When You Least Expect It Chapter Four
The next time Ryan awoke, he was much more aware of his surroundings.
He was in a hospital and from the feel of things, he'd been badly banged up. He couldn't exactly REMEMBER what happened, but he figured a car accident was the only thing that made sense.
Tense and nervous, his eyes darted around the room until he realized there was a warm, comforting pressure on his arm. Marissa. He looked in that direction with an effort and sure enough, his girlfriend had fallen asleep on his arm. He smiled faintly; she'd promised she wouldn't leave.
One thing he discovered quickly: he had next to no strength and it sucked. It took something out of him to move his arm enough to gently nudge her awake. She came to quickly as if startled, then looked around and seemed to remember where she was. "Hey, sleepyhead," she smiled tenderly, reaching out to stroke his cheek."
"Mmmm, should be calling you that," he smiled faintly.
Marissa studied his face as she came more fully awake. He definitely seemed more alive and alert than he had when he first woke up, and he didn't look like he was in horrible pain this time. "How are you feeling? I mean, I know that's a dumb question for the most part, but you don't look like you're hurting as much as you did the last time."
"I guess saying I feel like I got hit by a truck is inappropriate," Ryan said wryly.
Marissa shook her head, laughing a little in spite of herself. "Yes, it is. But I don't care; you can say anything you want as long as you're awake and here with me."
"I'm sorry I scared you," Ryan said softly, his heart feeling heavy when he took her in and realized how utterly worn out and distressed her appearance was.
"Oh baby, it's not your fault," Marissa protested gently, leaning in to brush a soft, careful kiss over his lips. "This is one time where I definitely get to be the worrier, not you."
Ryan smiled a little at that. "What exactly happened to me?" he questioned tiredly. "I mean, I know this must have been a car accident.,"
Even in his weakened state, he noticed her slight stiffening and filed it away for later use. "What's the last thing you remember?" she asked hesitantly.
Ryan searched his foggy memory. "Uhh…seeing you, I guess. I was watching you drive off…I guess we made plans for later?"
"We did," Marissa confirmed. "You were on your way to my house when you got into the accident. It was the other driver's fault, completely and totally. Just so you don't even go there."
Ryan nodded tiredly and was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization of how heavy he felt. Just what WAS wrong with him? "What happened to me IN the accident?" he asked suddenly. "I mean…what's wrong with me?"
Marissa sighed and took his hand between each of yours. "Well, the doctors can explain it better than me. In short, you have a nasty concussion, a broken leg- which I'm sure you've already noticed- and some broken ribs." She bit her lip. "They had to do surgery on you too, to repair some damage inside- but it went really, really well," she added hastily before Ryan could get too freaked out. "Your doctor, Dr. Cobb, said as long as you woke up soon you'd probably be fine and you did."
Ryan's brow creased. "How long was I out?" he asked, realizing he had no clue.
Marissa shrugged in an obviously forced manner. "Just a night," she said, the tone of her voice making it clear no matter how much she tried to put on a brave face for his sake there was nothing just about it. He knew how he'd have felt had she been unconscious for a night with no promise she'd wake up anytime soon or ever- he would have lost his mind. He tightened his hold on her hand, but before he could say anything else Seth wandered into the room with two cups of coffee. His tired face immediately brightened when he saw Ryan was awake.
"Hey man," he said happily, handing Marissa a cup of coffee before sitting down next to her. "How are you feeling? Relatively speaking, anyway."
Ryan smiled a little. "Relatively speaking, I'm okay. Where are Sandy and Kirsten?"
"Handling paperwork and other boring things," Seth shrugged. "They'll be back in a minute. But we're more interesting anyway, aren't we Coop?"
Marissa frowned at him. "How many times have I told you only Summer calls me Coop?"
"I'm hurt," Seth protested. "I thought we'd bonded more by now."
Ryan grinned a little, enjoying the simple noise of the two people closest to him playfully bickering back and forth. He knew they were likely doing it to make him feel more normal and at home, and it was working.
"Oh by the way, Summer was here most of last night and she stopped by again earlier while you were asleep," Seth informed Ryan, bringing him back to the conversation. "She's beginning to think you're avoiding her." Ryan laughed in spite of himself. "Anyway, she'll be back again a little later."
"Oh, my mom is actually wandering around somewhere," Marissa remembered, twisting around in her seat as if Julie would magically appear. "I guess she'll come in if and when she doesn't feel too weird about it."
Ryan raised his brows. "Your mom? I'm touched…I think."
"You matter more to people than you think," Marissa said, gently but somewhat more seriously than she'd been a minute earlier. As if on cue, Sandy and Kirsten came in. Kirsten's face lit up when she realized Ryan was awake and more with it than he'd been earlier.
"Ryan," she breathed, rushing over to his bedside and bending down to gently kiss his forehead. "You have no idea how happy I am to see those eyes," she laughed a little tearfully.
