United

by A. Aubry

  As her mother went in search of something to drink, I sat back down next to Julianna and took her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together.

  “It’s late, the doctors and nurses are telling me to go home, that visiting hours are over. But your mom told them I can stay. I will be right here when you wake up, I promise.” I gently squeezed her hand.

  After a few moments of just listening to the beeping of her heart rate, I finally said the one thing that I’d been thinking about for the last few days, “If you come back to me…I’ll be with you forever.”

  That’s right, folks. I was already thinking about forever with this girl that I had only been dating for a few weeks. There was no way for me to know if Julianna felt the same, but if she woke up—if she came back to me—I would lay the world at her feet for the rest of my life.

  “It’s been three days…the doctors say that this is all dependent on you. Jules, please come back to me, we still have so much time left together. I love you,” I quietly confessed to her.

  I had barely slept for three days. Hell, I had barely eaten anything too. Doing those things meant I had to leave Julianna’s side and that was only something I would do when I was forced by the nurses, her mother, or Angie.

  “I’m going to take a nap if you don’t mind, Finn,” Deborah said as she walked back into the room from her usual walk around the floor to stretch her legs.

  “No, you need your rest, Deborah. After her next checkup in fifteen minutes, I’m going to get a cup of coffee. I need to be fully awake if she wakes up,” I gave her a small smile.

  She quietly laughed as she fluffed her pillow, “Finn, you need to sleep as well. She’s safe now. Why don’t you just go get some coffee and breakfast? She will still be here when you get back.”

  I couldn’t leave her, not just yet.

  “No, that’s alright. I’ll wait another fifteen minutes, then I’ll go.”

  Giving Julianna’s hand a little squeeze, I grazed my thumb over the soft back of her hand. Even after days of not being conscious, her hands were still as soft as ever.

  “Okay, wake me up if anything happens,” Deborah responded before she got comfortable on the pull-out bed that made just a little bit too much noise.

  When her eyes were closed, I turned my attention back to Julianna.

  “Good morning, baby,” I stood up from my chair and leaned in close to her, “I’m still here, I’ll always be here.”

  I kissed her lips softly, the same thing I had done every day for the last three days. Running my free hand through her hair, I just gazed at her. She was stubborn alright, the doctors said we had to wait for her to want to wake up. According to police reports and the doctors, she hit her head on the sharp edge of her coffee table. Michael admitted to choking her and when he let her go, she fell back and hit her head. He confessed to everything, but the fucker didn’t show any remorse. If I didn’t have morals, I would’ve gone down to the prison and killed him with my bare hands. Julianna deserved so much better than that loser for the last three years of her life.

  “Good morning, Finn. How’s our patient today?” Julianna’s morning nurse, Erica, came into the room with her usual wide smile.

  I sat back down in my chair and gave Julianna’s hand another squeeze, “Hi Erica, she’s holding strong and steady. You know, I used to love how stubborn she was but now it’s kind of pissing me off.”

  Erica walked over and checked the fluids that were in the IV’s for Julianna to stay hydrated, “I have a great feeling about today though, Finn. Why don’t you go get your cup of coffee? My checks will be done pretty quick.”

  She always said she had a great feeling about the day. So far, none of those feelings had panned out and it hurt to even have hope anymore. But I knew she had to do her job and I would only be in the way. Getting up from my chair, I leaned in and kissed Julianna’s forehead.

  “I’ll be right back baby, you know I can’t survive without my morning coffee.”

  I nodded to Erica and made my way down to the cafeteria. The coffee wasn’t great, but I didn’t have the heart to step foot out of this hospital for fear that if I did, Julianna would wake up and I wouldn’t be there. I got my usual egg whites and toast from the cafeteria line and a strong cup of coffee. Checking my watch, I knew that Erica would be done with her checks in less than ten minutes.

  I pulled out my phone and checked in with Bo and the team. My very first night here, Bo had texted me saying that Coach told him what happened. He seemed genuinely concerned for Julianna which was refreshing after all the teasing I had gotten from him. Next, I sent a text to the group chat between my mother, myself, Cooper, and Ashton. They all cared about how Julianna was doing so I had been keeping them posted. They weren’t exactly aware of what happened to her, all I had said was she had an accident and was in the hospital. It wasn’t my place to tell them that Michael attacked her.

  Once my food was gone and my coffee cup was drained, I refilled my coffee and headed back up to Julianna’s room. It was a two cups of coffee kind of day. I walked into the room, responding to Coach’s text about if I would be back in time for the next game. How could I respond that I wanted to be here with Julianna and still have my job?

  Choosing not to respond, I slid my phone back into my pocket and looked over at Julianna. Her bright blue eyes were looking back at me, a small smile tugging on her lips. Holy shit…was this a dream? I ran over to her, putting my coffee cup on the tray next to the bed and kissed her as though my whole fucking life depended on it. She refused to open her lips for me, then I remembered she hadn’t exactly brushed her teeth while she was in a coma. I blinked back the happiest of tears as I leaned back and just looked into those eyes that I had missed seeing.

