Chapter 6
Stephen leaned down to give you a quick peck, “Oh come on, this little encounter was fun.” He said, kissing you again.
“Ugh gross, get a room you two.” Bianca yelled at you as she threw the paper that was on the table, hitting Stephen in the arm.
Bianca busted out laughing as you grabbed Stephen and stuck your tongue out at your terrible roommate, “Come on Strange, were obviously not welcome here.” And with that the two of you were off.
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You woke up in Stephens apartment wrapped up in his warm embrace. You couldn’t help but smile at the fact, everything was perfect. Your life with Stephen was something out of a dream that you never thought you could have. Every week was a new adventure, going out to nice dinners, visiting museums, spontaneous weekend trips to places you had never even known. It was almost too good to be true. He would even come to visit you at work at the diner which you had never expected, cheering you on as you would sing your solos and being the loudest person in there but he didn’t care. As you thought about these things you turned over to face Stephen, studying every inch of his face as you slowly caressed his cheek with your hand. He looked so peaceful laying there so still. You could stare at him all day just admiring how he looked.
Slowly his eyes started to flutter open, catching you looking at him with such deep admiration and love. He smiled and he closed his eyes once again and pulled you closer into him.
“Come on Stephen you gotta get out of bed.” you whispered to him as you kissed him on his cheek. He moaned in response.
“Do we have to, because I would much rather stay here all day.” you smiled at his response, half expecting to get a sarcastic or rude answer.
“Come oooon, you have that craniotomy on that little boy with seizures and I would feel pretty shity if I was the reason his doctor didn’t show up to operate.” Stephen gave you a fake surprised face.
“Well look at you actually listening to my medical talk, I thought that stuff bored you?” He said with a sarcastic tone.
“Hey not fair I told you I thought it was boring once! You’re not gonna let me live that down are you?”
“Nope.” and with that he kissed your forehead and rolled out of bed.
You watched as he stood up and stretched, admiring his well toned shirtless body. Stephen noticed you staring and gave you a little wink before walked towards his closet to get dressed.
“Oh” He called out from his walk in closet, peeking his head out from the doorway, “don’t forget, tonight we have that gala that I’m speaking at, so we’ll be leaving at 7:30.”
“Oh shoot, Stephen please don’t kill me but I totally forgot and my friend Sandra asked me to cover her shift, and it ends at 8 so I don’t thi-”
“What no no no you have to go, I can’t go without a date, who am I going to make fun of the gala with?” you could hear the panic in his voice and it was kind of comforting to see how much he actually wanted you there by his side.
“Woah calm down I was just gonna say I don’t think I’ll be able to drive with you and I might be a little late, but I’ll be there.” You got up out of bed and walked over to the closet, opening the draw that Stephen said you could use once you started spending the night more often. You quickly got dressed and looked up over at Stephen who was standing there waiting for you.
“If you wouldn’t mind…” Stephen looked at you holding up his tie with a cute smile.
“You know,” you said as you grabbed the tie from his hands and began tying it, “I’m 99% sure that you know how to tie these yourself, so why am I always doing it for you?”
“Because it’s cute when you do it.” you looked up at him, falling in love with the look he was giving you.
You pulled Stephen down by the tie into a quick kiss before leaving for work.
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You went on with your day as you normally would, floating through the day just waiting for the next time you can see Stephen. Covering Sandra’s shift felt like it took three years, counting down the seconds until you could clock out. When the clock finally hit 8 you rushed to the back to change into your outfit for the gala. You couldn’t contain your excitement as you opened your bag and saw a small blue Tiffany’s box. You laughed to yourself as you slowly picked it up, Stephen must have slipped this in when you weren’t looking. You opened it and your mouth dropped. Inside was a beautiful silver chained bracelet with five emeralds scattered along the chain. You smiled as you put it on, admiring its simple beauty.
You quickly finished getting ready and ran out to the curb to call a cab. You looked down at the sidewalk and were shocked to see the pavement was wet, it must have been raining recently but you didn’t notice while you were working. As you were in the cab you couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit uneasy, but you couldn’t tell why. As you were approaching the venue you felt your phone buzz, you looked down to see it was Stepen.
“Stephen honey relax I’m just pulling up-” you were suddenly cut off by a voice that was not familiar.
“Hi Ms. (Y/L/N) this is doctor Palmer, I need you to come down to the hospital, It’s Stephen.”
