by Theresa Jane
Luckily, we pulled up in front of the grocery store a few minutes later, and I was saved from answering.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right, miss?” he asked again worriedly.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him as I reached for the door.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” I was about to say no when a thought popped into my head. One I never would have had if I didn’t have Liam’s card burning a hole in the pocket of my jeans.
“Actually, if you wait for me right here and then drive me back to my apartment, I’ll double whatever’s on your meter." I proposed, and I saw his eyes go wide with shock. What a day he must be having. Nearly flattens a girl in the street and now is being offered double what he would usually earn.
“Are you serious?” he gasped, and I felt the grin begin to spread across my face.
“I’ll only be a couple of minutes, I promise,” I assured him before I ducked out of the cab and made my way to the grocery store. I couldn’t be certain, but I thought I heard him say “take all the time you need.”
* * *
I never thought the thrill of grocery shopping would wear off but apparently, when you have a temperature and the room is, for the most part, spinning, all you want to do is get out of there.
When I finally made it to the checkout, I breathed a long sigh of relief. All I wanted to do was go back to the apartment and crawl into my bed. Then never leave again.
Thankfully, the line at the checkout was short, and I was back outside and in my waiting cab in no time.
The driver began to pull away from the curb as I looked back out at the sidewalk where I saw him again. He was standing there, smirking under his baseball cap as he leaned against the entrance of the grocery store I had just left. Had he been there the whole time?
“Miss?”
“Hmm?” I answered vaguely as the man faded from view. The unsettling feeling, however, did not. Nor could I stop the increasing speed of my heart as I felt my head become lighter than it already was.
“Are you all right? You’re looking a little pale?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, trying to straighten out my thoughts, but everything was just too overwhelming. “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” he shrugged, returning his attention back to the road. I didn’t know what to do. Was this man stalking me? Should I tell someone? Who would I tell?
Before I even had a chance to think it through, I pulled out my battered phone and called the only person I thought would know what to do. The one I probably should have called to start with.
It was already on the second ring when I had second thoughts. Why was I calling Liam? What did this mean? I was just about to hang up when I heard his sleepy voice on the line.
“Hello?”
“Liam?”
“Freya? Is that you?” Great, now how was I meant to hang up? I wonder what time it was over there. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? What's going on?”
“It’s nothing,” I mumbled before my body was consumed with another round of coughing. I could hear him talking on the other end of the phone. His voice was frantic as my vision started to dance with little black dots.
“We’re here, Miss,” the driver announced, and that only seemed to set Liam off again. I shakily handed the driver the card before thanking him and getting out with my groceries in hand.
Still holding the phone as I coughed, I made to say something to Liam to placate him but instead, I felt my body start to go limp and my vision began to dim.
“I’m fine, Liam,” I thought I said. I hadn’t realized that I had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and my bags were now in a mess at my feet. I vaguely registered Liam yelling at me as milk spilled across the floor. I began coughing again, and I felt overwhelmingly sluggish.
“Freya, what’s going on?” Liam demanded as I placed the phone back near my ear with a herculean effort.
I was about to reply when I felt like something heavy was sitting on my chest, and I nearly lost my vision completely.
“Well,” I wheezed. “That’s new.”
Then I felt a falling sensation before the world disappeared into a tunnel of darkness. The last thing I heard was Liam cursing before he yelled out my name.
Chapter 31: My Personal Lullaby
What was that noise? It was as if there was pounding in my head, demanding I wake up despite my inability to pry my eyes open. I felt like I was teetering on the edge of something and about to fall. I just didn’t know what I was falling from or into.
I could hear a voice, almost a physical presence in the darkness of my mind. It was alluring and undeniable and yet still my eyes refused to open.
Giving in, I allowed my mind to drift as the music and the voice consumed me, until it was all I could hear and all I remembered as I fell back into unconsciousness.
* * *
The next time I came to, I was finally able to pry my eyes open. Immediately, I knew I was lying in a hospital bed and hooked up to various machines.
I looked around quickly, wondering if the music and the voice from before were here, but there was no one in the room except me. I furrowed my brow at the sight of a leather jacket and a guitar resting beside a plush armchair. They looked familiar, but my mind was too fuzzy to place them.
I didn’t have time to think about it too hard before a nurse bustled into the room. A plump woman with flyaway red hair piled on top of her head.
“Oh wonderful, you’re awake,” she beamed, and I struggled to sit up. Seeing me struggle, she came over and shuffled a few of the pillows around to raise me in the bed.
“What happened?” I croaked. Last I remembered, I was in a cab on the way home.
“You, my dear, need to take better care of yourself,” she scolded. She had just taken my heartbeat and was now moving over to fiddle with the various machines in the room. “You have pneumonia and your body grew tired of you ignoring its cries for help."
“What?” Pneumonia? I hadn’t been that sick, had I?
