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He’s going to live. He’s going to live. It doesn’t matter how he looks. He’s going to live. Not dying.
He lets me into his room and immediately I just want to crawl onto the bed with him. “Damian,” I whisper. I rush to his bedside and press a kiss on his lips before the doctor tells me I can’t touch him. “I love you. I love you so much.” I press another kiss to his swollen cheek and his forehead. He has a few cuts on his face and a black eye but for the most part, his face is unscathed. I reach for his hand and gently squeeze it. “It’s Shay. Can you hear me? If you can, please wake up and talk to me. I’m so scared.” I sniffle. “You make all my fears go away.” I push his hair back and drag my knuckles down his cheek slowly. “I need you to tell me everything is going to be okay. That you’re going to be okay.” A tear rolls down my cheek and I feel that familiar pain clawing up my spine and taking hold of my brain.
They said he’ll be fine. He’s going to live.
Doctors can be wrong,my mind argues.
I don’t know how long I sit in silence begging him to wake up with my mind when he makes a noise. They brought in a chair so that I could sit and I’d dragged it next to his bed. I’m holding his hand as best as I can while I rest my head on the bed. My head shoots up when I hear it again, a groan from deep within his chest. “Damian? Baby? Can you hear me?” I can see his eyes moving behind his lids and the tears form in mine at the thought of getting to see his blue eyes. “Can you open your eyes?” His eyes slowly open and the wind is knocked out of me as ours connect for the first time all day. “Damian.” I bite my bottom lip before I lightly press my lips to his.
“Mmmm.” His eyes which must have been shut while I kissed him open slowly and a ghost of a smile finds his lips. “Shay,” he whispers and I feel like my heart could burst just hearing my name fall from his lips. “Are you okay?”
“Dandy,” I say sarcastically. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Is Kent here with you?”
“I’m fine. Kent is here. Can we focus on you, please? I’m not the one in the hospital in the ICU. Are you in any pain? Do you want me to get the doctor?”
“No,” he says and I’m not sure which question he’s answering or if it’s a general no to all of them. “I want to be alone with my girl for as long as possible.”
“You’re not in any pain?”
“Nothing your lips on me can’t fix.” He whispers, his voice getting quieter and I wonder if it hurts to talk.
I kiss his lips again and then his cheek. “I love you. This really scared me.” I let out a breath. “I’m glad you had me listed as your emergency contact. I was worried at first that they wouldn’t let me see you.”
“It’ll be easier when we’re married,” he says and I don’t even hide the smile pulling at my lips in response to the butterflies flapping their wings through me.
“Married?”
“For our hypothetical children.” He winks, referencing our conversation we had a few days ago. Despite the lightness of this conversation, his eyes immediately go dark like he’s remembering something. “Do they know who it was?”
“I don’t think so? Do you?”
“No one I recognized. That motherfucker came out of nowhere. I’m trained for driving in all kinds of situations but that was something different. It was intentional.” He closes his eyes slowly and when he opens them, he looks furious. “What if you had been in the car with me?”
“Then you would have saved us both,” I tell him with a kiss to his lips. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Did they think you were with me? I just…” He lets out a deep sigh and winces immediately. “I don’t want you out of my sight.”
“Good. I don’t want you out of mine either.”
“I assume you’re staying the night?” he asks and I nod knowing there’s no way I’m leaving him overnight.
They will have to remove me by force.
“If you’re staying, I want someone at the house and Kent here with you. Do you have my phone?”
I shake my head. “You’re not doing any work.”
“I’m not. I’m making sure the love of my life is being taken care of while I can’t do it myself. This isnotwork, Shay.”
It’s been a week since Damian was released from the hospital with strict instructions not to overdo it while he recovers. They want him off of his feet for most of the day and Damian is not happy about it.
Luckily, the production team ofLA Dreamsis allowing me a brief hiatus and is shooting some of the scenes I’m not in for a few episodes to give me some time because neither I nor Damian feels comfortable being away from the other. We’re both a little paranoid about something happening to the other. However, it seems my grace period is over and Damian is having an entire fit.
“Baby, I have to,” I tell him as I pull on a short blue sundress. We’d been having this discussion all the way through doing my hair and makeup and now I’m ready to leave and Damian is still adamant that I shouldn’t go to set without him.
“No. I don’t know where that maniac is. He’s probably spooked that I actually lived and I know too much. It’s like he vanished. They can’t find the car and I don’t want you out there unprotected. I don’t know what he wants and I can’t risk it. I can’t risk you. This is the only place I know I can keep you safe.” He’s sitting upright in my bed. He’s not technically on bed rest and can get up and move around but he’s not very mobile and has to move slowly.