Chapter 12 --- Alternate Ending
When Josh got off the phone with Leo, he went back to Elizabeth's room, where he found Donna sitting with her reading her the paper. He walked over to Donna and kissed her on the cheek before sitting down next to her and looking at his mother, who was staring at him. "Yes mother, it's exactly what it looks like," he said with a smile.
"'Bout time," she whispered back, with a hint of a smile. Then she turned to Donna. "Good luck." Donna nodded and smiled in understanding.
"Hey, no ganging up," Josh whined.
Donna patted him on the knee but spoke to Elizabeth. "He's like a big child." Elizabeth nodded.
"I'm right here," he said, staring at the two women.
They spent the evening with Elizabeth, and although she slept part of the time, Josh was relieved to see that she was calm and responsive to the nurses and doctors, as well as he and Donna. She still hadn't moved the left side of her body, and he thought it odd that she hadn't even mentioned not being able to. Swallowing remained a problem, and she seemed to have trouble remember little things like subjects they'd been talking about and the names of the nurse's when they came and went. She was also barely talking, but for now, he decided not to worry about those things. He would wait until the therapists worked with her and see if they had any answers for him.
Donna had tried to hide the fact, but she was exhausted. She and Josh had only slept two hours that afternoon before Elizabeth woke up, and the day before that, they'd only slept for about five hours. Her body was beginning to show signs of sleep deprivation. She was having trouble paying attention to the conversation, she was a little dizzy when she stood, and she was desperately trying to hide the fact that she couldn't stop yawning. Josh, on the other hand, acted as though he'd been sleeping fine over the last several days. He rattled on to his mother, read to her, complained about the Met's batting order, even talked up DC, which Donna knew was a prequel to trying to get Elizabeth to agree to move there.
Finally, around 8:30, a nurse came in with medication to help Elizabeth sleep through the night, telling her she needed to be well rested for therapy the next day. Fifteen minutes later, she was sound asleep, and Donna was contemplating how to get Josh to go upstairs and sleep when he turned to her and announced they were going to the condo for the night.
"What?"
"The nurse said she's going to sleep for 8 to 10 hours. For once, we can get a full night's rest, and the spare bed at my mom's is three times the size of the bed upstairs. Wouldn't you like to be able to move around a bit?" he asked, wagging his eyebrows.
She stared at him, finding it difficult to believe he was willing to leave the hospital and far too tired to joke about the size of the bed. "You aren't worried about leaving for the night?"
He looked back at his mom. "Nah, we'll set the alarm and get back here early, before she wakes up."
She nodded. "Ok, let's go get our clothes; we can do a load of laundry at your mom's." She stood up and took a second to steady herself before she started walking. Josh noticed immediately and stood up, put his arm around her waist, and held her close to him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, worried.
She smiled a little at him and put her hand on his cheek. "Nothing, I'm just tired."
He looked at her for several seconds and kissed her forehead. "Ok, forget the condo. We're going upstairs," he said, worry still in his voice.
"Josh, I can make it to your mom's. It's only fifteen minutes from here."
He shook his head. "I don't care. That's an extra fifteen minutes of sleep, and you need it. We're sleeping here tonight. While she's in therapy tomorrow, we'll pack up our stuff and make the move to mom's tomorrow night." He held her by the waist and led her upstairs.
When they got to the room, Donna went into the restroom and took out her contacts and brushed her teeth. Josh came in the room a minute later with her pajamas in his hand. "Are you hungry?" he asked. It hadn't occurred to him until that moment that they hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.
"Yeah, but I'm more tired than hungry," she said, yawning.
"You want me to go to the cafeteria and get you something?" he asked her quietly, still worried about her.
She shook her head. "You can get something for yourself if you want, but I'm too tired to eat."
He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. "You sure?"
"Yeah," she said, kissing him lightly on the lips. She took her pajamas from him and walked into the bedroom. "Bathroom's all yours," she said sleepily.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
When Josh came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Donna was asleep on the small bed. He watched her for a minute, and then quietly pulled the chair from the corner of the room to the side of the bed, blocking the path to bathroom. He sat in the chair and propped his feet up on the end of the bed, then closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
An hour later, Donna woke-up and noticed Josh wasn't next to her on the bed. She sat up quickly, worried that something had happened to Elizabeth, grabbed her jeans off the floor, and began hastily putting them on while searching for her glasses. The room was pitch black, so she didn't notice Josh in the chair until she ran into him on her way into the bathroom.
He jumped and sat up, confused, half in and half out of consciousness, pulling his feet off the bed. "What? My mom?"
"Josh, what the hell are you doing?" Donna asked as she reached around him and flicked on the bathroom light so she could see little.
Still confused, Josh looked at her and tried to block the light from his eyes. "Is my mom ok?"
She wiped her eyes and tried to calm her breathing. "I guess so. I woke up and you weren't in bed. I thought something had happened and you left. I was on my way down there. What are you doing in the chair?"
He leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees and propping his head up in his hands and rubbing his eyes. "You were tired. I wanted to give you the bed so you could actually get some sleep."
