Tom. His name was Tom, or Tomas, and Jack found him very easy to talk to, but in a country where he'd not met people who spoke English, perhaps that was the reason it was so easy to talk to anyone right now. Tom was a Protestant minister in France, a rare thing especially in a small mountain village, but Tom told Jack he preferred the countryside to the city. Jack knew right away then they had something in common, maybe a few things. Both stuck out in this place, but at least Tom knew the language.
Jack hadn't realized just how much he needed to talk to someone, to get things off his chest, and after working through some strong emotions and even some tears, Jack turned with a sad smile and gave Tom a nod.
"I'm sorry to get going on and on like this."
Tom, with his relaxed posture as he sat with his elbow on the back of the bench, shrugged, "That's what I'm here for-to listen, to counsel, to help, and Jack, you need a friend right now."
Jack shook his head, realizing somewhat just how much he missed Lisa through all of this. The two had something special and talking to each other was a big part that he'd pushed down, not given enough credit to the strength of their relationship, but man, he missed her and was realizing it more and more each day. Jack nodded to Tom about needing a friend, "I appreciate your ear. I just can't talk to my family back home like this, not to mention just calling them is a lot right now."
Tom nodded but then gestured, "Why do you think that is? Do they like Lisa, you two together?"
Jack smiled at the mention of her name, "They adore her, but to be honest, I know I've taken her for granted, and I think the entire family has, and they just see her as someone who is in and out of my life. I've probably, no, I have treated her as just some family member instead of telling her how much I love her, how much I need her. She's not just going to stick around, and I realieze that. She's been in our lives for so long, and I should have made her officially part of the family long before now."
"And why didn't you?"
Jack frowned and shook his head, "Just stuck in my rut of being okay with the way things were. For some time, I wasn't sure I could move on from my late wife. Maybe at first I wasn't sure I wanted to, but then when I wanted to, I struggled for some time. That's not a problem now, but lately, it just seemed like we fought all the time about our future but really didn't try to find a way to make a future together. That's a lot on me. I've wanted Lisa to fit into my life instead of figuring out a life together. I thought about this a lot on the flight here, and it's going to change. I want to marry her if she'll have me, but right now, I just need her to get through this. It was one thing when I thought I was letting her go to have this better life without me, but the thought of no life with her now, I can't even think about that. It's really hit me hard the last few days. I love her. I really love her, but I've not done a good job of showing her."
"So your family knows how you feel about her?"
Jack sighed and frowned, glancing at Tom, "Some. I mean, it shouldn't be a surprise, but I don't talk about my feelings. I've wanted my relationship with Lisa to be private-"
"Are you ashamed of her?"
"What?" Jack's eyes widened. "No, not at all," he shook his head. "She's a truly amazing woman, and I still question what she sees in me, especially after how I've treated her. I hate talking to my family about my personal relationship."
"You need to talk about it, though, if you want her in your life. They need to know you love her, not guess it."
He nodded, lowering his head, "You're right. She's the best thing to happen to me. My ahh, ex-son-in-law, Tim" he glanced at Tom and waved his hand, "he knows. I mean, he's always pushed me, usually in my business too much. He's my-" Jack paused.
"Closest confidant?" Tom questioned, raising an eyebrow.
Jack groaned as he shook his head from side to side, "I suppose, although, I'd argue the biggest pain in my side, but I spend more time with him than anyone because we work together, and he knows how much I love Lisa, pushed me to come here. He knew me with my first wife and says I love Lisa even more." Jack frowned and nodded, "He's right, and in some ways, I hate to admit that, not that I hate saying how much I love Lisa, but it almost feels wrong to compare them, and I don't know why I am, but I suppose you don't know how much you love someone until you really have to analyze it, and I'm finally doing that. I've been terrible at showing it," he waved his hand, "demonstrated by my comments right after I found out she was sick. I can't believe I questioned coming."
Tom raised an eyebrow, "You weren't going to come?"
"No, it's not that," Jack said, a bit agitated as he sighed. He pursed his lips, "When I first spoke to Lisa's sister, I was worried that she wouldn't want me here because I've ruined our life together, but that was just a first reaction. Of course, I need to be here, want to be here. I just want to take care of Lisa. I love her and cannot imagine not being here for her. It just makes me realize how awful I was when I had my heart attack."
"So, you've had your own health issues-" Tom gestured to Jack.
