Early the Next Morning
City Hospital – Orthopedics In-patient Ward
The sky outside was still dim, and the early autumn morning carried a sharp chill.
The nurse's morning rounds woke Johny Lee from his sleep.
He yawned, politely greeted the elderly man with a broken leg in the adjacent bed, and then carefully rolled out of his own.
Avoiding his bandaged wounds, he grabbed his insulated water cup from the nightstand with his good hand and gulped a few sips.
Just as he slipped on his hospital slippers to go ask the nurse station about his examination schedule for the day, the iPhone 4 beside his pillow started chirping.
It was Maggi's number.
Johny quickly cleared his throat, swiped the touchscreen, and said, "Hello?"
"Johny, where are you? Why didn't you come home all night?"
Johny had lied to her last night when he called, claiming he was staying over at a colleague's place for dinner.
He had done it partly because he was afraid she would worry, and partly because he didn't want the woman he loved to see him in such a pathetic, battered state.
"Oh, it got too late yesterday, so I just crashed at my colleague's place," he lied smoothly. "I just woke up and I'm about to head to work."
As soon as he finished speaking, a female nurse pushed open the ward door, holding several round plastic medicine cups. She shouted into the room, "The medicine is here! This is the half-hour-after-breakfast dose!"
Maggi's voice on the other end became instantly anxious. "What medicine? Johny, where are you?!"
Johny cleared his throat loudly. "No, no, that was just the TV talking!"
"You're trying to make me die of anxiety! Tell me the truth right now!"
With his lie completely exposed, Johny's face flushed. He had no choice but to confess. "Ahem... well... I'm at City Hospital. Actually, yesterday there was a fire in an office at my unit, and some important classified documents were still inside.
I rushed in to retrieve them and got a slight burn, but it's nothing serious! Really! I'll be discharged in a couple of days. Please don't come down here, I'm perfectly fine."
"..."
"Maggi? What's wrong? Are you there?"
"...."
"I really didn't mean to deceive you."
Beep... beep... beep... She had hung up.
Johny wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, feeling extremely uneasy. Was Maggi furious with him? He called her back several times, but it went straight to voicemail.
When breakfast arrived, Johny grimaced, put down his phone, and handed a ten-dollar meal ticket, which Samson had bought for him yesterday to the orderly pushing the food cart. He then painstakingly peeled a hard-boiled egg with one hand, struggling for a long time just to finish it.
There was no other choice; besides IVs, injections, oxygen, and temperature checks, the nurses didn't handle personal feeding.
If you wanted someone to feed you, you had to hire a private caregiver, which cost dozens of dollars a day. Johny didn't want to waste the money, so he managed on his own.
Half an hour after breakfast, just as he swallowed his pain medicine, the sharp, rhythmic clicking of high heels echoed from the hallway.
Clack, clack, clack, clack! Rapid and forceful!
A figure darted past the doorway. The heels screeched to a halt, the figure quickly backtracked, and then flung open Johny's ward door.
It was Maggi!
Half-lying on the bed, Johny broke into a fresh sweat. "Maggi, didn't I tell you not to come? Look at you rushing...."
Seeing Johny covered in white gauze and sporting red, swollen burns, Maggi's eyes instantly welled up with tears. She bit her lower lip, unable to speak.
"Um, ahem... Maggi, please sit down. Have a seat." Johny awkwardly nudged the visitor's chair beside him with his good foot.
Maggi remained silent, her lips pressed tightly together as her eyes traced the extent of his injuries. The mix of burns, cuts, and bandages looked incredibly pathetic, a far cry from the clean, handsome image she preferred.
Johny shyly pulled the hospital blanket up to his chest, leaving only his lightly injured hand exposed. "It might look serious on the surface, but it's nothing...just scattered minor injuries. I'll be healed in a few days."
Suddenly, Maggi seemed to find her anger. She stepped forward and shouted, "Fighting fires is the Fire Department's job! Why did you go in? There are so many people in your unit, why didn't they do the rescuing? Is there no one else left in that huge organization but you?!"
She raised her hand and began slapping Johny's uninjured arm. "Let you show off! Let you show off!..." She hit him half a dozen times, though there was no real force behind the blows.
Johny had never seen Maggi so angry. He immediately fell silent, letting her vent.
"One day I'll be scared to death by you! One day I'm going to die of a heart attack because of you!" Maggi sniffled, turned her head away, and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
Johny panicked. "Maggi, please don't cry! Don't cry. I'm sorry, I won't show off ever again!"
He felt strangely warmed by her scolding, sensing the deep, genuine concern beneath her anger. "From now on, if I see a fire, I'll definitely stay far, far away! I promise!"
Maggi glanced at him and gently patted the bandage on his hand. "...Does it hurt?"
Johny smiled warmly. "It doesn't hurt at all."
"Any other injuries? Let me see."
"Just a slight leg sprain. No fractures, that's all."
She lifted his blanket to inspect the bandages on his leg. Maggi bit her lip, sniffled again, and then put on a fierce face, pointing a warning finger at him.
"Johny, from now on you must tell me everything first. If you dare lie to me again like you did last night, do you think I won't smack you?"
The elderly patient in the adjacent bed and his visiting son smiled knowingly at Johny.
Johny blushed and coughed. "It won't happen again. I swear."
Maggi still wasn't completely reassured. She scolded him a few more times, insisting he must never take such reckless risks again. Johny nodded earnestly to everything she said.
The old man with the leg cast finally laughed and interjected. "Miss, don't be too hard on the boy. This young man seems to be quite the hero. Yesterday, all his unit leaders came over to thank him. I heard he even got approved for a fast-track induction into the High Council because of what he did."
Hearing that, Johny replied cheerfully, "Right! I'll be a Council Member soon!"
Maggi dotingly patted his uninjured cheek. "Nothing is more important than your life. If something happened to you, how would I ever explain it to your mother?"
"Uh, please don't tell Sarah about this."
"Mm. I won't."
After looking after Johny for a while, Maggi ran out to the nurse's station to track down his doctor and ask about his condition in detail.
When she returned, Johny said, "You don't need to rush around. It's already so late; you should head to work."
Maggi shook her head. She took a warm, damp towel from the bathroom and gently wiped the soot and sweat from his face. "I've taken five days of annual leave. I'm staying right here with you for the next few days. I'm not going anywhere."
"Ah, it's okay, really! I'm fine on my own."
"You're limping and burned. How can you say you're fine? The doctor just told me it's best to have someone by your bedside."
"I truly don't need..."
"Besides, I've already made up my mind."
Seeing that arguing was useless, Johny could only accept Maggi's kindness.
Bedside companionship.... Johny thought to himself, watching her arrange his pillows. Sigh. If only it were cuddling instead.....
Authors Note:-
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