She put her hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her. Taking his hand in hers, she tugged him a little bit. "Come get into bed."
He pulled his hand back and stayed in the chair. "No. You need to sleep."
"So do you," she said sternly.
"I'm fine; go back to bed."
She stared at him hard for a minute. "What's going on?"
He put his head back in his hands and groaned. "Nothing."
"Look at me and tell me what's going on," she said, putting her hands on her hips and staring at him.
He rubbed his eyes with his palms and kept his head down. "Nothing's going on. You need to sleep."
"I do hog the bed," she said, surprise filling her voice.
He snapped his head up and looked at her like she had lost her mind. "What?"
"You don't want to sleep with me because I hog the bed."
"That's ridiculous." She was obviously exhausted past the point of making sense.
"No it's not. You told me the other day that I hog the bed."
He stood up and faced her. "Donna, you don't hog the bed," he said quietly.
"Then why don't you want to sleep with me?" she half-yelled.
"Oh, I want to sleep with you," he shot back at her.
"What?"
He shook his head. "Never mind."
She hung her head and quietly said, "I'm so confused."
He put his hand on her shoulder and turned her towards the bed. "Donna, you're a walking zombie. You need sleep; you don't need to share a twin bed. I'll be fine on the chair."
She started walking towards the bed, and then stopped and turned back to him. "You're freaking out," she accused.
"What?" he asked, confused himself now.
"You're freaking out," she said again, poking him in the chest.
"About what?"
"Us. You don't want to sleep with me because you're freaking out about us!" She was yelling now.
"Ok, let's get this straight. I want to sleep with you. I've wanted to sleep with you since about ten minutes after we met," he said, trying to stay calm.
"But you're freaking out!"
He took a deep breath. "I'm not freaking out; in fact, you're the one freaking out."
"If you're not freaking out, why won't you come to bed?"
He gritted his teeth and spoke a little louder himself. "Because you need to sleep."
"I sleep fine with you in the bed, in fact I sleep great with you in the bed. Truth be told, I sleep amazing with you're arms around me! I don't give a damn how small the damn bed is, I sleep better with you in it!" she screamed at him.
He started yelling too. "Well, I sleep amazing when I'm holding you, and quite frankly, I don't want to do anything else for the rest of my life, so there!"
"Good to know; now get in the fucking bed!"
"Fine, I will!"
"Fine!" Donna stomped around to her side of the small bed while Josh pulled the covers back on his side and got in. When they were both in bed, Josh lay on his back and pulled Donna to him, and she draped herself across him and molded her body to his. A minute went by with neither of them speaking, and then she propped her chin up on his chest and looked at him.
Like magnets, their lips fused together into a long kiss. Donna let her tongue snake out and trace his lips, and he opened his mouth, pulling her tongue inside. A minute later, he rolled them so he was lying on top of her, his hands finding their way to her hair, her hands gripping his shoulders. Before long, his mouth left hers and made its way to her neck, sucking and lightly biting, and she began sighing and making little squeaks. One of his hands found its way under her shirt, massaging her stomach and sides, his thumb brushing the underside of her breast lightly as her sighs turned into moans. She wrapped her legs around his waist and it was his turn to moan as his erection, through his shorts, pressed against her leg. His mouth found hers again, and their tongues explored each other lazily as her hands moved from his shoulders to his hair.
When the kiss ended several minutes later, he pulled back and looked at her, Her lips were swollen, her face was flushed, and she was panting for breath. She smiled up at him and uncurled her legs from around his waist. He kissed her one more time, this time gently and with a closed mouth, before rolling them back over so she was once again draped across him.
"Isn't this better than the chair?" she mumbled.
He kissed her head and ran his fingers through her hair. "Yeah, definitely better," he whispered. A few minutes later, they drifted off to sleep.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
When she woke up in the morning, Donna felt a hundred percent better. Without opening her eyes, she reached for Josh, but he wasn't next to her. She started to push herself up, when she heard Josh say, "I'm right here." She opened her eyes and looked over at him. He was sitting in the chair again, holding a tray, staring at her with a smile on his face.
"You didn't sleep there, did you?" she asked, pouting.
He smiled wider and got up, walking over to her on the bed. "No, I didn't," he said, leaning down and kissing her long and full on the mouth. "I woke up a half hour ago, checked on my mom and got us some breakfast."
"How is she?" she asked, rolling on to her back and staring up at him.
"Stable and still sound asleep. Nurse said she slept all night long."
Donna smiled at the good news. "What did you get us?" she asked, sitting up. She felt like she hadn't eaten in a month.
"Scrambled eggs and fruit for you, Fruity Pebbles and bacon for me," he said, popping a piece of bacon in his mouth. "And coffee."
"I want bacon too," she said, picking up a piece and taking a bite.
"I expected as much and got a double order," he said proudly.
She took a bite of her eggs and then looked at him suspiciously. "You yelled at me last night."
"You yelled first," he replied as he poured milk into his cereal.
"I was delirious from exhaustion," she said, as if that answered everything.
"I was trying to be chivalrous," he said in the same tone.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're not freaking out?"
He shook his head and smiled. "I'm not freaking out."
