Challenge: A Contemporary MMA Romance: Oni Fighters Book 3 (4 page)

* * *

T
ime ticked by
. There was really nothing worse than waiting in hospitals. Slowly, my body was starting to feel more
normal
. Nothing a few litres of water and Xander’s miracle recovery blend couldn’t fix, it seemed.

I don’t know what was in that smoothie Eden made but it sure did the trick. My stomach actually felt like it would welcome regular food soon. That had to be a bonus.

Dane and Arianne left for a little while. They needed to do a couple of things. They promised to return soon with some decent food for everyone. The hospital cafeteria was really not going to cut it. As a group, we were all very health conscious—Xander and Dane in particular.

Although, there was no denying I was very partial to anything sweet. Chocolate and cakes were my friend! Fortunately, my training at Onigashima meant I worked off any excess calories and then some.

“Are these chairs uncomfortable or is it just me?” I stood and stretched, trying to loosen the muscles that were not used to being still for so long. Now that my hangover was passing, the need to be active was starting to return with vengeance. I hated sitting around.

“Yeah, they’re uncomfortable,” Eden agreed. “You look like you’re feeling better.”

“I’m almost feeling human again. I could use a little exercise, actually. I had been planning on going in and hitting some bags today and I was hoping to convince Seth into doing a grappling session with me.” Seth was known in MMA circles as having one hell of a ground game. Both Dane and Xander used Seth specifically for this in their fight preps.

Xander looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. “Is that code for something else? I’m never going to be sure now. I hope you two haven’t been tearing up the floor in my dojo.”

Guilt ripped through me and I hoped I didn’t look too transparent. We’d almost let things get out of hand a few times but peoples’ schedules at Onigashima were too unpredictable and we’d been all about keeping our relationship covert. I noticed Eden’s cheeks had gone red though.

“Of course not, but judging by the colour of my sister’s cheeks I don’t think the same applies to you two.”

“My dojo, I can do whatever I want.”

“Well, that’s just nasty.” I made a squirmy face at him.

Eden just shook her head. “He’s just winding you up, Soph. We might be newlyweds but there’s no way he’d do anything to potentially risk losing respect in his dojo. You know that. Besides, we have our own private dojo at home.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I was in the twilight zone.

“You two are just, ahhh…”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a nurse come through the big heavy doors with a clipboard in hand.

The large waiting room had gained another couple of visitor parties since we took up our vigil.

“Family of Seth Harris?” The nurse looked between the three groups.

I stood and moved towards her, Xander and Eden hot on my heels.

“Hi, I’m Michelle, one of the ICU nurses, I can take you through now. I just need to go through a few things with…” She trailed off, nodded at the clipboard, and gave me a warm smile.

“I’m Sophia, Seth’s um…partner.” God how did I describe myself?

Michelle’s eyes narrowed a fraction, but she didn’t say anything. Then, her eyes scanned my sister and brother-in-law.

“I’m Eden and this is my husband, Xander Todd. Sophia is my sister and Seth’s fiancée.”

Fiancée!!! What the…?

I thought partner was a good non-descriptive term. Saying I was Seth’s woman would have just seemed a bit weird to me. Then, Eden went and trumped it all!

I was surprised at just how smooth my sister was. I’d never known her to be so confident or…well…deceptive.

Michelle blushed a little and I realized she’d figured out who Xander was. “You’re that Xander Todd—Pretty Boy. The MMA fighter. I followed your Vegas campaign. Congratulations on your win and marriage.”

“Thanks, appreciate the support. How’s Seth?” Xander quickly moved the conversation from him back to where our focus should be. Although he was a celebrity of sorts, Xander always chose to play down his celebrity status.

“We’ve got him settled in ICU now. Why don’t you follow me through and I can fill you in on everything.” She moved off towards the doors and we followed.

“Why didn’t you just say we were married and be done with it?” I leant over to Eden and whispered in her ear sarcastically.

“It crossed my mind, then I figured you might struggle with a marriage certificate if push came to shove,” she whispered back.

Jesus H Christ on a raft!

