He nodded. “Okay,” he said quietly. “Yours.”
My heart flipped over in my chest, and I held him a little tighter. Mine.
Chapter 14
Blaze
After plugging Jaxon’s phone into the charger, I set it on the counter, then dropped into the chair beside his hospital bed. He’d been seen almost immediately after bringing him into the emergency room. At first, they’d looked as if they were going to brush him off for hours, but when I added that he suffered from migraines due to a previous head injury, they got him into a triage room, and then a bed pretty quickly.
Medication was administered through an IV, and it knocked him out cold within minutes. Covered with two heated blankets since the medication tended to make patients cold, he was sleeping peacefully, the steady rise and fall of his chest the only movement he made.
A light knock sounded on the door, and then, his treating physician stepped in, along with a nurse. The nurse began to check Jaxon’s vitals while the doctor turned to me. “Does he have a neurologist?”
I nodded. “He will be establishing care at his first appointment tomorrow,” I told him. “I’m not all too sure why he hasn’t been to see one yet, but I went to his last appointment with his primary care doctor and demanded he be referred.”
The doctor nodded. “I’m not a neurologist by any means, but maybe Botox could be a solution for his migraines. The injections temporarily block the nerves that are triggering his migraines.” He glanced at Jaxon, who hadn’t even budged. “And he’s had some issues with his vision since his injury, correct?” When I nodded, he grunted. “I would talk to his neurologist about referring him to neuro-ophthalmologist. Surgery might be an option to correct his vision, or at least make it somewhat better, but don’t hold me to that. Worst case scenario, they can get him prism glasses, which will help with his double vision. It will just mean no more contact lenses.”
I nodded, thankful the doctor was laying out potential options for Jaxon, even though he wasn’t his primary care doctor. These were things Jaxon’s regular doctor should have been discussing with him. Jaxon would be lucky if I ever let him go back to that fucker for neglecting his care for so fucking long.
The doctor cleared his throat. “I’d also be searching for a new primary care doctor for him because Jaxon should have been seeing a specialist from the get-go.” Damn, he’d practically read my mind.
“Vitals are good,” the nurse spoke up. “He’ll just be sleeping this off for a while. We can keep him here or send him home, whichever you prefer.”
“Keep him here,” I spoke up. “We have to climb stairs to get to our apartment, and I don’t want to risk him falling.”
The doctor nodded. “We’ll keep him overnight then and will wheel him to a regular room in a couple of hours. In the meantime, you should probably call someone to bring you some food, or maybe run down to one of the restaurants. He won’t even notice you’re?—”
“Knock, knock,” Hunter called, pushing open the door, accidentally cutting the doctor off mid-speech. “The food fairy heard someone mention food.”
I snorted a laugh. The doctor smiled when Hunter held up a white plastic bag with two Styrofoam containers, plastic silverware sitting on top. Two bottles of water were peeking out of his hoodie pocket. “I’ll leave you to it. If Jaxon wakes up or if you think he needs attention, just use the red button on his bed to call for a nurse,” the doctor instructed.
With that, he left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him and the nurse. Hunter set the food on the counter, then moved over to Jaxon. “How is he?”
“Out of it for a while. They gave him some kind of migraine cocktail, as they call it. Knocked him out within literal minutes. He’s sleeping, and I think the migraine is gone.” I moved over to the food bag and pulled out the containers. “The doc suggested I ask his neurologist to also refer him to some fancy eye doctor.” I glanced at Hunter. “Both of these the same?”
“Yours was on top,” Hunter said, moving to come to my side. He slid the container to me and tossed a plastic fork on top, then set a bottle of water on the counter. “Eat up.” He grabbed his own food and settled in one of the chairs. I sat in the one closest to Jaxon’s bed. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. I stayed back to talk to Coach so he wouldn’t make all of us suffer tomorrow for you skipping practice.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Jaxon takes priority over football.”
“I know,” Hunter replied, and I knew he did. Samuel was his priority, and he’d skipped practice a number of times in high school to be there for Samuel when Samuel had needed him. “When I told him Jaxon had to be rushed to the ER, he simmered down. Asked how he was doing. Told me to tell you to reach out to him if either of you needs anything.”
I grunted. “That was… kind of him.”
Hunter hummed. For a few minutes, we ate in silence. He’d gotten us pasta from a place close to campus, and it was hitting all the right spots. I was such a slut for pasta. Wasn’t supposed to really eat it while the season was in session, but fuck, I couldn’t resist it. Besides, what the coaches didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
“Any chance he’ll get better?” Hunter quietly asked.
I looked at him, only to find him staring at Jaxon. I sighed, glancing at my boyfriend, who was finally getting some real rest. “Honestly, I don’t know,” I confessed. “His primary care doc didn’t sound very optimistic, but he was also reluctant to send him to a specialist, so what the fuck could he really know. But maybe we’ll know more tomorrow. His appointment with the neurologist is at three in the afternoon.”
Hunter looked at me. “Let me know what’s said?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
Chapter 15
Jaxon
The neurologist, a kind blonde woman who barely looked over thirty, hummed as she stared at her computer screen, where she had all of my previous CT scans pulled up. “Based on this,” she finally said, looking at me, “I’d like to start you with Botox. The number of migraines you’re having and with them being so bad you had to go to the emergency room yesterday isn’t normal. Do you think you can handle doing an MRI today? I’d like to take a look at the nerves to see which ones may be compressed so we know what areas to target.”
