Preath - Behind The Door

Recovering

11:00 A.M. the next morning - Christen's POV

It's later in the morning, actually closer to the afternoon now that I look over to the clock. I'm exhausted. I barely slept last night, I was too stressed about Tobin. We haven't done anything today other than chill in bed watching movies. I don't mind, though. I look over to Tobin who finally fell asleep again. I don't think she slept much at all last night either. I quietly get up and walk over to the calendar. We have to leave in 2 weeks for a national team camp. I hope she'll heal quickly enough to get back on the pitch for camp. I look back at her from where I'm standing. 

I decided to go outside to meditate for a bit while she was sleeping. As I'm about to head inside, I can hear her footsteps inching closer to the door. I open the door slowly, making sure she wasn't standing in front of it. I accidentally hit her with the door once before and she still mentions it. Wouldn't want that to happen again. 

"You won't hit me, you can open the door," she says grinning, standing back. 

I fully open the door now. "Did you just wake up?" I ask, having to look back to shut the door because for some reason I couldn't find the handle. 

"Yeah," she replies, reaching up with her one available hand attempting to brush the hair out of her face. 

"Do you need anything?" I ask, helping her pull her hair back.

"I think I should change the bandages on my hand, the blood is soaking through it." She responds, holding her hand out.

"Okay, I can do that. Anything else?" I reply. 

"No, I don't think so," she says, walking towards the counter to grab the new bandages.

"I got it baby, go sit on the couch and I'll bring all of it over." I say. I don't want her somehow messing her finger up worse than it already is. I grab the bandages and tape over to the couch and set them down before starting to unwrap the old bandages on her hand.

"Tell me if it hurts too much, you can take breaks in between the layers if you want." I suggest, slowly peeling the top layer of tape off. She nods as she looks down at her hand. I continue unwrapping the bandages until I feel her other hand grab onto my wrist. 

"Need a break?" I ask, looking up. She just nods and leans back on the couch.

"This sucks," she says, closing her eyes.

"I know. I'm sorry," I say, holding her good hand. She squeezes my hand for a second.

"I love you," she says, eyes still closed.

"I love you, too." I say, squeezing her hand back. "Let me know when I can start taking the other bandages off," I add. She nods her head and sighs. After a couple minutes she sits back up.

"Okay, you can take the rest off now." She says, looking down at her hand. I start unwrapping the bandages. 

"They really wrapped this up a lot," I say. The bandages seems as if they'll never end. I finally reach the last layer and peel it off slowly, knowing the stitches are right under it. 

"Wait- sorry. Can you just wait for one more second?" Tobin says, putting her head into her one good hand. 

"Yeah, sorry. Are you okay?" I say, looking over to her.

"Yeah, just need a second," she replies, her head still sitting in her hand. I look back down at her hand and can see how much blood soaked through the bandages. Quite a lot. 

"Okay, I'm good. Is this almost over?" She says, sitting back up.

"Yeah, you have one layer left and then it's done," I reply. She nods and sits still. I can feel her tense up. I go to peel the last bandage but pause.

"I can feel you tense up," I whisper smiling up at her. She half smiles back at me.

"Sorry, I'll try not to," she says, attempting to relax and loosen up. I look back down to focus on her hand and avoid hurting her as much as I can. I finally got the last layer off. 

"All done," I say, having to loosen up myself. I didn't realize how much I was tensing up, I was just focused all on her. Tobin hasn't looked at her hand at all yet.

"Should I look at it?" She asks, looking in the opposite direction.

"Umm...." I think about it. "If you want to. It doesn't look too bad. There's a lot of blood on it right now, though. I'll wipe it off and then you could look at it." I suggest, reaching for a cloth with water on it. I lightly clean around the stitches.

"Okay, it's all cleaned off," I say. She turns her head slowly and looks down at her hand.

"Wow. Looks... great." She says sarcastically. 

"It's doesn't look awful. Better than I thought," I add, trying to make her feel better about it.

"Yeah, I guess so. But I want it covered back up now," she adds, looking away again.

"Okay," I say, laughing quietly. I wrap her hand back up which goes much smoother than taking it off.

"Okay, you're all set now." I say, standing up and grabbing the old bandages to throw away.

"Thanks, Chris." She says, looking back at her hand before standing up.

I throw the old bandages away and look over at Tobin who is walking back to our bedroom.

"Need anything else Tobin?" I ask before she makes it to our room.

"Yeah." She replies. I wait for her to say what she needs.

"What do you need?" I ask after she doesn't respond.

"Just you." She responds. I roll my eyes jokingly and laugh while walking into our room.

"Smooth, Tobin. That was a good one." I say, poking her in the side before hopping onto our bed.

"I know." She says, shrugging and climbing into bed beside me. She turns to the nightstand to grab her water when I realize I forgot about the sunburn she got yesterday.

"Tobin!" I gasp, "I forgot all about your sunburn! Doesn't it still hurt?" I say, reaching my hand out towards her back.

"I mean, yeah. But this kinda distracted me," she replies, motioning towards her hand. 

"Here, I'll put more aloe on you, lay down." I add, getting up to get the aloe. I put it in the refrigerator so it would be nice and cold. 

I walk back into our room and climb on top of her. She's on her stomach. I start putting the aloe on her shoulders and accidentally got it all over her tank top. 

"Yeah, you're gonna have to take that off now." I say, covering up my laugh. She sighs before trying to wriggle it off. 

"Let me help you," I say, pulling her top over her head. "There, you can lay back down now." I say, throwing her top in the laundry basket across the room. I put more aloe on and she flinches.

"That's so cold, it feels like ice." she says. I can see the goosebumps on her skin. I continue rubbing it in, covering her entire back.

"There, your entire back is covered now." I say, sitting back and admiring my work. More like just sitting and looking at her bare back, but we'll go with what I thought of first. I look back towards her face and can see she fell asleep again. I climb off her carefully before going around our room and shutting the blinds. I cover her with a light blanket before getting in bed and sitting beside her as I scroll through my phone.