Head Over Boots For You // Jenlisa

9: Grateful

Lisa

Lisa didn't recognize anything around her: the strange bed with bars on either side of it, two thick blankets piled on top of her, motivational posters with scenes of nature and baby animals hung up on the walls....

But when she saw Jennie sitting in the chair beside her bed, her head resting on top of her arm, she relaxed. Things couldn't be that bad, if Jennie was still there with her, right?

Lisa tried to remember what had happened. The image of a wolf leaping at her. Blood rushing down her leg. Jennie's body pressed up against hers as they rode through the night.

Lisa sat up in bed to get a better look at her leg, but she found it was remarkably difficult to move at all. She struggled up onto her elbows but found that once she got there she didn't have enough energy to stay. She collapsed back onto the pillows, which caused Jennie to stir beside her.

When Jennie finally lifted her head, she had a red indentation line running across her forehead from her arm and a little spot of drool at the corner of her mouth. If Lisa had to wake up in a hospital, barely able to move, she thought that having Jennie wake up beside her was the best case scenario. But most astonishingly, when Jennie looked at her, Lisa thought that concern was winning out over anger in her eyes.

"Hey." Jennie leaned forward, resting her folded hands onto the sheets beside Lisa. Lisa resisted the urge to reach over and hold them in her hand. "How are you feeling?"

Lisa took a minute to assess that. "I think I must be on some intense pain killers right now."

Jennie snorted a laugh, and for a moment, it felt like everything had returned back to normal. But Jennie's smile faded, and the familiar expression of pained acceptance settled back in again. "Yeah, well, that's what happens when you try to go bleed out and die of hypothermia." Jennie paused, as if she were deciding something. "It's like you couldn't only choose one way to die. You had to go for both at once."

Lisa couldn't believe it. Jennie was joking with her again.... Even if it was about her dying, but still, it wasn't animosity or aggressive sarcasm. Lisa tested her luck. "You know I don't do anything half-assed. Even dying."

Jennie graced her with a smile as she tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear and looked away. "It was scary, finding you out there like that. You were laying there in the snow, not moving... I'm lucky I found you at all. You hadn't told me where you were going."

Lisa's heart constricted, imagining how worried Jennie had been about her. On one hand, she hated putting Jennie through that, but on the other hand... Jennie had cared enough to leave the cabin after dark, on horseback, in the snow. It must have been dangerous for her, too.

"How did you even find me?" Lisa finally asked.

Jennie shot her a look. "You may find this hard to believe, but I picked up a thing or two working on the ranch for the past eight months."

"Yes, well... you had a pretty good teacher."

Lisa could tell Jennie was trying hard not to smile, but it was a losing battle. It almost felt like Lisa hadn't ruined everything between them a few days ago.

Almost.

Lisa came to a realization then, suddenly and all at once. She wasn't one for following impulses, but one was so clear, and so obviously right, that she couldn't ignore it. And she didn't want to ignore it.

"Jennie, can I ask you something? And please, be completely honest with me."

Jennie's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Alright."