by Rachel Burns
“The only thing that bothers me is that you two are a couple. I don’t want any trouble with the neighbors.” He looked at Scott, and then at his father and Brianna’s father.
“I swear we won’t be having any parties, and Brianna and I are more than just a couple. It’s her birthday soon, and I will be asking her to marry me then. I already have the ring. We will be very quiet and everything here will be very decent. I give you my word.” Scott looked him in the eyes, and he believed that young man.
Scott hugged Brianna tightly before they said goodbye. He told her that he would miss her, and she had tears in her eyes as she repeated that she too would miss him. They had gotten very close this past week. Brianna loved it when he came to pick her up, and the time they spent together was always fun. They now knew each other a lot better.
Being apart would be hard on both of them.
Her mother got her into their car, and the two of them took off for the long drive up to Minnesota. Brianna waved at Cathy and Scott. Her father smiled. She would be engaged soon. She was all grown up.
Chapter 14 – In Sickness And In Health
“May I please speak with Scott?” Charles wasn’t sure how he should word this.
“Of course, Mr. Banks.” Cathy heard something in his tone that scared her. She walked up to Scott’s room. She knocked and walked in. He was reading on his bed. She had tears in her eyes as she handed him the phone and left.
Scott was totally confused as he took the phone from her. “Hello, here is Scott Greene.”
“Son, –” Charles wasn’t sure how to continue. “A valve to her heart has collapsed. They are going to operate on her in the morning. I’m sorry son I don’t know more.”
Scott looked at the clock. It was already seven in the evening. “Do you have the exact address of the hospital? I have to hurry.”
“Stay at home with your family, son. It would be over by the time you got there. Just pray for her.” He hung up.
Scott jumped up and ran to the bathroom. He threw up and cried. The thought that he may never see her again had made him sick. How could he survive something like that? He really loved her. This last week had proved that he had chosen the right woman.
“Is she dead, Scott?” Cathy asked him.
He shook his head as he pulled himself up. “She needs another operation. It’s tomorrow morning. I need to talk to mom. She has to explain what is wrong with her. I don’t understand.”
Scott spoke with his parents all evening and all night. His mother insisted that the Mayo clinic was the best place for her to be. He looked up the operation on their homepage. It stated that to preform the operation the patient had to be healthy. She wasn’t healthy. She was high risk. They were all so nervous that they couldn’t sleep.
At six o’clock the next morning, the phone rang. Scott jumped to answer it. “Hello?”
“Scott, here is Brianna’s mother. She wanted to talk to you. We didn’t tell her about anything, so please don’t tell her. No stress, you understand.” Scott heard her walking. “Brianna, I got him on the phone.”
“Scott,” Brianna sighed happily.
“Hello, sweetheart. How are you feeling?” He spoke to her as sweet as he could. Hearing her voice was a balm for his soul.
“I’m just fine. How are you?”
She sounded so dreamy that he had to grin. “I’m doing well. Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m a little tired. I think I need a nap.”
“You do? Honey, did they give you something?”
“Yes, they did. I think they want me to sleep through my tests today.”
“Sure, I think you should sleep a little.” He was still using his talking to a little kid voice.
“I’ll do that. Good night, Scott.”
“Good night, sweetheart.” He loved her so much. This phone call meant so much to him.
“I love you,” Brianna sighed.
“I love you too, Brianna.”
“Bye,” she said in a cheerful voice.
“Goodbye, Brianna.” He heard her hang up. He fell to the floor crying. Was that the last time he would ever talk to her?
He stayed directly next to the phone. He refused any food that his mom offered him, and he didn’t stray from the kitchen. Sometimes, he would get up and pace back and forth, but he never left the room.
At twelve on the dot, the phone rang again. Scott was on the phone before the first ring had finished. “Hello.”
“She’s alive. She made it through surgery. She’s okay for now. The doctors are very hopeful. I think she is going to make it again. She always does. She is a lot stronger than what we give her credit for.” Charles was very impressed with his daughter. She had once again moved him to tears.
“Thank you, thank you so much for calling, Mr. Banks.”
“Damn it, Scott. I already call you son. I want you to call me Charles until you feel comfortable calling me dad. Get some sleep. She will be out of it for a long time. She will probably want to call you when she is feeling up to it. Goodbye, son.”
“Goodbye, Charles, thanks so much for calling.” He hung up and then he hugged his mother. “She pulled through the operation. She isn’t out of the woods yet, but she took the first hurdle. I have to go to bed so I’m awake when she calls later.” He left his parents standing in the kitchen and went up to bed. He had to be there for her when she called.
The call came at eleven o’clock at night.
Scott answered on the first ring again. “Hello.”
“Scott?”
“Yes, it’s me, honey. How are you?” The sound of her weak voice was the most beautiful sound in the world to him.
She was trying so hard not to cry. He could hear her breathing so irregularly. “I had to have another operation.”
“I know, baby.”
