“Georgia?” Tate only noticed I wasn’t next to him anymore, not that his mother stood outside a closed curtain looking pale as a ghost. “What’s the matter?”
I shook my head rapidly, but couldn’t form words.
He took my hand. “It’s okay. He made it through. We have to do this one step at a time.”
Tate traced my line of sight, and his face fell when he saw his mother. “Shit.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Give me a minute.”
I waited in the middle of the ICU while Tate walked over to his mother. The minute she saw him, she threw her arms around his shoulders and started sobbing.
Silent tears rolled down my face. He can’t… He just can’t.
Tate pulled back from the embrace and spoke to her. He looked over at me once as his mother wiped her eyes, and he held up one finger before slipping behind the curtain. When he came back out, he looked as pale as his mother. I watched him swallow before he walked back over. I don’t think I moved a single muscle as I waited.
He blew out two puffed cheeks full of air. “They had to put him into a medically induced coma. His brain is swelling, which is common after the surgery he just had, but they weren’t able to stop it any other way. They basically had to shut off his brain to give it time to heal.” Tate scoffed. “Makes sense, I guess. The only way we could ever get him to stop fighting for what he wanted was to knock him out.”
“How long will they keep him out?”
“They don’t know.”
I took a deep breath and wiped my tears. “Can I see him?”
“He doesn’t look good, Georgia. His face is swollen, and he’s hooked up to a million machines. Of course you can go in, but you might need to prepare yourself.”
I stared at the drawn curtains surrounding the man I loved. “How do I do that?”
Tate frowned. “I wish I knew.”
We walked over to his mom. She smiled and wrapped me in her arms. “Thank you for coming.”
“Of course.”
She looked me in the eyes. “He loves you very much.”
I smiled sadly. “The feeling is mutual.”
Tate stood next to me. “Do you want me to go in with you?”
I shook my head. “No, I just need a minute.”
“Take all the time you need, sweetheart.” His mother rubbed my back.
After a few deep breaths, I nodded and walked behind the curtain.
My heart stopped. Tate had warned me, but nothing could have prepared me for this moment.
Max didn’t look like Max. If there hadn’t been a curtain around him, I could have passed right by, still looking for the strong, beautiful man I knew. His skin was gray, and his face was so swollen. Tubes and wires were connected all over him, and bandaging wrapped around the top of his head from his eyebrows up. But his lack of expression scared me the most. I hadn’t realized just how much Max’s personality lit his face until now. Whether it was a smile, a smirk, or a frown, he was so animated and expressive. Now he looked…
I couldn’t even let myself think it.
I had to pull myself together and be his strength until he was ready to fight on his own. So I stepped forward to the bed and took his hand.
“Hey. It’s Georgia. You’re going to be okay, Max. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met, and we can do this together.” I took a deep breath and squeezed his hand. “I love you, Max. I love you more than anything, and I never got the chance to tell you that. So I need you to get better so I can look in your eyes and make sure you know it.” I shook my head. “I also need to yell at you for hiding all of this from me. Just because you had a little brain surgery doesn’t mean I’m letting you off the hook. I’m sure you know that.”
The curtain rustled behind me. Tate stepped inside. “Just checking to see if you’re okay.”
I nodded and looked back over at Max. “I am. We’re both going to be okay.”
For the next twelve hours, Max’s family and I stayed by his side. Doctors came and went, nurses adjusted monitors and hung new bags of medicine, but Max stayed the same. He didn’t get better or worse. The doctors said they didn’t anticipate any improvement in the short term. They just needed time for him to rest and heal. At midnight, Max’s brothers got everyone together, and we made a schedule for the next twenty-four hours so someone would be by his side at all times, but each of us could get some sleep. Tate, Max’s mom, and I were all going back to Max’s house for a few hours.