Out Of The Friend Zone

by Stephanie Nicole

  "Neither did I," Chandler said honestly. "Neither did I."

  Zaiden smiled at Nyla in the rearview mirror. They pulled into the parking lot at the hospital, but before they got out of the SUV, Zaiden stopped them. "Hey Chandler, is your house still empty?"

  Chandler blinked at him. "Yeah, we haven't found the right person to rent it yet."

  "Well, do you think Nyla and I are the right people?"

  "What?" Nyla shouted.

  "Well, Nyla and I have been discussing moving in together, and I think we've both had some reservations about it, but you're right, when you find love, you shouldn't let it go. We need to get over our fears, and realize that we really are meant for each other. I want to be with her, and not a million other women. I've been there, done that, and found something better," he told Chandler, knowing that Nyla was listening to every word coming out of his mouth.

  "You really mean it, Zaiden?" Nyla asked.

  "Yes, I mean it," Zaiden said, looking into Nyla's eyes. "No more playing around. It's time for a commitment."

  "Well, if you guys want it, it's yours," Chandler told them, a smile on his face for the first time since he heard of Brynn's accident. "Now, if you guys will excuse me, I need to get in there to see Brynn."

  "We'll be right in," Zaiden said.

  As soon as Chandler had gotten out of the passenger seat and grabbed all of his bags, flowers, and balloons, Zaiden pulled Nyla into the seat next to him, and began kissing her to seal their decision.

  Chandler walked slowly and cautiously into Brynn's hospital room. He set the vase of flowers and the balloons on the ledge of the window, next to her bed. He put the bag that he had packed for her in the closet, took the teddy bear out of the Wal-Mart bag, and placed it in the bed next to her stomach.

  Chandler placed a soft kiss on her belly, and rested his hand on the pregnant mound. He sat down in the chair next to the bed, and with his free hand picked up Brynn's hand and nuzzled it against his forehead.

  The nurse said that there had been no progress since he last spoke with the doctor, but there wasn't any regression either. The nurse suggested that Chandler sit with Brynn and talk to her, giving her reason to fight, and that was exactly what he planned on doing.

  "Hi, baby," he started. "You've really given us a scare with this accident. The kids are with my mom, and they don't know anything yet. I didn't want them to be scared, especially not Willow since...well, you know. You are her mother now, and she loves you so much. And Barrett...he is so lucky to have you. You have been both mother and father to him since he was born, and he has turned out to be an amazing kid. Not many kids would be as well behaved if they only had one parent who loved them."

  He watched her sleeping figure for a long moment. "Then there's me. I need you so much, baby. I need you to wake up because I don't know how to live without you. When I met you all those months ago, you gave me a reason to live again. Don't take that away from me, okay?"

  He put a hand on her belly. "And, think of our little one growing inside you. You need to wake up and give that baby the strength to survive. We created that baby out of our love, now we need to use our love to save the baby."

  Chandler was trying to be strong, but his voice kept cracking as he bit back the tears. He kept his head down, looking at the sheet on the bed. What he didn't see was the fluttering of eyelashes as Brynn tried to open her eyes.

  Brynn could hear Chandler talking to her, and she tried to wake up, but she was so tired. No matter how hard she tried, she just didn't have the energy to open her eyes. She could still hear him though, and the deep voice speaking to her was music to her ears. She felt so safe with Chandler there talking to her, she just hoped that he would keep talking.

  "You know, I am so happy now that people know you're having my baby. It was so hard to keep it a secret when I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. And Rylee has been a big help. In fact, we were talking about it today before you left. I know it was a bad time to take her call, but she needed to order a few things so they would be ready for your shower."

  Chandler smiled. "Whoops...guess I just told you about the surprise, huh? You see, as much as I'd like to take the credit for the idea of a surprise baby shower for you, it was mostly Rylee's idea. She thinks the world of you, almost as much as I do. Now, the next time you see her, don't let her know that I told you about the shower. She swore me to secrecy. I was trying to stay quiet as we planned things out on the phone, but it was the wrong time to do that, and I'm sorry I did it. I wish I could have that time back, to have lunch with you."

