„WHAT??", Trish and Antoinette jumped up from the couch at once, „Why, what happened? Is he alright?"
Lana stammered, looking around helplessly as if trying to figure out what to do next. „I... I don't know, that was the police, apparently I'm his emergency contact. He got into some kind of fight. I have to go to the hospital."
She walked over to the kitchen table to take her car keys, Trish immediately grabbed her hand. „No no no no! You're definitely not driving! You can barely walk straight and your entire body is shaking. Plus, you've had at least one more glass of wine than us, if not two. We'll drive you."
„It's okay, really..."
„Do you think it'll help him if you end up in the hospital right next to him because you drove your car into a ditch? Don't be ridiculous... No back talk!"
They got her properly dressed, grabbed her purse and gently pushed her out the door, Antoinette pulled her into the backseat of Trish's car next to her.
„Come here, stay with me!", she pulled her friend into her arms and tried to calm her down as best she could, she could feel Lana's heart pounding in her chest, „It's alright, sweetie... He's going to be fine."
Finally, she lost the fight against her tears and started to sob, shaking her head again and again. „I didn't even get to tell him I'm sorry... I", she wailed, „I didn't even tell him how much I love him."
Antoinette stroked her back. „I'm sure he knows. You'll tell him when you get there, huh?"
The world outside the car window flew by like the past month with him inside her mind. Absent-mindedly, she let the heart pendant of her new necklace run between her fingers again and again. She was scared to death and couldn't stop crying. Was he in pain? Would he be alright? He had to... It tore her apart from the inside, not being with him right now. Could she have somehow prevented this from happening? What had even happened??
When they had reached the hospital and parked the car, her two friends supported her from left and right as they walked down the hallway to the reception desk. They could barely manage to dry her tears even just for a few minutes. Out of breath she stated: „Hi, I'm... looking for a patient here, he came in tonight. His name is Jordane Christie."
The woman behind the desk took a long look at her. „And, you are?"
„I'm his...", ‚girlfriend', she thought to herself, ‚you're his girlfriend, that's why you're a complete mess, you can say it, Lana', „emergency contact. My name is Lana Parrilla."
„Are you family?"
„No. His family lives in Atlanta, he has no one else here but me."
„Alright then, could you repeat the gentleman's name?"
„Jordane... like Jordan with an e in the end, and Christie, like Agatha."
She typed something into her computer. „I See. Follow me, please. But just one visitor at a time!", she said looking at her friends.
„You go on ahead", said Trish, „We'll wait here."
„Thank you", she mouthed and followed the lady.
Memories of her time prepping for and playing trauma surgeon Dr. Eva Zambrano on ‚Miami Medical' came back to her with full force as she was pacing down the hospital corridors until they stopped in front of one of the many doors.
„Is he okay? Is he awake?"
„Ma'am, I'm really sorry, but I cannot possibly know every single patient's condition by heart. At least he's still alive if he's here, that much I can tell you", she opened the door, „Please ring the bell if there are any issues or you need anything."
„Of course, thank you so much!", she tried to smile, but it was almost impossible with her heart almost bursting inside her chest.
She entered and quietly closed the door behind her. She took one more deep breath, she could already hear a regular beeping sound behind her. Her legs were shaking like jelly as she turned around to see him lying in his bed. She sucked in her breath for a second, then tried to shake it off and steady herself. She wanted to, she needed to be strong, for him. He needed her now.
She walked over to him. He was sleeping. He certainly looked beaten up alright. Various shades of red and blue shone through his dark skin all across his face, he had a bandage around his forehead almost fully covering his left eye and his lip had obviously burst, but was all cleaned up now.
Already she could feel a lump in her throat and the tears burning in her eyes again. Her beautiful baby... Who had done this to him? And why?? He was such a gentle soul, he couldn't hurt a fly!
Very carefully, she took his right hand in hers. His knuckles were blue and bloody as well. So he did at least defend himself, it seemed. She could only hope that whoever had done this to him looked worse than he did right now!
