Chapter 85: Morning Dawns
"My empty water dish mocks me." – Bob the Dog
"Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious." – William Feather
"I have always felt that the moment when first you wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours." – Monica Baldwin
"The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected." – Cousin Woodman
"My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." – Cary Grant
"We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning." – Henry Ward Beecher
Sydney woke Friday morning to hear a strange scratching on the bedroom door.
She looked down on her chest to see Vaughn resting comfortably, still in a deep sleep.
The scratching wasn't particularly loud, but it was annoying enough that it might soon wake Vaughn. He'd had an exhausting day and night, and she wanted him to be able to sleep as long as possible. He had another long day ahead of him; he needed to be rested.
She also realized that checking out the noise would be sleep suicide, because she'd have to move Vaughn off of her and that would be impossible to do without waking him. Plus, even if she could worm her way out from underneath him, she'd have to position him so the infected would wasn't pressured, and well…that just wasn't going to happen with him sleeping.
She sighed trying to come up with some way of making the noise stop, but she came up with nothing.
She just waited, hoping it would stop…but it didn't. It ceased momentarily, but started up again several minutes later.
Vaughn hadn't stirred the whole time, and she held out hope that maybe he would just sleep through it.
That's when she heard the whining start…Donovan…now she knew…it made sense then…
Crap, she thought to herself.
After several more minutes of annoying whining, Vaughn stirred atop her.
He groggily moved his head, "Syd?"
"Yeah, sweetie, right here…" she said.
"Mmm…what's that…is that Donovan?" he asked.
"Yeah…I think so…listen, I'm going to move you on your back…you stay here and rest, and I'll go take care of the dog…you get some more sleep, k?"
He nodded sleepily, and she wondered if he was really registering any of this.
He was still inside her and that actually made it easy for her to roll them. She didn't really have to support his weight; she just rolled them both, until she was on top.
He let out a low moan as his back hit the bed, but he seemed to settle into the pillow again.
She dislodged herself from him and gently got off the bed, replacing the covers around him and throwing her robe on.
She padded over to the door and opened it to see a very depressed dog looking at her.
He wore an expression of 'it's about time!' and trotted off to where his water and food dishes were, looking back to make sure that she was following.
Both of the dishes were empty and he whined, cocking his head to the side and staring up at her.
She smiled, "Sorry boy…Will's really good about taking you for walks and stuff, but not so good on the water and food…"
She went over to where they kept the food and then filled the dish, Donovan trailing with her, wagging his tail happily now that someone was attending to him.
She filled the water too and Donovan eagerly started lapping at it.
"Sorry about that Donovan," she said, patting his head.
He looked like he was in dog heaven as he went back and forth between the water and the food.
Sydney went back to the kitchen and grabbed a few dog biscuits too, and then dropped them in his dish.
He barked softly at her, even happier as he devoured those.
She stood watching him for a few minutes until he had his fill and he trotted over to where she stood.
"Come on, boy," she said and he followed her.
She opened the patio door and he ran out into the yard, immediately spotting a squirrel and chasing after it, barking like nuts.
Sydney laughed quietly and then went back into the kitchen and made some coffee. She looked at the clock; it was about 7:00 in the morning.
She peeked into the bedroom, finding Vaughn still sleeping restfully.
She smiled and grabbed some clothes, and then went into the bathroom, and showered.
She came out, awake and refreshed. She checked on Vaughn again as she combed her hair, and he was still asleep. She dressed and then went out into the kitchen again; it was now 7:45.
Will came flying out of Francie's bedroom, dressed, but slightly disheveled.
"Will?" Sydney said when he flew past.
He came back, "Oh, hey Syd…didn't think you'd be up this early…" he grabbed his jacket from the closet and came back, "I'd love to stay and chat…but I'm gonna be late…I sort of overslept…"
"Did Fran leave already?"
"Yeah…she left REALLY early…something about a special catering job…I really gotta go," he said, heading for the door, "I'll talk to you later, good luck today…"
She smiled at his remembering, "Ok, Will, thanks…see ya…"
With a quiet thud, the front door closed as he exited.