  Brynn couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was having a hard time processing everything, but she knew that when she left the house earlier, she had made a mistake. Chandler wasn't cheating on her. He was planning a surprise baby shower for her. The tears welled up in her tired eyes.

  Chandler put Brynn's hand back on the bed, and drew his hand up to her face to lightly trace her bruise. As he pushed some hair off her face, he felt a small patch of wetness. He looked at his finger, thinking that he had hit some blood, but saw only a clear liquid.

  As he looked closer, he saw that there were tears coming out of Brynn's eyes. "Brynn! Brynn? Are you able to hear me?"

  He saw her eyelashes flutter, trying to open her eyes. "Brynn, baby, open your eyes honey. Come on, you need to fight to wake up for us," Chandler pleaded. "Come on baby, use all your strength to open your eyes and come back to me."

  Chandler watched as Brynn's eyes opened just a small fraction. He grabbed the wand next to the bed and pushed the call button for the nurse. He kept encouraging Brynn to open her eyes, and each time she tried, she got them open a little more. Finally, just as the nurse and doctor were walking in, Chandler saw the beautiful hazel eyes that he had been begging to see.

  "She's awake!" he almost shouted to the nurse in excitement. "Brynn, you're going to be fine. I'm right here with you," he said softly, with tears filling his eyes, as he touched his forehead to hers.

  "Let's check her out," the nurse said.

  Chandler moved away from the bed and stood in the corner, watching the doctor taking Brynn's vitals and looking into her eyes. Dr. Miner checked the readouts of the machines connected to Brynn's body, and nodded as if he was pleased with the results. After he was done examining her, the doctor called Chandler over to her to explain the results.

  "Things look very good," he said. "Now that she is waking up, we can test for more damage, but I doubt we will find anything. She's very fortunate."

  "The baby?" Chandler asked.

  "It looks like things might be okay, but be prepared for anything, just in case. This was a serious trauma. However..." the doctor looked back at the monitors. "You just might have a little fighter in there."

  As soon as the doctor and nurse were gone, Chandler went back to sit next to Brynn. "You really had me scared there," he told her.

  "I was pretty scared too," she whispered. "I heard what you said to me. I heard you talking. It was the only reason I woke up."

  Chandler smiled at her. He was relieved to know that what he had done had helped. "You know, Zaiden and Nyla have been here the whole time. I'm sure they both want to see you. Do you want me to get them for you?"

  Brynn nodded. Chandler leaned down and kissed her softly, careful not to hurt her. "Thank you for coming back to us," he told her, then left the room.

  Chandler practically ran down the hallway to the waiting room where Zaiden and Nyla were. His face couldn't hide a single emotion he was feeling at that point, so as soon as Zaiden and Nyla saw him, they knew it was good.

  "She's awake!" Chandler exclaimed. "The doctor just examined her, and said that it appears she and the baby are both out of the woods."

  "Oh my God!" Nyla said, with a sigh of relief. "Can we see her?"

  "Yeah, she's waiting to see you guys right now," Chandler said, and led them down the hall to Brynn's room.

  Nyla walked in slowly, afraid of what she would see. Though the scene before
her wasn't pretty, she thought it would definitely be worse than it was. "You ever scare us like that again and I will kill you," she said sweetly, leaning over the bed to give Brynn a soft hug.

  Brynn smiled at her best friend. "I guess I really shook you guys up, huh?"

  "You can say that again. I thought poor old Chandler was going to have to be admitted too," Zaiden joked, as he bent down to kiss Brynn's head.

  "We were talking to the doctor earlier, and he said the only thing that saved you and the baby was the airbag. You got really lucky," Nyla told her. "Do you remember what happened?"

  Brynn shook her head. " I didn't even see them. I just felt the impact. Then I looked over before I blacked out, and saw a car all smashed up, with its hood all crumpled in."

  Chandler shuddered at the thought. He felt a murderous rage toward whoever had hit Brynn. He was distracted from it by Nyla's chatter.

