Wildflower (Kris Bryant)

50 What If

Kris

It's about 2 in the morning and I still haven't fallen asleep. We still haven't found out what exactly happened to Serenity that made her have a episode like that and how to fix it. Each minute that passes my heart hurts more and more. It felt like forever I was sitting there watching her sleep not really knowing if she's going to wake up any time soon.

This is different from last time because we knew the problem and how to fix it. But this wasn't your average flu, even for someone in her condition. Something was obviously wrong and I wanted it to be over.

Finally her doctor comes in and he turns the lights on. I wake up Serenity's parents and they stand behind me ready for some news. I feel her mom set a helping hand on my shoulder and it calmed me down some. "Alright. The good news is we now know what's causing Serenity's body to react in such a way.

Her blood work came back and it looks like she has endocarditis, or a infection of the heart. It is common in people who have heart transplants because the mixture of blood and the lengthy procedure. It can hide in someone's body for up to a year before making itself present and it's often times passed off for the flu.

But as you can tell it can take a scary turn and it causes seizures or a stroke of paralysis in some cases. The infection can even spread to the kidney and spleen causing them to fail. So we want to keep her here and monitor her. These next few hours are very important to her health" he explains.

"Is she going to be be okay" I ask.

"I believe so. Since the infection is because of the surgery and not a faulty heart she is safe from having to have another surgery. We will give her antibiotics and watch over her heart but she should be fine in a day or two. I know you said she's been resting so her body has been able to fight it pretty hard. She should wake up sometime later today and we can go on based off of what she feels" he explains

"Thank you for working so quickly to be with her. It means the word to us" her mom says.

"Of course. If you guys have any questions call me and I will gladly answer them. I'll see you guys when she wakes up" he says.

He slips out of the room and it falls silent. So silent I could hear my own heart beating. I move a piece of hair from Serenity's face and she looked so peaceful. She looked so unbothered as this infection ravaged her body. But I'm happy she's getting treated and that we finally had some answers, even if they're scary ones.

I end up falling asleep in the chair next to hers and her parents go to one of the family rooms to rest. I could have gone with them but I wanted to hold her hand. I wake up for good at about 9 in the morning and look around. No one else was in here and she was still asleep, but she still had my hand in hers. I let out a soft groan before wiping at my eyes.

"Good morning Kris" her doctor says as he walks in. He looks at her numbers before scribbling something down.

"Good morning doctor. How is she doing" I wonder.

"Since we knew what type of infection was we were able to get her the right medication and she's doing a lot better now. She should be waking up any time and she should be feeling a lot better" he admits.

I turn to her and I have to admit, she even looked better. Still super small but she has some color and she wasn't sweating like crazy.

Finally she wakes up and I let the doctors do what they need. I go and find their parents who were in the cafeteria with some coffee in their hands. So I get myself a cup and sit down next to them. Her mom pulls me into her side and I rest my head on her shoulder. I was so tired, I woke up every hour to make sure Ariana was okay and sleeping in that chair is the farthest from comfortable. But she needed me there and I was going to be there for her.

"Is she up" her dad asks.

"Yeah, she just woke up. The doctors are running some more tests and making sure she didn't get any damage to her organs from the infection. But she looks a lot better than she did yesterday" I admit.

"That's great" her mom insist. "And how are you..." she trails off.

Throughout this whole thing she always asks how Ariana is but she makes sure I'm doing okay too. It's easy to see where Serenity's caring nature came from. "I'm doing a lot better now. I know she's weak but she's still fighting and doing a lot better so I think I'll be fine. Just a little shaken up is all" I admit.

"Anything we can do to help" she wonders.

"There is one thing... actually" I admit.

"What is it son" her dad wonders.

"When we celebrated Thanksgiving a few weeks ago and she told me that if things were different she would take me and go to the court house and get married. And it was a joke, we both know that we're not ready for that and we want our wedding day to be special.

But when she was laying there in that bed last night and we didn't know what was wrong yet I wanted to be married to her so bad. I wanted to yell "someone tell me what's wrong with my wife" and for them to tell me and they. They would fix her so it would be a happily ever after.

I know getting married wouldn't solved anything. But what would you guys said if we did go get married" I wonder.

Her mom just smiles at me as she looks me over. "About time that girl did something spontaneous" she jokes and I smile.

"Part of me still wants to go get married" I admit.

"Why" she wonders.

"Because it just feels right. Age doesn't matter, I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her so why does it matter if we get married after one year or 10? The love is still there and it's still strong. It doesn't matter what all I go through, I'm going to want to be by her side like last night. And I know she wants the same" I explain.

"I think you should do it" her dad claims. I turn to him as he stares right through me. "She loves you more than any person should love any thing. I watched that girl spend a good portion of her life trapped in a hospital or in a house. I watched her fight for her life then ask what she's fighting for. And then you came around and she stopped questioning it. She loved you and that was enough.

So if you want to get married and she wants to get married, then do it. Don't listen to what other people say, they won't understand. They don't feel what you guys feel, they don't know what you guys know. If this is what you want then do it" he insists.

"Really" I gasp.

"Really really" he smiles.