He is, isn't he?

I woke early, my neck stiff from the way my head was resting on Brody's chest.  He stirred slightly when I sat up, but rolled over and fell back asleep.  I walked out of my room and towards the kitchen.  My mom and dad were both there, my dad seated at the table with the newspaper and my mom pouring hot water from a tea kettle into a mug.  When she saw me she took out another mug and poured me some tea as well.

"Sorry," she said, handing me the mug.  "We stopped drinking coffee."

"It's okay, this is perfect," I replied, wrapping my hands around it.

"Get any sleep?" she asked, sitting down at the table.  I rummaged in the fridge, looking for food.  I grabbed an orange and put an English muffin in the toaster. 

"A little," I said.   

"So, that's the boyfriend, huh?"  Dad asked.  I nodded.  "Why didn't he fly with you?"

"He was in Dallas for work," I explained.

"What does he do?"  Dad asked.  Always practical and to the point.

"He owns his own PR company.  They have mostly professional athletes as clients."

"And how old is he?" Mom asked in surprise.

"He turned 30 in September."

"And he owns his own PR business already?" I explained to them how Brody had started with his dad, headed up the Denver branch, then bought it out. 

"And he left work to fly up to be with you?" my mom asked.  "Sounds like he cares about you an awful lot."

"He does," I agreed quietly, once again feeling guilty for the way I'd acted on Thursday. 

"And he's good looking, too," my mom added with a grin.

"Mom!  Stop it!" I exclaimed, laughing.  "But he is, isn't he?"

"Who's what?" Brody asked, appearing in the doorway.  I blushed and my mom laughed.

"You're awake," I said.  "Good morning."

"Good morning," he replied, grinning.  He squeezed my shoulder gently and leaned down to kiss me on the cheek.  "Did you sleep?"

"Yeah, a little," I said. "Did you?"

"Once you stopped tossing and turning," he replied teasingly.  But his smile was sympathetic.

After breakfast and showers, we went back to the hospital.  On the way, we drove through Starbucks for coffee.  There were a few less family members but a few more friends there today.  I still felt totally overwhelmed by the number of people there, but I did manage to properly introduce Brody today.

Lynn's mom informed us that the swelling in Lynn's brain was going down.  The doctors were reasonably certain they'd leave her in her medically induced coma today, but potentially try to bring her out of it tomorrow.  They were hopeful that she'd "wake up" when the medication was withdrawn.

Once we got settled in the waiting room, I realized I'd better deal with all the texts and voicemails I had.  I pulled out my phone and opened the texts.  My heart sank.  Over half of the now 23 texts waiting for me were from Lauren.  Shit, how could I forget about Lauren?  The last one was sent just minutes ago and read, "Olivia Renee, where the FUCK are you?!"  I cringed.  "What?" Brody asked, seeing my face.  As I showed him the text, his phone started to ring.  He pulled it out of his pocket, frowned, and handed it to me.  "Good luck," he said ominously.

I saw that it was Lauren calling.  I took a deep breath and answered.  "Hello?"

"JESUS CHRIST, OLIVIA!" Lauren shrieked so loudly I had to pull the phone away from my ear.  Brody grimaced and gave me a sympathetic smile.  I stood and walked away so he didn't have to listen too as Lauren continued, "I've been trying to get a hold of you!"

"I know, I'm so sorry," I replied sincerely.  "I really am.  I was about to call you back.  The last couple days...Lauren, it's been a shit show.  I'm so sorry."

"Goddamn it, Liv," she snapped.  "I've been so worried about you."  And I knew, even though she was swearing and yelling, that it was true.  "Amy called me yesterday morning and told me about Lynn, and then when I couldn't get a hold of you, I just...damn it, Liv, you can't just fucking disappear!"

"I'm sorry," I repeated.  I was doing a lot of apologizing lately.  I should probably make better choices.

"I at least got a hold of Amy last night, and she told me you were there, so I knew you were alive.  But she said you were in bad shape, and I...Are you okay?  How are her parents?"  So like Lauren.

"I'm a little better today.  I was in bad shape yesterday.  Her parents are doing surprisingly okay."  I filled Lauren in on how Lynn was doing today.  We talked for a few more minutes, Lauren quickly settling down now that she had me on the phone.

"Please keep me updated?" she requested before we hung up.  I promised I would and made my way back to Brody.

"She's angry," he commented mildly.

I shook my head.  "She's worried."

He raised his eyebrows skeptically.  "That is not what 'worried' usually sounds like."

"That's what Lauren's 'worried' sounds like," I assured him.

"Well, then I hope she's never worried about me!"  I laughed at that, probably way harder than the situation called for, but it felt good to laugh. 

We spent the rest of the day just sitting with Amy, John, and a few of my other friends from home.  Around noon, Brody asked me if I wanted him to go grab something for lunch.  I decided to go with him.  After lunch, we took a short walk to fight the restlessness that sitting in a hospital all day will cause before we went back.  Midafternoon, I dozed with my head on Brody's shoulder.  I wasn't entirely sure why I wanted to be here all day, knowing that nothing would happen, but I felt like I needed to. 

We left the hospital around 6 and headed back to my parents' house.  We ate dinner with my parents, and compared to either of the dinners I'd had with Brody's parents, it was calm and uneventful.  Completely exhausted, we both went to bed early again.  This time, I slept.

