Which character do you like most in this weird thing I concocted? I'm liking the way Owen's turning out (in this chapter especially!), but I can never bring myself to stray too far from Teddy. I love her to bits.
Crying you're sorry, but sorry won't do.
Owen's vigil by Teddy's bedside had been sustained through frustration, wishful thinking, and many tears on Addie's part. As the pressure became too much for Addie to take, she left the room – Teddy would be none the wiser, anyhow. The outlook was bleak, what with the lorazepam failing to take any evident effect.
The clock mounted on the wall made sounds like muted gunfire in the quiet, and Owen found that being with Teddy was strangely lonelier than keeping his own company.
The occupant of the bed was nothing more than a shadow of the girl he once knew. And all of sudden the silence started to hurt.
"Teddy? Teddy, if you can hear me, I'm sorry," Owen blurted – anything to break his train of thought. "I didn't mean for anything to happen to you."
But it wasn't his fault, was it? Unless he just hadn't tried hard enough?
"I know I was a crappy friend for a while there, but we're good, right? We're past all that? If only you'd come back, we could talk. I miss you, Teddy. There's so much to talk about and I really need my best friend."
Teddy took a breath, but nothing more. So it was going to be a monologue, then.
"Remember how we used to stay up all night just talking in Iraq? It was kind of great – just you, me, scratchy tarps and that smell of antiseptic everywhere. Like high school, however cliché that is. That time you fell into a cactus and I had to tweeze all the spikes out of your back? I'll never let you forget that." Owen chuckled.
Teddy's response was so clear in Owen's mind that he had a hard time believing he was imagining it.
"Come on, Teds. Not even a single retort? Well, if we're going to bring up old shit, let's just make it clear that we're not about to laugh about me backing the Jeep into a row of tents and bringing the whole place down. You've teased me for too many years about that glorious screw-up."
"Anyway, I really do miss that. Maybe we'll talk about different things now, though. Like, I don't know – what the hell am I going to do about Cristina? You know her so well and she's probably told you things I'll never get to hear. She drives me crazy and I love her for it." Owen looked down at his hands.
The normalcy of the words coming out of Owen's mouth seemed tasteless when only he was talking and Teddy wasn't responding in any way at all. But he kept at it anyway.
"And you and Addison – we never got a chance to talk about that. I like her; I do! But she's known you less than a year, Teddy. I don't understand why you trust her so much, or if that's changed at all these past few weeks. You and her, you seem to have been on the rocks lately. I've never known you to be so mean."
Suddenly remembering, Owen gave a wistful sigh. "Well, that's not entirely true. You never did apologize when you said you hated me. You had the right, but still… I hope you don't mean that anymore."
Just then, Owen's pager went off. The trill made him jump, but it was a welcome jolt. He didn't want to stay in that room a moment longer, but he couldn't seem to keep away just in case he missed Teddy waking up. Forced masochism aside, Owen had to go this time.
"Bye, honey," Owen whispered. "See you soon."
He brushed his lips across Teddy's forehead – the first time since he held her in the OR after her harrowing labor. This time, she was even more broken than before.
It's a bit half-assed, I know. Just a filler chapter for now, and I'm hoping that the plotline will become more substantial very soon. By the way, review number 50 is coming up and I promise my fiftieth review-ee a hug and a shoutout in chapter 27, as well as whoever's been faithfully following the story right from the start.