Love, Helena

Chapter 34

For the next two days, the doctor had refused to discharge him, stressing how important they had to perform routine checks and keep him under surveillance to ensure that he was completely okay and would have no trouble to resume his life normally. Three conscious days he had to spend at the hospital and he was quite fed up with it. For one, he hated hospitals. Then there was the matter of fact that Helena hadn't visited him like everyone's been telling him she did when he was unconscious. Did she know that he woke up? He told Terrance not to let it be known. He wasn't ready for it to be publicized just yet. Maybe one of the doctors told her... Did she change her mind about him? Now that he is awake, did she decide it was time to pick where they left off? Was she mad, angry... did she despise him? Xavier could drive himself insane with these recurrent thoughts and worries. Left to his own devices in a hospital room without much to do, his mind wandered off to worst case scenarios that probably were highly unlikely.

He knew he shouldn't be as selfish as he was. Helena was mosy certainly going through a very hard time, trying to be there for Ophelia as much as possible. He wondered if she slept much at all these past weeks, if she'd taken care of her own health. He could have at least supported some of the weight of it all if he'd been there by her side, but of course he had to be shot and go into a f*cking coma. Xavier cursed himself again, as though he could have controlled that in any way.

"You're going to burn holes through the ground son." A deep friendly voice sounded from behind him. Xavier hadn't even noticed he'd gotten out of bed and started pacing. He had discarded all forms pf entertainment by the second wakeful day. The books and Newspapers they'd brought him discarded on the little two-seater table at one corner of the room, his phone thrown haphazardly on the sofa. He turned to the door and found a pair of dark eyes that mirrored his own staring at him with a half-amused smile. His father had always loved to make light of all situations, apparently even a situation where his son was stuck in the hospital and denied to be discharged. The old man chuckled, the gesture making his crow's feet and the lines beside his mouth more prominent. "You've never been the patient kind."

"I wonder who I got that from." Xavier smiled back. It wasn't everyday he saw his father, but that didn't mean they weren't close. Sure, they didn't communicate as much especially if the past few years, but they were as close as a father and son could be.

Werner barked a laugh and closed the door behind him. Giving his son a hug and a couple pats on the back, he took a seat at the sofa, getting comfortable. "What are you so agitated about?"

"Father," Xavier said in a 'you know why' fashion. His dad just liked to be smart and tease everyone. "I thought you left the country."

"Ever the warm welcome from you, young man." His father joked, "I am set to leave in a couple of hours. Just thought I'd come and check on you."

"Ah," Xavier scratched the back of his head, sitting on the empty armchair. He wasn't ever good at goodbyes, plus he hadn't even spent that much time with his dad given the circumstances. He remembered his little sister telling him they didn't tell their mom he was admitted to the hospital. "Did you tell Stephanie what happened?"

"Yes, after you woke up of course. She threw a fit about how we exclude her from important family matters. Marie spent a good time convincing her not to book a flight and come here from the other end of the globe. Luckily she listened." His father shook his head with a tired 'impossible woman' at the end.

Xavier chuckled. His step-mother Stephanie and his father, though they split up, were on very good terms. They still got together on holidays and special occasions to celebrate with the full family. His sisters have both grown to do their own thing as well and he rarely saw them except for their customary family reunion every year. Growing up, he didn't feel particularly doted on nor special in any shape or form, especially being the odd one out. He was the "repercussion" of his father's last hookup before he got married to Stephanie, and his mother, whoever she is, decided she didn't want him and left him on his father's doorstep one day. He clenched his jaw thinking about it. He often wondered what would have become of him if she'd left him somewhere else, or if his father wasn't half as decent of a man as he is, or if Stephanie refused to take him in. Even as a child, he always remembered to be grateful for lucking out on the life he had. Maybe he was the odd addition to the family, but he was glad he could be part of it, even if he felt like he could never truly fit in.