One of Us Is Going Down

Gowns That Show Off Your Assets

When Ashlyn woke, she found herself in a revealing hospital gown and in a stark white room. Her head throbbed as she sat up in her bed, her arm itched, and her hand absentmindedly scratched at it, only to find a bandage around the arm, that must have been the cause of the itch. She blinked, the light blinding her. She heard a body shuffle in the room and the light went off, she opened her eyes and blinked a few times, trying to focus, then her eyes fell on Dean and her parents.

“Where’s Brian?” was the first question out of her lips, her throat was dry and itched as well.

Her parents rushed to her side, wrapping her in a hug in a cacophony of words expressing how glad they were that she was ok.

“Is Brian ok?” she persisted as her mother pushed water at her.

They realized that until they told her Brian’s condition, they weren’t getting anything else out of her.

“He’s going to be ok,” Dean said, lightly, not wanting to upset her.

“Care to expand?” She snapped.

“He lost a lot of blood, he had to have a transfusion, he has a bullet wound, a knife wound, three cracked ribs, punctured lung, and a fractured wrist, many bruises and is pretty damn tired. He had to go through a surgery, it involved a lot of doctoral type jargon,” Dean said.

“So he’ll be ok?”

“Yeah, they have him in a medicated coma for the time being, since he needs to heal and is in a fair amount of pain.

“How long have I been out?” Ashlyn asked.

“You went out yesterday afternoon, the doctors said the stress and the weight of what happened finally caught up with you, and you reacted by passing out, they fixed up your arm as well, you’ve hardly been out for twenty-four hours.”

“They want to keep you here tonight, just to make sure you’ll be ok,” Cathy said, hugging her daughter.
“You can have whatever you wanted, kid, just let me know and I’ll go get it.” Dean said with a smile.

Her stomach lurched at the thought of food and she debated what she wanted.

That night Ashlyn couldn’t sleep, she just wanted to see Brian, there was still a nagging feeling that he wasn’t ok, no matter how many times everyone reassured her that he was as ok as he could be at the moment. She just needed to see him for herself. She got that wish, the next morning when she was signed out from her room, she went right to Brian’s room, glaring at the nurses, daring them to try and keep her from his room.

She walked in, her eyes glanced over his body, sadly. He was bruised, under his eyes were large dark purple and blue bruises, what she could see of his body was banged up, cut, nicked, and bruised. He was pasty white, tubes were attached to his body, monitors beeped softly, tears welled in her eyes. She pushed the door to, and walked across the room, then took a seat in the chair beside his bed. She bit her lip, feeling horrible; this was her fault. If she had listened to him and stayed home from going to the bar with Josh months before, Brian wouldn’t be laid up, she wouldn’t have pissed off a gang member and Brian wouldn’t have had to have protected her, not to mention her damned uncle. She could strangle him herself at the moment. She couldn’t look at him anymore, she felt like too much of a low-life to look at him. She looked at her shoes as her tears splashed against the floor silently.

She sat back in the uncomfortable plastic chair and watched as Brian’s chest rose and fell with his soft breathing. Several days later, Ashlyn had hardly moved from Brian’s side and he was still sleeping it all off. The doctor’s had come to check on him, adjusted things, said they would be bringing him out of the medicated coma soon enough. Her emotions on the matter bounced back and forth like a pinball in a game. One moment she was excited to see him again, the next she was hoping he wouldn’t hate her, the next she was clinging to his hand, then crying, and then sleeping. Emotions rolled through her swiftly. What if Brian woke up and didn’t want anything to do with her after this? What would she do? She tried to picture a life without him in it, and found tears hitting her lap at the bleak idea. What if he didn’t hate her? What then? He still had to work, where would he be whisked off to? Would she see him? How often? What if he fell for the next client. She pursed her lips and readjusted in her seat.

A heavy sigh escaped Ash’s lips as she flipped off the tv. She set the remnants of her acai bowl to her side on a small table. She looked over at Brian again.

“You know, you need to wake your lazy bones up sooner or later,” she said.

She’d taken to talking to him, going mad not being able to. She really had no clue if he could hear her or not, but that wasn’t going to stop her.
She picked up her book and began reading again, lamenting that she would have to get yet another book soon. She looked over at her sketch book feeling restless. She had been sketching ideas for clothes, did she want to do more of that? No. She huffed. She looked outside, it was a beautiful sunny day. Dean had tried to lure her out to the beach for a few hours, but she had made it clear that she would not be leaving Brian any time soon.

“You should go outside and enjoy the sun for a little bit, hunny,” Jan, the nurse she had come to know pretty well, said as she walked in the room and checked on Brian.

“Nah, I don’t want to leave him. He didn’t leave me.” She said, giving Jan a smile.

Jan returned the smile and finished checking on Brian, then left the room again.

Ashlyn woke in the middle of the night. Something felt off. She couldn’t put her finger on it. She stood and looked out the door, the security detail was still there, as they had been since she and Brian were admitted. She scanned the room and sat back down in her chair/bed. Her eyes closed, heavy again.

“That can’t be comfortable.”

Her eyes shot open and she looked to her side. There, Brian laid, blinking softly. She nearly squealed with delight and jumped closer to him, careful not to touch him, the bruises and bones were still healing.

“You’re awake!” She said softly, grinning from ear to ear. “Are you ok? What do you need? Where’s the nurse? What hurts?”

Brian looked at her and grinned about as much as he could in that moment.

“What do you need?”

She looked at him, waiting for an answer. He looked at her and puckered his lips. Ashlyn chuckled slightly.

“You cheeky devil.”

She leaned down and kissed his lips softly, stroking his cheek for a moment.

“I’ve missed you. Now I’m calling the nurse,” she said and pressed the little button, still grinning down at Brian.
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Just when you think you'll be able to update regularly- disaster strikes. Strep throat, husband off a week, and a work disaster all back to back. Life is back to normal now though.