Chapter 24
Over the next few days, Tina and I settle into a sort of routine. We alternate shifts at the hospital so that we both have the chance to go sleep on a real bed and eat something that doesn't come from a cafeteria, while Destiny is never left alone. After that first day, Tina has to go back to work again, so after her night shows end we both end up spending our evenings lounging in the hospital room since neither of us can bear the idea of leaving Destiny at night.
"Hi, Artie." If I hadn't heard the sound of her shoes on the linoleum, I would've jumped at her appearance. "How is she?"
"Sleeping again," I answer, lifting my head as she slips into the chair next to me. She's still wearing her dress and heels, meaning she came here directly after finishing her show. "Her coughing was getting a bit rough again so the doctor came by and gave her some of that medication, it put her right out."
"Well at least she can stay awake for longer now," she says. I nod in agreement. Destiny has spent most of the last couple days sleeping, barely staying awake for more than an hour or two before drifting off again. The doctor says it's her body's way of dealing with the pneumonia and that the closer she gets to being better, the less she'll need to sleep. Being awake for just over six consecutive hours today is her new record.
"So, what's the special occasion?" I ask with a smile, eyeing her dress.
Tina smirks and rolls her eyes. "Jeffrey cornered me after the show to list off everything I'd done wrong and what I need to work on before tomorrow night. It took so long I was in a hurry to leave and I forgot my change of clothes in the dressing room. I was nearly here before I realized it, but it wasn't worth the risk to go back. He might've caught me and tried to finish his lecture."
"You could've gone home," I point out. Tina opens her mouth, pauses thoughtfully, and then shrugs.
"I was in a hurry," she repeats unconcernedly even as her cheeks take on a pinkish tinge.
"Well either way, you look nice," I add. She mumbles an embarrassed thanks, adjusting the shoulder strap of her dress self-consciously. We sit in the quiet for a minute until I find a way to diffuse the awkwardness. "What about me? Don't I look nice?" I ask in mock offense.
She laughs and, after appraising me for a second, she shakes her head. "Sorry Artie, but really you just kind of look like someone who's been sleeping in a hospital chair for the last twelve hours."
I grin and casually try to comb my hair down with my fingers. "At least I'm not misleading anyone," I say with a shrug. "I like to keep it real." She smiles and I can tell by the way she tilts her head down and wrinkles her nose that she's trying not to laugh at me. "Laugh, Tina, it's healthy," I say in a stage whisper. Her laughter escapes in the form of a very unladylike snort that I can't help but laugh at.
A few minutes later I notice that she's trying to subtly settle herself more comfortably into her chair, but it's apparently much more difficult to do in a dress. After shifting through several different positions slowly and in overly emphasized casualness, she finally gives up with a sigh, straightening up again and crossing her legs.
Smiling, I roll closer and then pat my knee. "Feet up," I say in response to her questioning look. "It's about as close to comfortable as you'll get sitting in that chair in that dress."
"Oh no, it's okay, I'm fine. And don't give me that look," she adds when I smirk and raise an eyebrow skeptically. "Really, it's fine. I don't want to –"
"If you finish that sentence with 'hurt you' I'm going to roll over your toes," I interrupt with a laugh.
"I wasn't going to," she says defensively. "I was going to say that I don't want to use you as furniture, actually."
"Why not? Everyone else does," I point out. "You never used to have a problem with it. I even do it, or well I attempt to. I still need two more of these," I say, patting my legs, "before I can make a really sturdy table, but I work with what I've got."
She laughs, shaking her head. "You know, I really hate how you do that," she says, giving me a pointed look. I widen my eyes, trying to look confused and innocent. "Alright fine, but I swear if you try to tickle me I will kick you where I know it will hurt."
"Oh that's low," I say, fighting back a smile. "C'mon, do you really think I would stage some huge act of kindness just so I could tickle your feet?" She mumbles something that sounds distinctly like "wouldn't be the first time." "Ouch, Tee, have a little faith in me, would you? We're grown-ups now."
"You know the fact that you just called us 'grown-ups' seriously makes me doubt that fact," she says, shooting a smile at me before she leans over. I follow the movement and see that she's undoing the little buckles on her silver heels, slipping her feet out of them. She stows her shoes beneath her chair and then sits up again. I can see her watching me, as if waiting for some signal, and I smile as I lift my hands out of my lap and over my head. She's trying not to smile at me as she lifts her feet up into the space I just cleared.
"Told you I wouldn't bite," I say under my breath as I adjust my chair just slightly so her ankle isn't pressed against the armrest and then put on the brakes. Her answer comes out garbled beneath a laugh, but I'm pretty sure she calls me a smart ass.
"If the doctor comes in, could you like cover my feet with your arm?" Tina asks, glancing past me at the door and then back. "I'm pretty sure there are rules about bare feet in hospitals."
"I think he'd cut you some slack once he got a look at those monster heels," I say, looking down at them and shaking my head. "I will never understand women and the lengths they will go to look hot. I mean honestly, how do you walk in those? Those heels much be almost four inches. My feet are aching just looking at them, and I can't even feel my feet."