  "Well, we have at least some good news for you. How would you like to see your best friend a little more often?"Brynn looked at her inquisitively, wondering where this conversation was leading. "Zaiden and I are going to move into Chandler's house. Isn't that great?"

  Brynn smiled. "If that's what you want, of course it's great."

  "Now, how about your good news?" Nyla asked.

  Chandler coughed. Nyla looked over to him, as he shook his head quickly, trying not to be obvious. Nyla looked down to Brynn's hand and noticed there was no ring on her finger yet.

  "What good news?" Brynn asked.

  "Well, I heard that you are going to be just fine!" Nyla said, trying to cover her big blunder.

  "So, how do you like your baby's first teddy bear?" Zaiden asked, changing the subject altogether. Chandler made us drive him to the store just so he could get it for you after your surgery."

  Brynn looked down the bed, and saw the bear for the first time. "I hadn't even noticed it. Thank you," she said, looking at Chandler. She felt really weird around him right now, but was wondering if it was the drugs they had given her for the pain. She almost felt like they were strangers.

  "Well, I think we're going to head out now. We just wanted to make sure you were alright, and wanted to say hi," Nyla told her friend. "We'll catch a cab back to your house so you have a vehicle here if you need it," she said to Chandler, as Zaiden handed over the keys.

  "Thank you guys for everything," Chandler said, hugging them both.

  Zaiden and Nyla both gave Brynn a kiss on the cheek before leaving for the night. Once Brynn and Chandler were alone again, he sat in the chair next to her bed.

  "So, do you want to talk about why you were so mad at me earlier? I know I was on the phone for a while, and I ruined our lunch, but it just seems like there was more to it than that," Chandler said, taking her hand in his again.

  Brynn looked at him and debated if she wanted to tell him or not. She was so tired, and she didn't want to fight with him, but maybe if she told him then they could get rid of the awkwardness between them. "I heard you whispering into the phone and laughing, and I had flashbacks of Nico, and thought you were cheating on me," Brynn admitted.

  Chandler was shocked. His mouth gaped open at her admission, and for a minute, he was speechless. "I don't even know where to start with that one. First of all, I am not Nico, I am not like Nico, and I never will be. I love you so much, I could never imagine being with anyone other than you."

  Brynn slowly nodded.

  "Second, I was on the phone with Rylee, planning your surprise baby shower, and I had to whisper so that you wouldn't hear me. She's going to kill me when she finds out you know about it. We have been working so hard to keep it a secret." Chandler paused, thinking about what she had said, hurt deeply by her admission. "You know, I would have thought you'd have more trust in me than that."

  "I know, and I really do trust you more than that. It's just these damn pregnancy hormones, and the fact that I'm getting so fat now. Why would you even want to be with me when I look like this?"

  Despite the hurt, Chandler almost laughed. "Brynn, you are the most beautiful woman in the world to me. You were before, and you still are. If anything, it makes me even more attracted to you seeing your belly. You have our little baby in there, and that's the best feeling in the world."

  Brynn blushed madly at his words. He smiled and went on. "Baby, you need to understand that you are the only woman for me, which is why I have something to ask you. I know this isn't the most romantic way, and I had so many other ideas about how I was going to do this, but none of that matters quite so much anymore." Chandler fished around in his pocket, pulling out the small box.

  "You once told me that you didn't want to get married just because of the baby, but only when I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Well, Brynn, that time is now. Will you marry me?"

  Chandler slowly creaked the small box open to show the exquisite diamond ring.

  Brynn stared in shock, her mouth now open. "You want to marry me?"

  Chandler nodded.

  "And not just because of the baby?"

  Chandler shook his head.

  "Are you sure that you're ready for this?"

  Chandler nodded.

  "And you're not cheating on me?"

  Chandler rolled his eyes and laughed.

  "I love you, Brynn. I want to share the rest of my life with you. Please say that you want the same," he said.

  "Chandler, you know I love you. I just didn't expect this. I want to say yes, but I also want to make sure it's not the pain meds that are talking when I do," she told him, smiling.

  "So, will you say yes for now and wear the ring, then when you get off the pain meds, I'll ask you again?"