Sydney spent a while reading the morning paper and enjoying her coffee. She glanced at the clock again and it was 8:15. Sydney went to the bedroom, checking on Vaughn. He was still sleeping, but she entered further just to make sure he was breathing all right. She was relived to find that his breath was even and steady, his chest rising and falling normally. She watched him for a few more minutes and then walked out again; happy he was sleeping soundly.
It was almost 9:30 before she heard the familiar sounds of his stirring.
She entered the room before he was fully awake and sat down beside him on the bed.
He turned his head towards her, "I'm on my back…" he said yawning, "not inside you…why?"
She smiled, "Donovan got a little antsy REALLY early this morning. I was afraid he'd wake you up so I was forced to dislodge you," she replied kissing him.
"Humpf…well…I'm gonna have to have a talk with him…don't like that whole scenario…"
She smiled, "Sorry…" she let him wake more fully before saying, "You know…I hate to further ruin your parade, but we have to do exercises today…and I have to change the bandages…and you should eat…and then," she said wincing slightly, "Barnett is coming over…remember?"
"Yeah, how could I forget?"
"I know…let's take it a step at a time."
"Well, you seem to have the whole day planned," he said smiling.
"Someone's got to…if I left it up to you, we'd never get out of bed."
"And that would be bad why?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
She chuckled, "Ok…what do you want to do first; eat, bandages, or exercises?"
"Eat…I'm starving…" he added, "Maybe you could come up with some food we could share like yesterday…"
She smiled, "Mmm…not for breakfast…I'm sorry honey, but we can't this morning…maybe later today…after…well after she's gone…we really don't have time now…"
He pouted.
"But I'll make you whatever you want for breakfast."
"Um…eggs and bacon?"
"Sure," she said rising from the bed.
"Syd?" he said when she was just outside the room.
She poked her head back in, "Yeah?"
"I love you…"
She smiled, coming back in the room and retaking her spot on the bed. She cupped his face and kissed him, "I love you too…"
Then she got up again and went to make him his breakfast.
She brought the tray in with his breakfast and pain pills on it and he looked at the tray confused, "Where's your breakfast?" he asked.
"I already ate sweetie…"
"Oh."
"You slept kinda late…I was up early…so I ate earlier…"
"Ok."
He set to eating the breakfast, "This bacon is really good," he said.
She smiled, "Thanks…it's kind of a specialty of mine."
"Bacon?" he asked smiling.
"Yeah…" she said proudly.
"Good…I like bacon…"
The rest of the breakfast passed without much ceremony, both Sydney and Vaughn just enjoying the quiet morning with no friends, no dogs, no doctors popping in and out.
After breakfast, Sydney cleared away the tray and reentered the room, "So…exercise or bandages?"
"We better do exercises first…that way we won't mess up the bandages after you've redone them."
"Good plan," Sydney said.
She sat him up and leaned him against the pillow, full frame. She would have positioned him like she had last night, but she figured he was going to need all the leverage he could for the exercises.
She took off his shirt and removed the rib wrap, and they did the deep breathing routine.
Once finished with that, she replaced the wrap and laid him down again in a more reclined manner for the exercises. She sat on his legs and he seemed to be able to sit up with more ease than he'd had in the past few weeks. He made it through eight crunches, two more than were actually "required" and she was very proud of him. They next moved to do the standing exercises and he did that rather successfully as well. He'd wavered slightly, but much less than in the past as well.
After they had done the crunches and the standing, Sydney helped Vaughn sit back in bed and then she moved to his ankle.
"How's your ankle feel?" she asked, taking it in her hands.
"Not too bad."
"Can you rotate for me?"
He moved his ankle in several circular patters, showing her the range of movement.
"When we stood up, did it hurt?"
"It gets stiff, but it didn't hurt…it gets sore sometimes, but I can tell it's getting better."
"Better enough that we could take the wrap off?"
