Someone to Love

Thirty One

I couldn't get much sleep. Well, so much so that I didn't feel sleepy at all. Fucking jetlag.
Lucas was sound asleep next to me, and from what I see, he had a long day at work and just couldn't fight off the fatigue.
He tried staying up with me but I told him that he could just get rest, and he didn't put up much fight. He just fell asleep.
I don't know why the fuck did we meet a car accident a while ago. Katherine was holding her iPad, as per usual, checking my schedule. Charles was driving, and I was in my seat. A car suddenly hit us from behind and there goes the back of my Rolls. I wasn't wearing my seatbelts because I just removed the straps of my shoes and thus, me hitting my face on the front seat.
I kinda feel bad for the car that hit us, how the fuck is his insurance gonna pay for the Rolls' repair and the damages that he brought upon us. And the three of us are gonna be on sick leave for the next two weeks to recuperate, and we're gonna charge him for that too. He's gonna need more than a million.
I looked at Lucas while he was sleeping, his room is conveniently placed near a street light and the light just hits his face so perfectly. It just highlights his jawline that could probably cut through muscle.
"Can you stop?" He suddenly whispered.
"Wh-" I started but then he wrapped me in his arms.
"Have you been staring at me for a long time?" He said
"No, believe it or not." I said
"Can't sleep?" He said
"Yeah, jet lag." I said
"You wanna talk about it?"
"Jet lag? Uh-"
"No, whatever's bothering you."
"No, you should just go back to sleep."
And that he did, and this time he just didn't make me move. I think I fell asleep shortly after that because when I woke up, sun was out and I am smelling what I think are eggs.
"Hey." I said as I looked at Lucas who was cooking in the kitchen.
"Oh! You're awake! Come!" He said as he placed the ladle down and motioned me to come near.
"What are you making?"
"Pajeon."
"Oh! What's that?"
"Aiyah! Just sit down and wait for me to finish." He said as he sat me down.
"Okay."
"You're really not supposed to wake up yet, I mean, I had this breakfast in bed in mind and well-"
"I woke up way to early?"
"No, I woke up late." He said
I looked at the other table, which was cluttered with papers, folders, notebooks and what looks like some brain scans or head scans.
"What were you doing?" I said
"Breakfast, I have been craving this for the longest time and-"
"No, I'm talking about the table." I said
"Oh, work."
"But it's your day off."
"Yeah, but I have to understand this case. It's a good thing that I found a similar one from a few years ago."
I just nodded.
"We'll talk about that later. I've missed you." He said
"Oh my god, this is the first time you'd cook for me as a legit boyfriend." I said
"Oh yeah! I hope you like it." He said
"It's not like I have rejected your cooking before." I said
"Yeah, I do cook very good." He said
"If ever we have kids, they're gonna be so lucky because you can cook." I said
"You can cook also."
I looked at him.
"If we have kids, we'd rarely be home. You'd be in the hospital and I'd be VP-ing." I said
"Do you also have that dream wherein you'd be a hands on parent? Because you don't want to be like your parents?" He said as he cooked
"Hell, yeah. My parents are rich and can buy me whatever the hell I want but they're not there for me. Can you imagine, in Arthur's funeral, my mother cried fake tears and basically just talked about her new crocodile skin Hermés Birkin and my father, was well, busy fake mourning but he too was busy with the company. He was fixing up the line of the so called succession." I said
"Really?"
"Yeah, not even a teardrop."
He served whatever he was cooking.
"Well, if anything happens to you, God forbid, I won't let them near you unless they break down on their knees and cry. We won't accept crocodile tears." He said as he handed me chopsticks.
I smiled.
"If anything happens to me, can you open up my head and see my brain?" I said
"No, I can't do that while I'm your boyfriend and most especially when I'm your husband." He said
"Fucking ethics. It would have been nice if you saw my brains."
"No it's not."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I like your head intact please. Seeing your brain face to face with me is no pleasure at all."
"But you're one of the best in the hospital-"
"I am-"
"I mean, I am technically paying you to be the best."
"I want to be the best but I can still learn and adjust with being one of the best. But please, don't make me see your brain. Let's just keep that mystery for the both of us."
"Most couples don't want to see each other pee or take a dump but you'd prefer not to see my brain?"
"Because excreting bodily fluids is normal and needed. Brains however, as designed to stay inside the cranium. The day I see your brains, like the actual meat of it, would probably be the death of me."
"You're just saying that." I said
"I'm not. It would mean that I just lost everything."
"You're not telling me that I'm your everything that kind of shit, right?"
"No, but you really are my everything."
"Ey, isn't that too premature? I mean, we only have been dating for a week now and this is the second day we saw each other. Now you're declaring me your everything?"
"Yes, because not to sound creepy at all but I call dibs on the universe. Way before we had sex, which by the way is in today's itinerary, on your third day in this apartment, I told myself that I wanted to be yours and hopefully in the process, you'd be mine." He said as he ate.
"The fuck?" I said
"Well, that was a nice reply." He said
"No, no. Sorry, uh-"
"You're not used to hearing stuff like that."
I think, for the first time in eight years, I'm feeling loved again.
"Yes and I am not used to say, being loved." I said
"You should get used to it, after all, you're with me now." He said
I looked down and just ate my food.
