Bombshells ~ Complete

Chapter Thirty: Tomorrow Morning

A week in the hospital. I was going completely crazy being cooped up like that. Sure, everyone brought me things to do, books to read, and movies to watch. But, as anyone could expect, being stuck in a room for a week was driving me up a wall. 

Father hadn't been to visit but once, and the one time he had visited Nurse Williams had been bustling around the room and checking my vitals. Nurse Williams, who insisted I called her Mia, was the nurse who had been there when I had first woken up. 

"Good morning, sweetie." Nurse Mia skipped into the room, a bright smile on her voice. She was a single mother of two six year old girls who had recently moved here from Alabama. Her husband had died overseas two years ago. I felt so bad for her, but smiled at her always cheery greeting. 

"It's a morning. That doesn't make it good." I groaned, pulling the flat hospital pillow over my face. She laughed at me, then pulled the pillow away from me. I wanted to roll over onto my stomach, but there was still a whole lot of pain in my stomach. It more of a throbbing pain than a sharp pain now, but there was still a ton of pain. 

Speaking of pain...

Kade, Ethan, and Zander all burst through the door at that second. Nurse Mia jumped from surprise but chuckled. She should have been used to them busting through the door; they did it all the time. 

"Good morning boys. Please cheer up your grouch of a sister. She's grumpy today." Nurse Mia ratted me out. I narrowed my eyes, glaring at her from below my blankets. She looked over one of my machines and frowned. I shrugged it off. I would find out later if anything were seriously wrong. 

"What's wrong, Ari? Hurting again?" Kade asked protectively. I smiled a little at his worried tone, but then frowned at the thought of the pain. It always hurt. It was always throbbing, even while I was sleeping. 

"It always hurts Kade. But no, that's not why I'm grumpy. I'm grumpy because I've been cooped up in this stupidly white room that smells like cleaning." I grumbled. Ethan pouted at me and sat at the end of my bed, moving my feet to the side like the chivalrous brother he was. I didn't mind. It made me smile that he felt he could tease me like that. 

Kade sat by my side, taking up his usual post on my bed. Zander sat in a chair scooted to the edge of the bed, his hand on my knee. They were lucky I was so small or else them sitting on the bed would be impossible. 

They came everyday. Well, different brothers to entertain me each day. There were always three of them. It was always amusing when they all came and a nurse, other than Nurse Mia, came into the room and gasped at all my brothers. 

Laughter typically ensued after that. 

"Is there anything we can do?" Zander asked. I shook my head. The only thing they could do would be to smother me with a pillow. Put me out of my misery. 

"Either smother me with a pillow to put me out of my misery, or else get me out of here." I moaned, covering my face with my hands. There were a few chuckles, but overall silence. I didn't know what else to do or talk about. I kinda just wanted to sleep. My eyelids felt heavy for some reason, even though I had just woken up.

"Can everyone please leave the room?" A male doctor walked into the room, staring at his metal clipboard. Everyone's peaceful smiles fell at the strange doctor's words.  I hoped he wouldn't be another annoying doctor like my last one. The other lady treated me like I was four, in critical condition, like I was stupid, and like I was being abused. 

Well, that last one was true but that wasn't the point. 

"Why? Is everything okay? Do we need to call mom?" Ethan asked, sounding reasonable panicked. The doctor didn't respond for a minute, tapped one of the many tubes going into me somewhere, and then looked at the boys. 

"You should probably get your mother down here immediately." The doctor said vaguely. The door seemed even louder than normal when it shut behind him. 

That sounded really ominous. And ominous in the hospital was rarely good. Ethan texted Lila, who instantly replied that she was on her way.

Oh, to be the boss. 

Fifteen minutes of comfortable but somewhat suffocating silence later, Lila slammed through the door of my room and rushed over to me. She looked over my face, checking for any discolorations around my eyes, swelling of my throat, reddening or paling of the skin. Anything that could have been an infection.

What could I say? The woman had done her research. 

"What happened?" She asked once she was satisfied I wasn't dying. I shrugged and glanced at the boys, who shrugged.

"The doctor came in, looked at his clipboard, said we needed to call you, then left. He also told us we needed to leave, but we decided to screw that order." Zander explained, his grip tightening around my hand to the point where it almost hurt. 

Lila smacked the three boys upside the heads. 

"When the doctor of your little sister says to do something that may impact her health, you do it. And then you call me." Lila hissed, shoving them none too gently from the room. I hid my chuckle in the smelly hospital blankets.

The blankets didn't really stink, but they did smell like pure hospital. But that may have also been because all I could smell was hospital. Maybe because I'd been there for a week! 

The doctor walked back into the room, a random nurse trotting behind him. Nurses came and went, some liked me, some didn't. Mia traded shifts with a woman so that she could look after me, but I was pretty sure her shift had ended earlier.

"Mrs. James-" Lila cut off the doctor who looked like he hated his job. I already didn't like the guy. 

"It's Mrs. Steel." Lila said, living up to her last name with a steely poker face. I was slightly intimidated by this woman, but more in awe of her. That's right, folks. She kept her last name and father changed ours. I was happy I wasn't under his name anymore. I loved being a Steel. It felt like I was officially adopted into the family or something. 

"I'm sorry, but this is important Mrs. Steel. I know you aren't going to want to hear this, but something isn't looking quite right with the x-rays we took yesterday." The doctor said with a tired sigh. 

Hopefully the guy was just having a bad day. 

Wait, something didn't look right? Did that mean I had to stay here for even longer? Oh goodie. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lila snapped, already fed up with the guy dragging everything out. I could relate to Lila. I was super ready to get out of the bumpy, lumpy bed I was being forced to lay in. 

"It means that Ariel has to go back into surgery." He said. I could feel myself pale. That would only happen if something were really wrong and he just didn't want to say it in front of me. 

"When?" Lila asked hoarsely, straightening up from where her shock left her slumped over. The only thing I wanted was to know how Lila was staying so strong. I mean, she had already lost a daughter. And now there was a chance she was going to lose another daughter. I hoped for her sake that I would be alright.

"Tomorrow morning."