She lifted his hand up to her lips and kissed it softly through her mask, then placed it against her cheek and closed her eyes until she felt a gentle squeeze from his hand. Immediately she looked down at him to find him smiling back at her. A smile full of pain, but still so happy to see her.
„Hey, baby", his voice was croaky and barely audible, but still made her heart skip a beat. He was awake! „You came!"
„Hey! Of course, I came", she whispered and leaned over him so she could hear him and he could see her better.
He instantly winced in pain as she brushed his side, and she pulled back immediately. „Oh God, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?"
„It's okay... broken rib. Or... ribs."
„I'm so sorry, baby", she repeated and ever so gently stroked his cheek, „What the hell happened? Who did this to you?"
„Bar fight... classic. Bunch of guys were extremely drunk. Got into an argument... I might have overestimated my own strength."
She didn't reply, just shook her head in disbelief of what he was telling her.
„Please", he said, „Take off your mask. It's okay... I wanna see you."
She did so without hesitation, even though she had already almost forgotten that she was wearing it at all, this thing had become second nature to her by now. Her necklace was dangling from her neck above him and he reached for it, very, very slowly, while letting out a grunt of pain. „Mine... it should be on the nightstand... or in a drawer or somewhere, can you check? I want to wear it. I think they took it off me."
„Sure!", she looked around and indeed found it on a little table along with the other valuables he must have had on himself, his clothes were lying on a stool, neatly folded, so much so that one almost didn't notice the blood sprinkles on them here and there.
„Put it around my neck, please."
„I don't know... are you sure? I don't want to hurt you!"
„It's okay, don't worry about it."
„Okay... but you tell me immediately when I should stop, will you?"
He smiled. „You'll probably hear it anyway."
Very gently and carefully she slid the necklace underneath his neck to make sure he almost didn't have to rise up at all and finally managed to close it. It took her a while though with her long fingernails and even more so her still shaking hands. When she wanted to sit up again he grabbed her wrist and whispered: „Kiss me!"
She lay her hand against his cheek, closed her eyes and placed the softest kiss on his lips, then another one on his forehead. She sniffed as her emotions got the better of her once more.
„You've been crying...", he stated, „Why?"
She had to laugh as she wiped away her tears. „Well, what do you think? The police calls me, on our... ‚non-wedding' day, and tells me you're in the hospital, that you got attacked and you're hurt? I was scared to death!"
„I'm sorry... I never wanted to cause you pain."
She shook her head and squeezed his hand. „Please don't be sorry, it's not your fault, you hear me? You're going to be okay, and that's all that matters! I can't...", she took a deep breath, „I just can't lose you, Jordane."
„I'll never leave you. I promised you that, remember?"
She sniffed again and nodded, then gently touched his chest. „Does... does this hurt?"
He smiled and shook his head. „No... come here!"
Weakly, he pulled her towards him and she lightly rested her head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. „Sounds much better than that awful beeping sound."
„Yeah, I know, I really don't know why they even hooked me up to that thing? I'm not THAT hurt, am I?"
„I don't know, what did the doctors say? Did you have surgery?"
„No. Just stitches. Then the broken ribs, quite some abrasions and very, very likely a concussion with a severity of still TBD."
„That sounds bad, but not too terrible", she lifted her head and smiled at him, „You have no idea how relieved I am! I just still don't understand... why did they do this to you? Was it... it wasn't because..." Her thoughts automatically went back to their conversation from this morning.
„You mean a racially motivated assault? No, I don't think so. Just... random guy stuff, you know? I don't even remember. But one of them was black too, and another one... I don't know, mixed? Or Latino... it was pretty dark."
„Okay, that's good. I mean, it's not, but... you know what I mean. I'm sorry, by the way. I really am. For earlier. I'm sorry I downplayed your experiences, I shouldn't have. I was emotionally worked up..."
„It's okay, don't worry about it. I'm sorry too. I didn't take you seriously and I promise it will never, ever happen again. I'm pretty ashamed of the whole thing, actually, I don't know what's gotten into me. And... I should never have left without clearing the air between us."
She nodded. „The worst thing is leaving angry, leaving in a fight. Just imagine you had... tonight..."
