Loving Again(76)
The ICU staff left them alone even though she was clearly exceeding the time limits for visitors. Eventually they were interrupted by the surgeons on rounds who released Sam to the surgical floor and from most of the machines that had been monitoring him. Amanda packed up the few pieces of clothing they hadn’t cut off him the day before and carried them downstairs to a room he had all to himself.
After making sure Sam was comfortable in his new bed, Amanda said, “I think it’s time for me to go. I’ve already overstayed my time. But I’ll be back tonight.”
“Don’t go. There’s nothing to do here except annoy the nurses if you’re not here,” he threatened.
“When I come back I’ll bring you a couple books and my iPod with music you’ll like. You need to rest. You’re recuperating from life-threatening injuries.”
“I’m fine.”
“That’s why they had all that gear attached to you? ” she said.
“They’re overcautious. I’m fine.”
“I don’t know about fine but you are incorrigible.” She bent down and kissed him. “Behave yourself. Sleep. Don’t torture the staff.”
Amanda left the hospital feeling a great weight had been lifted from her. She was so overjoyed she realized when she put the key in the ignition that she couldn’t remember taking the elevator to the lobby, finding her SUV or getting into it. She sat for a few moments with her head on the steering wheel, giving thanks to whatever power watched over police officers.
“Amanda? Are you okay?” Danny Hartmann said as she knocked gently on the driver’s side window.
Amanda sat up slowly. “I’m fine. I’m tired. But everything’s okay.”
“Sam’s doing better?”
“He’s been moved out of ICU; he’s got most of the machines off; he’s complaining about being in the hospital. Yeah, I’d say he’s doing better.”
“Ah, the real Sam has returned. Care to bet on how long it’ll take the nurses to figure out they liked him better unconscious?”
“I don’t think you can bet on things that have already happened. We’re going to have to bribe them not to gag and restrain him before this is all over.”
Chapter Sixteen
Sam amazed his doctors with his rapid recovery. He attributed it to his fitness and good health. They thought it might have something to do with the constant attention he got from the women in his life. His partner dropped in when she could. Amanda was there all day, every day, of his short stay. And his sister came over from Eastern Oregon to see for herself that he was okay, providing stories about her baby brother’s childhood escapades that embarrassed him and delighted Amanda.
The other women who interacted with him on a regular basis, however, weren’t so impressed with Sam. Restless to be out from under every restriction the nurses tried to impose, he was not an easy patient. As she’d predicted she would have to do, Amanda brought bribes to the staff at every visit — candy, fruit, small glass ornaments, large containers of gourmet coffee — anything to try and mitigate for Sam’s grumpy resistance to the rules they attempted to enforce. When Amanda reminded him he once said he liked rules, he replied he only liked them when he was doing the enforcing.
The struggle between Sam and the medical staff came to a head the day the doctors told him he couldn’t be released from the hospital until he arranged assistance in his apartment for at least two to three weeks. No matter how much he argued, they wouldn’t budge. He was there until he made satisfactory plans for his home care. Or they’d do it for him.