I couldn’t top that so I wisely chose to keep my mouth firmly shut.

The nurse led us into a small lounge area with a kitchenette, television, a couple of comfy sofas, and a small table and chairs.

“This is the visitor’s lounge. Feel free to use it whenever you need to. The bathrooms are just through there.” She pointed to a door off the room. “Okay, before I take you through to see Seth, let me run you through a few things and procedures for the ICU. This is not a normal hospital ward and different rules apply for everyone’s benefit.”

Suddenly, things seemed even more real. Or was it unreal? I felt like I was being swept out to sea in a rip-tide and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it, except wait until it spat me out.

D
octor Wilkinson
and the nurse had both warned us about the shock of seeing Seth. Finally, they let us through to the glass-sided ICU room Seth was in. It was one of several glass-enclosed rooms that faced a large reception desk. The desk seemed to be the nerve centre of the ward. A team of nurses busily watched remote monitors and were filling-in patient files.

Understanding what I would see, and actually seeing him, were two very different things.

It was such a shock.

Seth, who was always so full of energy and,
life
, was so still, it was eerie. He was naked from the waist up—his beautifully muscled arms, shoulders, and torso on display for the ward and everyone to see.

IV drips ran in both of his arms, and the thick tubing of the ventilator disappeared through those oh-so-sensual lips of his. Other than the surgical taping to secure the tube in his mouth, the only other blemish to his ruggedly sexy face was a small bandage on the left of his forehead, which I guess protected a cut of some sort.

There were numerous other tubes and drains coming out from under the edge of where the waffle-textured blanket was draped across his waist and I assumed they were a result of the surgery he’d had to his pelvis.

Every thing was so
measured—
from the regular bleeps of the monitors to the swoosh of the air moving through the ventilator. Perfect, precise, controlled and measured…so unlike Seth.

The only place I’d seen a level of control like that around Seth, was when he was fighting. The ring took the edgy power he always had and focused it into a formidable competitive force.

Elsewhere, he was an enigma of energy and someone that lived life to the fullest—on the edge. Unpredictable and a little erratic.

Never slowing. Never looking back.

Always chasing the next thrill, looking for a way to suck the most out of life.

Even the white colour palate of the room, medical equipment, and fixtures was in stark contrast to his tanned skin. It was as if I were looking at the exact opposite of everything that I knew about Seth. It really had me thrown off balance.

We stood at the end of the bed and I’m sure Eden and Xander were just as affected by what we saw, as I was. Nurse Michelle moved up beside the bed and checked the monitors before she turned to us. The reassurance of her smile told me she’d done this many times before and had looked at similar expressions on the faces of family and friends with many other patients.

“Do you have any questions at this stage?” She asked.

I had so many questions, it wasn’t funny—questions about everything from his medical care and injuries to how had the accident happened that landed him in this room. My voice was silent, my mind still trying to process what I was seeing.

“What should we, ah, do?” I’d never heard Xander sound so unsure of anything. His voice was no more than a whisper and, for a guy who was always so sure and confident, he sounded like a lost little boy.

Michelle nodded knowingly again. “First off, stop whispering. Yes, it’s a hospital, but you need to act normally. Just sit here. Talk amongst yourselves, hold his hands, give his feet, legs, arms a gentle massage. That sort of thing. Just be careful not to bump any of the sensors or tubes.”

Xander gave me a pointed look. “Hands on stuff is your domain, Soph.”

It was clear from the look on Nurse Michelle’s face that Xan’s comment was typical of many she heard in here. She grinned at him before going on.

“Essentially, let him know you’re here. It will be a shock for him as he starts to come around. His consciousness will probably return in waves. He likely won’t understand what’s going on or why. We’ll be monitoring him but nothing is more reassuring for a patient than having familiar faces, voices, and touches around them when they do start to regain consciousness.”

The thought of talking around Seth felt weird and I could tell Eden and Xander felt similarly.

“I can see the skepticism on your faces. Every coma is different. Many people that have been through one claim they could hear their family and friends and can actually recount what was spoken about around them. So, please, don’t disregard the medical power of the simple touch and voice.”

