The Marrying Man

Chapter 17

I didn't like waking up. My belly was sore, and my head was pounding. When I cracked my eyes, the light almost blinded me. Then I made the mistake of coughing, and thought I was going to die. "Ohhh!" I groaned afterwards as I lay back on the bed, my body giving out in fatigue.

A bed? The fuck?

"Thomas? Thomas!" Avery cried as she stood from the chair next to the hospital bed that I was laying in. Just looking at her, I could tell something was wrong. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked like she had lost some weight overnight.

"I'm okay, just a little sore," I told her.

She put her laptop on a little table next to her chair and came over to the bed with tears in her eyes. Leaning down, she gently hugged me, like she was afraid to hurt me. Probably just as well, as sore as I was, I didn't want to hurt my hernia any more than it already was. It finally dawned on me that her cast was off!

"Where is Gary? What happened?" I finally mumbled into her hair as I wrapped my arms around her as well. "Are you alright?"

"Gary is in jail. Well, he was, he's probably out on bail now. But there is a restraining order that limits him from coming near us, so hopefully he stays away. I also had Robin hook up a security camera on the front door and the lanai, just in case." Her voice was a little muffled as she had her face in my neck, and I could hear her hot tears flowing over my skin. Everything seemed off. How did all that happen?

The door to my room opened and Doctor Jensen came in. Damnit, perfect timing. Now I get to go to my surgery. "How are you feeling this morning, Thomas?" he asked as he checked the monitors that were hooked up to me. Avery sat back down, but kept holding my hand, her fingers interlocked with mine.

"I'm hurting, ready to take care of that damned hernia."

The doctor glanced at Avery, who gave a quick shake of her head. I'm obviously missing something. "He just woke up a few minutes ago." Avery clarified for the doctor. "We haven't had much time to talk."

Doctor Jensen frowned, and then looked at me. "You're okay discussing your situation in front of your wife I assume?"

I didn't even think twice. "Of course, she knows pretty much everything already."

"Thomas, we did the surgery already. There were.... Complications. You've been out for just over three weeks." Doctor Jensen's voice was very clinical, though it sounded as though he was apologetic to a degree.

"Huh? You did?" I was so confused now. Three weeks? "What kind of complications?"

"When you were hit, it ruptured your aneurysm, so we had to rush you into surgery. Luckily, you were already at the hospital, so we obviously saved you. But your lungs still weren't fully recovered from your bout of pneumonia, and you had eaten that morning. That combination gave you what we call aspiration pneumonia. We had to keep you intubated since you weren't able to keep your blood oxygen levels high enough on your own and kept you in an induced coma until you were finally able to. We finally took the breathing tube out two days ago, so we've been waiting on you to wake up since then," the doctor explained.

"So why am I still so sore?" I was confused, I thought with that all fixed up I'd feel better.

Doctor Jensen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The original plan was to do a laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive. But with the burst artery, we had to make a much larger incision. Because that was larger, and involved opening your abdomen, the recovery time will be longer, and you're obviously going to be sore during that."