"So, how is it?" He said
"I am so getting used to American food, I'm sure as hell that I will marry you some day." I said
"Really? You're not kidding?" He said
"What?" I said as I looked at him.
"Because I could go out right now and find a ring, I swear-"
"Lucas, chill. You aren't in a hurry are you? I mean, sure you're 27-"
"28 in Korea."
"Whatever, but can you like chill?" I said
"Sorry."
"There is no need to hurry. I'm not going anywhere."
"Promise?"
"Yes, I'm not going anywhere. Unless my dad decides to marry me off somewhere again-"
"Not letting that happen, I am gonna marry you soon."
And just that, my moment was ruined by a phone call from my father.
"Hold on, one sec." I said to Lucas
"Hello?" I said on the phone.
"Where are you?"
"Home, not at your place however. My team and I met an accident yesterday, thank you for asking."
"I was about to ask you that, how are you feeling?" I frowned at the question and checked my phone if this really was a phone call from my father, and it is.
"Really?"
"Yes, it's all over the news. The authorities, our team is thinking that this is an attack to HI."
"Of course, because no accident is random." I said sarcastically.
He said that before, he even stated that Arthur's aneurysm is an inside job. Like what the fuck?
"Dad-"
"The three of you should come back to work next next week." He said, and then hung up.
"Who was that?" Lucas said
"My father."
"Oh, did he ask about you-"
"Yeah. Uh, I got the whole week off." I said as I sat down. He was now on the dining table, looking at brain scans.
"Work?" I said
"Yeah, just finding ways to clip this aneurysm."
She frowned.
"Isn't that like an immediate thing?"
"Yeah, but he's admitted now and being watched regularly for any signs of rupture." He said
Sitting down here watching him look at brain scans made me see what the doctor would have done with Arthur's scans.
"What?" He said
"So, like this is what usually happens when a doctor gets a case?" I said
He just nodded.
"I don't think the doctor that was assigned to my brother even had time for this." I said as I grabbed one scan.
"I bet they did, your brother didn't die on arrival right?"
"No, we hooked him up in a machine for two weeks." I said as I was looking at the scan. It looked familiar, but then I think all scans look like this.
"What's his story?" I said
"Oh, well, he was a football player, rushed by his sister to MGH nine years ago, because the patient wouldn't wake up from a nap. Prior to the nap, patient's sister claimed that patient was experiencing a severe migraine. A head CT and MRI was performed and it shows that he has a leaking aneurysm-" I frowned because that story sounds familiar.
"Do you mind if I ask, what's his name?" I said as I stared at the scan again.
"Uh, patient-"
ACH.
"ACH?" I said
"Yes, ACH, 17 and-"
"I'm the sister." I said
"What?"
"ACH, which is also my initials, and that story is oddly familiar. It's Art."
There I was staring at his scans, suddenly I could see his face again.
"Arthur Christopher Hayden." I whispered on the scan.
"Would you want me to continue the story?" He said
I nodded.
"Okay, uh, do you want me to use medical jargons or-"
"Just tell it the way you think I'd understand it."
"Basically, the leak was near the brain stem and accessing it would either make or break it. One slight pressure might have ended his life on the table. But then, the parents were keen on making their son wake up, the neurosurgeon at that time, didn't advise on clipping the aneurysm. The father attempted to sue and shut down the hospital just because he thinks his son wasn't getting the treatment. Eventually, the surgeon found a way to clip it but it was a bit risky. Apparently it was a risk that the parents were willing to make, but then as they were gonna prep him, his heart stopped."
I frowned.
"Because?"
"The brain stem functions as the regulator for heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, breathing basically, the involuntary stuff. The aneurysm is located right on it. Possibly due to head trauma from the sport or any other trauma. Although it didn't rupture, it was leaking that at that time, they weren't able to gage what was the leak's pressure-"
"So, he just died?"
"To put it bluntly, yes. His heart stopped, cutting off circulation everywhere, the lungs don't get blood supply, the brain-"
"Do you think he experienced pain during the-"
"No, I think the only pain that he felt was the severe headache that he experienced prior to the nap."
I nodded.
I traced my fingers along Art's nose on the scan. We have the same one actually, but then he was very insecure about his because he feels that his nose bridge is too long compared to mine.
"So, why do you have Art's scan?"
"Because I have a similar case."
"Did his sister also make a scene in the ER?"
"No, the mother."
"Does MGH have a instrument that could gage the pressure and shit like that?"
He just looked at me.
"It's different when you hear about it compared to when you have experienced it. Maybe to you, it's another case study, but that day, on that day that I drove my brother to the emergency room, the nurses first stared at me and what I was wearing as if I'm some kind of store window display. I couldn't even remember how I was able to transport him from his room to my car." I stopped and looked at him.
"Is it possible that I might have triggered it with the way I carried him?"
"Unless you hit his head somewhere along the road, I don't think so." He said
"It wasn't a good day to wear a dress straight off the runway. Or maybe they were looking at me because I looked ridiculous. I mean, I was wearing my dress but then Art only had his trousers."
Lucas frowned.
"Was it raining hard at that time?" He asked
"Yeah, the Porsche was newly waxed and I had to drive it because I had bring Arthur to the hospital. Why?" I said
"Because I think I have met you before." He said