From Russia With Love

“Mr. and Mrs. Way?” called a male voice softly. Dominika looked up to see a man in green surgeon’s scrubs standing in the doorway of the waiting room, his face mask slung untied around his neck.

“How is he?” Donna demanded, “how did it go?”

“He’s okay, he’s conscious now but he’s not out of the woods yet. We’ve seen a new kind of weapon used in the last few months that essentially contains thousands of metal fragments. When the bomb detonates, the shrapnel is sent flying everywhere and its victims are injured by that rather than the explosion itself. Corporal Way has extensive nerve damage and shrapnel wounds, especially to his back. We managed to get everything out but since there’s such a large area affected it’s really going to knock him around a bit. He’s going to need time to heal before he’ll be able to walk on his own again. He’s really going to need the support of his family at home during his recovery, even if he feels he doesn’t need it. I know what soldiers are like with their pride”

Donna seemed to relax slightly then and Dominika stared at her as she took in everything the doctor had said carefully.

“When can we see him?” Donna asked, wringing her hands together. The surgeon looked at them each for a moment, obviously considering his answer before he replied.

“You can go now, but only one person at a time until we’re sure he’s fully off the anesthetic. I’ll have the nurse come show you to his room”

“Thank you, Doctor” Donald said, grasping the surgeon’s palm and shaking it briefly before the man left the room.

“You go first” Dominika said as she nodded towards the door, even though it pained her to do so. She was so close to seeing him and now she’d have to wait just that little bit longer. It only seemed fair Gerard’s Mother would get to see her son first, Dominika had never seen her so withdrawn and tense as she had been these past twenty-four hours in the whole time she’d known her.

Donna squeezed Dominika’s hand as she passed, making her way to the door.

“I won’t be long”

She watched Donna leave with the nurse and her pulse raced, wishing it was her turn already. She paced along the floor, backwards and forwards in the same repetitive pattern. Donald sat on one of the cushy chairs, watching her and smirking.

“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor there, young lady”

“Sorry” Dominika apologized, collapsing back into the seat next to Gerard’s Father “I’m worried about him”

“This is the best hospital in New York and probably the best in the entire country, he’ll be well taken care of here, and when we go home, we’ll hire a live-in nurse”

“You don’t need to do that” Dominika said, shaking her head “I’ll look after him. He wouldn’t like some stranger fussing over him”

It was partly that, and partly the fact that she didn’t like the idea of sitting around watching some other woman fawn over the guy she loved. Loved. Finally acknowledging it, even if it was only in her head was strange. The sudden possessiveness she felt towards him was rattling and foreign, emotion she’d never felt before.

Donald looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

“You really want to do that, Dominika? I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about Gerard”

She blushed and stared at the floor, knotting her hands together nervously in her lap.

“Things are different now” she whispered, still unable to look him in the eye. A knowing smile touched his eyes and he patted her knee softly.

“You’re a sweet girl, I’m glad my son has someone like you who cares about him”

They were interrupted by Donna re-joining them in the waiting room, the nurse at her heels. She smiled at Dominika warmly.

“He’s asking for you, Domi”

Dominika’s heart beat furiously, so loud she could hear it her ears as she stood up and followed the nurse who led her down a long sterile white corridor dotted with wide wooden doors big enough to fit a bed through. Patient’s rooms, she assumed.

At the very end of the hallway she stopped in front of the last door on the left-hand side and knocked on the frame twice before pulling the blue curtain that covered it aside.

“Corporal Way? Miss Dominika is here to see you now”

Dominika’s heart instantly melted when she followed the nurse into the room and saw him, lying there in the large hospital bed. His right leg was elevated in traction, the other leg covered by a white bed sheet. He was bare-chested and his torso was a map of black and purple bruising, parts of it concealed by white gauze dressings. Both arms were attached to an array of tubes and machines that bleeped nosily around him. Her eyes welled with tears when they met his and his face tugged up into a swollen, lop-sided smile. His face was a mess, horribly bruised with a large stitched-up gash over his right cheek. One of his eyes was swollen shut but he still looked like the same Gerard she’d left in Russia underneath it all.

“Hey, kid” he croaked. She stalked over to his bedside and dropped to her knees, pressing her face into the edge of his bed.

“Thank God you’re alive” she breathed, tears streaming silently down her face now. He chuckled and painstakingly reached his closest hand out to brush her wet cheek with the back of his index finger.

“Don’t cry” he whispered softly “I’m okay”

“I was so worried about you, you have no idea how good it is to see you in the flesh”

She pressed his palm to her face appreciatively, closing her eyes.

“I think I’ve got some idea” he chuckled “It’s been a long couple of months”

“Trust you to get yourself blown up” she chided. He ruffled her hair softly with his hand and she scowled up at him.

“Well?” he said expectantly.

“Well what?” she replied, confused. She placed his hand back on the bed and wiped her cheeks with the back of her sleeve, sniffling.

“I haven’t seen you for eight weeks. Do I get a kiss or what?”

Dominika eyed him dubiously.

“Won’t I hurt you?”

“I think I’ll manage, kid, I missed you”

Dominika’s cheeks flushed pink as she moved to sit on the edge of his bed and leaned forward slowly, pressing her lips against his cautiously. They were rough and chapped against her smooth, soft ones but her heart was racing as she pulled away and pressed her forehead against his gently, closing her eyes.

“I missed you too” she whispered.

“Domi” he sighed “life is short, let’s forget all these games. You know all I could think about when I was lying there in the field is that if I died right then and there, you would have never of known that I love you. And I do, baby, I love you. Only you. I want you to be mine, and only mine”

Dominika was surprised by his sudden straightforwardness and her cheeks burned further as his words sunk in. She supposed she had known it already deep down, but hearing it out loud from his own mouth was something else altogether. She looked down at her hands and moved one slowly to clasp his.

“I love you too, Gerard”

His face broke into a brilliant smile then, skewing his poor injured face and he beamed at her happily, an odd juxtaposition as he lay battered and bruised in his hospital bed.

“I didn’t say you could stop” he teased, puckering his lips. She leant down and kissed him again, disregarding some of her caution this time.

A middle-aged nurse with greying hair entered the room as their kiss deepened, clearing her throat loudly. She picked up the metal clipboard hanging at the bed end and flicked through the sheets of paper, eyes scanning the pages.

“Corporal Way” she said disapprovingly, glancing from Gerard to Dominika and back again “You got out of a serious operation less than half an hour ago. Take it easy, son”

“Just call me Gerard” he smirked, pulling Dominika by the hand back towards him when she moved to sit in the armchair at his bedside. His hand curled at her hip under her jacket.

“We need to bandage your back up before you bleed through those little surgery dressings” the nurse said matter-of-factly. She turned back to Dominika again.

“You might want to step out for a minute, Miss”

“She’s fine” Gerard said, waving his hand lazily in the air.

“You’re not going to hurt him are you?” Dominika asked gingerly.

“They’ve got me on enough morphine to tranquilize a horse, Domi. I can’t feel a thing” he grinned. That made sense. Dominika had been wondering how he could be so upbeat for someone who was in traction.

“I’ll go get the cart then, I won’t be long. Sit tight”

Gerard snapped a lazy salute at the nurse before she left the room and Dominika giggled at him.

“So it took you being hopped up on painkillers to admit how you feel about me” she leered, raising her eyebrow. Gerard tried to look exasperated but it didn’t quite come across that way on his swollen face.

“Maybe, kid, but you’re not on any drugs, and you said it back”

Notes