  "I think that's a good idea. Now give me that ring, and I'll take a kiss too," Brynn said with a smile, finally feeling a little more like herself. She watched as Chandler slid the ring on her finger. Then she felt the wave of pure heat spread through her body as their lips met sealing their promise to each other.

  She was looking forward to tomorrow, when he would ask her again. She knew her answer would be the same.

  Chapter 28

  Sunlight poured through the slits of the blinds, aiming a beam straight at Brynn's closed eyes. As she willed her muscles to roll her body away from the light, they screamed out in agony. It was then that a realization hit Brynn...the realization that she was in pain. Groaning, memories of the accident rushed into her mind.

  Sure enough, when Brynn opened her eyes, she was in the sterile environment of a hospital room. Her eyes scanned the room, from the stark white walls, to the grainy television hanging in the corner. Her eyes then roamed to the monitors that were attached to various parts of her body, telling a tale to any medical professional that would listen. Finally, her eyes settle on the meaning of devotion, the definition of comfort, the one that she loved.

  Chandler was sitting in the chair next to her bed, looking extremely uncomfortable as he slept. A hard hospital pillow bridged the gap between his head and the wall, with his neck craned to the side. His long legs were stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. A small, thin blanket was covering his body, from his chest almost to his ankles. As much as Chandler needed the sleep, Brynn wondered if it would be worth the pain that he would feel upon waking.

  For a while, Brynn watched the rise and fall of his chest. She didn't realize the things that she had taken for granted before her accident, but now she could see that something as small as watching the man you love breathe was such a beautiful sight.

  Interrupting the peaceful scene in the hospital room, a nurse entered to check on Brynn. The door to the room shut with a click, waking Chandler from his slumber. He too looked around the room, just like Brynn had when she awoke. Seeing the confusion turn to understanding, Brynn smiled.

  "Good morning, sleepyhead. Were you comfortable?" Brynn asked as the nurse got some readings from the machines.

  Chandler smiled. "Not as comfortable as I would have been if I was home in bed with you, b
ut I'll survive. How are you feeling this morning?"

  "You know, it's funny, but I kind of feel like I've been hit by a car or something," Brynn joked, but tried not to laugh. Her ribs were still tender from the bruises.

  "Your heart rate looks good, along with the baby's, so I'll let the doctor know," the nurse said. Sorry we can't give you any more meds for the pain. It wouldn't be safe for the baby."

  "It's okay. I can deal with the pain," Brynn said. Inside she was really hurting, but she didn't want anything else to jeopardize the pregnancy. She felt like she had fought too hard to keep the baby, so she could deal with a little pain, as long as it meant protecting the little one growing inside her.

  "Well, the doctor will be in shortly to see how you're doing," the nurse told her as she left the room, leaving Chandler and Brynn alone again.

  Chandler pulled his chair closer to Brynn's bed. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his face, nuzzling it against his cheek. "Don't ever make me go through that again. Don't ever make me face the possibility of my life without you," he said softly. "You don't know how scared I was."

  "I was pretty scared too. If there was anything I could have done to change what happened, I would have."

  "Speaking of not wanting to live my life without you, now that the pain pills are out of your system, I'm asking again...Will you marry me?" Chandler asked, as he looked into her bruised eyes.

  "Of course, I will marry you. I couldn't imagine anyone else I would rather spend the rest of my life with."

  Chandler leaned over the bed and placed a soft kiss on Brynn's lips. "I love you so much."

  "And I love you," Brynn told him, as tears filled her eyes. "So, what did you do, go to the jewelry store after you heard I was in the hospital or something?"

  "Um, actually I've had the ring for a few days. I was just waiting for the right time to ask you, but now I know that there is never 'one perfect moment'. As long as it's special between me and you, then it will be perfect." He chuckled. "And I knew that I couldn't wait any longer to ask you. I needed you to know how I felt about you, that I wanted to share the rest of my life with you, and I wanted to know that you felt the same way. I want us to be together for the rest of our lives, and I want our life together to start now. I don't want to wait anymore."