For the second time in mere weeks, Sidney and I sat in a hospital room waiting. Although this time he was in the immodest gown and unlike the first visit we were in a private room as opposed to a curtained area. Nevertheless, we sat waiting for answers. My stomach turned anxiously and my hands felt heavy and unsteady.
“This is why you should go to med school,” Sid groaned from the bed annoyed.
“What?” I hit send on the text I’d written to Serena.
“If you were a full fledged doctor you could just clear me and we could go home to bed.” I looked over at me from the bed. We’d been watching a movie on the small TV screen in the corner, my job was to keep an eye on him and wake him up every so often, which wasn’t hard because he hadn’t stopped complaining since he’d woken up an hour earlier.
“You want me to get my M.D so you don’t have to wait in hospitals?” I cocked my eyebrow and looked at him unamused.
“Yes,” he looked at me with wide eyes. “You can’t tell me you wouldn’t rather be at home right now.”
I sighed and tossed my phone in my bag. “You do get going into a deep sleep is exactly what you can’t do right now, right?”
“I didn’t say anything about sleeping,” he grinned at me.
“How is your head?” I got up to check his pupils, ignoring his suggestive comment. His eyes looked normal, if not a little more spacey than usual. Luckily he seemed to only have a Grade I concussion. But any concussion was bad news when it came to his career. The thing about head injuries, is that after a person has had one or two, they just get worse. If Sidney was aware of this fact he sure wasn’t acting concerned.
“My head is fine, you should really both calm down,” he reached for me.
I glared at him, not seeing the humour in his joke, a side effect of head injuries was prolonged double vision and it was something I was supposed to be looking out for. He roared with laughter.
“Would you relax?” he pulled me closer to him. “I’m fine, I’m going to continue to be fine and you worrying is doing nothing but making both our lives harder.”
“How are you so calm?” I looked down at him and squeezed his hand.
“Because you worry enough for both of us. I also know that worrying isn’t going to do anything but give me a worse headache.”
“You should try to rest,” I pushed his hair back and looked down at his tired face.
“I’m not tired,” he mumbled. I knew he was lying but didn’t bother calling him out. “Tell me something.”
“What do you want to know?” I asked, letting go of him and pulling the chair closer to his bed.
“Anything,” he took my hand back in his. “Have you decided what we’re doing on our date?”
In the midst of all the chaos of our lives I’d forgotten the date I’d asked him on. I shook my head and moved forward to the edge of my seat so I was closer to him. “We can worry about that later.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” he chuckled. “Besides, Christmas is soon and that’s always a crazy time.”
“A wonderful time,” I grinned. The idea of being with him for my favourite holiday brightened my otherwise dark mood.
“I know we promised Beau you wouldn’t make the place over, but I give you free reign to go wild with Christmas decorations.” I could tell his attention had now turned to cheering me up. “As soon as I’m cleared to leave we can go shopping.”
“Thank you,” I leaned over and kissed his forehead. I wasn’t thanking him for the decorations or for the holiday spirit, but rather for trying, and for paying attention.
“I think you’re depth perception is worse than mine,” he teased. “My lips are down here.”
I scoffed and moved my mouth down to his, kissing him softly. He had another idea and wrapped his arm around my back, pulling me deeper into him. His teeth grazed my bottom lip and his tongue slipped into my mouth. I swallowed a moan as his hand moved under my shirt and rested against the flesh of my lower back. I pulled away before I could get too into it.
“Stop it!” I scolded him. “Your blood flow needs to stay in your brain and getting all excited is not going to help anyone.” I gestured to his already swelling groin. “Think about sailboats or puppies or something.”
“Sailboats and puppies.” he repeated and smiled at me. “I’ll give that a try.”
I rolled my eyes and sat back down, making sure I was out of reach from his grabby hands.

