Taylor's driver had taken them to the hospital and now they sat in the waiting room on a small leather couch. She avoided looking at Karlie's wrist. It made her feel really bad for her. Her hand was shaking and she could tell the model was in a lot of pain. She was biting her lip, trying to keep tears back while Taylor wished she could just take away her pain. She had saved her life, she didn't deserve to have to bare through this pain. But everything seemed to happen for a reason. If the past hour had never happened, then they would both be at home right now, fearing their next meet. The older girl would still believe they were a lost love and she was a huge mess that nobody wanted to deal with.
This had to be for a reason.
"Do you want to take off your coat? It will make you more comfortable." She asked Karlie who nodded her head in agreement. She began to take the one arm out and when she got to her cast, Taylor helped her from beside, carefully easing the coat. She took the warm fabric and folded it up, placing it back on the younger girl's lap.
They shared a glance at each other for a few seconds before it caught the eye of Karlie. A small pool of blood was showing through her cast. It didn't look like much on the surface, but both girls knew there was a lot more underneath. That cast was huge and it would take a lot of blood for even just a little bit to soak through. That's what scared the taller girl.
Her eyes widened and she felt her heart beat faster. This meant that she wouldn't only need a new cast, she would need new stitches and she hated that part. They were so painful.
At this point, she felt tears pool in her eyes. She wasn't scared like a child might be, she was just overwhelmed and in pain. That's what she told herself.
"Hey... come here," Taylor said when she saw a tear travel down her cheek. Karlie shuffled closer to her and leaned against her shoulder as the shorter girl wrapped her arm around her. "You're okay, everything will be okay. I promise." She told her, her hand carefully reaching over to her left hand. She intertwined their fingers, being cautious to not touch her wrist in between them.
Karlie tried everything she could to stop herself from crying. There were so many people around her who couldn't see her like this, they just couldn't. It was no use though, it was going to happen at some point. She was still trying to process the information about the proposal. She almost wanted to cry about that too. She wished they could have stayed the same and they could have gotten married. She would have said yes, no doubt.
A small sob left her lips which caused her to bury her face in Taylor's neck.
The older girl held her tight against her, feeling a new kind of ache in her heart. This ache was physically painful. She wanted it to go away but it just wouldn't. Maybe trying to make Karlie think that they couldn't ever happen again was a bad idea. She should just ditch that thought. They could still work, maybe not the same, but it could still be something special like the first time.
Forget it, Taylor. She's not going to want you back.
No, no of course not.
A tear drop fell on her shoulder which brought her out of her thoughts. The tear drop was followed by a squeeze of her hand which was holding Karlie's. She looked over at the other girl, the painful ache showing up again, when she saw the broken expression on her face. Clearly this wasn't all about her arm. There was something else bothering her.
Oh great, you've upset her, haven't you?
"Karlie, what's wrong?" She asked, keeping her voice soft as to not upset her more. The younger woman lifted her head, taking her hand out of Taylor's grip to wipe her tears. She felt ashamed for crying this much. She couldn't help it. Everything was floating to the surface now. The pain both emotional and physical, the proposal, her letter, the past three years...
"It's just... everything's coming to the surface now and I can't control it." She said. Her voice sounded weak and full of sadness and regret. Taylor could barely stand it, she thought she was going to break down crying too.
"I get that. The same thing's been happening to me too." She told her. Karlie glanced at her, eyes glassy with tears.
"Really? How are you still holding it together?"
She shrugged. She really wasn't sure.
"It's embarrassing." The model whispered, leaning her head back on Taylor's shoulder. The singer couldn't help but to smile a little bit. Maybe she wanted them to get back together after all. Maybe. If she could control herself, clean up her problems, fix the issues - if that was even possible to do in the first place. But for Karlie, she would do anything.
"Karlie Kloss."
Both their heads turned to see a doctor standing near them. She had a warm smile on her face. It was almost as if she knew just who she was going to see next.
Karlie forced a small smile towards the nurse before standing up. Taylor was surprised at first when she thought the younger girl was just going to go in by herself. But a second later, she turned around, eyeing Taylor with pleading eyes. She knew it, but it wasn't a bad thing. She understood where Karlie was coming from and she was more than willing to sit with her while they dealt with her wrist.
Truth was she would've gone in with her anyways, wanting to make sure everything was okay.
So with that, she stood up and followed the doctor beside Karlie to an examination room.
When they got there, the doctor introduced herself as Dr. Melinda. She seemed to be in her early forties with shoulder length red hair and pale skin. She also appeared to be really kind and gentle. Taylor thanked her mentally for that. The model hated these kinds of situations. She was already growing nervous, standing closer than usual to her on Taylor's right which left her cast completely visible.
Before Dr. Melinda could speak up again, she spotted the golf ball size circle of blood showing through Karlie's cast. The singer could tell, just by the slightly surprised expression on her face, that this wasn't a good thing.
"Ms. Kloss? Can I get you to sit up on this table for me please? I want to take off your cast to get a good look at your wrist beneath it." The doctor said, gathering up her doctor stuff - whatever all that stuff was. Taylor had no idea.
But Karlie did so, letting the doctor carefully take off her cast while Taylor stood beside her. They didn't dare look as the doctor inspected it. The both of them knew that would be the end of them holding it together if one were to even take a glance. Karlie especially. She could only imagine the scene on her arm as the doctor cleaned it. It was not a pretty sight in her mind. With every touch to her arm, she could feel a sharp pain run through her wrist. She couldn't wait until this could be over and she could be cuddled up with Taylor in the car back home.
