Challenge: A Contemporary MMA Romance: Oni Fighters Book 3 (6 page)

Seth was still very much an unknown quantity to me. He went to great lengths to keep everything light and easy between us, just two friends hanging out, that liked to take it further frequently—very frequently. We’d both sidestepped the conversation about our relationship status. Instinct had told me it would have him running for the hills.

They wandered off for a while and I headed into Seth’s room. A middle-aged looking woman was taking his obs and writing in his chart. She looked up from her notes when I moved in.

“Hi, I’m Nancy. I’ll be Seth’s duty nurse till three.”

“Sophia.”

“That was your sister and her husband before?”

“Yes. Eden and Xander.”

“Ah, newlyweds.” She had a soft look in her eye. “Now we need to get this fine fellow up and around—functioning again. You need your man back. You can give me a hand to clean him up if you like.”

Nancy took me a little by surprise. She moved with a very pragmatic and determined air. Maybe it was because she was older. I had absolutely no question she was highly competent and used to doing things
her
way.

“Um…” I said, moving to the visitor’s chairs to drop my handbag.

“Up to you, but I know if I was you, I’d feel better doing something.”

When she put it like that…

“I’ll be back in a few seconds with what we need.”

True to her word, she was. Not only was Nurse Nancy a whirlwind, she was super efficient and I gathered she left many of the younger nurses in her wake.

“So, what do you need me to do?” I asked as she came back in wheeling a trolley with supplies and a big basin of water.

“How about I do the official washing and rinsing, then you can follow on with some moisturising lotion? The constant exposure to the air-conditioning in here really dries out the skin and the in-activity doesn’t help either.”

“Am I allowed to do this?”

She gave me a withering look that was somehow more playful than chastising. “You’re his significant other, aren’t you?”

I nodded, not quite trusting my voice.

“Then, you’re allowed. I dare say there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before.”

At that, I giggled and I’m sure I blushed a little. “Ah, no.”

She gave me a wink. “Aren’t you the lucky one? Girls were drawing straws over who was going to take this shift. I figured I needed to put a stop to that. You don’t need that. Benefits of being the senior around here.”

“I guess it’s understandable, but thank you.” I meant it too. I wasn’t above feeling a little annoyed at all the looks he was garnering from the female nurses.

“Also unprofessional. Nope, your man here is just a couple of years older than my eldest, Troy. He’s safe with me. I’ve scheduled a couple of the male nurses for the remainder of the week to take the other shifts.”

“I’m sure it would have been fine.”

“You know girls…”

“Oh, I do.” I knew better than most what girls were like.

“You like him shaved or with…what do you kids call it…scruff?”

“Scruff is fine. He often lets it grow for a few days, then either shaves it off or trims it really short.”

Nancy began the bed bath routine, efficiently lathering sponges, soaping then rinsing off the area before finally patting that section of his body dry.

“He sure puts some work into this body,” Nancy chatted as she worked on one shoulder and arm then the other.

“Martial arts. We train a lot. Seth used to be a pro-fighter. Now, he mainly trains for fun and helps a couple of our friends train. Xander, who you met before, is one of them,” I explained.

“He’s the one that the girls were all giggling and whispering about—some big deal?”

“Yeah, you could say that. He won a massive fight in Vegas a few months back. He starts serious training for the World Title any day now.”

She nodded, taking that all in. “What about you? You said you train too?”

“I do. I’ve trained with Xander for about three years now. I’ve trained with Seth quite a lot since he came home as well about six months ago.” Immediately, I realized my potential error. I shouldn’t have put a timeline on our relationship.

“Whirlwind romance, hey?”

“Something like that. We sort of noticed each other the first night he was home, and that was kind of it. I knew him from afar as a kid. His sister is a friend of mine.” It wasn’t quite true but it would certainly do for the purposes of this conversation.

“Happened just the same with my Tony. We met one night at a party and boom, that was it. Thirty years later, we’re still together, better than ever. When you know, you know!”

