The surgeon sighed. It was a sigh of relief. The surgeon was exhausted.
"We've finally stopped the bleeding." He emphasized the word finally.
"He was lucky that none of the bullets hit major organs or arteries. But he lost a lot of blood. We gave him blood transfusion. He also broke a few ribs and fractured his femur. We are bringing him to the ICU now, he'll be awake in 30-45 mins. But we won't know the extent of the damage until we do more scans and tests after he wakes up. I can't say he is 100% out of the wood yet, but it looks promising. The nurse can bring you to the ICU."
Alicia's legs almost gave away, as if she's the one with a broken femur. The nurse had to support her. It was so so so close. Thank God! "Thank you doctor, really really, thank you SO much." She put her hand over her heart, sobbing, sniffling, smiling all at the same time.
There was no background music in the ICU room. But Alicia listened to the machine's beeping, she thought the sound was more soothing and beautiful than the greatest symphony ever written.
Because it means Will is alive, it's the sound of his pulse.
This fractured, fragile, feeble man in front of her, had the greatest, strongest, most persistent love for her. He would die for her or her children. He only just got to know Zach and Grace briefly, and he dodged a bullet for Grace – it was solely because of his love for her. He loved her, and the people she loved too.
His eyelids fluttered. He squeezed her hand.
"Hey baby" Alicia whispered in the sweetest, yet most heartbreaking, trembling voice.
Will opened his eyes. It took him a lot of effort to utter a word. Alicia leaned in.
"Grace"
He almost died and the first thing he asked was Grace.
"Grace is okay, baby… Grace is okay. You've saved her! My love, you saved my baby girl." She cradled his face and kissed his forehead. Will looked relief. Will saw her eyes were red and swelling – she must've been crying for a long time. He squeezed her hand with the only little strength he had to tell her I'm okay.
They didn't need to say a word. His body was too weak, but if he could, he would embrace her tightly, kiss her tears away, kiss her forehead, kiss her eyes, kiss her lips, kiss her knuckles. And without words, Alicia knew exactly what he wanted to do.
So she kissed him instead. She kissed like there is no tomorrow. She kissed like every kiss would be the last kiss. She kissed like the world had dissolved around them. She kissed like it would last forever. When their lips were touching, flashback from the past flitted through her mind. The feud, the fight, the stubbornness, the competition, the bad timing, the accusation, the misunderstanding…
Life could be so fragile, brittle, and delicate, like walking on thin ice with death waiting underneath. She thought of the time they had wasted, life they could've chosen, decision they could've made differently… her tears started spilling out. Will could taste the saltiness of her tears, and it broke his heart.
"I am here, I love you" he whispered. And a drop of his tear fell down.