Kate was coming to the end of a welcome cup of coffee in the relatives room when the nurse stuck her head in. It was possibly the worst cup of coffee she'd ever tasted but she didn't really care at that time of night.
"Can you come back in?" The nurse asked. "I think he's missing you. His vitals are heading off the chart again,".
"His parents have only been in the room about 30 minutes," Kate mentioned. "I can't let them have such a brief visit,".
"It's alright. We'll say you are providing necessary medical treatment and not actually a visitor," the nurse replied.
"Ok. As long as you don't get in trouble," Kate said before downing the dregs of her drink and putting the plastic cup in the bin as she followed the nurse out of the room.
A cacophony of alarms greeted Kate's ears as she entered Steve's room. Steve's parents were looking quite concerned at their son.
"It's ok, Steve. I'm back," Kate soothed as she took her seat beside Steve and took his hand again. It wasn't long before silence returned to the room after the alarms turned themselves off.
From her seat across the bed from Kate, Steve's mother noted with interest how her son had reacted to Kate's presence. She often wondered if her son was being completely honest with her when she repeatedly asked him if he and Kate were more than friends. He swore blindly that they weren't but she was obviously very important to him if she could calm him down whilst he was unconscious.
"Sorry to interrupt your visit," Kate apologised.
"Don't be silly. He obviously wanted you here," Steve's mum said.
Over the next thirty minutes Kate and Steve's parents got to know each other with murmured voices before his mum and dad decided to go and rest in their hotel room. With a vow to visit early in the morning, Steve's parents bid Kate a good night and headed out the unit.
Kate stayed where she was, intent on maintaining her vigil at her friend's bedside. The chair she was in reclined to about forty five degrees and with Steve's hand still in hers Kate managed to get some sleep once again.
She was still sleeping when the consultant surgeon popped in to Steve's room on her early morning ward round. She glanced at Kate with interest and gave a questioning look at the nurse, before looking over Steve's chart and all his observations.
"What happened here?" the doctor asked, pointing to the parts of the chart where Steve's pulse and blood pressure were all over the place.
"Kate wasn't in the room," the nurse explained which earned her a look of disbelief from the doctor. "Honestly. It's the sweetest thing. She's been here all night and look- all his obs are completely stable," she said as she pointed out the last couple of hours.
"I was wondering why we'd broken the rules and allowed someone in over night," the doctor commented. "Is she going to be staying a while?".
"I think so. His parents are coming back later as well,".
"Right, well why don't we take advantage of her presence and try and wake him up. Turn off the sedation and we'll see how we go,".
At the doctors order, the nurse went over and switched off Steve's sedation. Now it was a waiting game.
A little later, Kate was roused from her rest by the nurse accidentally knocking the chair as she went about her routine checks on Steve.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," the nurse apologised. "You could do with the rest,".
"It's fine," Kate replied as she stretched. "How is he?".
"Good," the nurse informed her. "The doctor's been in for her ward round and we have turned Steve's sedation off. We're just waiting for him to wake up,".
"What time is it?" Kate asked, amazed she had slept through quite a bit of coming and going around the bedside. She really must have needed her sleep.
"Nine o'clock,".
"Shit!" muttered Kate. "I should probably freshen up. Steve's parents will be here again shortly,". Flicking a lever on the side of her reclining chair, it sprung forward so once again was chair shaped. "Mate, is it ok if I go stretch my legs again and find something to eat?" she asked her sleeping partner. Having learnt from what had happened the previous evening, Kate now explained to Steve whenever she was going to leave his side. Releasing his hand, Kate waited for any hint of the machines starting to alarm but the room remained silent. "I'll take that as a yes," she concluded before leaning down to kiss his cheek. "Back shortly," she promised before heading out the room.
By the time she had found something to eat, buy herself a toothbrush and toothpaste from the hospital shop and make a quick trip to the bathroom to splash some water on her face and run her fingers through her hair, Steve's parents had arrived.
Whilst waiting to see if Steve awoke from his induced slumber, the three people closest to him resumed getting to know each other in hushed tones.
Just after lunch there was a little commotion as Steve started gagging on his tube and very quickly it was removed from his throat. His three visitors sat expectantly, waiting for Steve to say something, but with lots of sedatives still in his system he simply closed his eyes and resumed his rest, ignoring his relatives and partner.
"Has he seriously just gone back to sleep?" Kate asked a little disappointed. She had been expecting something a little more welcoming from him once he was awake.
"Just like when he was a teenager," his mother informed her. "In bed most of the day. Lucky if we saw him before about two o'clock in the afternoon, weren't we Pete?".
"Yes. And then he could be so grumpy we wished he'd go back to bed," his father reminisced.
"How old was he when he did this?" Kate asked, keen to learn about Steve as a young boy. It was something Steve rarely talked much about and it might give her certain ammunition during their next argument.
"Oh from about fourteen. Just as the hormones kicked in,".
"I'll have that to look forward to with Josh soon, then," Kate mentioned. Her son was approaching that age and occasionally was showing signs of moodiness or wanting independence from her whenever he stayed over.
It was later in the afternoon that Steve began to join the land of the living. At first he just lay with his eyes closed, disorientated as he had a very vivid dream. His parents were in the room he was in and for some reason Kate was there as well. His mum was regaling everyone present with stories of Steve's childhood and Kate appeared to be enjoying it immensely, laughing in all the right places and asking for more when one story ended.
"I remember when I braved his room once when he was about sixteen. Had to get his dirty laundry for the wash," his mother was now saying. "Found a pair of his underpants on the floor, just under the bed. Lord only knew how long they had been lying there,".
"Why do boys do that?" Kate had asked. "Even my ex-husband just left his underpants in the middle of the bedroom floor. Drove me mad,".
"Easier than putting them in the wash basket I think. Anyway I bent down to retrieve them and I thought I better check under the bed in case there were more pairs there. Didn't find any underwear, just a huge pile of lads magazines with topless women on every page,".
Kate started laughing again and Steve felt her stroking his hand where it lay in hers, which was weird because he had never experienced something so lifelike in his dream before.
It was around this point that Steve realised he wasn't dreaming and he was in fact in the middle of a living nightmare. His mother embarrassing him in front of Kate and both of them bonding over his silly youthful escapades.
"What did you do?" Kate asked.
"Had a little giggle to myself before putting the magazine back. Never mentioned them to him. To this day I don't think he knows I knew about them,".
"I do now," Steve said in a voice that was a little hoarse after the previous hours of inactivity.
Everyone's faces turned to look at Steve who was now wide awake. "Hey," said Kate softly, happy her friend was conscious. "How are you feeling?".
"Mortified, thanks to mum" Steve replied honestly.
"So not in pain?" Kate checked, remembering what the doctor had told her the previous day. Steve shook his head. "That's good," she continued relieved. "Don't worry, most of the stories haven't been that bad," she confided to Steve, hoping to offer some comfort to her friend.
In actual fact it had the opposite effect. Stories? Plural. Just how many fucking stories had his mother recounted? Steve wondered with alarm.