"Good to see you, kid," Sandy said a little huskily, bending down himself to cradle Ryan's head a little. "You're looking a little more awake this time."
"I think I've rejoined the land of the living for good," Ryan smiled faintly, although he could already feel himself wearing out again.
"I see Mr. Atwood has decided to join us again." The familiar voice of the doctor Ryan remembered from when he first woke up turned out to be attached to a confident man who looked like he was in his mid forties, Ryan realized as the man strode into the room. "Hi Ryan, I'm Dr. Cobb."
"Hi," Ryan said, frowning slightly as he realized for the first time he was nervous about what the doctor was going to say to him.
"I assume you've figured out at least some of what happened to you in the accident," Dr. Cobb surmised.
"Marissa explained it to me as best she could," Ryan replied. Marissa had stepped back to give Sandy and Kirsten some room; her heart responded with a pang when she realized he was groping around for her hand and she instinctively moved forward to take his, giving him a reassuring smile and rubbing his arm lightly. He was scared. It wasn't a look she saw on his face very often, but he was scared now and too weak to try to hide it.
Dr. Cobb nodded. "I take it I'm not going to have any more luck at getting any of these four out than I've had before?" he asked wryly.
"I'd rather they stay," Ryan said firmly.
"I figured as much," the doctor smiled a little. "Alright, to sum it up, you have a lot of various cuts and bruises. Aside from the surgery, which we'll get into, you have stitches in two places; three over your left brow and ten on your right arm. The three main things that are going to give you trouble right now are your concussion, the broken ribs, and the broken leg. As for the surgery, I assume Ms. Cooper told you it went very well?" Ryan nodded. "You shouldn't have any complications recovering from that; it'll take a bit but you should recover nicely on that end. You had a punctured lung and some internal bleeding, but we were very successful in patching that up. Same goes for the ribs. You'll have to be very careful for awhile; broken ribs are a nasty thing to heal and you have three. Still, as long as you're careful there's no reason those won't heal nicely as well. Now, you have a hell of a concussion. There don't seem to be any extremely severe or overt side effects to that thus far which is a good sign, but I'm going to need to examine you and monitor you closely to make sure it stays that way. Your leg is going to be the trickiest thing," he warned Ryan. "It's broken in three places and there was some damage to the knee which often presents a lot of problems. I can't rule out the possibility of another surgery on that, and the leg is going to take awhile to heal regardless, likely with some physical therapy." He must have noticed Ryan's eyes widening and he hastened to add "Don't get me wrong, most likely your leg will fully recover as well, but it's going to take some time and you're going to have to be patient. You're not going to jump right out of bed from this."
"Great," Ryan muttered sarcastically, grateful for the small comfort of Marissa rhythmically rubbing his palm with her thumb. "Any idea on how long I'm going to be here?" he asked wearily. "I want to go home as soon as I can."
"No way of knowing for sure; we're going to have to monitor you for awhile, especially with that head injury," Dr. Cobb admitted. "And healing from surgery DOES take time, of course. A couple to a few weeks, maybe."
"Is there any chance we could get that cut down at all if we hired some in house full time care or something?" Kirsten spoke up, obviously noticing how freaked out that made Ryan as well as the rest of the kids. "We'd really like to have him home with us and money isn't a problem at all."
"We'll see; I'll check up on that," Dr. Cobb promised. "Now, I hate to clear this room but I really do have to examine Ryan more thoroughly. You all can come back soon, I promise."
"Be back in a minute," Marissa promised, leaning down to kiss him.
"Hey." He caught her hand gently. "Why don't you go home and take a shower, get some rest? You're wearing the same thing you were last time I saw you," he pointed out.
She arched her eyebrows playfully. "Trying to get rid of me, Atwood?"
"You could smell, you never know," Ryan shot back teasingly.
"Ooooh, you really know how to charm a girl," Marissa said sarcastically, even as she smiled. "Seriously, you're going to have to not baby me for the time being. It's your turn. But…" she added as he opened his mouth to protest "If it'll make you feel better, I will go home, take a quick shower, and nap for one hour. Then I'm coming back. Deal?"
"Deal," Ryan agreed, not sure if one hour of sleep was really going to do anything but he'd take what he could get and the truth was, he didn't really even want her gone for one hour but she looked utterly exhausted. It was bad enough that he had to constantly be stuck here; he was out on pain meds half the time.
"Alright, I'll see you in a little while," she murmured, kissing him softly one last time and running her hand across his cheek before slipping away. She turned around and blew him a kiss before she left.
It struck him that was the last thing he could remember before the accident.
Two hours later
"Hey, man. You're still awake," Seth said in surprise as he popped his head in Ryan's room.
Ryan smiled wearily and shrugged a little, motioning for him to come in. "I think I was out for like an hour; hard to say when I'll fall asleep and wake up, I guess. You know, you can go home, too."
Seth waved his hand dismissively. "There could be some hot, nubile young nurses around. Someone has to be here…to keep you in line, of course. You're taken."
