Although…
“Hi, are you Hannah?”
“I am.”
“Thank you for coming,” the nurse told her stepping from the cubicle to the left of Adam’s. She threw her plastic apron in the yellow bin, pulled off her gloves, which joined it, then sanitized her hands from the small hand pump hanging from her pocket before coming over.
“He’s been asking for you.”
Hannah hid her shock at the nurse’s words.
He’d asked for her.
At least now she knew why she’d been called as normally only family members were notified or allowed onto the ICU ward due to how sick most of the patients were. Phil hadn’t even been informed he was here, not in the ICU anyway. He knew he’d been sent home, but not the where or why as he was no longer in service, he wasn’t privy to what went on. He’d only been informed as he was listed as Adam’s contact in his paperwork as he had no family.
She’d tried contacting him since he’d gone on tour, but had not received anything back. Then again, mail from the Middle-East didn’t exactly arrive by next day post, and internet could be sketchy. Add in differences in time zones and patrols and it was hit and miss with keeping in touch via that way too. Plus, with the reluctance she’d felt from Adam when she’d drove out to see him off, she’d not expected him to keep in touch so the call had come as a shock.
Her eyes went back to him.
What had happened?
“He’s only here so we can keep a close watch on him after his temperature spiked. Apart from that, he’s doing okay.”
At the nurse’s words, Hannah shook herself from her thoughts.
“I’m sorry, where are my manners. Are you Nurse Stevens?”
“I am, but just call me Mel. We’re more informal in here,” she told her as she held out a hand.
“Thanks for calling, Mel, what happened?”
“Have you not been told?”
“No. All I knew was that he’d been sent home early.”
“I shouldn’t discuss this with you, but as he asked for you personally…” Sighing, she broke off, then tiredly, looked to Hannah, taking in her wan features and worried gaze. “I take it you two are together?”
Hannah didn’t know what they were, she’d thought they were heading in that direction but now… she didn’t have a clue.
“Phil, my brother… or maybe you have him down as Corporal Summers. Anyway, Phil is classed as Adam’s next of kin. Adam’s has been part of our family since I was 12-years-old...” She broke off then, knowing she was rambling as she didn’t know how to describe their relationship.
“You and Sergeant Jones aren’t siblings though, are you?” she interrupted, a brow rising as she waited for Hannah to reply.
“No, not siblings,” Hannah confirmed, unable to hold eye contact as her cheeks heated.
What she felt for Adam was most definitely not what you felt for a sibling.
“I don’t see any point in keeping this from you because, to be honest, as soon as you get close enough, you’re going to see what’s happened to him anyway. He’s lost part of his right leg…. Wow, are you okay?” She quickly stepped forward, her hands lifting and grabbing onto Hannah’s arm as she swayed. Her stricken eyes jumped to Adam who lay so quietly beneath those covers and wires.
“Is he okay?” Hannah whispered, then coughed to clear her throat, swallowing the ball of emotion lodged there.
“He’s healing, but as I said, his temperature has spiked, and I think he’s a little depressed. That’s why I called when he asked for you. I think if he can see someone familiar, it may help.”
“Okay, good, he can survive that.”
Hannah’s eyes again went to the bed, her chest aching for what he must have been through, but he was alive and that was all that counted as far as she was concerned.
“Hannah… Hell, go see him. At this point I’m willing to go against protocol for the good of his recovery.”
“Thank you, Mel,” and with that, Hannah made her way over to Adam’s bedside.
She stood at the foot of the bed, her eyes going over his familiar features. His brow was puckered, frowning as his eyes flickered behind his closed lids. He had a sheen of sweat on his face and his mouth moved as if he was mumbling in his sleep. Without conscious thought, her eyes then dropped down his body, taking note of how the sheet was flattened on one side just below his knee.
“Here,” Mel told her, placing a plastic seat by Adam’s right side.
“Can I move it around to the other side, please? Only he’s got a drip in his right arm and I’d rather not hold that hand and risk dislodging it. Plus, he’s left handed.”
With a smile, Mel moved the chair to the left-hand side of the bed and once Hannah was seated, she quickly checked his vitals before leaving her to it. Two other nurses had appeared from somewhere as Mel donned another apron and moved onto the next cubicle.
Hannah put her bag on the floor and pushed a hand through the safety rail so she could touch the back of Adam’s hand. His head turned in her direction but his eyes didn’t open.
“Hey, you came back, thank you,” she whispered.
“Not sure I should have,” Adam sighed, frowning. “Hannah?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Shouldn’t have come,” he sighed again.
“How could I not.”
With that, he turned his hand over, twined his fingers with hers and drifted back into a fitful sleep.
Chapter 3
2 days later: -
Adam slowly opened his eyes as the cuff on his right bicep began to inflate.
Where was he?
Frowning in incomprehension, he looked around.
ICU?
Oh, yes, he’d spiked a fever, and his heart had gone a little haywire after his blood pressure had dropped so he’d been moved him to ICU for monitoring and intravenous antibiotics. He didn’t have a clue how long he’d been here, though.
