Hope is Rising

12. Morning Light

As I opened my eyes, I could hear the faint beeping of many machines. My head and foot were throbbing.

Everything was blurry and dull as I began to look around. As everything came into focus, I noticed that my arms were covered in tubes that lead to many machines. I felt the warmth of a large hand holding mine.

"Dylan?" I asked faintly.

"I'm right here, love," Dylan replied calmly. I squeezed his hand tighter. I couldn't remember anything about what had previously happened.

Before I could begin asking questions, the nurse came in the room to give me some medicine through an IV tube.

"Good evening Ms. Canton; I will be your nurse for tonight." She introduced herself and told me that if I needed anything that I should call her.

As soon as she left, I began asking Dylan a million questions.

"One at a time, gorgeous, I promise I will tell you everything," Dylan said soothingly.

I felt more relaxed because he was here with me.

"What really happened?" I asked him plainly.

"Well, you went to go stop some guy from getting pulled into the strong ocean current. He kept going, though, and somehow the current pulled you under and your foot got caught. You had said that you didn't need any help, but I had decided to go after you anyway. And it was a good thing I did, because by the time I swam to you and got your foot out from between the boulders, you were unconscious from being under water too long. I screamed at the guy to come to shore and after he saw you were unconscious he had no choice. I guess Kate got word about it from Matt who also saw the whole thing. She identified that guy as your ex-boyfriend. Do you remember any of that?"

"Yeah, it's coming back," I said quietly.

As we were talking, there was a soft knock at the door.

I slowly turned my head and saw Kate and Matt holding hands in the doorway.

"Hey, you're awake," Kate said smiling at me.

I nodded.

"Hey Dylan do you want to grab something to eat?" Matt asked seeing Kate wanted to talk to me privately.

"Is that okay, baby?" Dylan asked me, still holding my hand.

"Yeah, go ahead," I replied smiling.

"We can finish this conversation later, I guess," Dylan said.

He reluctantly let go of my hand and gave me a soft kiss.

"Love you."

I grinned. "Love you, too."

"If you need anything, call me," Dylan softly whispered in my ear before he left.

After they left, Kate sat down in the chair that Dylan had been sitting in.

"Did you win the tournament?" I asked Kate eagerly.

"I placed second," she said humbly.

"Kate, that's awesome!" I exclaimed.

"We need to talk about something," Kate said after a sigh.

"Okay, what?" I asked curiously.

"Have you been talking to Carter anytime before today?" she asked me seriously.

"Of course not, why would you even ask me that? You know how I feel about him..." I began.

"Well, Carter realized that Dylan was your boyfriend by the way he wouldn't let you out of his sight. Carter told Dylan that you still loved Carter and that you had put Carter up to coming to the tournament."

"WHAT??" My head started throbbing even harder. I could feel my anger for Carter boiling. I wondered what Dylan probably thought about me. I didn't want to lose him, especially over a lie from Carter.

Kate added, "Don't worry, I was there, and I told Dylan that you would never do that and that Carter was lying. Dylan wanted to punch Carter in the face, but thankfully Matt was there and stopped a fight from breaking out."

"You know how I dislike Carter so much. Why is he trying to ruin my life?" I asked frustrated.

"I'm not sure, but Dylan just wouldn't believe Carter's lies. Dylan cares about you a lot. The whole time while we waited for the ambulance, he kept wanting me to reassure him that you weren't still in love with Carter," Kate told me.

"I feel terrible," I said. "I wish Carter had never been there; then none of this would have happened."

"I know, but I think you need to talk to Dylan and let him know how you really feel."

A little bit later, Matt and Dylan came back after eating at the restaurant downstairs. They had brought Kate and I food, but I wasn't feeling hungry.

"Hey, little one," Dylan said as they came in.

"Hey," I replied as Kate stood up to give Dylan his chair back.

"Well, we wish we could stay, but Kate's got to go back to the awards ceremony back on the beach," Matt said. The look in Matt's eyes made it obvious he was proud of her.

"I'm glad you're doing better," she said. Kate gave me a hug on the way out. "We'll be back tomorrow."

As they left, I felt Dylan's large fingers intertwine with mine.

I turned to him.

"Dylan, Kate told me what Carter said and none of it's true," I began.

"I know," he said calmly.

"I don't want you to think I'm in love with Carter when I'm not. Carter cheated on me and I can't imagine letting him hurt me again. And I haven't talked to him since the day he tried to get me back, which of course I said no."

"It's okay, babe, you don't have to explain everything. I trust you," Dylan said looking at me with his perfectly green eyes.

"I just don't want to lose you," I said feeling a tear trickle down my face. I guess it was just a really emotional day.

"Shhh, don't cry," he said soothingly, wiping the tear from my cheek. "I'm not going anywhere."

He pressed his warm lips into mine.

A knock at the door interrupted our deep kiss.

"Um, hi, Ms. Canton, I have your results from a few tests we completed." She introduced herself as my doctor.

I composed myself as best as I could and expected the worst.

"You have a mild case of cerebral hypoxia, which simply means your brain didn't get oxygen while you were underwater. You will not be able to do a lot of movement or heavy lifting for a couple of days. And we'd like you to stay overnight just in case something were to happen."

"Can she go surfing on Friday?" Dylan asked her concerned.

"Umm...you'll have to see how she's feeling and then you can decide if that's a good idea," the doctor said.

I felt relieved. That meant I could possibly still go late night surfing on Friday night. I could tell Dylan felt better about it, too.

"You were very lucky that you got air when you did," the doctor added, "Some people have terminal diseases and problems if they didn't get oxygen in time."

I squeezed Dylan's hand. He had saved me from so much more than I could have ever imagined. He just smiled back at me.

After the doctor finished talking and left, I turned to Dylan.

"You'd better get some sleep," Dylan said. "My cousins still want to hang out with you tomorrow."

I had forgotten that they were even in town. I hoped I hadn't forgotten anything else important.

"Oh yeah," I said thinking about how nice they were, "I can't wait."

The last thing I remembered that night was falling asleep holding his hand.





The light from the hospital window shone through brightly into the small room.

I looked around.

The first thing I noticed was that Dylan wasn't anywhere in sight.

As I began to sit up, I noticed that breakfast was sitting next to me on a silver platter. My nurse came in and helped me set everything up. There was literally everything I could ever want for breakfast from waffles to toast. I guess it was good I didn't eat dinner last night because I was really hungry.

There was also a note on the plate:

"Steph, I went out to get something. Here's breakfast, I'll be back at 10am. -Dylan"

I wondered what he was getting. But I didn't have to think long. Dylan came in with a pink dress from my closet in his hands along with my makeup bag.

"Morning, babe," Dylan said as he walked in the door. He came over to me and gave me a kiss.

"Good morning," I said between bites of food.

He set the stuff down at the end of my bed.

"May I ask what you're doing with one of my dresses and my makeup bag?" I questioned since I hadn't brought anything with me to the hospital.

"Kate made me get a change of clothes and a makeup bag for you from your house," he said.

"You didn't have to do that," I said, but immediately realizing how terrible I probably looked right now.

"You're supposed to change and be ready to go somewhere for 10:30am after you are discharged from the hospital. I think my cousins said you planned on having lunch and shopping but I wanted to take you somewhere before that. That is if you're up for it."

"A surprise?" I immediately grinned. "Of course I'm up for it."

A/N: Oh my, Carter keeps stirring up trouble for poor Steph. Good thing she has Dylan. What do you think so far? And you know what I'm going to say, comment and vote if you like this story so far! Keep reading for more! :) ~Elizabeth