  “What…” She cleared her throat slightly, her voice soft from not being used for so long, “What are you doing here?”

  “I came back to be with you, baby.” I had only told her that a million times over the last few days, “Do you know why you are here?”

  I sat down beside her and grabbed onto her hand carefully. The sleeve of her hospital gown raised a little, exposing the bruises on her arm.

  “Michael attacked me,” she answered softly.

  So she remembered the attack, “Yes. He’s in jail now. The police said you ran to a neighbor for help.”

  She was such a strong girl. When the police told that to me and her mother, I nearly screamed out in happiness that she knew how to get away from him. It didn’t hurt that she hit him in the balls with her knee.

  Her lips pursed before she answered, “He got so angry when you called. I hadn’t told him you weren’t even in the state, Finn. He figured it out, he said you weren’t coming to save me.”

  My heart broke as her lip quivered while she talked, and it shattered when she started to cry. How could I have fucking left her when he was still out there? This was all my fault, he wouldn’t have known I was gone if I hadn’t been so damn eager and FaceTimed her exactly five minutes after the text. I got up and sat on the small open space on the edge of the bed, bringing her into my arms and trying to comfort her in any way that I could. Her face buried into my chest, her tears starting to stain my shirt.

  “I thought about you. When he was trying to rip off my clothes, I was telling you in my head how much I loved you,” she cried.

  I should have been happy that while another man was ripping off her clothes, she was thinking about me. But all I felt was pure hatred for Michael, Julianna must’ve been so scared. I hoped that her thinking about me brought her some type of solace as I tightened my grip on her.

  This wasn’t exactly the reunion I was hoping for as Julianna cried into my chest after giving me the details that the police hadn’t known. I kissed the top of her head, willing her to understand that I was there for her, that I loved her. Julianna got quiet and I almost worried that she had somehow fallen back into her coma. My fears were put aside when she lifted her head away from my chest and her blue-turned-light gray eyes
met mine. Whenever she cried, her eyes always turned into that light shade of gray.

  “When did you get here?” She questioned quietly.

  “Angie called me late Saturday night and I took the next flight that I could,” I moved some hair from her face as I gazed into her eyes.

  “So you just got in today?”

  What was she talking about? Wait, she thought she had only been out for less than twenty-four hours?

  “Julianna, you’ve been in here for almost three days. It’s Tuesday.”

  “No, you’re lying,” her tears threatened to spill out again.

  I wiped away her old tears, praying that her new ones wouldn’t come out, “I wish I was. You wouldn’t wake up when they brought you in the ambulance. The doctors said we had to leave it up to you. You had hit your head pretty hard, it sent your body into shock.”

  “But, you have a game tomorrow. You need to be with your team.”

  This wasn’t the first time that she worried about someone other than herself. It was an adorable trait, but this was about her right now.

  I softly laughed and shook my head, “There you go again, putting others before yourself.”

  Her shy smile greeted me, “I told you to deal with it the last time.”

  I found myself kissing her nose and wrapping her up in a tight hug again. My Julianna was awake and with me again. Nothing would ever keep me from being with this girl for the rest of my life, I would make sure of it. Julianna’s mother screamed and ran over to the bed.

  “Juli, honey. How are you feeling?” Deborah asked her daughter.

  I moved off the bed to let them hug.

  “I feel like I need a shower, and a toothbrush,” Julianna rolled her eyes.

  That was my girl.

  “I’ll go get the nurse,” I offered and quickly left the room in search of Erica.

  I ran as quickly as I could to the nurses station, Erica was sitting at the desk typing something into the computer. She gave me her usual perky smile when she lifted her head to see me standing there.

  “Julianna…Erica, your feelings were right. She’s awake,” I said, almost out of breath with excitement.

  “I knew I had a great feeling about today. Let’s go check her out,” Erica grinned and stood up from her desk.

  She let another nurse know to page the doctor and I followed her back to the room. Both Deborah and I stood in one corner of the room making quick phone calls to people, letting them know that Julianna was awake while the Erica and the doctors did their examination of her. Angie screamed so loud in my ear when I told her, I could have sworn my eardrum momentarily shattered.

  “Everything is looking good, Julianna. If all your tests remain normal and you are feeling better, you could go home as soon as the morning. I will let the kitchen know that you are on an unrestricted diet so go ahead and order whatever you want,” Dr. Adams, who had been watching over Julianna nearly every day since she got here, smiled and typed a note into the computer he was looking at.

  Julianna looked over at me and her mother, “I could really go for some Culver’s right about now…”

  Culver’s was one of her favorite places to get a burger from. The girl deserved to have whatever she asked for after all the shit she had been through.

  “I’ll go get your usual for you, baby. There’s a Culver’s just down the road, I’ll be back before you know it,” I told her, giving her quick kiss. It felt so great to have her kiss me back once again.

  Angie and another one of Julianna’s friends, Tabby, showed up on my way out. Taking full advantage of getting to spoil my girl, I stopped at a nearby flower shop and bought her some colorful roses before going to the gas station. When I got to Culver’s, they were slammed with people for the lunch rush. By the time that I got back to the hospital and up to the floor that had been home to Julianna for three days, Erica had informed me that Julianna was in the shower if she wasn’t in her bed.

