Trust Me (Phil Coulson Love Story)

Hospital Food...

Charlotte awoke to someone shaking her shoulder gently. She turned her head to see a young nurse standing beside the bed, next to where she climbed into the hospital bed with Phil. 
        “Hello” The nurse whispered softly like she was afraid of disturbing Phil. She gave Charlotte a warm smile and helped her climb out of the bed without pulling any wires or tubes. 
        “My name is Saundra. I’m assigned to be Mr. Coulson’s nurse.” Saundra pressed a small pile of clothes and a large towel into Charlotte’s hands. “Someone dropped of these clothes for you. They said you would be staying with Mr. Coulson for the duration of his stay.” 
        She led Charlotte into the room’s bathroom, where she set her down on a stool next to the sink. 
        “I borrowed some makeup remover from one of the girls. Let’s get this stuff off of you, and then you can take a shower. You will feel a lot better after a hot shower and a good breakfast.” 
        Charlotte sat numbly as the kind nurse gently wiped the makeup off of her face. After the makeup was gone, Saundra turned to Charlotte’s hair and started pulling all the tiny pins out of her hair letting it fall down her back in waves. Charlotte winced at the massive hairpin headache she had. Sleeping with her hair like that was not the best idea. Charlotte stood and Saundra helped her get out of the wedding dress. It closed in the back with a long row of tiny buttons and there was no way Charlotte could get out of it alone. 
        Saundra hung the dress on a hanger she had brought with her while Charlotte got in the shower. The hot water was almost scalding and it felt amazing on her sore body. Sleeping in her wedding dress was defiantly not the best idea. 
        She looked to her left and was surprised to see her favorite shampoo, conditioner and body wash sitting there. As she washed her hair, she decided not to question it. When she was done, she dried off and dressed in the clothes Saundra had given her. 
        Her favorite pair of faded blue jeans and her favorite t-shirt, Charlotte wondered how they knew, but again didn’t question it. She hung the towel up on the curtain rod and stepped out of the bathroom. The second her still damp feet hit the floor, she shivered. She looked around the room. A duffel bag from her and Phil’s apartment sat on the couch nearby. Her favorite pair of slip-on shoes sat on top of it. Again she didn’t question it, she just accepted it.
        As she slipped the shoes on, the nurse came back in with a tray of breakfast food. Charlotte looked at it and blinked. 
        “He can’t eat anything like that. He is in a coma.” She said, confused as to why the nurse didn’t think of that before getting Phil breakfast. 
        Saundra shook her head at Charlotte. 
        “It isn’t for him. It’s for you.” She stated simply as she set it down at a small table in the room and turned to see Charlotte shaking her head. Charlotte started to say that she was not hungry, but Saundra wasn’t having any of that. 
        “You need to keep your strength up and eat like you normally would. When he wakes up, he isn’t going to be very happy to see you underweight and sick.” Saundra pulled Charlotte to her feet and over to the table. Pushing her down in the chair next to the table, Saundra stood there until after Charlotte had taken a few bites. She was going to make sure this young woman didn’t waste away to nothing before her fiancé could wake up. 
        Charlotte continued to eat after Saundra left the room. Not because Saundra had forced her to eat, but because she hadn’t realized exactly how hungry she was. Yesterday at noon was the last time she had eaten anything at all and that was just a light lunch. Charlotte ate everything that was on the try and had everything back on the try just as Saundra came back in. In her hands were a couple aspirin and a small cup of water. Charlotte took the aspirin without complaint and settled in the large chair next to Phil’s bed. She would wait here for him to return if she stayed for months. She was not leaving him on her life. 
        When he didn’t show up for their wedding, she had felt betrayed, abandoned and unloved. She felt broken and hadn’t known what to do. She was used to men hurting her. She had grown up and lived with that, but Phil had been different. The others had never even pretended to actually love her. They never bothered with it, because they hadn’t thought she was actually worth the effort. 
        Phil had been different. He had shown her love and taught her to love in return. He had never done anything to deliberately hurt her. He had taken her walls down brick by brick and showed her the life she had never even dared dream of. When he didn’t show up, she didn’t know what to do or think or say. She wasn’t sure when she would have done after she left that church, where she would have gone, or if she would have been able to trust anyone after that. She felt terrible for feeling like Phil had just left her at the altar, like he had changed his mind. Charlotte was ashamed of herself. She didn’t deserve Phil. She was not worthy of Phil. If he ever woke up, she would not argue if he never wanted to see her again. 
        The days went by and though Phil’s injuries were healing, there was still no response from him. He remained in the coma. Charlotte remained in the room with him the entire time. She sank into a routine that, by the end of the week, all the nurses in the ward were familiar with. 
        After showering in the morning, Charlotte would eat her breakfast in the room where she could keep an eye on Phil. She spent the morning watching the world news. No one could tell what exactly she was looking for, but everyone could tell she was looking for something. She ate her lunch in the room as well and took a walk down to the gardens and sat down there for a while. When she got back to the hospital room, Charlotte sat down in the chair next to Phil’s bed and would either read a book or take a nap. Waking up at about five, Charlotte read for about an hour or so then walked down to the cafeteria to eat her dinner. She would have just eaten in the room, but Saundra had started dragging her down to the cafeteria to eat dinner with her and Charlotte had gotten into the habit of doing just that. 
        It was at that time of day, about two and a half weeks after she had been brought to Phil there at the hospital. Charlotte was sitting down in the cafeteria with Saundra, eating her dinner.
        While Saundra chattered away about something or another, Charlotte ate quietly, not really listening to what Saundra was saying. 
        When Saundra stopped talking and looked at her beeper, Charlotte looked up and saw the expression on the nurse’s face. Charlotte met Saundra’s eyes with the unasked question. Saundra nodded and Charlotte bolted out of her chair and out of the cafeteria before Saundra could put her beeper away. 
        Charlotte ran all the way back to Phil’s room, holding her breath the whole way there. By the time she reached Phil’s room her face was flushed and tears were streaming down her face. She grabbed hold of the door frame to stop herself from flying into the room and running into something. The doctor and nurse were leaving the room at that moment and there was only one thing in the world that had her attention and that was the only other pair of eyes in the room.