Chapter 48

It was around 10 pm when my flight landed in Las Vegas and I prayed that my suitcase wouldn't be among the last ones off the plane like it usually was. I lucked out, grabbed the thing and got to my car in record time. I have to admit, I ignored one or two red lights on the way to the hospital.

The parking space was mostly empty and I went inside, asking for directions to the intensive care unit. Outside I found Elena waiting for me.

"Jon, that was quick." She hugged me tightly. "How is she doing? I want to speak to the doctor. I want to see her. Why are you not with her?"

"They only allow family members inside. I will go ask the nurse for the doctor. Wait here and sit down, you look like hell."

I didn't sit down I was too fired up and I was almost acting like Dean Ambrose in there. I just couldn't stand still.

After what seemed like forever a young female doctor approached me.

"Mister Good? My name is Doctor Yang, I am your wife's cardiologist. Your wife suffers a myocarditis as a result of on untreated cold. Her heart muscle is inflamed and really weak. The high fever she presented when she came to us is another risk for her weak heart. That is why we put her into a coma. Her body can concentrate on fighting the infection, her heart can beat at a slow pace and heal as well. I want to be honest with you. It doesn't look good. It all depends on how she makes it through the night. I have done medically everything there is, it depends on her if she fights through this."

Okay, it looked bad. I got that. "What about a heart transplant if everything goes south?"

"Her body wouldn't make it because of the infection. She has to fight this on her own now."

"I want to be with her." "I understand and ask you to wear a mask and disinfect your hands before going in there."

Doing what the doctor asked me to do calmed me down a little but I still had to take a deep breath before I was able to enter the room. Monitors were beeping, she was intubated and she looked so fragile.

"You can sit by her side, hold her hand. Talk to her. A nurse and I will check on her regularly."

With that the good doctor left.

I pulled the chair to the bed, sat down and grabbed Sam's hand. It was so cold, and looked so little in my big one. She was pale and looked so tiny in the hospital bed.

"Baby, I am here. I won't leave your side until you wake up. And when you do, I will kick your ass for lying to me. I asked you time and time again if you are alright. Every time you said, sure. I should have known that you did this for my well being, not yours. Damn it Sam. When I ask you something I want an honest answer. You don't have to wrap me in cotton wool like a fragile child. You dumb, dumb, dumb woman, I love you so much and I want you to fight. We are a damn tag team and we always fight together. So, here I am and I hope you know that and I will not leave you. Fight baby."

I talked to her some more, stupid stuff from the flight or from the drive to the hospital and stuff.

Around 5 am I dozed off for a little while until Doctor Yang was back to check on her around 6 am.

"How is she doing?" I asked and was awake instantly.

"Her vitals are stable since last night. In fact, since you showed up. Seems like something got through to her. The fever is down a little and it looks promising, but she is not out of the woods. We will continue to monitor her closely and keep her in the coma for at least another day. I advise you to go home, get some proper rest and return here in the afternoon. You can stay the night again. Nights are critical so that is when she needs you. I will give you a call if anything changes.

Get some rest Mister Good, we take care of your wife."

"I don't want to leave her. Her friend, Elena, could she come in here while I am gone? She is family, at least to us."

"I will arrange that. She is waiting outside by the way."

The doctor left and I told Sam that I would be gone for a little while to take a shower, grab something to eat and maybe catch an hour of sleep.

I talked to Elena shortly. She had been home and just arrived back. She would sit with Sam and keep me updated as well.

With that I went home. I hadn't slept properly in over 30 hours and all I could do was setting my alarm clock to 10 am, I wouldn't allow myself more than 3 hours of sleep, I wanted to be back at the hospital at noon.

What woke me up was my home phone. It rarely rang and I was confused for a second.

I grabbed the damn thing. "What?" "Hey Jon, it's Joe and Colby. We wanted to check in on you, but you didn't answer your phone. We tried it like for the past 5 hours..."

WHAT? I looked at the clock. 1 pm. What the hell?

"Fuck, I overslept, I wanted to be back at the hospital like an hour ago. That damn alarm clock..."

I was rambling and Joe had to cut in. "Jon? You needed sleep, so don't freak out. How is she doing?"

"How would I know? I SLEPT!"

I was running around searching for clean stuff to wear, went in the bathroom, out again and finally stopped in the kitchen.

"She was stable this morning. Since I haven't got a call I guess this is still the case. I will take a shower, grab a bite to eat and leave for the hospital. The next night is critical as well and I will be at her side. Thank you for checking in on us. I will hang up now because I will take that shower now Joe. Bye guys."

I hung up, grabbed a pop tart on the way and showered.

I choose not to shave and to grab something to eat on the way to the hospital. I ended up at McDonalds of all places. Well, it would be quick and I really didn't have the patience for anything else.

So around 2 pm I was back at the hospital. Sam was still hanging in there and I apologized like a million times to Elena.