Wait, what?
Well, maybe not like that because that would be weird, would it not? They weren't together anymore and probably will never be able to be. Although, Karlie couldn't help but fantasize about the two of them and what it would be like if they were both still a couple. She wondered if they would be in this situation right now or not. She supposed they wouldn't because if she was with Taylor then she wouldn't have a reason to basically move in with Cara. Though she couldn't be certain.
"Well, that's quite the injury Miss Kloss. How did it happen in the first place?" The doctor asked.
Karlie sighed, "I was putting up Christmas decorations with a friend when I fell off the ladder. When I landed, my arm scraped against an ice chunk."
The doctor nodded, thinking it over for a moment.
"And what about today?" She asked again. "How did you re-injury it?" Her gaze fell on Karlie and stayed there which made the blonde a little awkward.
"Um, Taylor almost got hit by a car when she was crossing the street and so I pulled her back and saved her but I ended up tripping and bringing her down with me. It all happened so fast and I landed on the ground pretty hard. Taylor kind of happened to land on my wrist." She explained, glancing over to the blue eyed girl a moment after. Blue eyes met green and the communication shared through just that one gaze was something the average person would have to start a conversation for. The two of them knew just what the other one was thinking. With just one look, Karlie swore their was a story in Taylor's eyes, every single time.
An apology was clear in Taylor's eyes as she inched her hand forward, placing it carefully over Karlie's free hand. The model took her hand in hers, simply shaking her head and mouthing a 'no'. Her green eyes communicated that it wasn't Taylor's fault and she obviously couldn't help it so she shouldn't be apologizing.
The older girl only shrugged, peeling her gaze away from Karlie's. Both of them turned their attention back to Dr. Melinda who had a look of surprise on her face.
"That is a valid reason for why it seems to be so bad this time around. We should get this cut stitched up first and then we'll do an x-ray to make sure everything's still okay." She spoke up. And with that, Taylor held the hand of her ex-girlfriend while the stitches got done and went with her all the way to the x-ray room. Through that whole process, she didn't leave her side once except for the x-ray since she couldn't exactly be in the room when that was going on. For the rest of the time, they were hand in hand. It was a slightly foreign concept to them but in a way it had a sense of familiarity to it. They were constantly hand in hand back when they were still dating but over the months, it was almost as if they forgot what that closeness felt like. Taylor was glad to be able to experience a closeness like this one again and especially with Karlie.
Now they were sitting in the doctor's office, awaiting the result of the x-ray after Karlie had gotten her arm in a new cast. This time it was yellow. She liked the warm colors for her cast. They made her feel even just a little better about having a broken wrist.
They were currently pressed up against each other on a couch in the office. At this point they basically refused to be apart. In the back of their minds, they were both wondering what caused a change of attitude like this to come along so quickly. Neither had the answer.
But finally, after what felt like ages of waiting, Karlie broke the silence.
"That's going to be all over the news, the incident earlier today." She said, still examining her blank yellow cast. There wasn't much to examine though.
Taylor sighed, "It probably already is. It's been about three hours, maybe even more honestly. From all my experiences, there's got to at least be a couple articles up by now."
She glanced over at the younger girl. She just wouldn't stop running her fingers up and down on the cast and drawing strange imaginary patterns.
"Is it really hurting?" She asked after a few more seconds. Karlie looked up at her, stopping the patterns on her cast, and shrugged.
"It's throbbing but it's not too painful. It just feels kind of nice to have a brand new cast on." She explained. The older girl thought it over. That made sense how nice of a feeling, how clean of a feeling, it was to get things like that changed at times like this. It felt like a relief in a way.
"Yeah, I get that. Tell me if you're in a lot of pain though."
"I will." Karlie looked into her eyes and started to smile after a minute. "Thank you, Taylor. You're so sweet." At that compliment, the singer smiled as she felt her heart warm and her cheeks possibly flush. It had been a while since she had gotten a whole hearted comment like that.
"Just like you always used to say."
"Yeah, you're right." Karlie was still smiling widely while her leg was pressed up against Taylor's, their hands once again intertwined. "I even remember a few times exactly when I would tell you about how sweet you are. And it wasn't just that. There were times when I would get stuck rambling on about how loving or how beautiful you are."
By now, the older girl was a mess. She was pretty sure she was blushing with a huge smile on her face. Whenever she spoke, her voice felt damp with all different emotions. There were also many different memories coming back to her at this moment. Memories of past panic attacks and how Karlie would always be there to calm her down in her own perfect way.
"Yeah. Through all those panic attacks, you were there. Thank you for that." Taylor said, grinning. But that's when she realized it. She really needed to talk this through with Karlie properly.
She knew she wanted this to go back to what it was but she wasn't so sure that would be possible. She wanted to be able to live with the model again, go to her photoshoots, spend all the time she was able to with her - every precious little moment. She wanted it to last forever. She never wanted to leave the girl sitting beside her right now. She wanted her. Nobody else. Just her. Heck, she wanted to be able to call Karlie her wife too, not just her girlfriend.
They needed to talk.
"Hey Karlie?" Taylor suddenly spoke up, not sure where she found the courage to do so. The green eyed girl gave her her full attention. "I have something I need to talk to you about-"
She didn't even get to finish her sentence when the doctor came back with the results. Karlie gave her the look of 'we will talk later' before going back to listening to the doctor. Maybe it wasn't going to happen right now but she was determined to get that talk in sometime through out the week.