Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,24

He guessed that she’d dropped it though when she’d opened his drawers to put his things away for him, and had seen the ring box that he’d been hiding in his sock drawer.

She glanced at him apologetically, and he felt his heart sink thinking that she was going to say no, but then she ran towards him and his arms instinctively wrapped around her. Her lips found his, and he could feel the intensity in her kiss. Yet he slowly pulled back from it, and from her.

“Is that a yes?” He asked nervously.

“Yes,” she said smiling and kissing him again; “it’s definitely a yes.”

***

It had been six days since Charlie had come out of surgery, and Matt was sat at her bedside. He’d been by her side almost continuously since he’d been shown to her room, and he was still refusing to listen to any talk of her never regaining consciousness or what state she might be in if she did. He had refused to talk about options, and he had refused to go home without her.

Harry had tried to step in on a few occasions to make him see reason, and to ask what he should do as Charlie’s father, but Matt had finally lost his temper on day four. He had yelled that he had no understanding of the situation or the medicine, and that his opinion didn’t matter anyway. Legally speaking, as her husband he made her medical decisions whilst she couldn’t.

Harry had tried to talk to Oak about Matt’s behaviour, but Oak had said that whilst Matt was being unreasonable he was correct in saying that Charlie’s medical decisions were his to make.

Nurse Willis, on a request from Harry and from Matt’s parents, walked into Charlie’s room to speak to Matt about going home for a while. He was sat in the chair by Charlie’s bed, just as he had been for the past six days, and he was holding her hand and listening to his iPod. His legs were stretched out in front of him, with one ankle crossed over the other, and he was resting his feet on the frame of her bed.

When Matt noticed that Nurse Willis had come into the room, he pulled the earphones of his iPod out of his ears and looked at her expectantly. He had gotten used to people coming in and out of the room to ask him if he wanted food or coffee, or to see if he’d considered going home. Although he did wonder why they still bothered asking the later, he thought he’d made it clear by now that he’d go home when Charlie went home.

“You need to go home Matthew. This is no good for you,” she said; “and we both know that Charlie would be furious at you for behaving this way.”

Matt didn’t respond.

“You’ve been here for six days straight,” Nurse Willis continued. “I think you’ve proven now how much you love her, but this vigil isn't helping. Or is it? Take a look. I mean it Matthew, look at her. Look at Charlie, or look at her chart. Is she getting any better? You’re the doctor not me.”

“What do you want me to do Anne? Give up on her?” Matt asked, knowing that he’d just used Nurse Willis’ forename for the first time since he’d met her.

He sat up and pulled his feet down from off Charlie’s bed. He knew that he needed to prepare himself for yet another argument, but he also noticed that if Nurse Willis had minded that he’d used her first name then she wasn’t letting it distract her from her task. He saw that she was looking at him with concern, and like she was about to continue to berate him.

“No, not give up,” she said; “just take a bit of time for yourself.”

“If I go home, will everyone give me a break? If I go home and rest for an hour, will everyone stop pestering me to leave this room?” Matt asked.

Nurse Willis looked at him sympathetically, and Harry came into the room and said; “if you go home, I’ll not move from her side until you get back.”

“I’ll stay too,” Nurse Willis added.

Matt nodded. An hour he thought, he could do an hour. Not that it looked like he had much choice. After six days of arguing he was too tired to fight both Harry and Nurse Willis.

He got up and kissed Charlie lightly on the forehead, and then he put his earphones back