“I got even more scars. I looked more beaten up than any boxer.” She couldn’t stop the tears anymore.
“Don’t cry, honey. I was already clear about that. Please don’t waste a second worrying about that. I love you no matter what. You are incredibly beautiful. I really mean that.”
She sniffled. “I’m going to be here for a while, but maybe I can brush up on my juggling.”
He laughed at that. His smile was huge. “You do that, sweetheart. I want you to get well. So rest up as much as you can.”
“Scott?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“If you wouldn’t have changed the appointment – I wouldn’t have made it that long. It was a near thing as it was. The doctor said so. Thank you.”
“I would do anything for you. I’ll always be there for you. Always. Don’t worry about that. You hear?” The thought of not having her in life was unthinkable. His world only worked if she was in it.
“Are you really sure? Maybe a healthy girl would be better for you?” She was crying again.
“No. Don’t even say that. You are the one for me. Just you. Either you or no one.” He was crying too.
“Scott, they had robots operating on me. Nothing normal. I could have only been operated on here. You need someone who can take care of you so you can save the world as a big time lawyer. I just make you worry.”
“Honey, please, you have to stop talking like that, or I will come up, and then you know what will happen.”
She laughed. “No, you can’t. It says so in the handbook. You know I read it. No spankings when I’m sick. Heart surgery suffices as being sick.”
He laughed along. “I’m looking that up to make sure. I won’t let you get away with that crap,” he joked.
“I’ll be good. I kind of ruined your summer, didn’t I? You wanted to go on dates and things. The only thing I will be up to is the traditional lemonade on the porch.”
“I like lemonade.”
“I thought you would. I have to go. I’ll call again tomorrow evening. Bye, Scott, I love you.” She sighed sadly through her tears.
“Baby, don’t cry.”
“It kind o
f hurts, that’s all. Like an elephant is sitting on me. No, like he is bouncing around.”
“You are so brave. I admire you so much, honey.”
“I told you before I’m not the hero.” She was still crying.
“I love you. Get lots of rest. Goodbye, baby.”
“Goodbye.” She hung up then and cried until the nurse came in with her pain medicine.
Eva came back from her phone call with her husband. She found her daughter sleeping. Eva checked her pulse to make sure. She sat on the chair and watched her child sleep.
Her miracle child was still alive.
Scott went back to work and hurried home so he could take his phone calls from Brianna. He also talked to Charles who was telling him about her condition. Brianna was leaving all of that out. She just wanted him to talk to her. He told her everything he could think of. She was so tired that she sometimes fell asleep when they talked.
He went to church on Sunday, and his family sat with her father. The whole congregation prayed for her.
Charles sat next to his future son-in-law. He hoped that everything worked out so that she would get a wedding.
The next week, they prayed for her again. They prayed that she would come home safely. Charles was having her come home in a limousine. She couldn’t fly, and she needed to lie down. His precious child should have the best of everything as long as she was with them.
Charles sat next to Scott again. His little baby had united these two families. He was proud of the young man sitting next to him.
Eva told him what Brianna told her. She had tried to get rid of him a couple of times for his own good. He steered her off path quick enough, and she would be back to telling him that she loved him.
Charles wanted to make things easier for Scott. He knew that he hadn’t touched any of the money that he had put in his account for him. Scott had even moved it to a special account where it could collect a lot of interest. Charles figured he had it set aside so he could buy his daughter a house to live in with him. The money he was using to pay his bills for school was coming out of another account.
After church, they talked about Brianna coming home. Scott wanted to be there. Charles explained to him how tired and roughed up she would be. Normally, he would have flown up to his daughter, but he was staying here so Scott wouldn’t get too scared.
Brianna didn’t want Scott to come up to the hospital. She was embarrassed at how bad she looked. They had to cut her open in a couple of places. She had been full of tubes, and Eva told him she looked extremely bad, worse than ever before.
Charles wanted to protect his baby from all the pain. She had to put up with so much. He was hoping that Scott would make her happy.
Scott was at Charles’ house. They were waiting for Brianna. Scott was pacing. The limo was already late. He was thinking of a thousand and one things that could have gone wrong. Charles had offered him something to drink to settle his nerves. “I don’t drink. If she can’t, I won’t.”
“Ever? Not even at the wedding?” Charles asked him.
Scott shook his head. He hadn’t been a heavy drinker before. It hadn’t been hard for him to give it up. He didn’t want anything in his house that could hurt his wife. He had wanted to propose to her on her birthday, but she had missed it altogether this year. Scott would make this up to her somehow.
They heard a car pull up into the driveway. Scott was out of the door in a second. He opened the car door, and Eva was holding her in his arms. She was asleep. “Should I carry her in?”
Eva nodded. She was surprised to see him.
He carefully lifted Brianna out of her arms. He kissed her forehead, and he carried her in so no one could see her that way. She was very pale, and her eyes were so sunken. She looked bruised and breakable.
