When Christian woke up he found himself in a hospital bed with a nasogastric tube in his nose and an iv needle in his arm, heart monitor claiming he was still tachycardic. His stomach didn't seem to hurt as much, he established as moving did not cause soaring pain around his midsection. He relaxed relieved, but then he remembered what the implications about being in hospital could have been.
"Thank God," sighed a quiet voice beside him.
Christian looked in the direction of the sound straight into Kimber's eyes. Given the worry he saw in there in them he considered it unlikely that they have found him out, as yet, he was not sure how long ago he could have arrived and what kind of test they were performing on him. If they gave him a nasogastric tube they must have thought he did have a bowel obstruction, but he did not know whether the tube meant they were going for non operative treatment for partial or simple obstruction or it was only for symptomatic relief, the latter meaning he could have not been in for very long and thus he could still be caught lying and pretending later. He smiled weakly at Kimber keeping up the show for just now cringing inside. He felt guilty seeing her so worried about him.
"Sean, he's awake," she turned towards the door where Sean was apparently standing.
"How long have I been out for?" Christian asked the burning question, although their faces did not show any anger towards him.
"Almost two hours. You were dehydrated," Sean answered him.
"What happened?" In Christian's opinion that was the exact right question to ask.
"You tell me. Stomach sore?"
"A little."
"Well, you have small intestine fluid levels on X-ray indicative of partial ileus. Your vital signs are stable, except for mild tachycardia. Providing adequate fluid resuscitation and NG suctioning resolution of obstruction occurs in virtually with all patients with these lesions within 72 hours," he continued more for Kimber's sake, but then turned back to Christian, "they were wondering about esophagogastroduodenoscopy provided you're up for it so that we could maybe come up with a reason as to why's this happening to you."
"Still feeling sick," Christian said promptly fearing they'd shove a camera down his throat and find there was no cause for his obstruction.
"Okay, well maybe later. Dr. Wolfow's got your case. You know him don't you? He pointed something out to me," Sean said scaring Christian a little about where exactly the conversation was going. "He wants to perform an endoscopy at some point to get his idea confirmed. How come I never read your old files? And how is it you never told me you were suffering from inflammatory bowel disease when you were younger?"
"That's because if was never confirmed, but they had it down in my files I was suspect, cause of all the digestive system symptoms I had for years," Christian told the truth, leaving out he was deceiving everybody back then as well. Although if they wanted proof of that now he was in deep shit as they'd find nothing…unless he can get Kimber to take him away from here before they perform those tests and then he'd have the means to come up with something else, "but it's a good idea. I always thought I had that as well, I was already studying for medical school and I would've agreed with that, but then it all went away and came back only about four months ago. It never clicked with me though, I suspected the drinks."
"That can make it worse and get symptoms to reappear. I would think it's very likely now. It's the most common cause for spontaneous obstruction if cultures are negative."
"Yeah, that must've been it. Shouldn't you be home with your family? You'll be too tired for work tomorrow," Christian needed Sean out the way to be able to vanish.
"I already cancelled everything for today, but yeah, you need some rest. Kimber?" Sean was almost unable to offer her a ride since she came in with Christian with the ambulance, "you want a lift?" He finally offered, hoping on the way home he could shed some light on why he found her with his friend so often again these days. Were they really back together or was it just for bedly comfort?
But Christian was having none of that, "could you stay for a little while Kimber?" He started to reach for her forgetting his aching belly and fell back to the bed with a grunt, "shit."
Tbc
Chapter 7: Hitched
Kimber shook her head and sat on his bed after Sean left, "you scared me so much. I didn't know what I should do. You know, you should show me some of those medical things people should do in an emergency."
"Like what? Mouth to mouth? You do that just fine."
"Would you please stop that," Kimber called pouting, "I felt so powerless. I was terrified you would go into shock or something and I would not be able to help you."
"I'm okay, see? Don't worry."
"You're okay? Easy for you to say that, you didn't see yourself being sick even when unconscious. Do we even really know what's wrong with you?" The tension was getting too much for her.
"I've got a fair idea," he was closer to the truth than she would've thought, "I think Dr. Wolfow's right. So would you just shut up so I can kiss you without having to jump up from here?"
Kimber leaned forwards hesitantly as Christian reached up and pulled her downwards, "I don't want to lose you," she threw her arms around him.
Christian felt like comforting her, but given that he was responsible for her heartache, nothing came to mind. He couldn't tell her he was really fine because that would've given the game away. So he just kissed her lovingly, "God, I love you, please don't ever leave me…do you think you could get the hospital priest here?"
"What?!? Why?"
"Cause I wanna marry you."
"What's the hurry Christian? You just said you gonna be okay."
"Cause we're both here, now. I don't want to have to wait for you never coming down the aisle."
"That's insane Christian. I won't run away. I promise. I love you. I am right where I am supposed to be, where I need to be and where I want to be."
"It's not insane. It's love. I wanna marry you like this to show my commitment."
"But even if I'd agree. This is still early in the morning; I doubt there would be a hospital priest around."
Great point, thought Christian. Right were he wanted the conversation to end up going, "it doesn't matter. Let's just go to Las Vegas. Where's my clothes?"
"What? Now? You wanna go now? You should get some sleep now."
"It would be a great way of proving to you I'm not feeling so bad after all. Give me those files…see? All fine, I don't have a temperature. We just need to pop by the practice, good thing Sean won't be in, I'll pick up all I might need and I'll even show you how to administer some just in case? What do you say?" He was hoping for having the chance to gather some things at the practice that would help him be sicker instead. Under no circumstances could he let people finally discharge him with a mysterious illness they would eventually figure was self inflicted.
"That's not insane, that's delirious."
"Trust me, I'm a doctor, am I not? I'll teach you everything you need to know in the next five minutes. Is it all right this way?
"Like you will really do what I want you to…"
"You're not gonna stop me marrying you then?" Christian smiled triumphantly, "I'll take that as being in my favour," he added pulling needles out of himself when Kimber shrugged.
She hesitantly stepped to the wardrobe, "I just don't want you passing out before you're just about to say I do, understood?"
Tbc