The Middle

When I woke up the next morning, my spirits were a bit higher. I smiled as a felt a weight draped across my stomach. I turned my head and saw the sleeping face of Pat. I reached up and ran my hand over his cheek. His eyes fluttered open and when they met mine, a smile broke out on his face. I playfully stuck my tongue out at him.

“We need to go to the hospital.”

Pat rolled over and looked at the clock. He turned his head back at me with his eyebrow raised.

“Really? It’s only 9:30.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I wanna talk to Ryan.”

He smiled at me then nodded. “Okay, let’s go.” He leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the lips.

We rolled out of bed, got dressed and left the hotel room. On the way to the elevator, Pat turned to me.

“So, did you think about coming back to Chicago at all last night?”

I nodded. “I did, but like I told you, I want to run it by Ryan first. You heard the doctor, he might be too weak for the plane ride.”

Pat sighed. “Okay, I understand. Would it be horrible of me if I said I’d be a little disappointed if you stayed here?”

I giggled. “No, you want us in Chicago and I understand that, but I need to put Ryan’s needs in front of everything else.”

Pat smiled and put his arm around my shoulder as we walked into the elevator. “Well, let’s see how Ryan feels about it all first.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Pat and I arrived at Ryan’s hospital room, I turned to Pat once more.

“Remember, he may not be up for it, and as much as it might hurt you, could you please just act like you support his decision?”

He sighed, but nodded nonetheless. I lightly knocked on the door then peeked my head in. Ryan was just waking up. He looked up at me and smiled.

“Claire! Where were you last night?”

I walked in with Pat close behind. Pat shut the door behind him as I walked over to Ryan’s bedside. I grabbed hold of his hand before I spoke.

“Well, the doctor told me that I couldn’t stay in your room with you last night, just in case of anything happening in the middle of the night. So, I stayed with Pat.”

Ryan’s face lit up when he heard that I was spending time with Pat again.

“Are you guys back together?”

I chuckled. “Well, we were never together in the first place but,” I looked over at Pat, “we’ll see how things go.”

Ryan sighed. “Can’t you guys just admit that you love each other?”

Pat chuckled at Ryan and walked up behind me after standing at the foot of Ryan’s bed since we walked in. He put his hand on the small of my back.

“Well it’s a little more complicated than that, bud, but we’re going talk about everything. Regardless of what happens, though, it doesn’t change anything about my relationship with you, okay?”

Ryan sighed and looked down at his lap and nodded. “Okay.”

I let out a small smile and squeezed Ryan’s hand. “How you feeling, buddy?”

Ryan shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, I guess. Sorry I scared you guys last night. I don’t know what happened.”

I gave him a small smile, “it’s not your fault, Ry. You didn’t know what was going to happen.”

He looked up at me with tears building in his eyes. “Can we go back to Chicago?”

I looked back at Pat, feeling tears build up in my eyes before turning my head back towards Ryan. I was about to speak, but Pat beat me to it.

“You sure you’re feeling up to it, bud? The doc said that you might not feel up to flying for a couple days.”

Ryan huffed. “If I’m not getting any better being here, I wanna be back in Chicago. We were happier there.”

I let out a silent sob as I let my head fall back, trying to hold back the tears. Ryan squeezed my hand. I looked back down at him.

“Claire, I won’t go if you don’t feel I should. But, I don’t want Pat to leave either.”

I sighed. “Ryan, you know that Pat can’t stay here much longer. He has a job to do and the team is leaving Pittsburgh today.”

Pat squeezed my shoulder then whispered in my ear, “I’m gonna go talk to the doctor.”

I looked over at him and nodded. He left the room and Ryan sighed.

“Claire, how bad is it?”

I sat down in the chair beside his bed, never letting go of his hand.

“Well, the treatment that we came here for didn’t work, it was beginning to make it worse. Thank God they stopped it when they did.”

