He took a few steps forward into the room, letting the door swing closed behind him. He wore a thick green hoody that resembled the same color emerald of his eyes; making them pop, and a pair of black jeans. His hands were shoved awkwardly into the pockets of his jeans, his thumbs hooked through the front belt loops. My mouth hung slack. I'm sure the expression on my face looked more like I had suffered brain damage then it did being in shock.
"Uhhh, hi." He said after a few moment passed awkwardly in silence. "The, uhh...Doc said you asked for me?" The left corner of his mouth twitched upward as he said it, as if the idea of me asking for him was amusing.
"I'll give the two of you a moment," my mother rose and excited the room. I remained silent, unable to find the words to ask him who the hell he was and why I knew the hills and valleys of his face so intimately despite have never physically laid eye in them prior to today. I had dreamt of his face in perfect detail, from the freckles that were scattered across the bridge of his nose and cheeks; all the way down to the thin white scare that cut through his right eyebrow. When I still hadn't spoken after several moments he began to retreat towards the door, "I can come back later if you prefer?"
"NO!" I shouted, a bit too forcefully. I cleared my throat and began again. "I mean, no. Please don't. I am really sorry. I just a little out of it, all things considered. Have we...met before?" I asked, cocking one eyebrow.
He chuckled. "No, I don't believe so. My names Jesse," he strolled gracefully to my bedside, holding out a hand in introduction. "Jesse Carter. And you are...Ainsley, if I remember correctly?" I took his outstretched hand, giving it a gentle shake. His palm felt hot in my hand, as if I were holding a piece of the sun, sending a shiver of electricity up my arm. Quickly, I withdrew my hand.
"You would be correct. But how do you know that if we've never met before?" I couldn't help but to be suspicious of him.
"Well I did spend the last few hours hold up in this room with a few of your loved ones. Your name may have been mentioned once or twice" he ran a hand through the shaggy mop of hair, pushing it back out of his eyes and revealing the previously obscured portions of his face. In my dreams, i had been too focused on who he was and the fear etched into his features to notice how handsome he was. His skin was smooth, remnants of a summer tan still kissed his skin. His eyes were bright, but held some unknown secret. His full lips wore a bemused grin.
"Oh...guess I hadn't thought of that." I chuckled awkwardly, pushing my own matted blood stained curls away from my face.
"Soooo, you wanted to see me?" I rocked back and forth on his heels in obvious discomfort.
"Yeah. Actually I just wanted to meet you and say thanks. The doctor said you kept me from like, choking on my tongue or whatever. So yeah, thanks." I shrugged. "Just curious, but how'd you knew what to do? When I had the seizure, I mean" I leaned forward, interested.
He again ran his fingers through his hair, push the hair back from his eyes before it fluttered back into place. "Well uhh," he stammered," let's just say this isn't my first go around with something like that."
Before I push further, the door opened again. Two nurses in fresh green scrubs entered, followed by my mother. "Ms. Summit, please come with us." The first nurse spoke softly, while the second pushed a wheel chair up to my bedside. I stared at it in disbelief.
"I don't need that," I protested as I eyeballed the chair.
"Ms. Summit, your muscles are still fatigued. It is in your best interest to use it, and per hospital procedure, you have to. Please, sit. You need to rest as much as possible. The second nurse crooned at me, as if she were speaking to a small child. Begrudgingly, I complied.
As I stood to make my way into the cursed chair, my knee wobbled and gave, sending me crumbling to the floor. Before I made contact with the cold, linoleum floor, Jesse had placed a firm hand on my elbow to steady me before gingerly helping me into the seat.
"Thanks," a shy whisper escaped past my lips. Embarrassed, I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, thankful for just a moment that my blood crusted hair hung in my face enough to shield me from his prying green eyes.
"No problem" he smiled back. The nurses proceeded to push me towards the door, my mother following close behind.
"Wait!" I sputtered, turning back to peer over my shoulder to look at Jesse. "Will you be here when I get back."
"Nah," he smirked. "I really should be getting home, and you really need to get some rest after today."
"Oh okay," I attempted to hide my disappointment. "See ya around then?"
"For sure." He smiled.
For some odd reason I wanted Jesse to be here, I needed to know more about him. About who he was, where he came from, and why I had never seen him before. The thought that consumed me most of all while I was wheeled to down the hospital corridors to my Cat scan, was why he had bothered to help me at all.
************************************************
An hour or so later, I was back in my hospital room. Both June and Kate had gone to their respective homes, parting with hugs and well wishes. Kate's mom Lydia even stopped in briefly to see how I was feeling.
I really liked Lydia. She and Kate had such an honest and open relationship. They listened to each other, and if I were to be honest with myself, i had to admit there was a part of me that was envious of their relationship. I wished more then anything that my mom and I could talk that way. However even when I was honest, she was sure I was lying, and when I begged for her to open up and talk to me, she would instead deflect and turn the conversation to focus back on my faults and misgivings.
By now, the only people left in my small hospital room was myself, my mother, and the occasional nurse that popped in and out of the room to check my vitals and insist upon me getting some rest. Watching the hands of the clock in the wall, I grew more anxious to get out of this hospital, with its crisp white walls and sterile surfaces. Hospitals did nothing more then remind me of everything I had lost.
As the clock approached 8:45 PM, Dr Goodwin came into the room. He flipped a switch in the side of a rectangular light that hung in the wall, the filaments springing to life, and placed several pictures up on the lighted surface.
"Ms. Summit..."
"Ainsley," I corrected.
"Right. Ms Ainsley. We've reviewed your scans, and based on what we see here, there don't appear to be any major neurological abnormalities present at this time, however," he paused a moment and mimed a circle around a section of my brain in the picture that appeared to glow a bit brighter then the rest. "This is your temporal lobe, and this section here called the amygdala. This is the part of your brain houses your fear receptors. Basically, this section here if where your fight or flight response originates from. As you can see here, this particular part of your brain appears to be overly stimulated compared to the average person at rest. Other then that and a few ruptured blood vessels, you appear to in good health. I would like to keep you overnight for observation just in case."
"Excuse me," my mother cleared her throat politely. "Dr. Goodwin, I'm sorry to bother but if you don't mind my asking, what could have caused this?"
"The most likely cause is sleep deprivation. Lack of sleep can have a detrimental affect on a persons health, both mentally and physically. Essentially, your brain didn't have sufficient energy to run and started shutting down. I will say however, with there being no family history of epilepsy, and no previous history of you experiencing a violent seizure like this before, it's unusual that you had three rather severe episodes with in such a small window of time. So just to be safe, we will be monitoring your brain activity overnight to make sure we didn't miss anything. And you are going to get some much needed rest Ms Ainsley...doctor's orders."
Relieved to hear I had a relatively clean Bill of health, I allowed myself to relax. I had been so worried about my dreams that I hadn't stopped to think that I was possibly making myself and my nightmares worse. So as ordered, I settled in for the night and allowed myself to fall into a dreamless sleep.