“You passed out, dear,” she chuckled, placing the blood pressure cuff around my arm.
“Then how did I end up here?” I frowned.
“A very nice taxi driver drove you here. Although, when he brought you in, he thought you were in delayed shock from being hit by his cab." She frowned, moving on to check something else.
“How long have I been here?” I asked, worried by how much debt I was going to be in after this hospital visit.
“Only two days. It seems your body was in desperate need of some rest.”
“What? Two days?” I yelled, already pushing the covers back and moving to get out of bed, trying to ignore my protesting body.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” she asked in alarm, hurrying to my side and trying to get me beneath the covers.
“I have to go; I can’t afford this.” That was when I took a good look around the room and realized it wasn’t your standard hospital room. It was so much nicer. The chair the guitar was leaning against was far better than any plastic chair you’d find in a public hospital room. Why had I been put in here?
I was already building into a state of hysteria when I realized the nurse was still speaking, trying to calm me down.
“Dear, please, you’re recovering from pneumonia. You need to keep your breathing regular.”
“I need to get out of here,” I insisted.
“Miss Coleman,” she started firmly, and I froze in my attempts to escape as the matronly nurse pulled out the big guns. “You are not leaving this hospital without the doctor’s express permission. Now please, would you get back in that bed immediately.”
“Umm…”
“Now, Miss Coleman,” she said firmly, and I found myself hurrying back under the covers as she tucked me tightly back in.
“Goodness, that boy would have a heart attack if he came back and you weren’t here,” she muttered before turning her back on me and making to le
ave the room.
“What boy?”
“The sweet boy who’s been here since a few hours after they brought you in. He was so flustered. Running about, demanding to know where you were,” she answered without hesitation. “He’s been by your side, refusing to leave even when his manager was here yelling at him. He’s the one who’s paying for your room.”
“What?” I frowned, looking back at the beat-up, old guitar still leaning against the chair.
“He’s been singing you the most beautiful songs all this time. All the other nurses have been trying to steal my shift from me just to catch a glimpse of him. You’re one lucky girl, my dear,” she winked, and I couldn’t help but frown at her in confusion. I must have hit my head harder than I thought because none of what she was saying was making any sense.
“What are you talking about?”
“Not everyone has a rock star singing lullabies by their bedside. So, don’t you dare get out of that bed before he returns.” With that, she disappeared from the room, leaving me dazed and confused.
“Rock star?” I mumbled. The only rock star I knew was across the globe singing for packed out concert halls and arenas. He couldn’t be here, could he? How did he know I was in trouble?
At that moment, the door to my room opened again, and a tired figure slipped inside. He held a coffee in one hand and was gripping his hair tightly in the other. He didn’t look up before taking a seat on the empty chair at my bedside. I watched him for several moments until finally, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“Liam,” I began, and immediately his head shot up, the coffee cup nearly falling from his fingers. “What are you doing here?”
“Freya, you’re awake?”
“How did you know I was here?” I continued, ignoring his question.
He set the coffee cup down and rushed over to the bed. He quickly sat in the space beside me and clasped the hand that had the IV in it.
“I took my private jet back as soon as I heard the man on the phone saying that you were unconscious.”
“What man? I didn’t call you.” What was he talking about? I hadn’t called him since he left. I’d thought about it, but I didn’t remember ever picking the phone up and making the call.
“The taxi driver,” he explained slowly, looking at me with concern. “You called me just before you passed out, don’t you remember?” I didn’t remember anything.
“I remember going to the grocery store and getting hit by the cab because-” I froze mid-sentence when I recalled why I had stumbled back onto the road.
“Freya?” I vaguely heard Liam ask, but I was consumed by my thoughts. “Freya, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“Nothing,” I tried to dismiss. “It was nothing; my mind’s just a little foggy.”
“Are you sure?” he asked skeptically, and I could tell he didn’t believe me.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I tried to assure him as I attempted to pull my hand from his.
“Loverboy, I need to ask you to step away from my patient,” the nurse said as she came back into the room. She was followed by someone who was either a doctor or just really liked wearing white lab coats. “You’re going to get her all worked up, and unfortunately her lungs can’t take the excitement you bring.” She winked, pointing between the two of us as I glared at her.
“I’m sure she can manage,” Liam answered smoothly, leaning over and placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. The gesture only aided in increasing my breathing and caused the nurse to chuckle quietly as the doctor moved farther into the room.
“Miss Coleman, it’s good to see you awake,” the doctor greeted as Liam shifted so he was leaning against my pillows and his arm was wrapped around my shoulders.
“Mr. Henderson,” the doctor nodded at Liam as he moved to the end of my bed and took out my chart.
“So, can I leave now?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
“Slow down there, Miss Coleman. You’ve only just woken up. You still need to stay a while to recover from your rather severe bout of pneumonia.”
“Do I have to stay here?” I whined, trying to push Liam’s arm from my shoulders. I was noticing he liked to do it when there were other men around.