She was working on his legs now and I had moved around to run more lotion down his arms. I’d never tire of the feel of touching his hard muscles, I just wished so much he was awake to touch me back.

“I’m not supposed to say anything but I’ve got a feeling he’s going to wake up soon.”

I looked up at her. “Why do you think that?” If I was going to hope, I wanted to at least try to understand her reasoning for it.

“The doctor removed the intubation before, and I’ve noticed a bit of muscle movement. Over the last few hours. Just little flutters. If you pay attention, you’ll see it. It won’t hurt at all to have you give him a good firm massage as you rub that lotion in. His body will remember your touch, even if he doesn’t so much at the moment.”

I followed Nancy’s instructions and massaged a little firmer, treating him more as if I would if everything were
normal.

“Are his feet normally ticklish?” Nancy asked with mischief in her eyes.

“Yesss…”

“Now’s your chance. Give them a good old tickle and see what happens.”

I squirted some more lotion into my hand and rubbed it into his feet firmly. Then, I went to tickle him when something occurred to me.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea. Seth has got a mean kick on him and it seriously hurts if he lands it.”

“I thought you’re a fighter. Aren’t you supposed to stay out of range?”

“Good point, well made.” I ran my fingertips up the sole of his foot and tickled. He flinched!

“Did you see that?” I screeched.

“I sure did.”

I tried it again and got the same reaction.

“You going to wake up for your pretty lady, Seth? I’m sure she’d like you to be keeping her company here.”

Nancy spoke to Seth as she patted him dry.

I stared at his face and wondered if I’d imagined it or did his eyes move?

She efficiently finished the remainder of his bath and packed up her trolley while we both chatted and I rubbed in more lotion.

“Right. I’ll be back in a little while to do some more obs. Looks like the doc wants to talk to you.”

I was so busy massaging and chatting with Nancy that I hadn’t noticed the doctor approach.

“How are you today, Sophia?”

“Well, thank you.”

“And how’s our patient?”

I didn’t want to sound too excited. “He seems a lot more responsive. He flinched quite noticeably when I tickled his feet and I’m sure his eyes have been fluttering.”

He nodded, not commenting one way or the other. “Well, that’s something. I just wanted to let you know that the orthopedic surgeon assessed him this morning. He’s scheduled the operation for later this afternoon. The swelling has receded enough.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“All part of the process. We need to get his pelvis stabalised, then, if all goes well, he’ll be able to recover from the fracture as well as the TBI.”

“TBI?”

“Sorry, Traumatic Brain Injury. That’s what we call these.”

It sounded terrible and what’s more—terrifying.

“Seth is still in a coma however, there has been no sign of further swelling or any bleeds in his brain. That’s great news, from our perspective.”

It was the professional answer. “But don’t get my hopes up for him to come out of this on a particular timeframe.”

He gave me a warm smile and a nod. “You got it in one. Small steps. They’ll be taking him to theatre around two I think.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Dr. Wilkinson gave me a reassuring pat on the arm before turning and moving on with his rounds.

I stepped over to the bed and took Seth’s hand firmly in both of mine. “Well, Seth, anytime you want to wake up would be just fine. I need to know so many things, but most of all I need to know you’re okay.”

I felt the tears threaten to fall again. They had been a most unwelcome companion the last few days. I hated crying. It wasn’t who I was at all.

Right then, nothing in my life felt right.

Nothing felt right—not bad, just not right. Was I awake or was I dreaming?

Why did I feel like I should be doing something? I just couldn’t remember what. The fog kept getting in the way.
“Move fog—move.”

Why wouldn’t it move?

I should be doing something—shouldn’t I? The warm darkness wouldn’t let me up, it had me in a hold I couldn’t break—couldn’t figure out the counter-move, couldn’t see or feel where I was being held to form a plan.

So tired and my limbs felt like they were rooted to the earth.

Too heavy to move. Couldn’t make them understand they needed to do something—should do something. What? Why weren’t they working?

Voices faded in and out. I should have spoken. Couldn’t speak. Voice wouldn’t work.