“There’s a couple of chairs against the wall you can use. I’ll get another. We don’t normally like three people in the room at a time but we’ll make an exception in this case.”

And we all knew that was because of Xander and his celebrity status. Michelle gave him the look that said “
I’d love an autograph or ten but I’m too professional to ask.”

Xander read it perfectly, “if you or any of the staff want autographs, I’m happy to oblige. I’m sure Dane will as well.”

“That would be awesome.” The professional smile morphed into fangirl and I watched Eden unconsciously move closer to her husband.

“Just let me know what you want.”

She nodded and moved from the room, returning a few seconds later with another chair. The only sound was the regular rhythm of the machines. The three of us sat and kind of looked at each other. No one really knew what to do or where to start. I felt so self-conscious, almost scared to touch him and certainly not in front of Eden and Xander, that would be weird.

Xander pulled his phone from his pocket.

“Dane is going to be here in about thirty minutes with some food.”

“Okay, I’m getting hungry.”

“Well, I guess that’s one bonus. We won’t have to fight the big fella for food today. Man, he can eat.” Xander chuckled and I giggled a little too loud to cover my nervousness.

“You’re so right. We went to a steak and rib restaurant a couple of weeks ago. I swear, he ate through a rump steak the size of the plate and three full racks of ribs. I thought I could eat. He seriously put me to shame.”

Eden’s eyes sparkled with humour. “You can eat. Let me guess, you got through a rib fillet and a rack of ribs.”

“You know me too well, sis.” We all chuckled again. It felt good to laugh a little, even if it was forced. “I might of topped it off with a slice of Mississippi mud cake as well.”

Eden shook her head, laughing. “I may have moved out but nothing changes with your sweet tooth. I bet you and Tori are worse than ever with your pig-outs in front of the TV.”

“Um, I haven’t actually been home that much at night lately,” I confessed, my cheeks suddenly feeling a little warm.

Xander looked directly at Eden. “No relationship happening there what so ever.”

“Nope, none. Can’t understand what we were all thinking.”

“Okay, okay you two. We have something, we just haven’t labelled it. We’ve just been going with the flow.”

“Progress, Gem.” Xander gave Eden his cheeky, little-boy grin.

“Was hard work getting there.”

“Ah, sweetheart, you know the course of true love never runs easy. Except where we’re concerned.”

“Right, that’s it!” I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew they were doing it for my benefit. “Go take a walk or something.”

Xander stood and offered his hand to his wife. I didn’t miss the sneaky little smirk he passed to Eden. Yeah, they’d done it to lighten the mood a little and break the ice in this very strange situation.

“We’ll let you know when Dane and Arianne get here with the food,” Eden threw over her shoulder as she gave me one last supportive smile before they headed off for a few minutes.

I looked over at Seth and I felt more nervous than ever, which was ridiculous. We knew each other’s bodies intimately; we’d shared all sorts of physical and erotic experiences.

Gingerly, I reached over and took his hand. Any other time, I would have been all over him and he would have had me wrapped up in his arms quicker than I could blink. He was just so
still
.

It was so very disconcerting.

His hand was warm in mine—the skin of his palm and fingers a little rough from all the building work he’d been doing at his place. Everyday, he got a kick out of showing me what he’d managed to achieve, and I was constantly surprised at his skills.

It seemed he was just at home with power tools and building materials as he was in a dojo, or pouring over geological reports.

Then it really occurred to me why all this was so weird—strange. Seth was never still. He was the type of person who was on the move from the moment he woke to the second he finally gave into sleep.

“Ah, Seth, why did you leave? Did I do something to make you flee? Was it something else? What happened out on that road? Were you awake? Did you fall asleep at the wheel? Were you awake after the crash? Did you feel the pain?”

I squeezed his hand and realized I’d whispered the questions aloud and immediately felt stupid.

“Why did I drink so much. I remember you taking me against the wall. It was so hot…everything just gets hazy after there. What happened?”

