His Angelic Love

[Twenty-Three] Testing The Waters

[Part 3]

Chapter 23: Testing The Waters

"Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense"

-Helen Rowland

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 The next morning I woke up half in a chair, half spread onto Xaivier's hospital bed. To say my muscles were aching was the understatement of the year. Everything felt stiff, and it took a lot of breaths to finally place myself into a normal sitting position.      

My hand was still clasped in Xaivier's and I smiled at that, giving it a small squeeze.      

Looking up I noticed that he hadn't moved a bit during my slumber. The doctors had said he would be out for a couple of hours from the blood loss, but I had figured he'd be strong enough to wake up the next day. Then again, the day wasn't over yet.      

"Oh, you're up," Jane exclaimed as she walked into the room. I nodded and got up, cracking my back.    

I watched Jane slowly approach Xaivier, and her expression was painful. She was tearing up as her hand gently caressed his face, while the other hand was gripped in his cold one. I stalked my way over next to her, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder for comfort. We both wanted and needed him to wake up.      

"He's suffering so much," Jane mumbled, sniffling. "I don't want him to suffer, but I don't want him dead either. I just want him to be happy, is that too much for a mother to ask?"      

I shook my head and gave her shoulder a light squeeze, "No, it's not. But he will be happy, Jane. I promise you."      

She looked at me, wiping away her tears with one hand. "I know he will be. You'll take good care of him, right?"      

I looked at her curiously, that hadn't exactly been what I had meant.

"Of course, he means a lot to me." Staring down at Xaivier, my hand impulsively brushed his bangs from his forehead. He looked so peaceful; no stress lines on his face, no pain in his glowing eyes, no emotionless facial expression. For some strange reason I couldn't look away from him. The slow rise and fall of his chest, the healing scars, his pale features - they all drew me in like a bug to the light.      

I couldn't understand why, all of a sudden, I was so attracted to him. I was attracted to him before, but now it seemed like I resurfaced from the water and was seeing the sun for the first time, through new eyes.      

I hadn't even noticed when Jane left the room to find her husband.      

Once she closed the door, I looked about. Nobody else was in the room nor was anyone passing by the room. Being sneaky, I climbed onto the side of Xaivier's bed and lay facing him, one arm underneath my head the other trailing small patterns on his cheek.      

It seemed like minutes, before my eyes started to slowly close.      

"Miss, you need to wake up." A female voice called to me. Blinking a few times, I stared groggily at the nurse who hovered above me. I had to rub the sleep from my eyes to look at her properly. She had golden locks of blond hair, naturally curled, with deep blue eyes. She looked like a porcelain doll or a barbie.      

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to leave, our visiting hours are over." Looking towards the clock I realized that I had been asleep for over four hours.