"Jonathan. You needed some sleep and honestly everything was quiet. I finished like two pair of socks." She showed me her knitted socks.

"Good for you." What the hell?

Elena just smiled and kissed my cheek. "You are a good man Jon. Everything will be alright, you will see. Call me if you need me. Otherwise I will be back in the morning."

She left and I took her place.

"I am back baby. I kinda overslept a little. The damn alarm didn't work. I swear I set it correctly. I have your phone with me and wanted to check some emails for you."

I fired up her email app and was overwhelmed with all the emails. There were like over 100 in all her accounts. So I went back a step and found each account neatly labeled. Private. WWE Business. German Fans. US Fans. UK Fans. D-a dot net. Friends. Colby and Joe. My love.

I swallowed. I opened that account and found the handful of emails I had sent her there. She had saved every single one of them. My love. I had sent her 8 emails in total in 2 years. Wow. I had like 128 on my phone from her from the last 6 month. I rather called her, I couldn't type for shit, I typed like a bloody monkey.

I went back a step again and checked her WWE Business mails. Nothing important, an email from Steph demanding an update on her condition. Smart woman, she sent it to my account, Sam's account and to Colby and Joe. They could give her the update. So I went back again to the website's account. There was a mail from Pam, stating that fans heard rumors about me missing a houseshow, Sam missing and me flying back to Vegas. And the bloody best rumor was that Sam had a miscarriage. What the hell.

I decided to answer this because those bloody fans were making up crap.

"This is Jon. Rumors are not true. Sam is in hospital, I am with her. But there is no bloody miscarriage. We will update you when we can. Stop spreading those damn rumors. Thank you. Sincerly, Jon."

It took me like literally 10 minutes to type that but it needed to be done. Those fans all needed a life. We didn't even want kids but that was something one couldn't say out loud.

"Those fans are crazy baby. You have to wake up and write a long email because they make stuff up."

I spent the next few hours holding her hand, telling her stupid little things that came to my mind. When the night came I risked to put my head next to her on the bed, trying to get some shut eye. It worked for like 20 minutes than the beeping of the monitors drove me crazy.

I got myself some coffee and returned to her side.

I took the time to check emails again and her accounts for the fans were flooded now. Seems like Jen posted that email. Well good, it would keep them busy and stop them from speculating about us.

At some point during the night I dozed off and was again woken up by Doctor Yang.

It was 6 am again.

"She looks good. Her heart function improved a little, the fever is down and not life threatening anymore. I will reduce the medication which puts her in the coma by noon. You should take that time again to go home get some proper rest. I will stop the IV at 11 am, and it will take a couple of hours until she wakes up. We have to see how that goes to find out if the is any more damage."

"More damage?" "To her brain. Her fever was pretty high and it COULD be a possibility, but we will have to wait and see. Go home Mister Good."

I went home, Elena was there already and we traded places. This time I set the alarm and called Colby. "Call me in three hours and let it ring until I answer. I can't be late today because they will wake her up from the coma."

"I will do that." Colby said and came through. But I was up already by the time he called and he wished us the best of luck for this afternoon.

I returned to the hospital and the real waiting began. Watching her face until my eyes got blurry. Checking every little reaction. Every beep of the monitor that was not regular.

I did that for three hours and still no reaction. My mind wandered of and I was deep in thoughts about everything and nothing when I heard her voice.

"You're here..." It was so tiny and small and weak that I thought I had imagined it. I looked at her face and her eyes were still closed.

"I am here, where else would I be?" "Good." came her voice again. So I didn't imagine it. I pressed the call button for the nurse and told her to get the doctor.

"She woke up, talked to me. Like…three words." That sounded stupid saying it out loud.

"That's fine. Please step aside. Mrs Good? I am Doctor Yang. Can you open your eyes for me?"

She struggled I could see that but finally her eyes fluttered open.

"That's good. How are you feeling?" "Crappy. Iron Man Match..." she mumbled searching me with her eyes until she found me standing by her other side. She fixed her eyes on me. "I am a pro wrestler. There is an hour long, pretty tiring Iron Man Match." I explained for the doctor.

"Did I win?" Sam asked and tried to smile. "Yes Mrs Good, seems like you won this round. Your vitals are good, your heart is still weak but we help it with medication. You should take all the rest you need. Sleep if you feel like it. Staying calm is most important for you. No stress for your heart. Not much more talking." The doctor looked at me with a warning glare.

"I will make sure she rests." "Okay, I will be back before my shift ends."

She left and I changed sides again, taking Sam's hand and kissing it gently.

I was so relieved I wanted to cry. "Don't cry...I'm here. Fine." My eyes widened. This crazy woman!

"I cry when I want to. And you are not fine. So stop saying that for my sake. Sleep now Sammy. I will be there when you wake up next time."

