Forever and Always || Chase Davenport

Part 14

I woke up with my head pounding. I'm awake, but my eyes were still closed. Honestly, I was too tired to even open them. I could feel my body laying on a hard mattress of some sort, like a cot. I tried to sit up, but I couldn't. Everything hurt. I didn't know where I was or how I had gotten there. The last thing I remembered was visiting my mom at her office...and then...and then nothing.

"Please wake up," I heard someone whisper beside me.

I recognized the voice. It was my mom. She sounded really upset, like she was crying.

"I'm so sorry, Reagan. I'm so sorry," she cried and grabbed my hand.

I desperately wanted to open my eyes and tell her I was ok, but I didn't even know if that was true. Judging from how I couldn't open my eyes, let alone move at all, I came to the conclusion that I was far from ok.

And then it all came back to me.

The fire...the burning building...passing out...

My eyes shot open and I gasped loudly. This startled my mom and she jumped up from her seat. The initial shock wore off though, and quickly turned to relief. She wrapped me in a tight hug before I could even take in my surroundings.

"Oh my gosh, you're alive! Are you ok? Do you remember what happened?" My mom asked me, examining my face after she pulled away from me.

"Um, yeah," I said quietly, finally realizing that I was in an emergency room.

I looked around at all the machines hooked up around me. It was a little unsettling.

"I'm so happy you're ok," my mom said, hugging me again.

This time I hugged her back.

"How'd I get out? You know, of the building?" I asked after a minute.

My mom shook her head.

"I...I don't know. But that doesn't matter. You're here and you're ok," my mom said with a smile.

Just the a doctor walked in.

"Reagan! You're awake! How do you feel?" He asked with a friendly expression.

I nodded.

"I'm good, I think. A little thirsty," I replied.

The doctor laughed lightly and pointed to a table beside me where a bottle of water sat on top of it. I grabbed it and immediately chugged down almost the whole thing.

"That's probably from the smoke inhalation. You were trapped in there for nearly an hour. That's a lot of time to damage lungs. Luckily, your injuries were mainly minor burns, but I'm still going to do some tests to see if everything is going ok. If everything turns out fine, you will be free to go tomorrow," the doctor said.

"Ok," I said, sort of upset I couldn't leave now, "sounds good."

The doctor left with a wave goodbye, leaving just me and my mom alone again.

...

The day went by really, really slowly, as I had nothing to do but sit and wait, but finally the next day came and I could leave. I was a little upset that Chase hadn't come to visit or anything. I was positive he had to have found out by now.

I walked through the front door and into my house, happy to be home again.

"Do you need anything? Food? Water?" My mom asked quickly.

I smiled.

"Mom, it's fine. I'm not dying. I can get those things myself," I said and headed to the kitchen.

"I know, I know. I'll stop now, I promise," my mom said and went upstairs. 

As soon as she disappeared from sight I ran out the door and hopped on my bike before she could even yell at me to come back. The doctor has said to take it easy, but what harm could a shirt bike ride do? I rode the short distance to the Davenport's house and practically ran to the door. I wanted to see Chase, but even more I wanted to get an explanation as to why I hadn't heard from him in more than two days.

I knocked loudly on the door and it opened a few moments later. Chase was on the other side, obviously not expecting to see me.

"Reagan?" He asked surprisedly.

"Forget about me?" I asked, really only partly joking.

"You're ok," Chase said quietly.

I was shocked by this. So he did know?

"Wow, ok. So you knew and you didn't even care to check if I was dead or alive?! I see how much I mean to you," I said angrily.

"Reagan, stop. Yes, I knew, but I didn't not want to see you. Of course I wanted to know if you were ok. It was killing me to not know if my girlfriend was even alive or not, but I couldn't see you," Chase said.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, ok. You 'couldn't see me'?" I asked with air quotes, "why is that? Too much homework? Punished again?"

I could tell Chase was getting annoyed but I didn't care. He should have come to see me. I knew I sounded like a brat but any other sane person would be just as mad as I was.

"Reagan, listen to me. I couldn't see you because I was the one that saved you! Your mom saw me and my siblings that day and begged us to find you, but she obviously didn't know who we were or that we knew you. I couldn't risk her seeing us again because she might recognize us and realize what we are capable of," Chase explained.

Oops. Now I just felt like an ungrateful idiot. I wouldn't be surprised if Chase felt that way too.

"Chase...I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I'm-" I was cut off mid sentence by Chase leaning in to kiss me.

I smiled and pulled him closer, not wanting to let him go.

"So you don't hate me?" I asked when he pulled away.

Chase gave me a look.

"I could never hate you," he said and kissed my forehead.

"Yeah, I know," I said and hugged him tightly.

He wrapped his arms around me and I rested my head on his chest.

"I'm really happy you're ok," Chase said as we stood there.

"Yeah," I said, "me too."