“Yes,” both Liam and my doctor answered, causing me to groan loudly before I dissolved into an uncomfortable round of coughing.
“You’re not leaving,” Liam assured me as he rubbed soothing circles on my back until my lungs stopped trying to kill themselves.
When I was done, I fell back limply against Liam and shut my eyes as the exhaustion started to take over.
I unknowingly burrowed deeper into Liam’s side as the doctor started to tell me what was wrong and what they were doing to fix it. I was too tired to listen.
“Miss Coleman,” the doctor prompted, and I unwillingly looked up at him. “I’m going to let you rest now. If you need anything, just let your nurses know.”
“Thanks, doctor…”
“James Maxwell,” he smiled warmly, and I couldn’t help but smile in return. He seemed like a nice man, and I had been nothing but rude since he came in.
“Thanks, Doctor Maxwell,” I replied uncomfortably, shifting slightly as I noticed Liam’s arm was tightening around my shoulders.
“I’ll be back later to check on you,” he promised, giving my arm a squeeze before leaving the room.
“Call me if you need anything, my dear.” My nurse smiled before eyeing Liam. “You keep her calm, lover boy, no funny business.”
"Whatever you say, Mary." He smirked, leaning down and placing a kiss on my cheek.
“You two are too cute for your own good.” She chuckled before she disappeared through the door, closing it behind her.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Liam breathed into my neck, taking both of my hands in his.
“Liam,” I began, trying to keep my tired eyes from closing. “What are you doing here?”
“You terrified me, Freya. You called me and then there was a man on the phone telling me that he had to take you to the hospital. How was I meant to take that?”
“I don’t-”
“No, I care about you, Freya. Damn it; I had to take a seven-hour flight without knowing what was happening to you. I called Lucy and Ant, but all they could tell me was that there were photos of you being hit by a cab. They didn’t know which hospital you were at and I was stuck on a plane.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be an inconvenience. I don’t even remember making the call,” I answered angrily. How was any of this my fault?
"Don’t apologize, Freya,” Liam sighed, sitting back down beside me and running his hands through my hair soothingly. “I just wish you would have called me before you were about to pass out on the street.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, feeling the overwhelming guilt wash over me. "I thought I would be okay, but then I got all worked up over something stupid, and I guess it just made everything worse.”
“Why were you worked up?”
“It was nothing.”
“Freya, tell me. Something’s going on, and I want to know what.”
“Why?” I asked in frustration.
“I care about you. What will it take for you to believe me?” he shouted, getting up from the bed and running his hands through his hair in frustration. “Did you miss me at all?”
A heavy silence hung in the room after his words and I felt a nervous tingle run through my body. The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I was afraid. What would happen if I admitted how I truly felt when he had gone away?
I don’t know how long it was until I let the word finally tumble from my mouth, but once it was out, I felt my entire body clench in anticipation of his response.
“Yes,” I answered in a small voice, too afraid to look up.
“Good,” he shot back, and I snapped my head up to find him staring down at me intently.
“Good?”
“Yes, good, bec
ause I couldn’t think about anything else but you. I gave you space. I waited for you to call me but no matter how long I stared at my phone, you still refused to call me. Why do you have to be so stubborn?”
“You were thinking about me?”
“I rarely think about anything else,” he sighed, sitting back down on the bed so he was facing me.
“You flew back for me?” I asked tentatively.
“Of course I did.”
“How did you find me?” I frowned as he reached across and took my hands in his again.
“Tweeted my fans asking if any of them had seen you lately.”
“What?” I demanded as I shot up from my pillows.
“Most of them were very helpful,” he shrugged.
“You’re insane,” I laughed. “Your life is crazy.”
“It can be, but it helped me find you. So it can’t be all bad.”
“I guess,” I replied, letting my mind wander.
“Freya,” Liam prompted, bringing me back from my traveling thoughts. “I do care about you. I just wish you would believe me.”
“I-I…” I stuttered, trying to find the words I needed to explain the turmoil in my mind and my heart.
“I know you’re not ready, Freya. I told you to take your time. I can wait. I was just frustrated you didn’t call me earlier.” With that, he leaned over and placed one of his intoxicating kisses on my forehead.
Then he got up and made his way over to his guitar and began to strum out a tune I had never heard before. “Get some sleep, Freya.”
“Don’t you need to get back to your tour? Aren’t there thousands of people who have tickets to your shows?” I asked, settling back in the pillows as my eyes began to drift close.
“My girl’s sick and whether she wants to believe it or not, this is the only place I want to be.”
Then he fell silent as I willed my eyes to stay open just to watch him a little longer. The only sounds in the room were the ones he was making with his talented fingers and a beat-up old guitar.
His hair was disheveled, and his clothes looked almost three days old. His eyes were tired, and his body slouched, but still he didn’t sleep.