Shivering, he dropped his hand, trying to tug the sheet up.
Something was missing?
A shadow moving around in his subconscious, a head resting against his chest, soft lips trailing butterfly kisses down his stomach. He groaned, eyes squeezing tightly closed as the ache began to pound behind his eyes. Dropping his mental search for answers, he rubbed the sheet between his thumb and fingers of his left hand. An echo of a memory appeared, but it was so insubstantial it left him unable grasp any real information, but a lingering feeling of loss echoed through him, as if he’d lost something important.
Releasing the sheet, he fingered the material.
Not as soft, he thought in confusion as his head turned towards the left-hand side of the bed.
Not as soft as what?
He again tried reaching for what he was missing but nothing came to him, just another echo of soft sultry laughter, and then it was again gone.
Frustrated, and his head now aching, he blinked, then saw a chair beside his bed.
Maybe he was remembering Hannah sitting by him, then nearly snorted at the absurdity of where his head went. Then swallowed at the stab of regret that hit him.
They’d never be able to be more… well, maybe at one time it would have been possible if he could have spoken to Phil first, but not now.
Now it was impossible, he had nothing to offer, not even whole in body.
“Hey, welcome back. I’ve sent your girlfriend for a break. Poor thing has been sat by your side for the last 48-hours,” his nurse told him as she checked his monitors and stuck a thermometer in his ear. “She was nearly dead on her feet, but she wouldn’t leave your side until your temperature broke and your breathing eased.”
Adam looked at her blankly, not sure whether he’d broadcasted what he wanted, rather than what was.
“Girlfriend?” he croaked, throat dry.
“Pretty, jet-black hair and big green eyes. You’ve got yourself a real looker there, Sergeant Jones.”
“Hannah?”
“Yes, that
’s her name,” she smiled, continuing with her checks.
“Just a friend, Phil Summer’s sister,” he told her, then frowned, some wisp of memory coming back and hovering at the periphery of his subconscious, but as his head began to throb once more, he let it go.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Just a headache.”
“Probably an after effect of the fever. Would you like some water?”
At his nod, she filled a glass with water out of the jug and put a straw in it, helping him to take a few sips. “Better?” at his nod, she put the glass back on the wheeled-tray that had been pushed to one side. “Talking of Phil Summers, he stopped by yesterday” she told him conversationally as she checked his urine output and lifted the sheet to check the bandaging on his leg… or what was left of it anyway. Dropping the sheet again and tucking him back in she continued. “He stayed with you for a couple of hours, but said to tell you he’d get back to see you again as soon as he could.”
Adam tried to tune back into what the nurse was telling him, but he was a little fuzzy.
What had she been saying?
Oh, yes, Phil… now why did he get a stab of guilt when he thought about Phil?
He let it go, fatigue dragging at him, eyelids heavy as the nurse offered him another drink of water.
Hannah stopped behind the curtain allowing Adam some privacy as the nurse did his checks, her cheeks heating as she referred to her as Adam’s girlfriend, but her heart broke a little as he refuted it.
She’d thought after…
Well, what was the point in thinking about it. It had happened, but now it seemed that Adam wanted to forget about it.
Obviously, she was back to just being Phil’s little sister.
After hiding her feelings for him for all these years, it shouldn’t hurt. However, she was shocked to realise just how much it did when it was verbalized.
Oh, well, time to pull up her big girl panties, and move on.
But not until he was back on his fe… healing, she amended, giving the nurse a tight smile as she passed her on her way out of his cubicle.
Taking a deep breath and straightening her shoulders, Hannah stepped back around the curtains.
“Hey, your back with us,” Hannah smiled, moving towards the chair and sitting down again.
“Not sure how pleased I am about it,” Adam murmured sleepily, his eyes trying to take in her features, but his vision was a little blurry. “Sorry, tired.”
“It’s okay, you sleep, like mum always says you heal while you sleep.”
“Not enough sleep in the world to fix me this time,” were the last words Adam murmured before his breathing evened out.
Chapter 4
2 week later: -
Adam had been transferred to a veteran’s rehabilitation hospital closer to home. This meant Hannah could get back to work, but could still spend time at the hospital with Adam in the evenings.
Not that he was very responsive.
He was refusing to speak to the onsite psychiatrist about his injury, and was becoming more introverted and moody as time went on. His situation wasn’t helped as he was bedbound due to refusing the use of the wheelchair he’d been provided with to get about. Although his injury was healing well - as he wasn’t exercising and had been bed bound for a couple of weeks - he also didn’t have the upper body strength to ambulate himself around with crutches either.
They were at an impasse.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Hannah asked as she came into the room. Adam just looked at her, his eyes returning to the television monitor. “Well, I’ve had a good day,” she told him, ignoring his sullen attitude as she removed her coat and sat down. She folded her coat and placed it on the floor beside her chair with her bag.
“I have two new clients so my books are filling up.”
“Ah-uh,” was the only answer she got from him.
“Oh, I forgot, Phil said he’ll be popping by on Friday as he’s back after doing his training. He starts at his new security job in the next week or two.”
