The Flaw in your Heart

50. Burden

Chapter 50

Two weeks later

Dan’s POV

Tessa’s open heart surgery was now three weeks ago, although it felt just like yesterday. The time had flown by and I was constantly astounded by Tessa’s ability to bounce back to life. Obviously, there was still quite a bit of recovery time until she’d be back to normal, but she was doing amazingly already. In a short while she’d start tutoring at home, so she wouldn’t miss out on important classes for GCSE’s.

“Dan!” I heard Tessa shout from the living room.

“Coming!” I called from the music room, I’d been finishing off the new song I’d been writing since Tessa’s surgery. The whole root of the song came about to me in those long, worrisome hours after surgery where I was rethinking all that had gone on since her diagnosis. It was her birthday in a couple of days and I wanted it completed by then, so I could play her the song for her special day.

“DAN!” Tessa shouted again, sounding urgent. 

I quickly got up from my seat, a feeling of light-headedness rushing over me overwhelmingly. My vision blurred and I immediately grabbed for the wall, holding on tightly as I regained my surroundings.

“Fuck”, I muttered, shaking my head.

Ignoring that very odd occurrence I rushed out of the room and down to the living room where Tessa was clearly in pain, propped up on the sofa, breathing deeply.

“Shit, sorry Tess”, I said, quickly getting her some pain meds and a glass of water. She downed the tablets and held my hand tightly, wincing in pain.

“Deep breaths Tessa”, I said calmly, exaggerating my breaths for her to follow.

She did as she was told and slowly let go of my hand.

“Thank you”, she whispered, looking up at me.

“No problem sweetheart”, I smiled.

Feeling odd myself I sat down on the floor, my back to the sofa, breathing deeply. What had happened before? I knew it was normal to get a bit dizzy for getting up too quickly, but it had never happened that badly to me before. I’d gotten so tired from looking after Tessa.

Tessa’s POV

Once the pain had subsided I was able to sit myself up more, and saw Dan still sat with his back to the sofa. 

“Dan are you praying?” I asked, noticing he had his eyes closed.

Snapping them open he shook his head, laughing. “No!”

“Um, so what are you doing then?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I just felt a bit dizzy”, he replied.

“Shit, Dan are you alright?” I asked worriedly. I knew he was on his feet 24/7 now having to look after me as well as being busy with his own work, I felt so guilty for causing him to be so tired all the time. 

“Tess don’t think what I think you’re thinking!” he said. “Please don’t feel guilty; none of this is your fault, I’m just a bit worn out I guess”

“I can look after myself more now though, you should go have a nap or something”, I said.

“Nah it’s okay, I feel better now”, he smiled, getting up slowly.

“You’re like an old man”, I laughed as he hobbled to the kitchen.

“You can’t talk! You’re sofa-bound mostly!” he grinned.

I shook my head, grinning at him, casually flipping a finger at him.

“Oi don’t swear at your brother!” he cried.

“I have every right to, I’m a girl”, I replied, turning my head back to the TV.

I heard him mimicking me as he poured himself a drink and I smiled to myself with amusement. But in the back of my mind was a worrisome thought, I really didn’t want to be running Dan into the ground. I felt such a burden, again.

A/N - I'm so sorry this is shorter than usual, I'm so, so busy with school and my life is hectic right now but I will try and update as often as I can, I hate having to make you guys wait! I am going to hopefully be writing a few chapters ahead on Sunday so I can provide you all with some stuff next week!

Hope you're all doing okay :)