Her Guardians Lost(13)

I almost laughed at how sweet Michael was being. He was tending to my every need.

“It’s perfect. Thank you.”

Michael watched as, with great difficulty, I tried to pull my gown off. It was amazing how only having one arm could render me completely helpless.

“Here, let me help you. I promise I won’t look.”

I saw the cheekiness in his smile and it made my heart flutter. It amazed me how much I had missed this side of him.

Once undressed, getting me dressed again was the hardest part for us both. The amount of times Michael brushed against me as he tried pulling my top on or my jeans up was unbelievable. To say it was extremely uncomfortable was an understatement.

“There. I think you’re all set.”

Michael pulled the curtain open and we were greeted by a nurse who handed me my discharge notes, some tablets and gauze. “You can take these four times a day for the pain, and you must redress your wound every day. That’s very important. Also, you have to keep it dry, so bathing might be a little difficult.”

Oh, bloody fantastic!

I politely took all the contents from her hands. “Thank you.”

“Here’s the prescription. You can get the tablets on the first floor. Take care now.”

The nurse was soon gone. They were all very busy on the ward and had other people to tend to. Which reminded me… “I just have to visit Lisa-Marie before we leave.”

Michael nodded as he gathered all my things. “Ready?”

Smiling, I grabbed his arm. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

We took the stairs down to the next floor where Lisa-Marie had her own room. Just as I expected, Catherine was there with a couple other people.

“Cassie!” Catherine jumped from her seat and came in for an awkward hug. All my hugs were going to be awkward, at least for a little while. “Cassie, these are Lisa-Marie’s parents, Lisa and Trevor.”

They smiled as I came in to shake their hands. Luckily, Michael remembered my gloves, so there was no worry with regards to me seeing anything. “We’ve heard so much about you, Cassie. I’m sorry we haven’t been to visit. It’s just—” Lisa stopped, her voice filled with emotion.

“Don’t worry about that. I completely understand. She’s a very dear friend of mine and I owe her a lot.” I looked over at Lisa-Marie’s pale face, and it made my heart ache. She still looked so ill.

“You don’t owe her anything. It was just an unfortunate incident.” Lisa smiled at me, but I still couldn’t help but feel responsible.

“I still feel awful about what happened. I thought I had lost—” I could feel the tears start to sting my eyes.

Trevor got out of his seat to rest his hand on my arm. “I have every faith she will be okay. She has made it this far and my girl is a fighter.”

I hoped and prayed he was right. She just looked so lost and fragile beneath all those tubes.

“Are you going home today?” Catherine’s sweet voice pulled me from my slumber.

“Yep. I’ve been given the all-clear to go.”

“You look tired. You need to go home and have a proper rest.” I chuckled, thinking that’s all I’d been doing lately. “I’ll call you if anything comes up. I promise.”

I gave Catherine a smile, making sure she had my number before leaving.

“Are you okay?” I felt Michael’s arm around my shoulders, instantly relaxing me.

“I’m fine. I just want to get home and eat pizza.”

Michael raised his eyebrows. “You want pizza?”

“For some reason, I’m craving it after all that hospital food.”

Laughing, Michael squeezed me tighter. “Well, I know just the place to go. I’ve called a taxi to take us back, then I’ll hop on the bike to fetch you that pizza.”

Looking up into Michael’s beautiful blue eyes, I couldn’t help but feel adoration. No matter what, he made sure I was taken care of.

Once we made it back and I was inside my flat, I was immediately overcome by a strange tingling sensation. I looked over to where Lisa-Marie was laying that night and the shudder came unexpectedly.

“It must be hard for you to be back here again after…”

Under different circumstances, watching Michael trying to find the right words would have made me laugh. However, after everything that happened, all I could do was offer him a smile. “It’s fine. I’ll get used to it.”

I should really move, but there were too many good memories here. Memories I certainly refused to taint.

“Shall I go get that pizza for you now? Or would you prefer I stay with you for a while?”

“Michael, I won’t break just because you leave for a few minutes.”