"Recently, yes," he frowned. "Didn't handle it well. Lisa and I had a big fight before that. I know it sounds like all we've done is fight, but we've had some great years together. Lately, the fighting has been because we didn't see a way forward together, but I didn't try to find one with her. We both can do better, me especially. Anyway, Lisa had gone back to France. I had a heart attack, and she came home, to me. I was really glad she'd come back and thought we could work through our mess. My doc wanted me to go to Arizona for a month, and our plan was to go together, just the two of us, a month to talk and figure things out. I ruined that, sent her away before we even went. She's a lot younger than me, and I was worried her being with me was a waste of her life. I got scared, thinking that she would live some life of just taking care of me. I didn't talk to her about it, and that was wrong."
Tom nodded, "Sounds like something she should have been able to decide."
"Hindsight on that one, but yeah. I didn't tell her, just pushed her away, and that was wrong, one of the things I need to clear up. Believe me, Tom, I have a lot to say and will fix this with Lisa and just hope she will find it in her heart to forgive me and marry me."
"Sounds like you two have had quite the time lately. Tell me how can I help now? I will be praying for her, for both of you, and I intend to keep in touch because well, we're friends now. I check on anyone in need, and you my friend, are here carrying a burden and with a great need. What can I do?"
Jack pursed his lips, deep in thought, "Appreciate you listening. Don't know why I just spilled my guts to a stranger especially when I can't and won't talk to my family at home. As far as what you can do, if you happen to have a suggestion about a medical translator, I'd be much obliged."
"Well Jack," he said, putting his hand on Jack's shoulder with a small smile, "for one, I do think it's often easier to talk to a stranger, someone not involved who can just listen, and who better than a pastor? As far as your request, I think I can help you with that. Listening to your story now too, I think we have a few things in common."
"How so?" Jack raised an eyebrow and looked around at their surroundings, so vastly different than being home at Heartland, the first time he'd been in any sort of joking mood.
"My daughter is a nurse at the hospital, in the emergency room, but she is fluent in English. "I'm sure she can help you with the language barrier. I will personally introduce you to her. She is very kind and caring, and even calls me sometimes when patients are scared and in need of spiritual guidance. She is how I met my wife. My first wife passed away early on, and I raised my daughter, alone, for a very long time. About eight years ago, my daughter called me and said she had a patient, asking to speak to a pastor before emergency surgery-appendicitis. To make a long story short, I ended up marrying that patient seven years ago now. So, I do understand a lot of what you said about moving on."
Jack smiled softly as he nodded, "I didn't even tell you that I met Lisa through my granddaughter, Amy, and to top that off, Amy has always been more of a daughter. I raised her, I mean, I helped my daughter raise her until my daughter died as well, but I've filled that role with Amy, and I met Lisa through her, and oddly enough," Jack leaned in with a nod, "almost eight years ago too. Now, I should have married her too, so that's where you have done much better than I have."
"Seems like there was no question we were put in each other's path today. Come on," he said patting Jack's shoulder, "let's go find my daughter, Helene, and we will see what you can find out about Lisa's condition."
Jack nodded, tears in his eyes, "I appreciate that, and I'll gladly accept the help."
It was almost two hours later before Jack really got a run down on Lisa's condition when Tom's daughter, Helene, was able to join him in Lisa's room and translate with her medical team. Helene was young, probably not too much older than Amy, and she looked like her father. She had been more than willing to help, coming up during her break to translate. Tom had stayed with him, Jack telling him it wasn't necessary, but Tom insisting that this was the most important thing he could be doing right now, being there for someone in need.
"Ahh, they are saying that she's nine days into this and still has so much swelling throughout her body," Helene told Jack, and he nodded at the most recent thing she'd translated. They had briefly given their names and introductions, but Jack knew the neurologist was busy, so he'd jumped into his questions.
"When will it start to go down?" Jack waited for the answer as the question was translated back and forth.
"They hope it is about at its highest now. They hope in the next few days, the swelling starts to decrease so they can bring her out of this coma. Her latest test showed slightly more swelling this morning but they were not surprised by that. She still has a lot of visible swelling in her face and legs, but this is all in the realm of what they expect. A subdermal hematoma is like this If the pressure was more than expected, they would be talking about other ways to relieve the pressure, but they are okay monitoring it right now. It is small even though she has this much swelling, which can tell you how bad it can get. If it gets a lot worse, they would do a craniotomy."
Jack nodded, tears welling in his eyes, "What type of long-term effects should we expect? Will she survive?" He waited again, looking at the neurologist and his assistant and waiting on the translation.
"Each case is very different. They cannot predict that right now, but they are doing the scans each day to monitor the swelling. She is young for this, and her chances are much higher because of that. It had increased slightly today, but the increase was not as much as it has been the last few days, so there is hope."
Jack glanced to Lisa and sighed, thinking about what all must be going on in her body. He reached over and squeezed her hand and then looked back at Helene and the neurology team.
"When you wake her up, what will that look like, I mean, what sort of timeline, and then, what will that look like for her recovery?"
