah,” she said simply, so as to leave no doubt.

Her mother’s eyes were wounded and she shook her head. “That’s just unacceptable. He lives in an apartment, and he has absolutely no resources, no way to provide you with the kind of support you need.”

“He’s been doing great so far,” Caelyn told her. “He’s what I need to get better. I won’t do it without him.”

Her parents’ faces were betrayed and bitterly angry.

“The reason you’ve been doing so well,” her dad said, “is because the hospital staff and doctors have been amazing and they’ve been incredible at helping you get better.”

“Now, we know this is a touchy decision,” Dr. Goldfarb said, trying to calm everyone down. “But remember, everyone here wants what’s best for Caelyn.”

“I’m an adult and I can make my own decisions,” Caelyn said, sitting straighter and looking from one person to the next, making sure to show each of them how serious she was. “Just because I’ve had a serious injury doesn’t mean I’m incapable of deciding where I want to live.”

“Are you sure about that?” her mother asked.

Caelyn turned her head and stared at her mother. “Yes, I am.”

“Because everything I’ve read about TBIs says that the patients often don’t understand their own limitations as a result of the brain injury they’ve suffered.”

Caelyn laughed, and her voice shook a little as she responded. “So you’re saying…you’re saying that I want to live with Elijah because of my TBI?”

“I think your mother’s trying to simply voice a valid concern, Caelyn,” Doctor Goldfarb said. He rubbed his nose and sniffed.

“It’s not valid, though,” Caelyn told him. “How does she explain me moving in with Elijah before I ever got injured?”

Caelyn’s mother snorted. “And then you moved out, so who knows what you were thinking. All I know now is that his apartment is no place for you to recover.”

Elijah’s jaw twitched. “I’d like to say something.”

“Of course, Doctor Ramachandran said. “Please go ahead.”

“I want what’s best for Caelyn as much as anybody. And maybe if you get right down to it, my apartment isn’t the ideal place for her to recuperate. That’s why I’ve found a house to rent near to the rehabilitation clinic that’s been mentioned as the best in the area.”

“I don’t believe it,” Caelyn’s father said, standing up.

“Dad, please—“ Caelyn said.

“No, he’s a liar. He’s a liar and he’s trying to hurt you.” Her father’s face was almost purple. “Have we forgotten that the only reason you’re even in this situation is because he drove his car into a telephone pole?”

“It was an accident,” Caelyn said.

“I swear to God,” her father said making a fist and shaking it at Elijah. “If I wasn’t a law abiding person, I’d…I’d hurt you for what you did to her.”

Elijah just sat and watched him. Elijah’s body was totally relaxed, calm, and he betrayed no fear. “That’s how you feel,” he said.

“Damn right,” her dad said, and then he stormed out of the meeting.