Only You by K.T. Quinn

49

Molly

The Day I Woke Up

I dreamed that Donovan and I were playing hide and seek. First I hid in the walk-in freezer downstairs, and I shivered and turned into a block of ice before he found me. Then I blinked my eyes and I was suddenly standing over a pot of boiling water in the kitchen, holding my face over the steam like I was in a sauna. The steam was so hot it made my skin break out in sweat, so I stripped my clothes until I was comfortable.

Then, suddenly, I was in the freezer again. The sweat turned to ice on my arms and chest and my teeth chattered so loudly that it made my ears ache.

Then we were playing hide and seek outside, with the warm sun shining high above. Donovan told me I was cheating by being outside, but then I told him that he was the real cheater. He laughed, but it felt forced. He looked worried.

I remembered that he was sick, that I should be taking care of him, but I couldn’t control my legs to get up and help him. I thrashed and screamed but it was like I was paralyzed, unable to move.

Then Donovan disappeared and I was being handled by lots of different people, some with bright lights and some veiled in darkness. I tried to tell them that hide and seek was a solo sport, that they weren’t allowed to help me or Donovan would call me a cheater again, but when I opened my mouth I couldn’t seem to find my voice to say the words.

Then I slept, but I was in a different bed than the one in the hotel, and I hated it because Donovan’s warm body wasn’t cuddled against me.

I opened my eyes.

The first thing I noticed were the ceiling tiles. They were different than the ones I had memorized at the Residencia Al Gladiatore. There was a whiteboard on the wall across from me. Most of the words were Italian, but I recognized my name.

To my left, the window showed a dark sky. It was night.

To my right, Donovan was sitting in a chair that had been pulled over to the hospital bed. His head was slumped onto the edge of the bed, and he snored softly.

“Don…” I tried to speak but my throat was raw. I coughed a few times, which was even more painful.

Donovan leaped to his feet. “Molly! Let me get you some water…”

He filled a cup from a pitcher and placed it in front of me. There was a straw, which made it easy to sip. The water was cold and soothed my throat.

“More?”

He refilled the cup and I drank all of it again. I opened my mouth and this time it didn’t hurt as much to speak.

“Donovan.”

He leaned over me and caressed my cheek with his thumb. His dark hair was messy, and his beard was fuller than I remembered. His steel eyes were sunken into his handsome face with exhaustion, but he smiled broadly at me.

“Where am I?”

“Your condition got worse,” he explained softly, still caressing my cheek. “Your fever got high, and you couldn’t keep fluids down. Which is weird since vomiting isn’t listed as a symptom anywhere. But it made things worse for you since you couldn’t eat, and you started sleeping more. When your breathing started getting raspy… I had to do something. I brought you here. It’s been a day and a half.”

I smiled weakly. He looked so worried that I quickly tried to think of a joke. “It’s a good thing Italy has universal healthcare. Otherwise I would hate to get the bill for an ambulance.”

He smiled wryly. “The wait was too long for an ambulance. I brought you here.”

I blinked in confusion. “But how…”

“I carried you.”

“You carried me? All the way to the hospital by the testing site?”

“Well… It turns out that hospital was full. I had to carry you twice as far. We’re at the Ospedale Britannico.”

“Twice as… You carried me a kilometer?” I said groggily. “That’s, like, a bunch of meters.”

“A thousand of them, to be exact.”

“How did you not pass out.”

“I kind of did!” he said cheerfully. “I made it to the door before nurses took you. Then I woke up in the bed next to you, with an IV drip in my arm. They said I was dehydrated. I guess I was so worried about taking care of you at the hotel that I neglected myself.”

I closed my eyes and chuckled softly. “You passed out from carrying me to the hospital. All I did was make you crappy pasta you couldn’t taste.”

He picked up my hand and kissed it softly. “Molly, it’s all my fault. I must have gotten infected on my trip to the store. Then I got you infected. Carrying you here was the least I could do. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t even be sick.”

I found the remote control that operated the bed, and used it to raise the back until I was in an upright position. Then I took one of his wide hands in both of mine and squeezed it to my chest.

“Oh, Donovan. It’s not your fault. You did everything you could to keep me safe. And you took amazing care of me. It’s fuzzy, but I remember you making me drink Gatorade, and trying to feed me…”

I frowned as another memory came back to me.

“You got an email. From the wait list. You can go home. You can’t stay here for me. No, don’t shake your head, I don’t want to hear it. You should get out of Rome while you can. If they’ll let you.”

He continued shaking his head, and a smile touched his lips. “That’s the thing, Molly. Look.” He picked up my phone from the table. “You got an email from the wait list yesterday. Your request was finally processed. You can book a flight home anytime! Well, not any time. We have to wait until it’s been forty-eight hours after a negative virus test. But that should be soon. We’re going home, Molly. We’re finally going home.”

It took several heartbeats for the words to sink in. Then cool, calming relief washed over me. The day we had been waiting for had finally come.

We could leave.

But my relief was quickly replaced by sadness. Leaving Rome meant leaving him, Donovan, the man who looked absolutely gorgeous even though he probably hadn’t showered in several days. What was originally supposed to be a one-week trip had lasted almost two months, and yet I wasn’t ready for it to be over.

I wasn’t ready for us to be over.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. He was still all smiles.

“Donovan…” I said. I struggled to think of the words to express how I felt. “I…”

There was a courtesy knock on the open door, and then a white-coated doctor strode into the room. She was wearing a plastic face shield and a mask, and she had a big smile for me.

“She’s awake!” the doctor said in very good English. “At long last, sleeping beauty has returned to us. It was a kiss from her prince, was it not?”

“The first nineteen kisses on her forehead didn’t work, but I guess the twentieth did,” Donovan replied.

“You are a lucky woman,” the doctor told me, “to have such a devoted man. He did not leave your side since you arrived, I swear it. How are you feeling, Molly?”

“I feel… pretty good,” I said. “My throat is really sore, and it hurts to talk. And I’m still exhausted.”

The doctor read the numbers on one of the machines next to my bed, and nodded to herself. “You were fortunate. Your oxygen levels never became too low, so we did not need to connect you to a respirator. The intravenous drip was sufficient, and your body did the rest.”

“That’s good,” I said.

“We drew additional blood this morning, and I hope you are no longer positive for the virus. If that is the case, and your condition continues improving, you may leave the hospital in two days time.”

Donovan squeezed my hand and grinned. I smiled back at him.

The doctor flipped through two pages on her clipboard. “We do not think the fetus was affected by your respiratory issues or fever, but when you return home we recommend you begin taking a higher dose of prenatal vitamins.”

Donovan suddenly stood up a little straighter.

“I’m sorry,” I said to the doctor. “The what?”

The doctor blinked at me in confusion. “The fetus. This is the word in English, yes? You are with child. You are pregnant.”