Because of You, Well, Us

Kate

Appendicitis. That's what the doctors said Chase had. They had to take out his appendix. They had to cut into his body. He would end up just fine, but soccer wasn't going to happen for him this season, at least not in the beginning.

Mrs. Underhill left after she heard Chase would heal. She had said something about having something to do at the office. She loved her son, but she worked as a therapist and couldn't cancel on patients with no warning. I stayed there with him alone there when he woke up. Chase rolled his head over in his half sleep, slit his eyes open to look at me, and gave me a loopy smile.

"Hey, it's Katie." He mumbled.

I scooted my chair over closer to his bed and took his hand. He'd never remember it, right? He had some heavy drugs in his system. "Hey back at you. Look who's finally awake."

Chase kept looking at me with his sloppy smile. He gave my hand a squeeze and after a minute, brought it to his mouth and kissed it. Then he let go of my hand, and his eyes closed again.

I brought my hand to his face and outlined his jaw. Beginnings of a beard had gotten obvious now and they scratched at my fingers. I kept thinking of the funny feeling of it when I kissed him yesterday.

With a quick knock on the door, young nurse bustled in. Glancing over, she saw Chase sleeping, and my hand on his face. I hadn't had time to register what happened.

"Oh, am I interrupting something? I can come back later if you want some time."

My hand jerked back from his face, "Oh, no, you're fine. Go ahead." I think I blushed brighter than a fire engine.

Chase had woken up again in the bustle of the nurse looking at stuff and writing it down on the chart. She got a serious look on her face when she saw Chase had woken up.

"Chase, I think you must know what all of this means. It might take you a bit to get back to normal. If you play fall sports, I'd advise you to take a few weeks off before you hit the field. I'm so sorry." The nurse gave a faint smile before she left the room.

I don't think I had ever seen Chase look so depressed. "I'm not going play soccer, Kate. And I would have made captain too. What going to happen, now?"

I kept my voice soft as I prodded his arm, teasing, "You don't know you'll have to sit out the entire season. The nurse just said the first few games. You're already on the team, and I bet you'll act yourself again in three weeks. Tops."

Running his hands over his face and hair, Chase laughed, but that hurt the place where his new scar would appear and grimaced in pain. "What makes you think that?" Chase moved over a bit so I could sit on the bed.

"Do you remember in sixth grade when you broke your nose?" Chase liked his sports on the rougher side.

"Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?" He pulled me onto the bed next to him, trying not to disturb his incision site.

"So," I said, head now on his chest "they said it would take four to six weeks to heal."

Chase started playing with my hair. Warmth spread throughout my belly. "What's your point?" He asked, sounding raw away.

"I mean, it took you three weeks before they took off the splint. Your stitches will be out in a week. The rest is just beating fatigue, pain and infection. I'll make sure you sleep, take pain meds and stay clean." I started feeling his beard thing again.

I felt muscles in his face form a smile "I bet you will."

I laughed, but stopped not wanting to make Chase laugh. Looking down at me, he stroked my shoulder with his thumb and said, "It's okay, you can laugh. That pain is a good kind of hurt."

He gave me a light kiss on my forehead and fell back asleep. Eh, he was on drugs. He wouldn't remember anything in the morning, so I fell asleep too.