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You burst through the ER doors panicked and soaking wet from the rain that has started up again. You look around to find someone who can help you but everyone seems to be busy. Suddenly you hear a familiar voice.
“(Y/N)? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the gala?” you turn around to see your roomate holding some charts and looking very confused.
“Bianca it’s Stephen, where’s Stephen.” you say over a swell of tears and in a complete panic. You could feel your chest tightening as it became harder and harder to catch your breath.
“Oh my god, I don’t know, but we’re gonna find him okay? Don’t worry everything is going to be okay.” She said as she pulled you into her arms and led you through the elevator doors and up to the ICU.
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You couldn’t believe it, this morning everything was fine, everything was perfect, you could have never in a million years imagined this could ever happen. You looked over at Stephen with all sorts of tubing coming out of his mouth and arms elevated with some sort of metal contraptions around them. You slowly walked into the room and took a seat at his bedside. For the second time today you studied Stephens face, but this time you looked carefully at all the scars and bruises. You caressed his face, not admiring all his curves and edges but slowly feeling over every scrape, almost hoping that your touch could heal him. You wanted to just lay with him and be held in his hands but you and the doctors knew it would be a long time before that could ever happen.
Stephen woke up 2 hours later, and you woke up to the sound of his heart rate increasing as he struggled to breath over the tubes that were down his throat. You called for a nurse in panic and soon the tubes were out and Stephen was talking.
“What… what happened, what did they do.” He looked down in disgust at his hands and then up at you. The look he gave of pure hatred was one you had never seen, you almost couldn’t even recognize him.
“Stephen, honey, they did everything they could, they did their best. You spun out in the rain on the way to the gala, it took so long for them to find you, they said that by the time they were operating it was too late to save the nerves, but that you should feel lucky to be alive.” You said as you slowly held back tears, letting one slip out as you reached out to put your hand on his shoulder.
“Lucky? Lucky? I lost my hands, the one thing I need as a surgeon, do you understand that? No of course you don’t because you’re not a doctor, you’re just some silly little waitress with big broadway dreams. You could never possibly understand.”
You looked at Stephen in shock as you cowered back into the corner of your chair. This was not Stephen, not your Stephen. You didn’t recognize the man in front of you but you knew one thing, you didn’t like what you saw. Trying your hardest to hold back tears and failing miserably, you tried to speak to him again.
“Look I know you’re upset but they said with some physical therapy you should be able to regain some functionality…” you trailed off not wanting to upset him further.
He looked at you staying completely silent and then looked away. You didn’t know what to do, what to say, you felt like a complete stranger to him and you didn’t like it. You tried one more time to get him to talk.
“Stephen, please, I’m here for you just talk to me, tell me what you need me to do.”
“Leave.” He said bluntly still not looking at you.
“W-what?” You couldn’t believe what he had just said.
“Just. Leave.” He said, this time starring you dead in the eye.
The words stung as you hard them roll harshly off his lips. You didn’t know what to do, but there was no way you were going to leave. You couldn’t, not when he was like this. So you got up from your chair and started walking to the door, half expecting him to call after you, but he didn’t. So you kept walking, not to the curb to call a cab, but to the waiting room to wait until he was ready to talk again.
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It was a few days later when Stephen was finally released from the hospital. You had spent all of your free time outside of work in the hospital waiting room, just hoping that Stephen would want to talk, but he never did. You would have left him there and given up but you just couldn’t bring yourself to it, you had to make sure he got home safely.
The drive home was painful, Stephen wouldn’t even look at you, you walked with him up to his apartment and helped him get settled before finally speaking.
“Stephen honey I know its bad now but-”
“But? But what?” Stephen rudely interrupted, “there is nothing else to say, things are bad and they will never get better. You should just go.”
“Stephen no please, don’t do this, let me help you.” you said as you went to grab onto his arm.
“Help me? Unless you can fix my hands you are of no use to me.” he said as he pulled his arm away and turned away from you.
You didn’t know what to say, but at this point you were fed up with his attitude and the way he was acting. “Okay now this is the part where you apologize.”
“No, this is the part where you leave.” he said, still not looking at you, instead looking out the window.
“fine, but if I walk out that door I am never coming back” you really hoped that the threat would work, but you knew it wouldn’t change his mind.
Stephen looked over to you with pain and hatred. “Go”
And with that you turned on your heels and walked out the door, head held high to give the illusion of being okay, holding back the swell of tears that you would explode into after you closed the door.