"I don't walk on it too much, I would think we could take it off…"
"Ok, we'll try it…if it starts to hurt though, you let me know, and we'll put it back on…"
"Got it."
She smiled as she started unwrapping the ankle, being very gentle with the still injured part.
She set it gently on the bed, "Does it hurt now? Because I'm sure the pressure of the wrap keeps it from hurting…"
"Well, it throbs sometimes, but right now it's good…"
"Ok…"
She moved back to sit on the bed, "Bandages?"
"Yeah…ok…" he said resignedly.
She smiled knowingly and moved to get the materials for changing his bandages.
She removed the wrap again and did the ones on the front first, checking the one with the tape irritation especially, and was pleased to find that it seemed to be getting better.
She changed the remaining bandages on his chest and then sat him up to do the ones on his back.
She changed all the small burn ones, applying the burn cream before replacing the bandages per her usual routine.
She changed the larger ones then, checking for infection, but they all seemed to be healing normally.
Last was the infected wound. He'd been lying on his back for a few hours, and she was sure that it was going to be a painful removal.
She moved away to get the washcloth and came back to remove the bandage. She got a corner of the tape up and gently pried some more off with the tape. She got about half way through the first side of tape and his back stiffened. He sat up straight and let out a groan of pain. She stopped immediately, moving to support him if he needed to lean back, but after a few seconds, he relaxed and went back to his bent posture, running his hand through his hair.
"Are you ok?" she asked softly.
He nodded.
"I'm sorry Vaughn," she added.
"S'not your fault," he said quietly.
She didn't know how to respond, so she continued with the tape, prying the rest of the side off.
He jerked away when the tape was off.
Unfortunately, she was still holding onto the bandage when he jerked, and what resulted was the bandage being moved off of the wound quickly.
"Ahh!" Vaughn screamed.
Sydney let go immediately, but it was too late. She held the bandage in her hand.
She dropped it on the nightstand, "Oh God Vaughn! Are you ok? I'm so sorry…" she said moving to hold his shoulders from behind, but carefully avoiding the wound.
He was still in too much shock and pain to answer her, so she took a minute to survey the wound.
The bandage had been sticking to the wound of course, and when it was moved that quickly, it took some of the scab that was forming with it. Now on top of the infection, the wound was bleeding as well.
"Vaughn…I'm sorry…but I have to do something…it's bleeding…" She didn't wait for an answer from him. She took the washcloth and placed it over the wound, making him straighten again.
"Sorry…I should have warned you I was gonna do that…"
He was silent for the most part, except for small groans, and his breathing had pitched, the breaths coming out in small gasps as he tried to recover from the pain of the wound.
She checked under the cloth occasionally, looking for any sign of the bleeding to stop, but it seemed as though it wasn't going to for a while. While her one hand held the cloth in place, the other rubbed up and down his back, over the other bandages, trying to help calm him.
Once his breathing had stabilized, she her him mumble, "…ah fuck…" as he took a deep breath.
"Vaughn?" she asked in a meek voice.
"Mmm…" he replied, eyes closed.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" he asked seriously.
"Well…I kinda ripped the bandage off…causing bleeding for one…and pain for another…"
"You didn't do anything…I moved…not your fault…" he said and she could hear the strain in his voice.
She leaned her body against his back, trapping the cloth between them, and kissed his neck.
She brought her arms around to place them on his chest and tightened her grip, leaning back on the bed, with him in her arms.
She traced her hand through his hair once they were laying back.
She let him rest for a while, just rubbing her hands on any part of his chest that she happened to come in contact with.
He let out a tired sigh.
"What…" she asked.
"Nothing…I'm just getting tired of all of this…you shouldn't have to worry about all this shit…you shouldn't have to worry about hurting me when you take a fricken bandage off…you shouldn't even have to worry about bandages at all…"
"Vaughn…"
"You shouldn't."
"Well…we don't have a choice now…"
"You have a choice…"
"I'm not having this conversation with you again…I've already made myself clear."
He could tell by her tone that was the end of the conversation…