“Ah-uh.”
Instead of snapping at him, Hannah opened her bag and pulled out a large packet of jelly babies, his weakness.
“Here, I know you like them,” she said putting them on his lap as he lay there. “So, what have you been up to today?”
Adam just turned his head and looked at her.
I mean, what did she think he’d been doing?
“I went for a jog around the block before I did a bit of tap-dancing down the ward. Then after lunch, I ran the stairs before doing cartwheels,” he replied dryly.
“That’s nice,” she replied with a tight smile, biting her tongue instead of snapping at him.
Adam didn’t know why he was taking it out on Hannah, it wasn’t her fault. But then again, seeing her, whole and healthy was a slap in the face, it was like showing him a steak then telling him he couldn’t eat red meat. He wanted her, and it was getting harder to see her without touching, without dragging her off that chair and into the bed. It was harder still as he wasn’t even capable of having her, not unless she fancied getting up on the bed and taking the lead.
He ground his teeth at the thought.
Who the fuck was he kidding, he wasn’t even sure he functioned anymore.
He’d certainly not been woken up with morning wood, so maybe that was fucked too.
Or not, as the case may be.
Wouldn’t that be a kicker, not only was he a leg down, but he was also dickless.
“Oh, I forgot, I stopped at the shop on my lunch and picked you up a couple of books. I know you like thrillers, I’m not sure if you’ve read these or not,” she told him, again reaching down and digging around in her large bag. She placed the paperbacks on the cabinet beside his bed, along with magazines she’s brought him yesterday.
What she thought he wanted muscle car magazines for he didn’t have a clue?
A bit hard to drive without an accelerator foot.
“So, what would you like to do?” she asked, sitting back in the chair, swiping invisible lint off her blouse. The action drew attention to her breasts and he ground his jaw.
“How about dancing?”
“Maybe we can go out dancing once you get out,” Hannah replied.
“Yeah, I hear the hop is still really popular.”
Hannah ignored him, but it was getting harder to bite her tongue.
“Mum says hi, and she’s looking forward to you visiting once you get out.”
Adam ground his jaw again at the thought of Kay, she was a nice woman, an older version of Hannah and an absolute sweetheart. He’d missed her, she made the best Sunday roast and hugged everyone. He’d been shocked the first-time Phil had taken him home on leave, Kay had made a fuss of him, she’d hugged him and made him sit at the table as she fed him home cooked food. He’d never had that, being brought up in care didn’t often offer that kind of friendly atmosphere and openness, especially not for a kid that was constantly in trouble. Even the foster homes hadn’t wanted him. He’d been kicked out as soon as he was of age, and his first stop had been to enlist, which was where he’d been ever since.
What the hell was he going to do, he wasn’t trained to do anything but be a soldier, and now that was over. He was thirty-one and didn’t have any skills to offer an employer.
He wasn’t even whole now.
God, he was a real catch.
No job, no prospects of a job and probably incapable of even fucking.
He was living the dream.
“How are you sleeping?” she asked and he again ignored her, eyes on the television screen again. “I was thinking, once you are out, I could give you regular massages, it will keep your muscles supple.
Yeah, he would certainly enjoy her hands on him, but he wasn’t planning on getting that close. She was a constant reminder of what he’d never have.
He turned his back, and closed his eyes.
The nurse passed his bed, her mouth thinning as she looked
in Adam’s direction before she smiled sadly at Hannah.
Hannah sat there for another ten-minutes checking her e-mails and social media. When gentle snores came from Adam, she gave up. Standing, she leaned over and went to run her hand over his hair, but pulled it back at the last minute.
Never a good idea to touch a sleeping man who’d come back from tour.
Sighing, she picked up her bag and coat and left the ward.
“Hi,” she interrupted the orderly who sat behind the nurse’s station checking through files. “Could you tell Sergeant Jones, I’ll be back tomorrow and that if he needs anything bringing to ring me?”
The orderly nodded, and she walked off out of the ward.
Fast food was required on her way home, maybe some chocolate too as she needed cheering up, he wasn’t improving and she was at a loss of how to help him.
Google would be her evening companion as she searched for some answers.
Chapter 5
Adam lay back, lip between his teeth and eyes squeezed tightly closed as a groan of pleasure was pulled from his throat. Her hand delicately trailed over his chest, a nail scraping across a beaded nipple as her lips butterfly kissed a path down to his stomach. Her mouth moved lower, and his hand now tangled in her hair, controlling the pace as his hips lifted. Her tongue stroked over the head of his cock before her lips slid over him, tongue flattening so that as he slid in and out of the tight wet heat of her mouth it caressed the underside.
Heaven.
Fuck, the suction and warmth was killing him, his control snapping as his balls tightened, drawing up close to his body.
Teeth gritted, he reluctantly used the hand in her hair to pull her off him as he felt the familiar tingle start in the base of his spine. Pale blue eyes now dark with lust, stared into her slumberous, green gaze, and couldn't help grinning at the pretty pout she wore.
Help Our Heroes: A Military Charity Anthology Page 75