Part 32 (1/2)
Chapter 52.
Present day 1:12 a.m.
Maverick's twenty-four hours are up.
J.J.'s on duty again. She unwraps the tubes from around a machine that won't be accompanying Maverick to the CT room.
”How long will it take?” I ask, still holding his hand.
”The actual scan will only take about five minutes. After that, it depends on what other scans have been ordered. Maybe an hour or two.” She unlocks the bed's brakes. ”I'll bring him right back once he's finished, okay?”
”Yeah, okay.” I kiss Maverick's hand before I let go.
J.J. nods to the orderly at the foot of the bed, and they wheel Maverick out. I can stay in the room if I want, but I don't.
It's the middle of the night and no one is in the waiting room. I pace the floor, a swirl of crimson, gray, and black flas.h.i.+ng in my mind.
”Coffee?” Finley asks, holding a cup out to me.
I stop. ”Sure. Thanks.”
”It's going to take months to get this hospital smell out of my clothes,” she says, pulling up her s.h.i.+rt and sniffing it.
”Bleach,” I offer.
”Bleach gets out the smell of bleach?”
I start walking again. ”Get the scented kind.”
Finley catches my arm as I brush past her. ”Ali. I don't want to keep asking, but are you okay?”
”Yeah, why wouldn't I be?”
My best friend's eyebrows shoot up. ”I can come up with a few reasons.”
I look down at my coffee. Tap my fingers against the Styrofoam. ”They said he may not wake up, Finn. They fixed his body, took out an organ, and there's a chance that it was all for nothing.”
”A chance isn't certain.”
”No, but they don't know. They have no idea, and if he doesn't wake up, they can't fix that.” I sit down on the edge of a chair. ”Do you know the last thing I said to him? I told him I made coffee. That's it-coffee.”
Finley sits down next to me. She slides her palms down her thighs. ”Remember when we were, like, seven? We'd pretend we were Disney princesses.”
I breathe out half a laugh. ”I pretended. You always wanted to stray from the storyline.”
”That's kinda my point. I was so mad at you, because you still believed in happily ever afters. My dad died that year. Yours left. And somehow you thought you could find Prince Charming, marry him, and ride off into the sunset. I couldn't figure you out.”
My BFF looks at me, waiting for an answer. I sip my coffee. ”I had to believe that stuff. I saw how broken our moms were, and I had to think there was something better out there. Somewhere in Ever After Land, maybe. If I could just find it or force it, then I wouldn't end up like them.”
”You found it, Ali. My mom, she found it-twice, even. See, I didn't like the fairytales, because they seemed too perfect, too easy. They ended too fast. Your fairytale didn't end at your wedding like theirs did. It kept going and life kept happening. Theirs did too; we just didn't see it.” She pauses, glancing down the hall toward Maverick's room. ”What I'm trying to say is that happy endings don't happen without unhappy middles. You told me that once, remember? So what if your last words to him were about coffee? What do last words mean when you had two years of bliss that even Cinderella would be jealous of? If he wakes up, you get another chance. And if he doesn't, you have two years of undying love to carry with you. I'm not sure it gets happier than that.”
I inhale deeply. ”Did I tell you about the time I first called him 'Mav'?”
”No.”
”It was one of the weekends he came down to J. Vernon. We were at the movie theatre, and the previews were showing. He finished his popcorn, and I'd downed all the Milk Duds, and for some reason, we didn't buy anything to drink. So I nudged him. I said, 'Hey, Mav, could you go get us some Sprite?' It just slipped out. I didn't even think about it.” I chuckle at the memory. ”Oh, the look on his face. He stared at me, probably wondering if he'd heard me correctly. We didn't stay for the movie. He whisked me out of the theatre and back to my room where he made me call him 'Mav' a hundred times.”
”You and your silly name-shortening rules.”
”That night sealed my rule. Shortening someone's name is special.”
”Your fairy tale, Ali.”
I blow away the coffee steam. ”Old, wise Finley.”
”What can I say? I've committed my share of f.u.c.k ups. You either learn from them, or they destroy you.”
”Are you saying you believe in fairy tales now?”
”I've always believed. I'm just not sure if there's one out there for me.”
Squeaking from down the hallway alerts me, and I stand up to see Maverick being wheeled back into his room.
”Hey, Finley?”
”Yes?”
”Do you believe what they say about unconscious people still being able to hear?”
”Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
An hour pa.s.ses with no new information.
My eyelids are heavy, and I lay my head on Maverick's bed. There's no way I'll be able to sleep though, so I caress the back of his hand with my fingertips. I wish he'd do something to acknowledge my presence. Somehow let me know he's still here with me.
J.J. comes in, smiling. ”I just spoke with Dr. Santos. She said the CT scan looked normal. We're going to turn off the Propofol and see how he responds.”
”See if he wakes up, you mean?”
”That's what we're hoping.” She adjusts the medication on his IV pole. ”It should take twenty to thirty minutes to flush out of his system.”
Chapter 53.