  I walked into her hospital room and sure enough, the bathroom door was closed, and Julianna’s bed was vacant. At least she was feeling well enough to take a shower, she always loved how relaxing it was to stand under the hot water of a shower. Setting her bouquet of flowers on the table beside her bed, I heard what sounded like crying coming from the bathroom.

  “Julianna?” I asked from the other side of the door.

  She didn’t answer, but I could definitely tell she was crying. I opened the door quickly only to see Julianna sitting on the floor in a towel, her face in her hands as she sobbed. Practically throwing her food on the countertop, I dropped down to my knees and pulled her into my arms.

  “It’s okay baby, I’m here…I’m here,” I whispered into her hair.

  Her cries came in hard waves and all I could do was hold her. That moment, I made a vow to myself to never let anybody hurt her as much as Michael did. Not just because he hurt her emotionally but now, he physically hurt her. Every second of the rest of my life would be devoted to protecting this beautiful woman in my arms.

  Julianna leaned back and wiped her cheeks with her hands, “Why me? Why did he have to come after me?”

  Because you are perfect.

  “Love can make people do crazy things,” I quietly offered as an explanation, my hands aiding hers in clearing her tears.

  Her eyes locked with mine, “He didn’t love me though…he couldn’t have loved me. You showed me what it’s like to be loved by somebody and what he did to me was nothing like you do.”

  My heart skipped a beat. All I did was treat Julianna with the respect and love that she deserved. She made it almost too easy to love her.

  “That’s because he believed lust was love. I love you wholeheartedly…that’s the difference,” I confessed, running my finger over her bottom lip.

  “I love you, Finn. You saved me, you gave me strength when I needed it most.”

  What is this girl saying? She was one of the strongest people that I knew.

  “I love you too, Julianna. But it wasn’t me who gave you the strength, you’ve always had it in you,” I assured her.

  Julianna gave a soft groan and threw herself into my arms, her hands planting themselves on my cheeks as she kissed me hard. Where usually I was the one to coax her lips open for me, she was the one silently begging for me to let her in. I happily obliged as I absentmindedly laid her down on the floor. God, this is exactly how I wanted to be with Julianna since I left on Friday. Her underneath me, her quiet moans into our kiss.

  “Lock the door,” Julianna quietly demanded.

  Wait, she wanted to have sex in the bathroom of her hospital room? She was just attacked three days ago, there was no way she could be ready for that.

  “Are you sure?” I broke our kiss and looked down at her, needing to know that she wanted this.

  “Just lock the fucking door, McAllister,” she smirked.

  And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my sassy girl come back in full force.

  I obeyed her order, getting up to close the door the rest of the way and locking it. As I walked back over to where Julianna was lying on the tiled floor, she loosened her towel before lying it beneath her. Her gloriously naked body on full display for me took my breath away. I kneeled down to her, Julianna taking my shirt and pulling it over my head while I quickly took care of my jeans and boxers. Her bruises were starting to change color and heal, but I still felt the need to kiss them, to soothe my beautiful girlfriend of any bad memories that she had.

  My head dipped down to her arm, kissing the finger shaped bruises that were slowly beginning to fade. I kissed the cut on her cheek from where Michael had slapped her. Finally, I covered Julianna’s body with mine and softly kissed the healing bruises on her neck. A moan escaped from her as I did this, her head moving to give me more access as her hand slowly ran up my back.

  That was when the thought hit me, the one thing that I didn’t have with me was a condom. There was no need to pack them in my suitcase for my week of travels with the team, and the few t
hat I had in my pants pockets before then were used when I stayed overnight at Julianna’s house on Thursday night. While we had already had sex once without a condom, we had reverted back to using them just to be doubly safe in that no pregnancy would happen. Julianna didn’t even argue when I told her that I wanted to continue to use them, being the amazing girl that she was.

  “You know, I didn’t bring a condom with me,” I laughed quietly, my lips still pressing to her neck.

  Julianna sighed heavily, “I haven’t taken my pill since Saturday night unless they’ve secretly been feeding it to me through the IV.”

  Any other time, I probably would’ve ended any type of sexual action that was about to take place. It was a big risk having sex without any type of birth control standing in the way. But there was something about Julianna that made me want to take that risk, she made me want to reaffirm that we were both still alive.

  I lined my cock up with her already wet pussy, “Let’s take our chances.”

  The moment I thrust into her, I was lost. Julianna gasped at the fullness before she started to drag her nails across my back as I continued to thrust. I kissed her lips as every quick thrust of my cock pushed me to worship her more, to prove my love to her even more than just by saying I love you. Our releases hit at the same time, and it had never felt as good as it did at that moment. The fact that I almost lost her forced me to evaluate this relationship. I never wanted to let her go, she was my Julianna…she was my world already.

  I rolled off of her, pulling her into my side gently as her head rested on my chest. We laid there in silence as Julianna would press soft kisses to my chest. God damn, how I had missed this girl.