Soft touch felt good, felt right, familiar—soothing.

The darkness was beckoning me again. So tired…couldn’t fight it.

“Seth.” I heard my name. What? Who?

Need more sleep…so tired.

Mmm, warm soft, so sleepy

Maybe later…maybe I wouldn’t be so tired…

“
C
ome on
, Soph, make it count. You’re running at half speed. This the best you’ve got?” Xander’s voice drilled into my brain as I tried to pick up the pace and the power on the combination punch, kick drills, as we were training together at Onigashima.

I’d done nothing exercise wise for the last few days, but I was dead tired even though I felt restless and irritable.

“Yeah, that’s it; better. Keep your guard tighter.” The guard was always the first thing that went when fatigue hit. “Come on. One more round then we’ll call it quits. We’ve gone hard.”

It was true, and totally normal. Our motto at Onigashima was to
“train hard to fight easy.”

The last drill was agony.

“Nope. Not finishing on that, Soph. Land that rib kick like you mean it.”

My breath was coming in huge, ragged pants and sweat was burning my eyes. Perfect. Exactly what I needed. I just wished I had more energy to give. The mind was willing, the body was feeling the fatigue.

I drew back my leg and made sure I gave it full hip rotation, then let fly with everything I had, plus some.

“Yeah! That’s more like it! One more…come on.”

“Ahhh!!! You always want more,” I yelled as I repeated the process and jammed that kick in hard.

“Just want to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Okay, take a break and hold the pads for me.”

He didn’t have to ask me twice. I fastened the large, hard leather belly guard that swamped just about all my torso. Then, I slipped my hands through the elastic restraints on the Thai pads and settled them down my forearms.

I really enjoyed these one-on-one sessions with Xander. Since Eden had married Xander, things between us had changed as well. These private training sessions were common and the line he so strongly enforced regarding his relationship with students had essentially been rubbed out where Tori and I were concerned. I guess it made sense. We were now technically his
sisters
.

No longer was I a student; now, I was family. That provided me an even greater level of automatic respect around the dojo. Although, I didn’t care for it that much. I’d worked hard to earn people’s respect for my dedication and focus to training and learning. That was the sort of respect I preferred rather than the by-association kind.

With respect came responsibility. I felt the pressure to present a good example for the other students, particularly to the lower belts.

I did love that I was now at a level where I could workout and train with the likes of Xander, Dane, and Seth. It was one thing to train with them, a total other to hold your own doing it. That was where I’d reached of late. I wasn’t deluding myself by thinking I was in their caliber, just that I could put up a good show and was getting better for training more with them. If you wanted to get better, you needed to train with people that were better than you—the best.

I held the pads up and Xander got to work pummeling them with punches, at what I guessed was about fifty percent of his capability. We were training. It was about conditioning and technique.

The other thing we never did in a formal class was talk unnecessarily. When it was just the two of us, that rule relaxed, mostly. Occasionally, Xander would use the Sensei voice or give a particular look. That was all it took to let me know we were back to formal.

Neither of us seemed to be particularly chatty at the moment except for the speaking we needed to do the drills. My mind kept wandering back to Seth. He’d be in theatre now. It had actually worked out perfectly. He’d gone to theatre and we’d disappeared to train instead of staring at four walls, or worse, being subjected to endless quantities of daytime television.

And my parents wondered why we were always on our phones texting or engrossed in social media. There was the answer right there. Daytime television could be considered torture in my humble opinion.

He finished the set he was working through and stepped back to take a short break.

“Have you heard when they’re scheduling the World Title fight yet?” I’d been wondering about it.

“Not yet. I’m expecting to hear this week.” His brow was beaded with sweat and I could easily see his super fit body working harder to suck in oxygen. His voice didn’t give the slightest hint to the fact he’d been working hard, though.

“So, you’re going to be straight back into training?”

