18
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Jared
The faint beeping was going on too long to be an alarm. My eyes opened slowly, and as I reached for Tara, I felt her holding my left hand.
Oddly, that was the only part of my body that felt warm, the rest of me was slightly chilled. Looking down, I saw that I was shirtless, in a hospital bed with a sheet only up to my waist.
“Jared?” Tara whispered.
She looked fragile. There were slight dark shadows under her eyes, and her normally lustrous hair was a bit flat.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked. “What do you need?”
Her mouth fell open as she stared at me in silence for
a few seconds. “Jared, you’re in a hospital, with an IV hooked up to your arm, and you’re asking me if I’m all right?”
Glancing over, I saw there was indeed a tube in my right arm, but that seemed unimportant. “Are you okay?” I asked again. “You look tired.”
Her laugh sounded brittle. “Yes, I’m tired, but I’m fine. How do you feel?”
I had to think about that. Everything was slightly achy and strange. A nurse in purple scrubs walked into the room just as I was saying, “I feel like the morning after I had a round of food poisoning. Technically adequate, but everything’s sort of off kilter.”
The nurse took my temperature immediately, smiling when she saw the number. “Much better. You had quite the fever spike when this young lady brought you in last night.”
“Why did I have a fever?”
“Once in a blue moon, someone has a slight reaction to a tetanus shot,” she explained. “Or infection could have set in with that nasty cut on your leg. Don’t worry, your fever is down, and we’re running some antibiotics through you. You’ll be right as rain by tomorrow.”
She tilted my bed up so that I was sitting, then pointed to the table beside me. “Water, juice, whatever you think feels like a good idea. We’ll get some proper food into you once you’ve been up a little bit.”
She rushed away, and I looked over to see Tara wiping away a tear. Moving over to the far edge of the bed, I patted the space beside me. “Get up here.”
She sat carefully on the bed, looking relieved when I slipped my left arm around her.
“What happened?”
“I woke up in the middle of the night to go pee, and you were burning up,” she explained. “I didn’t know whether I should call an ambulance, so I called Laura. She lives with her brother, who drives a taxi van. The three of us got you to the hospital, and they gave you something to bring the fever down fast.”
“Baby,” I murmured, pulling her against me for a soft, gentle kiss. “Thank you so much for taking care of me.”
“Of course,” she said, holding my hand tightly.
“I’m so sorry, gorgeous. You must have been so scared.”
She nodded, biting her lip thoughtfully. Then she smiled, those beautiful blue eyes beaming. “You know, it’s funny. In the past week, I’ve had to step up and be brave a lot more than usual. It’s weird, but I think you’ve been a good influence already.”
Holding her against my shoulder, I stroked her hair. “You know, I think you’ve been a good influence on me as well.”
“How do you mean?”
“I used to work with rather shady people, where any sort of weakness would be exploited. And now here I am, someone who fancies himself a tough guy, who just had his sorry ass saved by his sweet little girlfriend.”
Kissing her forehead, I added, “And I’m absolutely fine with it. I’m more proud of you that I am ashamed of myself.”
“We’re going to be so good for each other,” she smiled. “It’s crazy, but I’m really excited for us to have a few normal dates, and be boring together once in a while.”