said. Then he finally smiled, though it wasn’t even close to his brightest one. “I’m sure I’ll be picking up your dry cleaning for life.”
“Hell with that. I’m going to be living in sweats and T-shirts for a while. There won’t be a need to dress up until these wounds heal and we can get our asses back to work.”
“Amen to that,” Sleep said.
“I think I might have you making liquor runs for me though,” Eyes said.
“I don’t think I’m going to be running for a while. But as soon as I can, I’ll make them for us both,” Sleep assured him.
And then they saved their energy as they plugged along, one foot in front of the other. They didn’t focus on what was behind them, they didn’t focus on the pain. They simply moved forward with a sheer determination to make it home . . .
Chapter Sixteen
Joseph was jolted awake by a loud beeping sound. His eyes popped open, and it took him a few seconds to orient himself as he tried to figure out where he was. Even in his haze, he found himself being careful, grateful when he realized he was in the hospital bed next to his wife.
He’d woken this same way for several days in a row and it still disoriented him. But before he’d fallen asleep the night before, the doctors had assured him they’d wake Katherine soon, very soon. He needed to speak to her, to hear her voice.
A nurse walked into the room and Joseph gazed at her, hoping for good news. “What time is it? Is everything okay?” He eyed the machine she’d just pushed buttons on, making the alarm stop.
“It’s ten in the morning,” she told him with a gentle smile. “And all is okay. Her IV simply ran out and I replaced it. I apologize, I should’ve turned off the alarm sooner.”
“I’m not getting a whole lot of sleep these days. Any noise will wake me,” Joseph told her. He felt guilty every time he fell asleep. What if something happened to his wife and he could’ve stopped it? He knew that wasn’t rational, but he wasn’t very sane these days.
“Sleep does much good for the body, so you let me know if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for you to get some,” the nurse said as she moved over to a flat screen near the head of his wife’s bed and began typing. He didn’t say anything as she inputted information, not wanting to distract her and maybe cause her to get something wrong. He’d heard horror stories of medicine doses being entered wrong or vitals being incorrect. Those minor mistakes could cost a person’s life. He wasn’t taking a chance like that.
She finished then gazed at him. “Can I get you anything?”
“No, thank you,” he said. He began to carefully pull his arm away from his wife, taking extra precaution not to snag any of her tubes or wires as he extracted his large six-foot-five, two-hundred-ten-pound frame from the small bed. It was a good thing his delicate wife didn’t take up much space. Joseph gently pulled himself from the bed, taking caution not to jolt Katherine.
“Has anything changed in the past few hours?” he asked. He had a ping of guilt he hadn’t asked that the second he’d woken. He was functioning on very little sleep, though, and that was fogging his brain.
“Nothing has changed as of now. Her vitals have remained stable, and her oxygen levels are good. I’ll have the doctor speak directly to you about the plan for today and tomorrow, but I believe we’re on track with Dr. Whitman’s course of action. The plan is to slowly wake her tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, thank you. I’ll be here all day. I might need to step out for a few walks and to speak to my family, but as long as I’m not in the way, I’d prefer to spend most of my time in here,” Joseph said.
“Of course, Mr. Anderson. I’ll have the room cleaned while you’re out.”
“Thank you. That would be appreciated,” Joseph told her.
The nurse gave him a sweet, genuine smile before she turned and left, closing the door behind her. Joseph took a moment to stretch, his entire body aching. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt so old and almost . . . frail. Neither of those words would be ones anyone would use to describe him.
He was a giant of a man with endless