When we got to the hospital the following morning we learned that they had started the process to wake Lynn up late the night before.  She was still out at the moment, but they estimated that she'd be awake by afternoon.  We all spent a very tense morning waiting.  This time, when Brody offered to go pick up lunch, I let him go without me.  As soon as he left, I wanted him to come back.  I was so anxious.

When he returned, nothing had changed.  We took our lunch over to a deserted corner of the waiting room and ate quietly.  After we ate, Brody got up and threw our trash away, then held out a hand to me.  I shook my head.  I wasn't ready to go back to all the people.  He sat down next to me and put his arms around me.  I pulled my knees up to my chest and leaned into him.  We sat there for probably about a half hour before a doctor came out into the waiting room.  I watched as he spoke quietly to Lynn's parents, and then Lynn's parents hugged each other.  Lynn's mom was laughing and crying and I knew that she was awake.

We hurried back over, where Amy filled us in.  She was awake and responsive.  Right now they were only letting family in to see her, but the doctor said that so far, everything looked really positive.  I leaned against Brody's chest and let a few tears of relief escape my eyes.  We all waited on pins and needles now, hoping for an update on her condition.

I was hopeful I'd get to see her before we had to leave.  I had booked my return trip for tomorrow afternoon, and Brody had managed to book a seat on the same flight yesterday while we sat and waited.   A couple hours later, Lynn's dad came out and updated us.  She was awake in short intervals and talking.  She was in a lot of pain and she was having trouble with both her short term memory and some long term things from the day of the accident, but the doctors assured them that that was normal and would likely improve.

At about 5pm, Lynn's mom came out.  Her eyes scanned the people in the waiting area.  When they landed on me, she motioned me over.  Brody and I walked over.

"She's still only supposed to have family visiting, but she's awake right now, and I told the nurses you were leaving to go back to Colorado tomorrow, so they agreed to pretend not to see you go in.  Come on, you probably only have about 15 minutes before she's out again for a little while."

"I'll wait out here," Brody said to me quietly.  I nodded. 

As we walked towards the door, Kathy spoke quietly.  "Just so you're not surprised, she doesn't look good.  She's got a lot of swelling and bruising on her face, and some large cuts and scrapes."

"Thanks," I said.  I hesitated at the door.  What if she didn't recognize me?

"It's okay, honey," Kathy said.  "Go."

I  took a deep breath and walked in the room.  I approached the bed slowly.  Lynn's eyes, glassy and unfocused, slid over to me when I stopped next to the bed.  Her battered face broke into something resembling a smile.  "Liv," she said quietly.  "Man am I glad to see you."

I couldn't stop the tears that came as I sat carefully on the edge of the bed and grasped her right hand--the only visible part of her that didn't look like it would break if I touched it.  She squeezed it weakly.  "Don't cry," she chided.  "I'm okay."  She was far from okay, but here she was, comforting me.  I am such a disaster.  I don't think I'd ever cried this much in my entire life, much less in one weekend.

We talked for a few minutes.  Actually, I talked, rambling on nervously, and she listened.  I told her about all the people here waiting for her, and random things, like about my parents' bathroom renovation project and the weird guy sitting next to me on the plane here.  After about 5 minutes, her eyes closed.

I started to get up, but light pressure on my hand stopped me.  "Stay for a few more minutes," she requested.  I did, sitting there until her hand went limp in mine.  I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep, shuddering breath, then stood up and slipped quietly out of the room.

"Is she asleep again?" Kathy asked when I came out.

"She is," I confirmed softly.  Kathy hugged me.

"I'm so thankful that you came," she said, holding me close.  "I know Lynn is too."

"I'll come back in the morning before my flight," I promised.

When I returned to the waiting room, Brody stood up.  He hugged me, then pulled back and searched my face.  I hadn't even realized I was shaking until he gripped my arms gently and they stopped trembling.  "Can we go?" I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.  I'd had enough of the hospital for today, and felt vaguely like I might throw up. 

"Of course," he replied.  In the car, he looked at me.  "Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded, then shook my head miserably.  "I just wasn't expecting her to be in such bad shape.  I know it sounds stupid, but I imagined that she'd wake up and be her normal, bubbly self, you know?  I didn't imagine her as a tiny little broken body in a hospital bed."  I started to cry again, and Brody awkwardly reached over the center console to comfort me.  "And then, while I was sitting there, I realized that this must be awful for you.  Not only are you stuck in a hospital waiting room with your hysterical disaster of a girlfriend, but..." I paused, not sure how to say what I was thinking.  "Well...Heather," I finished lamely.  I'd been so caught up with my own misery that I hadn't even thought about what he might be feeling, sitting in a hospital waiting for news of a car accident victim.

"Ah," he said, understanding on his face.  He rubbed my arm.  "It's totally different," he assured me.  "She wasn't ever in the hospital.  I'll admit that the message you left me shook me up a bit, because it was similar to the message my mom left me the night Heather died, since I was at a friend's house.  But sitting in there with you is fine for me, I promise."   I nodded tearfully.  "Do you want to come back tomorrow before we go?" he asked.

"If it's alright with you, yes."

"Of course it's alright with me.  Are you ready to go now?"  I told him I was, and we drove back to my parents' house.