Ryan nodded and I saw that a tear escaped and slipped down his cheek. I reached over and wiped it away with my thumb. I whispered to him.

“Oh Ryan, it’s gonna be fine. I’m just not sure about going back to Chicago today. You might feel up to it now, but once we’re in the air, if you feel worse, there’s not much we can do. Pat’s gone to talk to the doctor right now.”

Ryan nodded once again and wiped his face with his hands. Pat walked back in the room and placed his hand on my shoulder. Ryan looked over and him with a hopeful glance.

“So, what did the doctor say?”

Pat sighed and looked between Ryan and me.

“Well, he said that he wants to run a couple of tests to make sure that you’ll be okay for the plane ride.”

A smile broke out on Ryan’s face.

“Yes! I can feel it, Claire. We’re going home! Oh, thank you Pat!”

Pat leaned over and gave Ryan a hug with a small smile.

“I didn’t do anything, bud, but you’re welcome.”

I smiled when the two embraced. Ryan looked over at me with a huge grin on his face. After everything that happened in the last 48 hours, that one smile made everything seem better. Pat pulled away from Ryan and looked at me with a smile that mirrored the one on Ryan’s face. I tried my hardest to smile back, but couldn’t help but feel like something was going to go wrong. Pat noticed that my facial expression wasn’t as happy as the one that he and Ryan shared. He put his hand on my shoulder then looked back at Ryan.

“Hey bud, I gotta take Claire out to talk to the doctor, but we’ll be right back,okay?”

He nodded as Pat guided me out of the room and into the hallway. Once we were out of Ryan’s room, Pat ushered me to sit on the bench. We both sat down and Pat turned to look at me.

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

I shook my head as a few tears that I had been holding back fell from my eyes. “I just feel like something’s going to go wrong if we get on that plane. You saw how scared Ryan is. Even if the doctor agrees to it, I don’t know if I can let him get on that plane today.”

Pat wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him. “Y’know, if the docs say he’s okay to go, then shouldn’t that tell you something?”

I let out a soft sigh and nodded. “Yes, it does mean something, Pat, but I don’t think it’ll change how scared I am.”

He squeezed my shoulders. “Well, nothing is set in stone yet, so let’s stay positive and go from there, okay?”

I nodded and stood up. “Let’s head back in there. I don’t want Ryan to worry anymore than he already is.”

Pat nodded and stood up. We both turned to go back into Ryan’s room when I heard my name being called. Turning my head to look behind me, I saw that doctor. He walked up to me and Pat with a small smile.

“Is Ryan okay with taking the few minor tests to see if he’s able to travel today?”

I nodded. “Yes, he’s actually excited about it.”

The doctor chuckled. “Yeah, I wouldn’t doubt that. He kept talking about going back to Chicago during his treatments here.”

I gave the doc a small smile and felt Pat put his hand on the small of my back. Pat looked between the door and the doctor before asking, “Can we tell him you’re ready for him now?”

The doctor nodded, “yes, of course. I’ll wait out here until he’s ready. The tests will take about 30 minutes to complete in total and about 2 hours to get the results back.”

I gave the doctor a small smile, grabbed a hold of Pat’s hand and led him into Ryan’s room. When we walked through the door, I kept the small smile on my face. Ryan looked a little worried.

“Is there something wrong?”

I shook my head and let out a small chuckle. “No, just the opposite actually, the doctor is ready to take you for the tests now.”

A smile grew on Ryan’s face. “Okay, can I go now?”

Pat nodded. “Sure can, buddy. We can’t be in here while the tests are being done, but we’ll send the doctor in okay?”

Ryan nodded. Pat and I left the room again and told the doctor that Ryan was ready. I sat down on the bench while waiting for the tests to be completed. Pat sat beside me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pat’s POV

I watched Claire sit on the bench and I felt my heart sank. She told me not to get too excited about the idea of her and Ryan coming home to Chicago, but I was failing miserably. But who could blame me? I wanted them back in Chicago. I could be there for them a hell of a lot more and I would be able to get my relationship with Claire in order. I wanted the two of them a part of my life more and having them come back to Chicago seemed to the best option.

