THE RETURN

Chapter 24

She had kept her eyes open long enough for the nurse to come in and change her bandage, show Elliot how to wrap her ribs, and to give her a small dose of oxycodone. As soon as Elliot situated himself behind her, allowing her left backside to be propped up against his torso, her eyes were shut.

When she began the transition into wakefulness the next morning, she became highly aware of a hand on her left breast. As her eyes fluttered open, she also became aware of Elliot's slow breathing into the crook of her neck. By the sound of the evenness of his breathing, she knew he was still sleeping. Like he had planned, he had switched sides in the night, allowing her right side to be propped up against him. She never thought Elliot was a holder when he slept, however all the times they had recently slept in the same bed she had awoken to his arm tightly around her. She halfway wondered if it was a habit of his or if it was his way of making sure he never let her go again. Either way, she was content to lay there all day and listen to his breathing.

The sound of a light knock on the door and the door opening slowly, had her turning her head. When she saw that it was the nurse, she put her finger up to her mouth in a shush motion. Elliot had been so worried about her, that he most likely didn't get any sleep the night before. The fact that he was sleeping now made her want to ensure that he stayed asleep for as long as possible. The nurse nodded her head and made her way to the opposite side of the bed that Elliot was on.

When she spoke, it was a whisper, "Hello. I'm Sally, your nurse for today. Doctor will be in in about an hour or two. He has an emergency surgery to perform but it shouldn't take him long. He wanted me to come in and check in on you. I want to look at your bandage, just to ensure that there's no bleeding and I want you to do a few breathing exercises for me."

"Can we do that without waking him? I don't think he slept much."

"He didn't. Each time the nurse before me came in here, he was lying awake watching you. He seems pretty out now though, so hopefully he won't wake."

Olivia's cheeks flushed a slight red when Sally pulled her blanket down enough to lift her shirt. Elliot's hand was still solid against her breast. The lift of her lips, was enough for her to choke back her laughter, "He's a breast man."

Sally laughed lightly as well, "Well if those marks on your breasts aren't evidence enough of that, this surely is." The two women shared a look of laughter before her attention was brought down to the bandage on Olivia's torso. The way the nurse had instructed Elliot to wrap her ribs, was one that allowed her bandage to be fully exposed. When he had sighed in relief the night before, she had told him to thank the doctor, for he had intentionally made her incision low enough to be able to change the bandage freely without disturbing her ribs. "Looks good, no bleeding." Olivia winced slightly when she lifted the bandage from her skin, "And no redness. And you don't appear to have a fever. All extremely good signs."

Her shirt was placed back down and the covers pulled back around her, "So you think the doctor will let me go home today?"

"I can't say but I think you have a pretty good chance." They exchanged a smile. "Breathing exercises. Not going to lie, they're going to hurt but it will help with ensuring that your left lung goes back fully into place. Luckily, your puncture was extremely small and the doctor didn't have to do much to repair it. It will mostly repair on its own." She glanced over at a still sleeping Elliot, "You can repeat them to him, so he can help you through them."

The explanation of the exercise seemed simple enough. Inhale through her nose for two seconds, hold it for two seconds and exhale through her mouth for two seconds. It seemed simple enough, until it was time to inhale. The increased oxygen in her lungs caused her diaphragm to expand, thus causing her ribs to expand outwards. The groan of pain that came with it was enough to have the man next to her stir in his sleep.