Ryan rolled his eyes, chuckling. His smile faded as a question occurred to him that no one else seemed comfortable answering. "Seth…what about the other driver?"
Seth became distinctly uncomfortable, looking down to study his hands. "He died, Ryan," he answered quietly at length.
Ryan winced. He'd been afraid of that. "How old?"
"Sixteen," Seth said softly. "It was his fault, Ryan," he insisted at the stricken look on Ryan's face. "Trust me, it was his fault."
"How do you know that?" Ryan muttered. "I was sitting here bitching to myself about being here for a few weeks; that kid isn't even ALIVE anymore. So it was technically his fault, but technicalities don't mean a hell of a lot at the end of the day. Maybe I could have done something to avoid it, maybe I wasn't paying enough attention-"
"He was drunk, Ryan." The words shocked Ryan into silence. Seth watched him warily and chose his words carefully. "You were at a stoplight; he came out of nowhere. He wasn't even on the right side of the road and he must have lost complete control of the wheel; you probably didn't even see him coming."
Drunk. Ryan really should have figured, when he thought about it. When hadn't it been a drunk person or a person on some kind of drugs that totally fucked up his life? Part of him was furious at this nameless kid; the other part simply felt profoundly saddened that someone so young died over something so stupid.
"You okay?" Seth asked hesitantly.
"Fine," Ryan said shortly. Seth looked like he wanted to say more, but he was cut off by the sudden sound of distinctive female laughing, followed shortly by Summer and Marissa coming in the room.
"Hey, you're awake!" Marissa said happily, looking more refreshed than she had the last time he saw her. Her smile faded when she noticed the expression on her face. "Is everything okay?" she asked uncertainly.
"Everything's fine," Ryan smiled slightly, reaching out a hand for her. He'd had a flash of resentment when he first heard the driver was drunk at everyone who'd had a drinking problem in his life, but it had faded when she'd walked in, all the love she felt for him open on her lovely face. She hadn't done anything in this situation- or really, for nearly a year- to deserve being resented and selfishly, he needed her at his side more than he wanted to hold onto his aggravation. Her smile returned and she joined him at his bed side, taking his hand and kissing it as she sat down.
"So, you're finally awake when I'm here," Summer teased lightly, although her voice was somewhat huskier than usual.
"It was an accident," Ryan shot back, smiling a little. "It's good to see you, Summer."
She awkwardly leaned over to brush a kiss against his cheek before folding herself back into Seth. "Good to have you back, Chino." Ryan silently smiled his sincere appreciation at her concern; he and Summer weren't very close compared to his connections with Marissa and Seth, but it was nice to acknowledge they cared about each other sometimes.
"Well, as nice as it is to have the Fantastic Four:; The Hospital Version, why don't we let these two crazy kids alone for the time being?" Seth suggested to Summer.
"You don't have to go," Marissa protested.
"No, you can leave," Ryan teased Seth, smiling to silently show him he was really okay.
Seth rolled his eyes. "Fine then. Be that way," he huffed, but he was grinning. "See you in a little while, man."
"Call me later, Coop," Summer added as Seth led her out the door.
"Alone at last," Marissa said lightly, studying his face. "Are you sure you're okay? As okay as you can be?"
"I'm fine," he reassured her, smiling slightly. "You're here, aren't you?"
Marissa flushed a little in a way that obviously indicated pleasure. "When did you get so romantic, Mr. Atwood?"
"Hey!" Ryan defended himself. "Who set up that tiki hut on the beach?"
"That's true, that was very romantic," Marissa placated him, smiling a little and leaning down to kiss him.
Ryan could already feel himself drifting back into unconsciousness; he'd been warned concussions made people continually sleepy. "Hey, come here," he murmured, patting the left side of the bed.
"Ryan, are you crazy?" Marissa protested incredulously. "You just got through major surgery and you have broken ribs and a broken leg. I'd like not to kill you here."
"Oh, come on," Ryan cajoled. "We're not on the side where my leg's broken and if we're careful we can avoid the ribs. Please?"
Marissa sighed. He didn't break out the puppy dog look to plead with her for things very often and she was utterly helpless to it as a result. "If this hurts even a little, we're not doing it again," she warned him, then crawled ever so carefully on the bed.
"Mmmm," Ryan murmured, closing his eyes at the pleasure her warm, soft body against him brought. "See? No pain. I feel better already."
"Sure you do," Marissa laughed slightly.
"I do!" Ryan insisted. "I…" he broke off and flushed a little himself. "I don't like sleeping alone anymore," he admitted.
Marissa craned her head up to look at him. "Want to know a secret? Neither do I."
Ryan smiled and kissed her forehead, then closed his eyes as he felt himself fading off. Marissa stayed awake watching him for a long time. For the first time since the accident, she thought things might really be okay. It would take a long time and it would be hard, but Ryan was alive and awake and he was going to be okay. That knowledge was enough to relax her to the point where she could drift off herself, secure next to the man she loved.