She couldn't finish her sentence, but had to look down as the tears were rolling down her cheeks again.
„Well, I didn't, huh? Don't think about things like that."
„But you could have! The truth is... I'm scared! Every time you leave my house to go anywhere, I'm a tiny, little bit scared inside that something horrible is going to happen. I want to ask you to watch out, not to draw too much attention, not to dress too suspiciously", she tried to wipe away her tears, but without success, she was crying and sobbing heavily by now, „I want to ask you to please, please remember to never carry anything in your hand while walking down the street, especially nothing that could even remotely resemble a gun. And I really want to not think those things. I want to believe in the good in people. But I just... with everything that's happened lately, everything we see and hear in the news way too often... I just can't help it."
He had to swallow as he gently rocked her in his arms, even though it was causing him physical agony, but in this moment, he didn't care. It was way more important to him that he could console and comfort her as she was shaking in his arms. „It's okay, babe. I understand! And I have to admit, it feels good hearing that you're worried about me. But... you know that's not the right way, right? I'm not the one who should have to think about any of those things, I'm not the one who should adjust my ways, I didn't do anything wrong."
„No, of course not, I know! That's why I'm saying... it's horrible that I even have these thoughts. But every once in a while I'm wondering... What if the phone would ring now? What if it's the police? What if something happened to you? Just like all those years ago... my father... And then, tonight", another sob, „Oh God, it was terrible."
„I'm so sorry! Please, don't think about it anymore, it's over now! I'm okay and very, very soon, I'll be as good as new. I'm just sad that... that I couldn't give you the ‚non wedding' night you deserve. And I may not be able to for a while."
Finally, she lifted her head and smiled at him, her eyes wet, swollen and pink from crying. „That's sweet of you, but, that should be the least of your worries right now. Besides, I'm happy to take over until you got your strength back."
He smiled and she liked to think she even saw that naughty little sparkle in his eyes that she so loved to see and never failed to turn her on. Even now... though a little less so given the outrageously unsexy circumstances.
„What does that mean?"
She propped herself up on her arms, trying not to hurt him, brought her lips close to his ear and whispered. „Well, first... If you're not hurt down there, I could blow you... every night if you like, and then, once your ribs are a bit better, I could ride you to oblivion. How does that sound?"
She heard him fail to suppress a gasp as a shiver ran down his spine. „Like... torture. But the best kind."
She chuckled. „Anyway, all this really doesn't matter much at this point. But something else does. The fact that I still haven't told you how much I love you."
She framed his face between her hands and looked him deep in the eyes as he held his breath, by now she had stopped crying and was completely sincere. „I love you, Jordane! I don't know why I couldn't tell you sooner, but I have for a while. And it was the worst... the absolute worst feeling not knowing whether I'd still have the chance to tell you. I should have done so a long time ago. And I'm sorry I didn't."
For a few moments, he didn't respond, just reciprocated the deep gaze she gave him, waiting for his dancing heart to calm a little. Hearing those words out of her mouth felt better than he could ever have imagined. „Nothing you said after ‚I love you' matters anymore. Don't worry about it... I've known, I think. And I love you too, Lana. But you know that."
He gently placed his hand on the back of her head to pull her in for a deep kiss to seal their vows once more – those from earlier today as well as those from just now.
They lost themselves in their kiss, their hearts beating as one, until they heard a noise right next to them, someone clearing her throat. She immediately shot up and looked around. They hadn't even heard the doctor come in. Lana bit her bottom lip and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
„Good evening, doctor."
„Good evening. Please, don't mind me, I just came to look after Mr. Christie. You are the emergency contact, I assume?"
„I'm...", she looked at Jordane, smiled, squeezed his hand and took a leap of faith, „I'm his girl."
He gave her a beaming smile as he recognized the reference to ‚Why Women Kill' where his character's love interest, Dee, was saying those exact same words to launch their romantic relationship, and only now did she notice that he was also missing a tooth somewhere.
He responded in kind, quoting his character Vern from that scene: „Yeah. She's my girl."