Sidney was in the middle of listing all the reasons why he was perfectly fine, when the doctor came in to tell him he could go home.
“Usually we’d want to keep him for the whole night, knowing his history, but I think he should be alright if you stay with him for a few days, Miss Keller.” The balding doctor explained. “Are you or one of your colleagues able to spend the night with him?” he questioned, looking at us, he was obviously unsure of our relationship.
“It’s fine,” I smiled politely, not revealing too much.
“Great, you’re going to want to continue waking him up every few hours and ensuring that he is responsive- ask him questions, make sure he’s drinking fluids when he wakes up. The headache might take a while to go away so keep an ice pack handy and use ibuprofen if it gets unbearable. We’re going to want to keep him off of his feet and away from any overstimulation for the next couple days. No driving, no training, no computer games or anything that takes a lot of brain focus. I also recommend you you avoid any... intimate relations, Mr. Crosby.” He looked over at Sid awkwardly and then turned back to me.
“You know all this, but basically if he gets any worse or there is a change in things, including his attitude, come straight to the hospital. I’ll give you my pager number just in case, but I think he should be alright.” He handed me his card and the discharge form to drop off at the front desk.

We didn’t bother wasting any time at the hospital, and within an hour we were laying in bed with the lights low and the curtains drawn.
“Do you need anything?” I whispered, resting my hand on his chest.
“No,” he grumbled, an icepack melting on his forehead. His adrenaline was fading and I could tell the pain was getting to him.
“Okay, I’m going to let you sleep for a few hours, but I’ll stay close by. If you need anything let me know.” I kissed his temple and got out of the bed.
“Thanks, babe,” he mumbled smiling as I crept out of the room. I left the door ajar and made my way down to the kitchen.
I entered the kitchen to find Beau sitting at the island with his head in his hands.
“You okay?” I asked, opening the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water.
“Yeah,” he looked up at me. His face was tired and I wondered why he wasn’t in bed. “Just a bit freaked out I guess.”
“I know the feeling,” I rested against the counter across from him. “But, he’s going to be fine in a few days. He got pretty lucky as far as concussions are concerned.”
“Yeah,” he smiled slightly. “You’re right.”
“First for everything,” I laughed. The truth was that I was still anxious. The thought of Sidney in pain and not being able to play made me feel ill. So quickly he’d gone from the one taking care of me, to the one in need. There was no question that I was going to do everything I could for him, but I had to keep my own health in mind. I was no use to either of us if I was falling apart.
“I think I’m going to get some sleep,” Beau got up from his seat and walked towards me. “You should think about doing the same,” he leaned in an hugged me awkwardly, as if he wanted to make me feel better, but didn’t know how.
“Thanks,” I smiled weakly, “sleep well.”
He headed down the hall towards his room and I decided it was better if I hung out in a room on the same floor as Sidney. I took my water bottle and ascended the wide stairs leading to the second floor. I couldn’t say how many rooms were in the house, but the top floor alone had three rooms in addition to the master bedroom I slept in with Sid. Turning in the opposite direction of our room, I made my way down the hallway to my favourite of the extra spaces. At the end of the hall sat a yellow room with big windows and plush off-white carpet. It had an overstuffed white armchair in the corner diagonal from the door and white bookshelves lined the walls. It was empty compared to the rest of the house, with the exception of a few books I’d put on the shelves and an assortment of candles I’d bought and left on the desk. I’d discovered it shortly after moving in and quickly claimed it as a space of my own. He’d bought the furniture with the intention of turning it into a second home office, but had done little but assemble the pieces.
I closed the door gently and turned on a lamp that was on the desk. The soft light made the room seem warm and safe. I lit two of the vanilla scented candles and sat in the middle of the floor. The time on my phone read 1:34am and I had one new text message from Simon Keller. All it said was:
Call if you need us.
As simple as that. He didn’t ask for details, or an insider scoop, he just reminded me that he was there. My whole family was. I took a deep breath and tried to let go of the tension inside of me that came as a result of hours of anxiety. As strong as I wanted to be, I did need them, because even if I couldn’t talk about that night, I needed to talk about something, anything to distract me.

