Fire On Fire

Chapter 54 - Sleeping Beauty

Daniel's flight was delayed, so this is when he has just arrived, and heading to the hospital. I had made arrangements for someone to pick him up when he arrives, but now that i'm ready to there too myself, i have had them pick me up, so we can go there together.

Initially, i was abit concerned about meeting him, and wondered if i will have trouble recalling any of our meetings in the past.

But when we finally do meet, my fears are quickly alleviated when i quickly feel at ease around him, finding that i have no trouble responding to his questions, and can even recall some of our previous conversations when he refers to them.

Henceforth, the drive to the hospital is comfortable and enjoyable under the circumstances.

When we arrive at the hospital, we ran into Steve and Hope on the ground floor, who arrived an hour or two earlier to support Ella. They are coming from the cafeteria, where they went to get some drinks.

I introduce them to Daniel and vice versa, and then we all start going up to Mara's hospital room together, taking the stairs instead of the lift.

"How's Ella holding up." Daniel asks.

"Oh, the poor girl, she is so tired but won't agree to leave her Mother's side. But she needs to get some rest before she completely burns herself out, otherwise she will have another fainting episode like she did last time." Hope says, as we walk up slowly.

"Oh yeah...did she get that checked out by the way? i hope it wasn't anything serious?" Steve asks, looking at me curiously.

"What fainting episode?" Daniel and i ask at the same time.

"At our house when she visited, she wasn't feeling very well i think, and she had a light moment, She didn't tell you?" Hope asks, looking at me and Daniel, and then back at her husband awkwardly.

"I'm sure it was nothing." Steve says, waving his hand and starting to walk again.

"What happened?" I ask, not wanting to move away from the subject without getting the whole story.

Daniel seems pretty concerned too, as he looks at both of them expectantly. Hope suddenly looks embarrassed from having brought this up, while Steve wants to do away with the subject altogether, as he keeps walking ahead of us.....but i don't care, i want to know what they are talking about.

"Hope?" i ask, waiting, and she frowns.

"It's nothing...if she didn't mention it, then it was probably nothing" she replies, and starts walking up to her husband.

I stay rooted in my spot, waiting for an explanation.

The dear woman, stops and faces me, briefly rolling her eyes in resignation.

"That day she visited our house and brought over those lovely cupcakes, after we got back from the Ranch, well, i think she was just tired from the vacation and everything that happened you know, because she fainted at our house, when she was outside with Steve." she says.

"Well, she didn't really faint, she just got dizzy, light-headed." Steve says.

"And then she fell." Hope supplies.

"She didn't really fall.." Steve argues

"Because you caught her in time."

"Jesus Hope, do you have to make everything sound so dramatic, it was hardly as bad as it sounds." Steve mutters.

"She was very light headed and it took her a minute to gain her composure, but no harm done, and we made sure she rested for some time before she went back home, and even then, Steve drove her back to Hartford to pick up her brother, and then drove them both to her apartment." Hope says satisfactorily, while Steve rubs his face uncomfortably.