Meaningless Routine

I woke up to the feeling of someone running their hand through my hair. It was gentle and soft and by the way my body reacted to the touch, I knew it had to be Aiden. That was the only possible solution, especially since there was a monitor beeping nearby and I was in a cramped hospital bed.

"Good morning," he murmured to me as I stirred.

My hand pushed against the bed when I sat up and I used my other one to run through my hair, knowing I probably looked like a mess. Aiden smiled at me when I turned away, trying to fix the most likely smeared makeup under my eyes. He reached over and tugged on my wrist. I looked at him, confused.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" he asked, a smirk on my pink lips.

Instead of replying, I rolled my eyes. "How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough for the nurses to be worried if you were alive or not."

"That's not funny, Aiden," I said, my tone flat.

He released my wrist and let his arm fall behind me, wrapping around my waist as I shifted to get more comfortable in the awful bed. He tugged on my waist, which made me fall closer to him. "I told you I'm going to be fine," he replied.

My eyebrows narrowed as I looked down at him. "But you're not. You're sitting in a hospital bed right now with an IV attached to you. That's not supposed to happen, not to you. Not to us. We're supposed to stay in love and get married and have kids. You promised me. You're not supposed to be here right now."

"But I am. Things change, Alex. Everything changed. Everything but the fact that I love you and the fact that we will get married and have kids. I'm strong, okay? I'll get past this... we will. Don't worry about whether or not I'll be alive in a couple years."

I could feel the tears sting my eyes. I didn't want Aiden to die, but as we sat in the hospital bed, with him hooked to various things, I couldn't help but think about it. I felt absolutely awful and guilty. During the time I was away, he had been going through the symptoms and I was ignoring him. Not once during those nine months did I speak to him.

During those nine months, Aiden had been fainting a lot and was having trouble breathing. He had been losing weight and would get extreme chest pain. Finally, the other day, he had fainted while walking down the stairs at his house while he visited his parents. They had, of course, rushed him to the hospital, thinking he had broken a bone, when they found a tumor on his heart. It was cancerous and the doctors figured that if not treated soon, the cancer cells would spread to his lungs, which would be all the more dangerous.

He would have to go through radiation, since a tumor on the heart can't be removed. As soon as possible, he would start, and all he needed was the okay from his parents, who were trying to figure if chemotherapy or radiation would be better. Even though Aiden was over eighteen and could make the decision himself, he didn't want to do it without talking to his parents first.

"You better get past this, Aiden. I can't... I'm not... I can't do all this without you. I need you."

A smile formed on his lips and he brought my hand up to his lips, kissing it softly. "I'm not going anywhere, Allie."

The door to the room opened and the same nurse that had led me into the room when I first arrived walked in. She smiled at us while going to the IV. "Good to see you awake, Miss Callahan. We were beginning to worry, but Aiden assured us that you were just tired." I smiled, glancing over at him again. "You got a keeper there, Miss Callahan. He's a good kid."

I nodded. "I know. Can't seem to shake him."

He scoffed. "Like you want to, Al." In response, I rolled my eyes.

"You got a call earlier, Miss Callahan-"

"You can call me Alex," I interrupted.

She nodded. "You got a call earlier, Alex. It was your father. He said he set up your room at the house for you and you can go there whenever you would like. Also, he said to call him if you need him to pick you up from here."

"You can go, Alex. I'm not going anywhere," Aiden told me.

I looked back at him and shrugged. "I'd rather stay here with you."

He smiled. "You know I love that, but you need to go home for a bit. Shower, eat, and sleep in a real bed. I'll be fine."

"I'm not leaving you. Not again, Aiden."

Leaning forward, he slipped his hand behind my neck, moving my face towards his. For the first time in nine months, he pressed his lips to mine. The feeling was so familiar and I absolutely loved it. His lips made me forget where we were and they made me not even notice that the nurse had left the room.

His hands slid over my hips, tugging me over him. I ran my hand through my hair and leaned down to kiss him again, feeling our bodies perfectly collide.

The monitor next to us began to beep quicker and I pulled back, laughing at it. Aiden just grinned as I pulled off of him. "Don't need nurses and doctors rushing in here because my heart speeds up. They'll think you're attacking me," he joked, with a playful smirk on his mouth.

"When uh, when do you get to leave here?" I asked.

"You gotta buy me dinner first, Allie," he played on, which made me roll my eyes. "And I don't know. They're going to release me for a day or two so they can set up either my radiation room or my chemo room."

Nodding, I stood up and tugged my shirt down. I leaned down to kiss him quickly. "Call me if anything happens, alright? I'm gonna tell the nurses to do so also and I'll be back in a couple hours. I love you, Aiden."

"I love you, too. Now get outta here, baby."