On Tour

Chapter 36- words finally spoken

Jenna's POV
"Alright, this looks like it's ready to come off." Lily's Doctor, Amy, says touching the wires in Lily's mouth. "It's about time." Tyler says smiling, looking at Lily. "Totally agreed," Lily's brother, Ethan says coming out of the bathroom. "Exactlyyyy," Josh says sitting down next to Lily's bed grabbing her hand smiling. She smiles and rubs his hand, she's almost healed all the way, all her bones have healed except her right leg. Most of her bruises are gone and her body accepted Josh's kidney. "I'll be right back." Amy says leaving the room. I stand up and walk over to Lily's bed, linking my arm with Tyler's, "I think the first thing we do when we get out of here is go to the county fair, yanno eat so much junk we through up, for old time sakes of course." I say a wink, Lily nods her head and smiles, the silver metal shining off the sun that fills the room from the open window. "Let's get started shall we?" Amy says walking in, pulling a blue cart with shiny tools. In comes a bunch of interns with her hair and Lily's best friend Katie. "Morning Katie," Ethan says when she walks in, all of us in the room exchange looks for it is obvious Ethan likes Katie. Katie smiles at him and walks over to Lily, sitting on the edge of her bed. Amy grabs a tool that looks like pliers and walks over to her, "Ok so you'll feel little pain but lots of pressure, I'd recommend holding someone's hand." Amy ends, josh still holding Lily's hand, doesn't let go. Lily's Dad walks on the other side of her and grabs her hand. "Ok I'm going to clip the first one now." Amy says, Lily opens her mouth and I grip Tyler's arm. You can tell everyone in the room is tense and then we hear a loud snap. Everyone breaths and Josh and her Dad squint their faces, "Man physical therapy sure is working, you have a STRONG grip," her dad says, Josh leans over lily, laughs and nods at her Dad. Me and Tyler giggle and everyone holds their breath once more and then we hear another snap, and then another, and then the last Snap. "Ok, now I just need to pull the metal off your teeth." Amy says, setting down the plier things, picking up another tool. She then slowly pulls off the metal from Lily's top and lower jaw, there's a lot of crackling noises but soon it is off. "We're done, now you can finally talk." Amy says pushing the cart to an intern who rolls it out of the room. Everyone is silent, waiting the for the first word to come out of her in months. She goes to open her mouth but immediately shuts it, her eyes start to water and her dad says, "Probably sore huh?" Lily nods and puts her hand to her mouth. She shakes her head a bit and tries again only to fail, I turn my head and whisper in Tyler's ear, "Poor Lily." He looks at me and I frown, he puts his hand on my head and pets me. I feel really bad for her, just once I'd like to go back to when we were carefree, problem free, and getting mani-pedis with the guys. I'm just glad she can't remember anything that ma-monster did to her, but I don't know if that's all true. When she sleeps her bpm is higher than it is when she's awake and most of the time the doctors can't find a reasoning behind that. "Why can't she talk?" Ethan says, snapping me out of my thoughts. Josh now nervous, starts to bite his lip, "You don't think there's any damage to her vocal cords do you?" Josh says, Lily screeches and her eyes widen. She hits Josh slightly but then looks at Amy anticipating the answer. "No there's nothing wrong with her vocal cords, we know becuase she can make noises like she just did. It's very common for patients who have had their jaws wired shut for an extended period of time to have trouble speaking the first time. She'll be able to talk in a few minutes or hours." Lily coughs a few times, "URS?" She coughs out. The room goes completely silent. She just spoke, I think she meant hours, but, she spoke! "Did you mean hours?" Katie says, her mouth dropped like everyone else's in the room. Lily coughs again, "Y-yes. I-I meant hours." I throw my hand to my mouth, tears coming to my eyes, it's about time something good happened! Lily smiles, finally a smile that metal doesn't show, one of her contagious smiles.
