“I tried my best,” I said with a laugh, hoping that it didn’t show my sadness or disappointment. “You were easy to be a great guy for.”
She took my hand and squeezed it. Again, maybe under different circumstances, I would have felt encouraged, but this only served to make me feel a little... well, a little put to the side.
“I need some rest,” she said. “But let me come and see you when all is well, okay? Text me your address.”
Maybe all isn’t lost yet.
“It shouldn’t be long. I’m a nurse, I know how to treat myself.”
“I have no doubt about that,” I said with a laugh.
I leaned forward to kiss her—on the forehead. It felt like the right gesture to say I cared about her, but one that wouldn’t cross any boundaries she wasn’t comfortable crossing herself. She squeezed my hand again and closed her eyes.
With that, I stood up, looking at her vitals just to make one hundred percent certain nothing horrible would happen. She was healthy and fine—she really did just need a nap.
I walked out of the room, shut it behind me, and suddenly also very much felt in need of a nap. It was too bad I couldn’t just rent out one of the hospital rooms—it would have made it a lot easier to sleep and see Kaitlyn later.
“Hey, bud.”
I looked up to see Axle standing before me, his hands in his pockets. He looked equally tired, but he also looked quite pleased to see me.
“Thanks for stopping Butch and me back there,” he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’d be dead without you.”
“Of course,” I said. “You... you want to know the truth? It was déjà vu for me. It was like I could see you going in there, just as I had in Iraq. It was a pure gut instinct that made me stop you guys. Not... not anything rational.”
Axle smiled. He really, genuinely smiled.
“You’re carrying their legacy forward,” he said. “You took their lessons and saved two lives. That can’t be understated, Patriot. Don’t ever forget that.”
I thanked him, hugged him, and walked past him. My actions were simple, but Axle’s words were something I would never forget. It really did feel like I had carried the legacy of my comrades forward. It really felt like I had kept their spirits, if not their bodies, alive.
Suddenly, it felt as if the world felt ten times lighter. It felt like the air was much less dense to move through. It felt like life would be much easier to get through.
The only question left, I supposed, was if I was going to do it with the woman I loved or if I was going to do it alone.
Kaitlyn
Two Days Later
Sunday evening came, and I finally—finally—got dismissed from the hospital.
It was sort of funny how, for most of my life, I had rolled my eyes at patients when they asked to be let out early. I had more patience than the average human, but relative to other nurses, I could get a little exasperated with patients. Did they not understand that we were keeping them in for their own safety?
And then I wound up in a hospital bed with what I saw as nothing more than some ugly bruising, and I quickly empathized a hell of a lot more with patients than before. I was getting impatient with seeing Michael again, especially since I think he got the wrong idea about how I had left him. I was just trying to express my gratitude Friday night, but I began to fear he probably thought I was saying that he and I personally could never work out.
And nothing could be further from the truth.
But, being the good staff that they were, none of the doctors or nurses would release me until Sunday morning. It probably actually hurt that they all knew me personally. As soon as I had the okay, I made a beeline for the exit before I forgot that I didn’t even have my car with me.
Fortunately, the separation I had from the car gave me the chance to realize that there was something else I wanted to get—something that Michael had made mention of that I was happy to fulfill. I went back to my locker room, grabbed it, and then went outside. I took a cab home—all the while ruing the fact that it was nowhere near as exhilarating as a motorcycle ride—and hurried up the stairs.
Only to see that someone had kicked down my door.
Damnit, Michael.
But, just as the car not being at the hospital had given me an excuse to go back and get the thing I wanted to make Michael happy with, the door being kicked down gave me a convenient excuse to call Michael.
“Hey,” he said, the pleasant surprise in his voice evident.