"What day is it?" "Sunday, it's 3.45 pm." "You need to book a flight. Raw. 'morrow. Tampa."

"It is taken care of. I did that for myself when you were still in Germany, remember? You don't need to worry your pretty head about it. Sleep now Sam, get better."

And she closed her eyes and fell asleep instantly.

She woke up around 8 pm again for a little while and told me to go home, get some sleep. My flight would leave at 9 am, it was a really tight schedule to get to RAW in time, but what the hell.

"I will be back really early, okay? Don't party too hard tonight. I love you Sam."

"Spoilsport." she said and smiled.

The next morning she looked a little better. She was awake when I entered her room and a little color was back in her face. She looked at me twice before a small smile spread over her face.

"You didn't shave. Wanna touch." I walked up to her and took her hand, putting it on my cheek.

"Scruffy Dean." "Yes, well, I had more important things to do. And the fans can speculate again if I let it grow."

She was quiet and we just looked at each other. Speaking was still a big effort for her and she tired really easily.

"I almost died Jon." my strong wife told me out of nowhere and she was scared about that. "You didn't, so don't fuss about it. You are here, with me, where you belong. And I will not let you go anywhere. Ever. You are mine. Understood?" She nodded and looked at me again.

"Spill it Sammy." She still didn't say anything, but moved her thump over my hand, looking at me.

"What is it that you want? Do you need to pee? Are you thirsty? Does anything hurt? Are you sorry to put me through this?" She shook her head every time. I put my face right in front of hers and studied her eyes. "You almost died. You realized life is precious. You are happy I am here. But you want to talk to your best friend?" She glanced down, nodding.

"Sammy, just tell me next time, okay? The guys were really worried about you as well. But this will be a short call. You will not talk more than five words or I hang up. And no Sam and Colby routine."

I pulled out my phone and called Colby. "Hey bro. I am at the hospital. Sam is fine but she had a bit of a brush with death experience and she wants to hear your voice. She is still weak and she needs to stay calm. Make this short, and no routine."

I put him on speaker.

Sam looked at me and sighed. "Colby...hey." "Hey Sam, good to hear your voice. I am at the gym with a couple of guys and they all prayed for you. We are glad you are better and we hope you are back with us soon. But take all the time you need. One scare is enough. And stop thinking about that brush with death thing. You are still here, still rocking and you will not go anywhere. We all had such a moment, during a match or in private, and it makes you appreciate everything you have all the more. It makes you stronger. So don't think about it. You will be back on your feet in no time. Okay, by now everyone is standing around me. I have Brie, Nattie, Tyler, Bryan, Joe and even Randy standing here. They want to tell you something and then I hang up, because I feel the eyes of the lunatic fringe on me and they promise death to me if I don't end this."

"Thanks everyone. LoveyaColby." "Hey Sam. Get well soon. We miss you. Take care." everyone shouted and Colby hung up after that.

"Five words..." Sam grinned. "Yeah, one was really long and put together, huh?" She tried to shrug her shoulders.

"Listen baby. I know you don't want to talk about your near death experience with me because again, you want to shield me from that. I don't need anything sugarcoated. Give it to me straight and I promise I will be fine."

"I wanted to give up so badly. I was feeling hot and cold and I hurt everywhere. I had weird dreams and no strength and I wanted to give up. But then I felt your hand on mine and I heard your voice. I don't know what you told me but I remembered that you exist, I forgot that somehow. And that I love you and that you are my everything. My reason to live. So I fought, and I won. And I am so sorry for wanting to give up. To give up on us. I am so sorry Jonathan."

"Shh, it's alright. Let me tell you something. Last summer after my surgery. That night where I drank. I wanted to end it as well. Just be done with everything. I hurt, I thought I could never wrestle again and you were not at home, so I thought I lost you as well. Because I manage to lose everything good in my life somehow. But you came back and we fought and while we fought I could still feel the love between us. So maybe the future was uncertain but you were still in it. And that made me fight. So don't be ashamed that you wanted to give up. We all do at some point. I am just glad I was there in time. I love you Samantha and nothing will ever change that. Colby is your best friend, I get it that you tell him stuff you don't tell me. But please baby, I can handle everything you throw my way. Let me proof it to you. Let me be your friend again and not just your husband. Because there was a time when we would talk about everything and where you didn't put me into cotton wool. I want that again."

"How did that happen?" "That we kinda lost our friendship? I don't know. But we will change that. We will talk again about all the stuff and not just business and sex and love. We are friends first, lovers after that, and business partners after that. Talking about business. I gave your phone to Elena. She is forbidden to give it to you. I will call the hospital line if I need to talk to you. You will rest now and I have to catch a flight or Stephanie shits her pretty pants."

Sam laughed softly and I kissed her lips for the first time after all this crap happened and it felt like heaven. I didn't believe in God, but wanted to thank whatever higher power there was that Sam was still with me.