“I’ll look at the timing and figure out a program with Reed but, yeah, I guess that will be the case. Bloody Seth needs to get his arse out of that bed. Who am I going to grapple with? Dane’s good but…” Rather than slam his fists against the pads I offered, he chose the heavy bag suspended from the roof a few paces from us. Judging by the way the bag bounced, he’d given it one hell of a whack. I knew from first-hand experience what it took to move that bag as much as Xander had shaken it.

“Seth has the best ground game.” It was the first time I’d heard Xander express any frustration or real emotion over what had happened to Seth. Sure, he’d been upset. This was an outburst of energy and frustration.

“He does and I need him. Not just for the damned fight but back, you know? We all do.”

“I know,” I agreed quietly. Didn’t I what. I was only just starting to realise how much I needed him, how much of a solid fixture he’d become in my life. There seemed like I had a gapping hole there now.

“What the fuck happened that night, Soph?”

Wasn’t that the question and I wished to God I knew. I shrugged and shook my head.

“I really have no idea. We were at the party, we drank too much, got horny, and went home to take care of it.” I could be more open and crass when it was just the guys. Eden wouldn’t have liked it so much, but we were two very different people. Although, since she’d been with Xander, she was so much more worldly and open in her own classy way. “And that’s exactly what we did. I don’t remember it clearly but I do remember it. It’s what happened
after
that has me puzzled. I’ve run this in my mind a thousand times already Xan and all I can figure is that I must have fallen asleep because I don’t remember him leaving.”

“And…it’s…not…like…we…can…ask…him…” Xander drawled, punctuating every word with the landing of a punch.

“No…and there’s a good chance he won’t even remember from what the doctor said. You do realize that, right?”

“Yeah, just trying not to think or dwell on it too much.”

And there was the elephant in the room again. What would he be like when he woke up? I couldn’t even bring myself to consider the possibility that he wouldn’t come back to us.

“How’s Eden holding up, any nightmares?”

He looked over at me pointedly and I knew he was a little surprised at the question, or was I just that accurate? Sometimes, he forgot that she’d been my big sister for a lot longer than she’d been his girlfriend, then wife. Besides, we’d had quite a monumental event that shaped our relationship, one that most siblings would never experience, thankfully.

“She had one last night. Not too bad but enough to wake us both. She said she thought it was all the time she was spending at the hospital at the moment. I guess that would be a big trigger.” He wiped his face with a nearby towel.

“I think it’s just as much the actual accident. One of those unexpected, uncontrollable events that throws all the cards in the air and everyone’s worlds upside down. She’s also getting a little taste of what it was like for your parents and you and Tori to sit there and play the support crew to her. It’s one thing to be the patient but a very different thing to be the support crew. That’s probably what contributed more than anything. She mentioned the feeling of being helpless to do anything to make it better for Seth. What that really was, I’m guessing, is her putting herself in your shoes for the first time and herself on the bed in Seth’s.”

It sounded to me like Xander had a good handle on it. He understood my sister and the demons that chased her probably as well as Eden did. However, it never hurt to make doubly sure.

“Um, I don’t want to sound like I’m up in your business but I think she should make an appointment to see Grace.” Grace was Eden’s current counsellor who had been helping her with the emotional remnants of the fire from years before.

“We had the same idea and she’s going to see her tomorrow. I’m confident she’s fine, but I don’t want her to regress at all.”

“No…she’s been doing amazing.” I was so proud of my sister for how she had been progressing and moving past her scars and what happened years ago with that damned fire. Xander had very much been the catalyst for that change and our whole family owed him a huge debt of gratitude—one that he’d never acknowledge or accept. I guess that was what unconditional love was all about and I was so pleased Eden had found that with Xander. My sister deserved every bit of happiness. She was one of the best people I knew.

“She has, she’s even started cooking a little.”

“Wow. That’s a huge step.” Eden hadn’t been able to bring herself to handle hot liquids or cook anything since the fire over five years ago. The heat triggered flashbacks and anxiety attacks.

“Yeah, it’s just a few simple things and she’s being incredibly cautious with how she goes about everything, but that’s okay. It’s a step forward, though—progress, not perfect is just fine.

