Worth the wait

Chapter Thirty-five.

His eye opened in the early morning light coming through the covered window, a rhythmic beep coming from the side of the bed. Looking around while his vision adjusted to the light he noticed his right arm in a cast up to his elbow, there was a dull ache emitting from it which is suspected actually would be worse if it wasn't for the horrendous head ache he had. He heard talking from the other side of the door as silhouettes walked by the window. Turning his head slightly so he didn't cause the head ache to worsen, he looked to his left and saw a still sleeping Charlotte curled up in the chair with her head resting on the bed and her hand covering his. Opening his mouth to call out to her he realised how dry and scratchy it was. Tying to swallow a couple of times in hope of moistening his vocal cords enough to speak but each swallow caused a painful serge to rush to his head. The bastard really did a number on him he thought to himself. Deciding to gain her attention through a less painful manner, he started to wriggle his fingers. Sure enough, he felt her start to stir from her light slumber. Wriggling them again caused her to sit bolt upright and look at with wide puffy eyes.

"You're awake!" She said as she gently took his hand in both of hers and kissed it before holding it to her cheek.

He let out a croaky groan. "Water." Was about all he could manage. She let go of his hand and stood up.

"I'll get some, I'll be right back." She gave him a tight-lipped smile before heading out the room.

A few minutes later she came back in with a cup and straw. She stood beside him and held the straw to his mouth "Just take little sips, ok." She cooed and gently placed a hand on his cheek as he pulled his mouth away from the straw.

"Morning beautiful." He croaked. His throat still scratchy from being parched. A smile lit up her face making him smile for a split second only to then screw his face up in pain. "Lott, my head." head is he groaned.

"I'll go get a nurse baby." She kissed his head before she headed out the room.

"Good morning Mr Smith." The doctor said as he and a nurse entered the room, with Charlotte close behind. "Do you know what happened? Why you're in the hospital." He asked.

"Jack." He groaned and looked up to Charlotte to see tears filling her eyes. "Hey! Im going to be ok Lottie." He tried to reassure her. "My head is splitting in half Doc. Any chance of some..." shooting pain cut him short and he let out another groan.

"We'll get you some pain relief right away." He said as the nurse went to get it. "Mr Smith, I'm just going to check your stats and and injuries then I'll tell you of our findings since you arrived at the hospital." Just then the nurse came back with a chart and tray. "Miss Williams, would you mind stepping out while we..."

"She stays!" Ben said to them.

"I'll just be outside the door." She whispered as she stroked his hair.

"No! I want you in here." Looking up at her pleading with his eyes that she not leave him.

"Your dad told me as he left that you're a stubborn one." The nurse said as she administered his pain relief causing Charlotte to snigger and him to flick her arm with his working hand.

"Just so you know, I'm mentally rolling my eyes at you right now!" He says to Charlotte as the side of his mouth curls up slightly.

"That should start to work soon Mr Smith." The nurse smiled and started to write down his observation results.

"Right, ok then." The Doctor said. "As Youre aware you were brought in after an attack. The police will arrive in due course to question you on the matter. If you're feeling up to it, I can allow them in. In the meantime, your injuries; as you may have noticed, your right arm is in a cast, you have a fractured radius. If you rest it, you can expect it to heal in around six weeks. You'll have to be mindful of any heavy lifting afterwards, for anything up to twelve months. The CT scan we did, has come back all clear which is great news having received a couple of bad blows to your head. The rest of your cuts, bruises and the swelling to you eye will all heal on their own. We're looking at discharging you possibly tomorrow afternoon, all being well but you will need to get plenty of rest and keep pain under control with pain medication. Do you have any questions?"