Eva was following behind him carrying a blanket. Her father was getting their bags.
“Follow me up to her room.” Eva led the way, opening doors and turning the bed down.
Scott laid her in her bed, and then he took the chair from her vanity and sat down next to her. He held her hand. “If you want me to leave, you just have to say so, but if I could stay, I would like to.”
“Of course, Scott. You can stay, but she needs help from me every once in a while. You have to leave the room then. She is very embarrassed about the way she looks, but truthfully, she looks so much better already.” Eva unpacked her things, and then she went to bed to sleep. Charles came and went, checking on her too. Scott stayed.
It was dark when Brianna woke up. She was in a lot of pain and feeling so tired and weak. Her hand felt very warm. She turned to look who was holding it. Scott had his head laying next to her shoulder. He was sleeping. Brianna felt cold. She’d had the shakes since the operation. She was shivering so much that she would probably wake him anyway.
Brianna reached over and laid her free hand on his head. Her fingers moved in his hair. They had hardly been a couple, and he had to go through something like this. She was surprised that he hadn’t turned tail and run.
He woke and looked into her eyes. “How are you feeling, honey?” He noticed the shivering, and he pulled up her covers around her.
“I need my mom, quick.”
He looked disappointed.
“I just have to go to the bathroom.” She smiled at him as she blushed.
He smiled back. “I’ll be right back with her.” He left her side and searched for her mother. She was in the kitchen. Eva went running to her daughter. Scott looked at the time. It was two in the morning. He was glad that he had told his boss that he wouldn’t be coming in the rest of the week. He didn’t want to leave her side.
Eva came back and got Brianna’s medicine and something for her to eat. “Scott, make yourself a plate too. You can take it up to her room and eat with her. She shakes like that a lot. Sometimes after operations that happens. It gets better every day, but it hurts her to shake like that.”
He nodded. “Does she have her electric blanket here? That could help her.”
“Maybe your mother could come over tomorrow and help me with her. We could put it on her bed then and wash her.”
“I’m sure my mother would be glad to help in any way she could. I too will do whatever you say needs to be done.”
Eva smiled at him. “Thank you, Scott.”
They went back to Brianna. Her teeth chattered against the spoon as her mother fed her. She was so embarrassed. Scott chatted as if this was all completely normal. He wanted her to relax. She didn’t have to be embarrassed. There was no place on earth that he would rather be. He was so happy that she had lived. She was out of the woods, and she would be getting stronger every day.
Brianna wished Scott didn’t have to see her this way. Eating was already tiring her out. She tried to talk to him, but she didn’t have the strength. Coming home had taken away a lot of the strength that she had built up.
She woke in the morning, and he was there holding her hand again. She woke with a start. “Scott, don’t stare at me. I look so awful.”
“You’re kidding right? You are the most beautiful thing in the world. Besides, since when are you the vain type?” He was so happy that she had woken up again. His mom was on her way too. It was twelve in the afternoon. She had slept for ten hours.
He had worried that she wouldn’t wake up. Fears that he didn’t share with her parents. Her wrists were so bruised from people checking on her. The doctor would be coming by this afternoon too. She was being well cared for.
He spoke with her about Cathy, telling Brianna that Cathy sent her love, and the rest of his family did too. She told him she was cold. He tried to keep her awake. So they wouldn’t have to wake her when his mother came.
She talked about the hospital, what the doctors had told her. She tried to make everything sound positive. He nodded and listened to her. He tried to rub her arm warm, but the shaking got worse and worse.
Brianna told him that she would be all better by the time school started. She just needed
the summer to recuperate. She felt bad about the children that she taught piano to.
“Just worry about getting better. Take as long as you need. You’re getting better is the most important thing in the world.” He rubbed her other bruised arm.
“More important than world hunger?” she teased him.
“It is to me at the moment,” he laughed. She was trying to make him laugh. She had a witty side to her too. He had seen it before, but she did it a lot more lately.
Scott was finally getting to know her. The more he saw the more he liked. “We can talk about noble things like curing world hunger when you are all better.”
The doorbell rang. Brianna looked at Scott to explain who was expected. She figured it had to be because of her because they wouldn’t let anyone in the house when she looked this way.
“It’s my mom. She is going to help your mom wash you and put warmer bedding on the bed.” He wanted to sound relaxed about that too. He was afraid that she would balk at her future mother-in-law seeing her naked, especially when she wasn’t looking her best.
The door flew open, and Cathy burst in. “Brianna, I missed you so terribly.” Cathy stopped just before she was about to hug Brianna. “You look like you got hit by a truck or something.”
Scott gave her a mean look.
“I knew everyone was lying to me,” Brianna laughed.
“Can I hug you without hurting you?” She took a tiny step forward.
Brianna nodded and reached for her friend as best as she could. She was glad to see her again.
“What are you doing here, Cathy?” Scott wasn’t about to mince words.