Page 21 of No Place Like You

I nod.

“I’ll see you around, Luce.”

“Bye, Dexter.”

12

Dexter

Hayden: Just taking care of a few things at the restaurant and I’ll meet you at the hospital.

Me: It’s been about four hours. We should hear something soon.

“Dex,”Charles calls from the hard, incredibly uncomfortable plastic chair across from me. When I look up, he’s standing to greet the doctor, who just walked out of the double doors we’ve been boring our eyes into for the last four hours.

I stand too, following Charles’s lead, just as Dr. Pham reaches us.

“How is she?” I ask.

“She’s resting, still slowly coming out of anesthesia,” she explains, gently patting a hand to the side of the brightly patterned scrub cap she has on her head. “We’re going to keep her in the recovery area for abit to monitor her.”

Charles and I both nod with matching intense, solemn expressions on our faces.

“But she did well. No complications, and we were able to get in there and do what we needed to. I just want to warn you,” she adds, “she’s going to be weak and really out of it. She has a chest tube on her side, and it’s going to cause quite a bit of discomfort.”

“How long will she have that?” Charles asks.

“One to two weeks. So she’ll have to go home with it after she’s stable enough to be discharged from here.”

Charles blanches for a second.

“But don’t worry,” Dr. Pham adds. “We’ll give thorough instructions on how to empty it and what to look for in case the site gets infected.”

“When can we see her?” I ask.

“Let’s let her wake up a bit and get settled in the recovery room,” she says, clasping her hands together in front of her. “The nurses will come and get you guys.”

“Thank you, Doc,” Charles says. Dr. Pham nods and smiles solemnly before she turns to walk away.

We glance at each other for a moment and stay silent.

Fuck. This is what it must feel like to come up for air. Air that’s been sucked out of you. Air that’s been drained and leached when you didn’t think you had any left to give.

I feel like the day’s been about twenty hours long, and it isn’t even noon yet. We got to the hospital early in the morning after packing every essential in Janet’s overnight bag to ensure she would be comfortable during her stay after her surgery. When they wheeled her to the surgery area, it was a waiting game. A long, ticking waiting game. Charles and I just sitting under water, waiting for the moment we’re told we can breathe again.

“Dex.” I hear the sound of my name. I look up to see Hayden making his way toward me. He’s not moving urgently, but his steps aren’t unhurried either. He’s got a look of concern on his face, and his shoulders are squared with his hands in his pockets and his head ducked a little low.

“Hey.”

“Any news yet?”

“Yeah, the doctor just came out and spoke to us,” I answer. “She’s being moved to the recovery area, and they’re going to let us know when we can see her.”

He nods. “Nat’s heading over here in about an hour. She just had a few things she needed to finish up at work.”

“You guys don’t have to be here,” I assure him, though it’s nice to see a friendly face after staring at the drab industrial carpeting at my feet for most of the morning.

He frowns. “No, we want to be here.”

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