"They will slowly wake her up when the swelling is not increasing. That might take a day or two. Then, the goal will be to get her off the different machines and to the point she can start to be mobile and eat again. At some point when she is stable, they are aware her arm will need surgery again, but it can wait because she is not stable enough. They do have physical therapy working with her legs and arm not broken because they do not want her to pass a blood clot or things like that. They are monitoring for any sign of that or a stroke or things like that."
Jack felt himself do a shark intake, and he felt Tom's hand squeeze his shoulder. He had not thought about that, that something else could develop. It was just so overwhelming, but he was grateful to get some information now, to get some sort of goal and prognosis.
"So, she will be here for some time?"
Helene finally nodded with his answer, "Yes, she has a long road, very bad injury, but," she paused and frowned, getting more information and turned to Jack, "umm, ahh, they asked if you will be here until she can be discharged even though they don't know how she will respond and when that might be?"
"Yes," Jack nodded to the neurologist.
"But, she, ahh, they think she is your daughter? Her sister was here, but that you are her father?"
"No," Jack sighed, shaking his head, "I'm not her father. I love her-I'm her-" Jack sighed again because no title sounded right. It was now how much he saw it, realized it. He should be her husband.
"Boyfriend?" Helene asked, eyeing him, and finally, Jack pursed his lips.
"Yes, for seven years. Tell them I plan to marry her."
He watched as their expressions changed, eyeing Jack, both even eyeing Lisa. He could tell they were thinking it was ridiculous, but they just nodded.
"He said the whole staff thought you were her father."
He groaned, but nodded as he looked at Lisa, "Well, now they know I'm not." He continued to hold Lisa's hand as he stood there with all eyes on him.
"Umm, they asked where you are staying?"
"Right here," Jack pointed to the room. "I don't intend to leave. I know that I can be here 24 hours a day. I'll sleep in that chair," he nodded to his plastic chair there by Lisa's bedside. "I slept there last night."
"I have room if you would like to come stay," Tom told Jack, and Jack turned to look at him.
"Appreciate that, but for now, I don't want to leave her side. I didn't even like being gone when she had testing. I've let her down too much already, and I am not going to keep doing that. I don't want to leave her alone."
Tom nodded, "My offer stands. I will be making sure you get some decent meals. You need to stay ready for whatever she might face, and you need to eat."
"I won't argue with some food. It's hard enough trying to do that without speaking French." Jack turned back to Helene, "Thank you for your help. Please tell them I will stay here and am thankful for all they are doing for Lisa."
Helene repeated that, and she turned back to Jack, "They do not have many foreigners here like this so they suggested you try to find somewhere to stay, but he said that yes, you are permitted to be here all the time. They will alert the desk to see if they can find you something better to sleep on rather than the chair."
"Much appreciated," Jack said with a nod. As they were talking, the door opened, and someone Jack had not yet seen stepped inside. He looked to Helene for explanation.
"Physical therapy and with that, the nurse who is going to clean her up a bit. They want to change her bedding while physical therapy is here." Helene was told more, and she turned back to Jack, "They asked you give them an hour or so to work."
Jack nodded, "Tell them thank you, and yes."
"Jack," Tom clapped his hand on Jack's shoulder again, "I am going to get you a meal while this is all happening here. Will you let me? We intend to take care of you as well."
Jack turned back to Tom, "You don't have to do that. I've taken too much of your time already."
"I take care of people in a way the hospital can't," Tom eyed him. "Please, let me help. I promise better food than you will get here, and then, you can come back and sit with Lisa all day, all night."
Jack glanced to Lisa, her face still almost unrecognizable with the swelling and the black and blue bruises. He glanced back to Helene.
"Her hair," Jack sighed. "I know it sounds silly, but she does still have some blood in it. She'd hate that."
Helene gave him a soft smile and translated that, smiling back to Jack again, "They will do their best to clean her up."
"Okay," Jack let out a long breath and glanced around, nodding his thanks again to everyone. He reached out to put his hand on Helene's arm, "Thank you for this help. You've been such a blessing."
"I'll check in when I am working, but now you can also find me or get in touch with me. Please let my father take you to lunch. You need your strength too."
Jack then turned to Tom and gave him a nod, "A hot lunch sounds really good right now. Then, I can update our family on everything now that I finally have some information." He still had Lisa's purse in his hand and as he shifted his coat in his arm, he laid eyes on the envelope there. The letter. A second letter from Lisa. He wanted desperately to read it now, but he knew he needed to eat and take up this help from someone determined to help him. The letter would wait. He would eat, and then, Jack knew he would be alone far too long and have plenty of time to read it, waiting for the woman he loved to pull through this.