“Exactly. It wasn’t all that long ago she was too terrified to take that first step. I remember those days well and not with a lot of fondness.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Xander took a long swig from his water bottle and he looked like he was trying to decide if he was going to continue training or call time on this session.

“You done?”

“Yeah, let’s clean up and head back to the hospital. I know you want to.”

“Am I that transparent?” I thought I’d done well to hide the fact that, as much as I loved training, I felt torn about where my responsibilities lied today.

“Yep. It’s okay though. We’re all worried.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the workout. I needed it.”

“Me too. I’m going to draw up a training plan for that fight I was telling you about. It’s in just over four months. You up for it?”

I shuffled my weight from foot to foot. Part of me wanted to leap at the chance. It was something I really wanted to do. Another big part of me was reluctant. I wasn’t sure what the immediate future held for me.

“I’d love to, I’m just not sure of the timing…” I didn’t need to say anymore.

Xander nodded in understanding. “How about we do this…I’ll draw up the plan and we can get started. I’ll let them know you’re a strong possibility for a bout. We don’t have to commit until the opponent is confirmed. This approach sets the plan and keeps your options open. It just feels like we need to try and keep life as normal as possible.”

“Yeah...” Out of nowhere, tears broke free from eyes and my throat felt like it was closing over.

I turned away and went to rush off to the locker room. Xander was quicker. He grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him.

“Soph—what is it?”

A sob ripped free from my throat. “I’m not sure I can do it, Xander.”

He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in tight to him. “What, honey? What can’t you do?”

I cried harder.

“Let it all out, Soph. You’ve been operating on autopilot for the last few days. Sooner or later, you had to let yourself feel.”

I nodded, knowing he was right. The tears just wouldn’t seem to stop, though. I hated crying.

A couple of minutes later, I pulled back and he passed me a towel to wipe my face.

“I don’t know if I can sit there and support him through it. Going through all that with Eden five years ago just about killed me, too. I felt so guilty, still do. I feel that way again and the worst thing is, I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if I did something to cause him to do it. What if I did? Eden got burned getting Tori and me out. I just can’t help the feeling that Seth got hurt doing something as a result of me as well.”

Xander hugged me tightly again.

“She doesn’t see it like that, Soph. Eden doesn’t blame you.”

I took a deep stuttering breath through the tears. “I know. It doesn’t make it feel any better to me, though.”

He nodded. “And I doubt Seth will blame you for whatever happened that night.”

“You can’t know that.”

“No, but I know Seth and he’s not the type to blame someone else for stuff.”

He might not blame me but he would probably pull away and that scared me more than him blaming me.

“I don’t know that I can watch him in the hospital, Xan. I watched Eden go through it all…and”

“And what?”

“It’s so hard.”

He looked me right in the eye. When Xander did this, there was nowhere to run. “Did you give up on Eden?”

“No! Of course not.”

“Then why do you think you’ll give up on Seth?”

“You don’t know what it’s like…” I accused. “Days and days of watching them in the hospital. In pain, frustrated, closed off. Not knowing what the future holds. I’ve been there and done that.”

“You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like to hang at the hospital. But I do know what it’s like to have shit hanging over my head. That’s how I felt about the Cobra. Still do to some extent.” He was referring to the night he’d accidently killed another fighter in the cage. The guilt and whatever other baggage he was carrying from that event was enough to halt his career, almost permanently. That is, until Eden came along and shook him up enough to change how he saw things. Not only had he managed to fight off his inner demons and get back in the cage, he’d also won in superior style.

“But what if he doesn’t come out or he’s…?” I couldn’t say it.

Xander just nodded. “I know and it scares the shit out of me. We have to be positive, though. We have to believe he’ll be okay. You can do this, Soph.”

I shook my head, not so sure of his confidence. “What if I can’t?”

“What would you do? Walk away?”

The tears flooded again and I was swept up in another wave of hideous emotion that wouldn’t let me go.

“I might have to. I’m not sure I’m strong enough.”