“Please, Imi, just take me home. I want to go home,” he pleaded, taking my hand and pressing it to his mouth. “This place makes me crazy. All the poking and prodding and beeping. It’s fucking horrible!”
“Dr. Howell will be by to talk to you. You need to hear what he has to say first.” Yoss started pulling at the IV again. “Stop it!” I swatted his hand. “Just lie back down. If you drop dead because of your own stupid stubbornness, I will bring you back to life just so I can kill you myself!” I threatened.
Yoss finally left the IV alone and leaned back against the pillow. His strength was returning and there was finally some color in his cheeks. His eyes were more yellow than they had been that morning, which scared me.
“Well, I can’t have you reviving me just to murder me, can I?” Yoss snickered and I rolled my eyes, hiding my fear as best I could.
“So what did the good doc say? Am I toast?” Yoss asked dismissively and I glared at him. He looked contrite. “I didn’t mean to say that. I’m sorry. I know you’re worried. I’m sorry I worried you.” He tugged on my hand. “Come here,” he whispered. I inched closer.
His mouth quirked up slightly. “Closer than that.”
I leaned over him and he pulled my face down to his. “I’m sorry,” he whispered again just before he kissed me.
“I want you to be healthy, Yoss. I want you to get better and you can only do that if you listen to what Dr. Howell tells you to do. I want—” My voice cracked and I tried to get myself together. “I want our happily ever after, damn it!”
“And we’ll have it. I promise,” Yoss said.
I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against his. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You’ve done that too many times before.”
“Hey, look at me,” he murmured and I opened my eyes. Bright, bright green. “Even if our story doesn’t last forever, we’ll have a happy one while we’re living it. I can promise you that.”
I didn’t like that promise.
Not at all.
It sounded temporary.
Hadn’t he said that’s all we were?
I refused to believe that.
“What are you doing in ICU? Is everything all right?” Jason asked, finding me outside of Yoss’s room, chewing on my nails.
“Um. Well…” What should I say?
“Im, are you here checking up on your new client?” Tess asked, her eyes widening slightly.
I swallowed thickly. “Yes. I’m here checking on…”
“Agnes Sutton,” Tess filled in.
“Agnes Sutton. That’s right,” I said with relief.
Jason seemed to believe me. “Okay. I was just looking for Dr. Silvious. Have you seen him? He’s been hounding me all day about one thing or another.” My boss looked around distractedly.
“No, can’t say that I have,” I said tightly.
Jason patted my shoulder. “I’ll see you later, Imogen.”
Jason headed for the nurses’ station and I let out a noisy breath.
“You want to tell me why I felt the need to rescue you there?” Tess asked. She looked at the ICU room behind me. “Who’s in there, Im? What’s going on?”
Before I could say anything, she pulled the patient chart from the wall and looked at the name at the top.
“Yossarian Frazier. Isn’t that your homeless client?” she asked, frowning.
“Yes,” I replied weakly.
“What happened to him?” Tess looked at me with concern.
“He’s been slipping in and out of consciousness. Nose bleeds. Nausea. He’s going into acute liver failure,” I told her, my voice wobbling, unable to hide my emotion.
Tess narrowed his eyes. “Yossarian Frazier,” she said.
“Yes, that’s him,” I nodded.
Tess looked back down at his chart. “This doesn’t look good, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t.” I tried not to sob. Tess must have heard it.
“It doesn’t look like the bloom will have a chance to fade, huh?” Tess observed.
“I hope not, Tess. God, I hope not.” I turned towards the window looking into Yoss’s room, pressing my hand against the glass.
I felt Tess’s hand on my back and didn’t say anything else. I took comfort in her unspoken acceptance.
“I’m not staying here, Dr. Howell. Is there any reason I need to?” Yoss demanded. It was almost nine o’clock. Dr. Howell looked tired. Yoss had been arguing his discharge for the last forty-five minutes.
“Yoss, we’d like to keep you here for observation. Your liver can no longer synthesize proteins properly, thus your blood can’t clot. That’s incredibly dangerous. That’s why you’ve been experiencing nose bleeds. Your liver is shutting down. When that happens the rest of your organs will begin to shut down as well. Your best option is to stay in the hospital—”
“Why? Is there anything you can do for me here that I can’t do for myself?” he asked.
“We need to have you ready when a liver becomes available,” Dr. Howell reasoned.