I sat there for a few minutes with his right hand in both of mine, just looking at his fine body, but not at the Seth I knew. Then, I realized what I was doing. I was distancing myself from him emotionally and starting to look at him as a being or entity other than the Seth I knew. That was something I couldn’t do. I had to treat him exactly as if I expected him to answer my question or talk to me.

“I know you need some time to recover, Seth, but you have to come back. We’ve got something, whether you want to recognize it or not. I know it’s there and, God help me, I’m going to find a way to get you to come back. I need you to come back. We all need you to come back.”

A few moments later, Nurse Michelle returned with a large folder tucked under her arm.

“Time for some more obs.” She placed the folder on the mobile table beside the bed and took the blood pressure cuff from the machine and secured it around Seth’s left bicep, then pressed the button on the electronic monitor and the cuff began to inflate.

While that was doing its thing, she peeled back the white waffle blanket and took a look at the surgical bandage across the centre of his lower pelvis. “This one is where they went in and did the bladder repair. I’m just checking to see if there are any signs of infection or irritation.”

His pelvis was bruised and swollen compared to how it normally looked. The “V” that was always there was less pronounced because of the swelling. Although Michelle was being totally professional, I got the feeling she was enjoying checking out my guy.

That rubbed me the wrong way.

“The doctor said he needs a surgery to stabalise his pelvis.” I grated out wanting to distract her attention.

“That’s right. They’ll probably go in here somewhere.” She pointed to his right hip and I could see now that I was looking closer, it wasn’t sitting quite right.
I knew those hips!
Knew what they felt like when they thrust hard into me.

“When will they do that?”

“Normally, three to five days after the fracture when the swelling has reduced. The Orthopedic Surgeon will decide. They’ll be in later today to take a look.”

Then, something else struck me. “Will this fracture affect his range of movement or anything?”

The blood pressure machine beeped and she recorded the reading in his folder.

“I can’t really say. It’s one of those things where you have to wait and see. His physical condition will certainly help a lot. I would think.”

She made a quick and clinical check of his urinary catheter before replacing the blanket, while I dwelt on what she’d just revealed.

How would Seth possibly cope if his normal movement was limited. His physicality was synonymous with him. It was like his signature. I could only imagine how he’d feel if that was taken away from him.

What if I was the reason? Would he resent me? Hate me?

“
S
ophia
, could I have a word with you, please?”

I spun around at the voice; I hadn’t realized that Dr. Wilkinson had entered quietly behind me.

“Um, sure, I guess.”

“I just have some papers here that I want to go through with you and get you to sign.”

He placed the papers he was carrying on the rolling table that was pushed off to the side of the room. I moved and stood beside him.

“Okay, what I have here are the authorities to operate in case we have to go in quickly.”

My heart leapt into my mouth. “Is there some problem?”

“No, nothing’s changed. It’s just a precaution at this stage but one we like to have in place in case we need to move in a hurry. For example, if we need to relieve the pressure of a bleed on his brain, then that has to happen very quickly. For whatever reason, it may not be possible to reach you. I just want to be prepared.”

It was all so real and daunting. He wanted me to sign a paper that was all about Seth’s life being in the balance, giving him permission to drill into his skull.

That was about as serious as it got. I was signing papers that gave the doctors the okay to do some very scary shit.

“You’ll only do what’s best to help him get better, right?”

“Of course. There are risks to any surgery. However, head injuries particularly if there are bleeds or pressure build ups can very quickly become fatal if not immediately acted upon.”

I nodded and suddenly felt quite emotional.

Dr. Wilkinson gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s a very tough time for family and friends. Rest assured, we’ll do everything we can to pull him through this and get him up and around as quick as possible. It is very much one step at a time though, until he decides to join us again.”

“Thank you. We certainly appreciate it. It’s just been such a shock. Seth’s normally well…” I waved my hand towards Seth’s prone figure on the bed.

“Fit, healthy, imposing, hard to miss,” he offered with a lot of kindness and a few rays of humour.

“All of those things and more.”

“Okay, well if you can just sign here and here.” He pointed to the paper and went into some more detail about exactly what I was signing. It was all medical legal mumbo jumbo. Then, he offered me a pen and I didn’t hesitate in signing the document.

What other option was there?