I sat down beside Claire and whispered. “And now we wait.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 2 ½ hours later…

Claire’s POV

I had fallen asleep on the bench shortly after Ryan’s testing began. Pat didn’t wake me as he went into the room when Ryan was finished. To be honest, I was glad that I was asleep. I didn’t want to see the hope in his eyes, especially if there was a chance that the doctors would shoot him down.

I was stretching my arms out, feeling as though I just had the nap of my life, when the doctor walked up to me chuckling to himself.

“I see you got some shut-eye.”

I nodded while trying to cover a yawn. “Yes, I did. Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Also, I thought that Pat would wake me up when the tests were finished.”

The doctor shook his head. “It’s not a problem, Miss Davis. I do have the results, though. Would you like me to tell you first before I go in and tell Ryan? Or tell all of you at once?”

I thought for a few seconds, pondering on the idea. “Uhh.. I’d like you to tell me first, please. If you don’t mind, that is.”

He shook his head, “no, of course not.” He opened the folder he had in his hands, glancing quickly over the results then closed the folder once again. He looked up at me with a hint of a smile on his face.

“Well, there is some good and some bad news. The good news is he can travel, but only if the plane ride is direct from here to Chicago. The bad news is, he’ll have to go to treatment as soon as he gets back to Chicago if you leave today.”

I let out a small sigh of relief. I knew that the news would make Ryan happy, as well as Pat. I looked at the doctor and smiled. “Thank you for everything. I’m still not sure if we are leaving today or not. It depends on how Ryan feels about everything.”

He nodded. “That’s completely understandable. Shall we go in and share the results with Ryan and your boyfriend?”

I was about to correct him on calling Pat my boyfriend, but bit my tongue. I thought about how that sounded and a small smile emerged on my face as I nodded towards the doctor.

“Yea, let’s go in.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pat’s POV

I heard a light knock on the door. I was about to stand up and answer in, but the doctor let himself in the room. Following closely behind him, was Claire. She had a small smile on his face, which caused me to speculate what the results were. She would be happy for Ryan if the tests came through showing he could travel, but she also wouldn’t mind if he stayed, if it meant that he would get healthier before going back to Chicago.

The doctor walked up beside Ryan and gave me a big smile.

“Well Ryan, you did a great job with your tests today.”

Ryan’s eyes lit up. “I did?! Does that mean I can go home to Chicago?”

The doctor chuckled. “Well, there are a few complications with getting you there, but if we can figure them out, then yes, you can go home to Chicago.”

I raised my eyebrow. I looked at Claire then moved my gaze to the doctor before speaking up.

“I don’t mean to interrupt you, doctor, but what are the complications?”

He lightly shrugged his shoulders. “Well, Ryan would have to find a direct flight from here to Chicago. No layovers at all. Also, when he gets to Chicago, he’ll have to go directly into treatment. The treatment he would usually get in Chicago, that is.”

I nodded and glanced over at Claire. I raised my eyebrow to her. She nodded her head towards Ryan. I gave her a little smirk before turning to Ryan.

“Well, I have a direct flight to Chicago that’s leaving in about 4 hours. Would that work?”

I smiled at Ryan, even though my question was for the doctor. I moved my gaze up to the doctor, waiting for an answer. He looked a bit hesitant, but finally nodded.

“Yes, I don’t see how that couldn’t work. You promise that there isn’t any layovers?”

I nodded my head. “I promise. We have a team dinner in Chicago tonight, so we’re flying straight there.”

The doctor nodded at me then looked down at Ryan.

“Well Ryan, what do you think?”

I noticed Ryan’s eyes were focused directly on Claire. He just smiled at Claire said the words that Ryan wanted to.

“Let’s go home.”