Lily's POV
"Alright, alright! Everyone out! Everyone gets 1 minute with Lily by themselves. First up Ethan." Jenna says, and everyone follows her lead. I'm not sure if I'm ok with this or not just yet. I'm still learning how to speak, also my jaw really hurts. Everyone starts to leave except Ethan, Amy walks over to the cupboard and grabs a syringe, "I'll put some stuff to help with the pain in your IV." Amy whispers, I smile, I love my doctor, it's almost like she can read minds. She injects my IV and instantly the pain goes away, I thought it'd take a minute to kick in, guess not. Amy cleans up and leaves the room and I try moving my jaw, each time I do it sends shooting pains throughout my head. Ethan walks over, "Eth-an." I choke mid word giving him a hug when he walks over to my bed. "How are you? I haven't seen you in what seems like forever!" He says sitting criss cross on the end of my bed. "I-I've been good, my physical therapist gives me prizes every time I make progre-" I feel my ears pop as I overextend my jaw, "ss, I'm sorry my ears just popped," I laugh a little saying, it feels great to finally talk. "You look great, I've missed you and Mom and dad and everyone really! I'm excited that now I can actually eat food instead of getting it from this little tube." I say and he smiles. It's silent, it's almost like we've forgotten what to say to each other, "So... how have things been for you?" He lightens up a bit and begins to talk, "Good, Good. Our sister, Jacqueline is getting ready for her 8th grade graduation, finding a dress and being a diva about finding the best makeup and hair artist, you know our sister." He says smiling, "She's coming here later, she's on her way home fro her Washington DC class trip. As for me I've been great, oh and it's nothing big but, Johns Hopkins Hospital wants me, ME, to be their main pediatric surgeon there!" He finishes, Jenna pops her head in, "It's been a minute wrap it up." "Ethan that's such great news oh my god!!!! I'm so happy! Good for you! I knew you'd get it! You HAVE to take that job!" He hugs me, we're both smiling really big, "I'd be dumb not to take it! So I guess I better get out sis or Jenna might kick me." He smiles, kissing me on the forehead before walking out. Then one by one, everyone came in, tears were present and it was like meeting everyone again. Then the last person, at this point I was completely dizzy and loosing track of memory of who I have already saw and who I hadn't. The room was spinning, I feel like I'm gonna be sick, I lean over the bed and grab the small trash bin and begin to throw up. It burns and then I hear someone run over and grab my hair. "Just let it out, I'm here." Josh, that's Josh's voice. Nothing comes out but water considering that's all that goes in my feeding tube. I finish and put the trash bin next to my bed, Josh walks away to grab something while I try to deal with the bitter taste in my mouth. "Here," he says walking over with a towel and apple juice. I wipe my mouth and my face and then I gulp the apple juice down, it tastes really good. It's the first thing I've actually tasted in a few months. He reaches in his back pocket and grabs a piece of gum giving it to me, "Thank you," I say shakily grabbing it from him. I unwrap it and throw it in my mouth. The taste I almost forgot, spearmint, rolls on my tongue. He comes over and reaches for my hand but then pulls away faster then a snake strikes, I laugh "I'm not sick Josh," he smiles and grabs my hand. "It's just really hot in here," I Look outside at the summer sun and the sprinkling rain, "Rain and sun, there'll be a rainbow. All I want to do is go outside, They won't let me go outside." I say and frown, "Well then let's do it, let's go outside!" Josh says, jumping off my bed grabbing my wheel chair. "Whoa Josh, they'll kill you- be quiet!" I say scared, but excited, "You wanna go outside right?" "Well yeah," I say swinging my leg over the bed, "Then let's do it."  He says picking me up bridal style, "Uhm, ok!" I say blushing as he sets me down on my wheel chair. "How are we gonna get out of here?" I say, we can't go out the main door, everyone is out there. The only other way out is the back door but there's no elevators that way. "Let's take the back door-" "There's only stairs that way." I say to Josh, he throws a blanket on my IV stand, he picks me up bridal style again and says, "Well then I guess I'll have to carry you, grab your IV stand." I grab it and he slowly runs out of the door. I throw one of my hand around his back and the other one holds my stand. I look up at him as he carries me, I've missed my guy. He looks down at me for a second and smiles, I melt and smile. We start going down the stairs and not once do I think he'll drop me, I trust him. I hear him push open a door and start to run, for a second we leave the shade and run into the fresh outdoors. I close my eyes, the warm rain bounces on my skin and legs, the warm air blankets me, and the hot sun sinks into my skin. "Are you ready?" I open my eyes, they have to adjust at first becuase of how bright the sun is, I look in Josh's eyes and smiles, "As ready as I'll every be." He slowly starts to put me on my one good leg, when I'm standing he slips under my arm to brace me up. He let's go of me letting me balance on my one leg. For the first time in months I feel free, the green grass is soft on my feet, the water rolls down my skin as I raise my arms to the sky. I put my wet hair behind my eyes, "WOOOOOOO WHOOOO!" I yell jumping on my one foot. It feels like I'm on the top of the world! "Josh look it's a rainbow!" I say looking at the rainbow behind the big birch tree, I endlessly laugh. I feel like I'm about to fall and Josh catches me, we both laugh, both our hair and clothes soaked from the warm rain. He dips me, making me feel like a princess. "Thank you, thank you so much." I say before he lays his lips on my. I grab his jaw and kiss him back. I almost forget about the pain until I feel my jaw send shooting pains again. I pull away, and cringe. Josh laughs and so do I putting my hand on his chest.