“Hey,” My brother answered after three rings. “I thought you might call some time tonight,” he chuckled.
“Did I wake you?” It was an hour later on the Island.
“Nahh,” he replied casually. “I don’t get much sleep anyway these days. Helen gets up every hour and wakes me up in the process.” He referred to his heavily pregnant wife. My poor sister-in-law not only married my goofball brother, but became known as Helen Keller. Legally she’d kept her maiden name and was Helen Gallant-Keller, but only the government called her that.
“When is she due again?” I picked at a piece of lint in the carpet.
“At some point towards the end of December. You know how Dad is, he doesn’t believe in due dates.” My father, the family physician, didn’t believe in a lot of the modern ideas in medicine. He supported natural healing and had attended a number of home births, mostly friends and family. I smiled remembering my dad calmly reading the newspaper while my cousin, Leena laboured with her second baby.
“You guys must be so excited,” I felt a sense of loneliness as I imagined my parents preparing for their second grandchild, the first being our eldest brother John’s three year old daughter.
“Excited, terrified, overwhelmed, yup that pretty much covers it,” he replied lightheartedly.
“God I miss you guys,” I sighed and fell back, the carpet catching my tired body.
“We miss you too. How is the job working out? I know you probably can’t talk about the game tonight so I’m not going to ask.”
“Thank you,” I was relieved to know that he understood the stipulations that came with my position. “The job is amazing. Everyone is really great. There’s so much more to the game than I knew.”
“It sounds like an awesome gig. Andy was saying you’re well acquainted with the Scotia wonder boy.” His statement was more like a question, subtly prying for details.
After our interaction at the rink in front of the rest of the medical team there was no use keeping it a secret any more. Especially not from my family. I couldn’t think of anything I’d kept from them so long.
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “You could say we know each other.”
“Is he with you?” I could hear the amusement in his voice.
“He’s in bed,” I smiled, imagining the look on my brother’s face. “We’re experimenting with co-habitation.”
“Well, look at you! Taking sleeping with the enemy to a whole new level.” I heard Helen in the background asking him who he was talking to.
“You know what they say, go big or go home,” I chuckled.
“I’m really trying to ignore the double meaning in that,” his said in mock disgust. “Hey, Helen wants to know if you’re going to make it home for Christmas.”
“I doubt it,” I sighed, I’d been trying to avoid that thought. I was about to explain our upcoming schedule when I heard Sidney calling from down the hallway. Our conversation cut short, I thanked Simon for taking my call so late, and promised to call later in the week.

“What’s wrong?” I asked softly, slipping into the bedroom where Sidney lay with his eyes closed.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he smiled and opened his eyes enough to see me. “What were you doing?” he sat up slowly and patted the bed beside him.
“Talking to Simon,” I crawled onto the white comforter and leaned my back against the headboard. “He wanted to make sure we were okay.”
“Did you tell him I’ll be back on the ice tomorrow?” Sid smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“Yup, and that we’d be home for Christmas. I hope you don’t mind, I also let it slip about that unicorn we bought,” I giggled and rested my head against him.
“I guess that secret is out,” he squeezed me lightheartedly.
“He said the baby is expected soon,” I laced my fingers between those on his freehand.
“That’s exciting,” he sighed comfortably. “Babies are always a good time. Can’t go wrong with tiny humans.”
“Tiny anything is a good time,” I laughed. “Well maybe not anything.” We were both delirious from exhaustion, neither of us making sense.
“You don’t have to worry about tiny things anymore,” he nudged me cheekily.
I scowled at him and rolled my eyes. Eyes that I could hardly keep open. After yawning for the hundredth time that night, I slid out of my pants and crawled under the covers with him. We snuggled closely and I set the timer on my phone for three hour intervals so I could check on him. It didn’t take long before I started to drift off, my breathing becoming shallow and even.
“Beatrice?” Sidney whispered, his hand in mine.
I mumbled in response and snuggled closer to him.
“I’d have tiny humans with you,” he said softly, his voice trailing off.

I squeezed his hand gently and let myself fall asleep, hoping that his confession was just a result of exhaustion and not something he was taking seriously.

Notes

This wasn't the easier chapter to write, amusing, but not easy. I wanted to focus more on Bea's life other that her relationship. As usual I love and welcome all your comments. Thank you for all the support! xx-T