Page 6 of Petals & Promises

“We will keep that in mind to talk about once we are out of the woods,” Yun-Sun said with a kind smile. “There had been some concern on her end about bonding since that would throw her into a heat. Does that worry no longer apply, or should we also wait on that as well?”

Nurse Harlow grinned at the question and how Yun was phrasing it since Eli and Crew were sitting in the room. “My answer to that would be, as long as she is cleared for normal physical activity, and there are no apparent complications Dr. Arbour mentions, then she would be cleared to resume normal life. Just to be clear, when I say normal, I mean normal for the average Omega who never had a heart problem.”

Eli cleared his throat loudly and shifted uncomfortably in his seat but didn’t say a word. That man had more self-restraint than a monk, but as we saw today, when he reaches the limit of his restraint, you better watch out.

“You mentioned there would be things we need to be careful of,” Warrick reminded.

“Yes, yes I did,” Nurse Harlow mumbled as she pulled a few pages off her clipboard and handed them to Warrick. “While many things won’t be a concern in day-to-day life, there are a few areas of her health we won’t be able to fix. Her diet will need to remain much like it was, but the one thing that isn’t a negotiation is caffeine. By that, I mean no coffee, energy drinks, stimulants, or drugs. We fixed the plumbing issue of her heart, but the genetic aspect of this messes with the electrical signals, and getting mixed messages from things like caffeine isn’t going to be helpful.”

Warrick offered me the sheets he’d been handed, and I looked over the list of post-surgery concerns which seemed fairly typical. Flipping to the next page, I found bullet points and explanations for lifestyle changes, many of which Rosie had already been adhering to.

“What does this mean, sudden drops in blood pressure?” I asked. “I thought you said she didn’t need her monitor anymore?”

“I suppose that was a bit hasty for me to say,” Nurse Harlow admitted. “She won’t need it to track her heart rate as precisely as she once did or if her blood pressure rises due to activity. Now, you’ll be looking for the opposite. It’s a side effect of some of the drugs she’ll have to be taking for the rest of her life to prevent any rejection of the foreign material used. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem, but…”

“Bailey-Rose isn’t a normal case,” Crew said, finishing her thought. “Yeah, I was waiting for that to come up… it always does.”

Nurse Harlow shifted so she could see him, her expression heartbroken for ever having to bring it up. “You know we do everything in our power to give her the best life possible. However, there simply isn’t any other choice. On a bright note, it does put her in the category of patients who can request a service dog. I know she’s always been hoping that would be an option for her.”

Feeling Rosie’s foot twitch under my hand pulled me out of past conversations and back to the present. There was an odd blip on the heart monitor, followed by another. Vili, who was sitting next to her, started to sing softly. A gentle croon in his native language had her relaxing, and the small frown between her brows relaxed hearing Vili’s voice.

Could it be that she'd gotten worried when we stopped talking?

“Guys, I think she needs to know we’re here,” I pointed out. “Remember how they always say people in a coma can still hear what’s happening around them? I would bet anything hearing us close by is comforting her.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Yun-Sun agreed. “Just like right after we met, she had an instant attachment to us, and it was hard for her to be away from us.”

“Pretty sure that goes both ways now,” Gareth added. “I can’t even process the thought of ever going back to work. It’s not like they really need me. It’s just assumed if you’re a Watson, then you work at the family business.”

Feeling a wave of fatigue wash over me, I sank heavily into the open armchair. “God, I can’t even think that far ahead right now, but I understand where you’re coming from. What could possibly be more important than being with her?”

“Guys, think about it… our Omega owns four percent of The Snuggery. None of us would have to work if we didn’t want to,” Warrick reasoned.

His idea received a rather disgruntled sound from Eli, pretending to sleep on the other couch.

“I didn’t say that’s what we were going to do, just that it was possible,” Warrick muttered, crossing his arms like a pouting kid. “Besides, I don’t need to run The Fat Mule. I choose to. If I brought in a manager I trusted to run the place, I could be hands-off dealing with things from home pretty easily.”

Yun sipped on his coffee from where he stood near the window of Rosie’s room. “Might I suggest we see how things go with her recovery before we make any major life changes? Today has been traumatic not only with what happened with Bailey-Rose but also our meeting with the Scent Matcher. We all need time to process, as does the one person who can’t share her vote on this matter.”

“Yeah, we know how much she loves it when we make choices for her without telling her,” Gareth said with a huff of laughter then leaned forward. “Hey, what was Nurse Harlow talking about when she mentioned the service dog? Somehow, I think that should be something we do a little research on.”

“Let’s tackle that tomorrow. Right now, I think we should take turns getting some sleep,” I suggested. “If Rosie needs to have one of us talking to her, that means someone should be awake. Vili, you good to stick with her for like an hour or so?”

Vili shot me a thumbs-up, letting me off the hook as my body seemed to melt into the armchair. I didn’t know what it is about hospitals, but they seemed to put you in a time freeze. Right now, I had no concept of what time it was or if we were still in the same day. The only reason I knew it was nighttime was because of the window in the room.

Flipping my legs up on the armchair, I attempted to get some rest. Now, if only my brain were as tired as my body, it would slow the hell down enough to let me sleep.

five

Warrick

A pair of mismatched eyes stared up at me as I grinned down at the most beautiful woman in the world. She was born to be an artist with one eye the color of the clearest blue water you’ve ever seen and the other a soft light green that I would dare to call seafoam. While my Care Bear’s eyes were open, they weren’t quite focused. Dr. Arbour decided she was doing well enough to test bringing her out of sedation.

“Bailey-Rose, it’s Doc Arbour. If you can hear me, squeeze my hand,” he instructed as he flicked a small flashlight into her eyes. “Good, very good, Bailey-Rose. Now let’s try to wiggle your toes… both feet, please.”

We all watched her dainty, uncovered feet for her to wiggle them and let us know there was no damage to her mind during surgery. A grin pulled at my lips as an irrational amount of joy flooded through me at the sight of her pretty purple polished toes as they did a little jig.

“Wonderful, simply wonderful,” Dr. Arbour praised, squeezing her hand. “Now, I have no doubt your throat is pretty sore from the ventilator. Would you like an ice chip or two?”