"Yeah well you used to say the same thing about my boots too, and those didn't have heels," she says with a noncommittal shrug.
"Well that's because your boots weighed a ton," I answer. "Each. It left that enormous bruise when you threw one at me, remember."
"You deserved it for saying I throw like a girl."
"You are a girl," I say in exasperation. "It was meant as a compliment." She just smiles at me and then crosses one of her ankles over the other. I roll my eyes, but by the time I've looked back at her she has her head tilted back onto the back of the chair and her eyes are closed. The smile on her face gradually slackens as she falls asleep.
I awkwardly try to find a place to set my left arm before finally giving up and just letting it drape over her ankles. Propping my other elbow on my armrest, I rest my cheek in my palm and close my eyes.
.....
I wake up abruptly as my face slips off my hand and I quickly stifle my yelp of surprise. There's a quiet gasp and when I look up it's to see another face hovering only inches from mine. Suddenly there is a pair of impossibly dark eyes staring straight back at me, so close that I can see the flecks of gold near the center that most people don't even know are there. My breath catches in my throat.
"Um, good morning," Tina stammers and she flashes a hesitant smile.
"Morning," I echo, more out of reflex than anything.
"Sorry," she says and quickly leans back, putting some distance between our faces. It's only as she takes them away that I notice her hands were gripping my left forearm. "I was trying not to wake you but I guess I tipped your balance."
"What?" I finally break the staring contest to look down and I realize my arm still has her ankles practically pinned to my lap. "Oh, right, sorry." I lift my arm and she slips her feet down, flexing her toes.
"Sorry again about being all up in your face," she says, not meeting my eyes. "It probably looked really strange. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to completely weird you out.
"No, it's fine, don't worry," I say, waving a hand dismissively even as my heartbeat continues to pound in my ears. I look around the room, a little surprised to see how light it is. "What time is it?"
"Just about eight," Tina answers and when I turn to her in shock she smiles. "Yeah, we slept for more than six hours."
"Hmm, so that's what a full night's sleep feels like," I say in amusement and she laughs.
"It's been a while since either of us has had one of those, hasn't it?"
"Do you ever get one?" I ask curiously. "I mean, with your schedule it seems impossible, working one job late into the night and then the other early in the morning. And then you've got the kids in the middle of the day. Wow, do you ever have time to sleep at all?"
She smiles and shrugs, her response postponed as she yawns and stretches. "You learn to utilize nap time," she finally says and shrugs again. "I really only get a whole night to sleep on my days off. It's okay though, I never was much of a sleeper. Unlike someone else."
"I like to sleep," I say unconcernedly.
"Do you get to, what with all of your cruising around the country?" she asks. "Don't all the time changes cut into your schedule?"
"You make me sound like some fabulous jetsetter," I remark, laughing. "It's nowhere near as glamorous as 'cruising,' that's for sure. More like a lot of horrendously terrible airplane trips. I don't have much trouble sleeping though. You know me, I've always been good at falling asleep any time, any place. The only time it was ever really bad was the trip to China I took last year. That time change was brutal."
"You went to China?" Tina asks with wide eyes.
"Once, and it was awful. Every city in that country is packed to the bursting point with people. It was a nightmare trying to maneuver down the walks without running into or being run over by someone. And it's humiliating going into a business meeting with a black eye from taking an elbow to the face outside the building."
I grimace at the memory but before I can say anything more I hear a short knock from behind me, and I curiously glance back over my shoulder. Destiny's doctor is standing in the doorway and he smiles. "I thought I would find you here," he says brightly. "Good morning."
"Good morning," both Tina and I answer together.
"Still sleeping, is she?" he asks, glancing at the bed. "That's good." He makes a quick mark on the clipboard he's carrying and then walks over to stand in front of Tina and me. Out of the corner of my eye I see her tuck her crossed ankles beneath her chair, trying to hide her bare feet away, and I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing.
"She's healing up really well," the doctor says. "We're going to go ahead and move her out of intensive care today and observe her in a regular wing. If everything stays well through the night, we can release her to go home tomorrow."
"Really?" Tina asks, her eyes lighting up. I'm too dumbstruck to speak. Finally, after almost a week in the hospital that has felt so much longer than that, Destiny might be able to leave. "Thank you," she says and I can hear the relief in her voice. Even though we all knew that Destiny was okay now, that there was nothing life-threatening going on, hearing that she was safe to leave the hospital felt like having a large weight lifted off my shoulders.
"Alright, well a nurse will come by to prep her for transfer once she wakes up," the doctor continues. "I'll be by to check on her once she's settled and I can answer any more questions you have then. Oh, and observation room visiting hours run from seven in the morning to eight at night. Good day." He's out of the door before this information has really processed, and when it does Tina and I exchange wide-eyed glances.
"Visitation hours?" Tina asks breathlessly. I just stare numbly. Of course, why hadn't this occurred to me before? When there is no legitimate danger to life, patient rooms are given limited visiting hours. For the first time since Destiny was admitted, Tina and I are both going to have to leave for the night. Meaning that tonight, for her last night in the hospital, Destiny is going to be all alone.
Letting my head drop into my hand, I let out a sigh. "It's going to be a really long night."