A rude awakening in the hospital.....

Aurthur woke when they prodded him for tests and meals. These were the only times he really responded to anyone the last couple of weeks, barely even welcoming his mother when she came to visit. He was in a funk, depressed, but aware of the situation. The real problem was that he just couldn't bring himself to care. He'd been in the hospital now for almost four months with no end in sight. He was dealing with so much loss in his life, his whole life basically being put on hold. No job, no idea when he might get out of the hospital, and the loss of Aryca; his life was completely on hold.

Aurthur woke up when they brought his breakfast just long enough to eat it. Then he rolled over, pulled the blankets up over his head and closed himself off from the world around him. When the orderly came in to take him for his physical therapy Aurthur ignored him. When his mother came in Aurthur said hello and just stared out the window while she spoke, not really paying attention. He knew it was hurting her but again couldn't bring himself to truly care at the moment. His mother didn't stay long that day when she saw he once again wasn't paying attention to her. She went to the nurse's station and asked about his physical therapy and once again was told he skipped it. When she left the hospital that morning the look on her face would have made the devil piss himself, she was a woman on a mission.

It was a few hours later that three women and a teenager entered the hospital to see Aurthur. His mother, Abigail and Kacey entered his room together to speak with him. While Abigial and Kacy walked directly over to him, his mother pulled his phone and charger out plugging the phone back in. Once again Aurthur barely greeted his visitors and didn't start speaking. His mother and Abigail could partially understand his not speaking to them, but Kacey was upset by this as she had come to see him as a friend, someone who spoke to her like she was a young adult instead of just a teenage girl. She walked over to him, holding the journal from their vacation road trip, "Aurthur, I brought the journal you wanted me to keep so you could read about our trip." She was smiling as she held it out to him. After about thirty seconds of it just hanging in the air between them, she lowered the hand holding the book out to him to her side. Kacey spent another few minutes trying to get Aurthur to respond with more than just staring at her. Kacey was feeling worried for him, but she was feeling heartbroken was well. She had heard so many good things about him from Jax, from her mother and from his. The time she spent visiting him at the hospital she had grown to care for him and was now feeling truly hurt by his behavior. Crying hard, Kacey ran out of the room into the third woman who had entered the hospital with her. Abigail and Aurthur's mother just stared at him with expressions bouncing between worried for his health and angry enough to **** him. His mother was building up to yell at him when someone stomped into the room headed straight for Aurthur's bed. https://lrmonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/image003-684x1024.jpg

Aurthur looked over to the source of the stomping, a woman with Asian features and long dark hair tied into a ponytail was practically charging towards him with a look of rage on her face. She walked right up to his bedside as her watched, but he never saw her arm snap out until he felt the sting of her slapping him across the face and yelled, "How dare you treat that little girl like that?!?!?!?!?!," without waiting for him to answer she continued speaking in a more normal tone of voice. "Aurthur Phelan Wolfe, I don't know what's been happening in your head since we last spoke on the phone, but that behavior is unacceptable. I know that recovery isn't easy, it's damn hard work, but you are going to put in that work if you want me to have anything to do with you. You said that you loved Aryca's heart, my heart," Jax stated firmly. Aurthur tried to say something, but Jax cut him off, "Now is not the time to speak Aurthur. Mouth shut and ears open now. I fell in love with the hard-working nerd who never tried put up some macho front, the man who told me about his honest feelings from day one. The man who would speak with me and our friends when he was stressed, upset or hurting. The man that no matter how he was feeling would always be there for me, out friends and out families when they needed someone to care for them. That was the man I agreed to marry before the accident threw our lives out of whack. The man I fell in love with and wanted in my life was the man that worked so hard that he was able to graduate a year early just so he didn't have to be separated from me for a year. The asshole who made Kacey cry is a far cry from that man. That girl loves you like a big brother and she was excited for you to see the journal you inspired her to keep. You stared right through her, didn't even acknowledge her. That is not the man I loved." Jax stared Aurthur down as she took a moment to breathe, just daring him to try and speak. "Now as it stands you aren't the man I fell in love with, he wouldn't have ever hurt his mother, or his friends like you have recently. Here's what you are going to do: 1- you are going to stop skipping your physical therapy, if you want to get out of this place you need to work hard like you did in school. 2- You will tell you doctors that you've been depressed, that way you admit it to yourself as well as them. Then you will follow their recommendations for treating said depression. 3- You will call, text, email or communicate with all the people who have been trying to contact you and help you that you've been ignoring. 4- you will work harder than you ever have before to get healthy and get out of this hospital and you will continue working until you are once again the man that I fell in love with if you want any chance of us working things out. 5- the most important thing you are going to do is work hard to make up for how you just treated Kacey. You're not doing that tonight as we will be leaving and she'd in no state to speak with you at the moment and that you need to figure out how to properly go about fixing your relationship with her before you say anything stupid. If you fail to do any of what I've said the only thing that you'll accomplish is breaking all of our hearts beyond measure." By the time Jax finished speaking, all of them including Aurthur were tearing up or outright crying. Jax turned on her heal and walked back out of the room and kept going taking Kacey with her.

Abigail still had a stunned look on her face from watching Jax slap Aurthur, "Aurthur, I liked you when I met you and during our conversations. I warned you about hurting Jax or Kacey. Right now, I am so pissed off at you that I want to give you a matching smack for the other cheek. I'm going to try and not hold tonight against you since you have been suffering from depression but know this. You only get one second chance with me. You fail to do what Jax said or you hurt them again and I'll make sure you never get a third chance to do it," with that said Abigail left as well.

Aurthur was still stunned. Aryca had never slapped him like that, but the speech was classic her. Aurthur looked over to his mother. She looked him in the eyes and said, "You have no idea just how hard you screwed up right now. You are going to wind up sitting here as it downs on you just what you've done to yourself. Now, you are going to do exactly what that young lady told you to do, or you won't. If you choose not to your life will be over because you'll never recover the man you were. If you do what she told you and go even further, work harder than you have ever done in your life on getting you physical, mental and emotional health in order you may yet have a chance to be happy. I'll keep visiting, but you have to do the work and I'll be here to help when you need it. Goodnight Aurthur." With that said his mother walked out as well.

Aurhtur sat in his bed for about five minutes just staring at the space where his visitors had been. He pushed his call button for the nurse. When the nurse came into the room and saw Authur's cheek he asked, "What happened to your cheek?"

Aurthur responded, "The universe decided I needed a reminder to stop being an ass and feeling sorry for myself as others have been going through more and worse."

The nurse looked thoughtful for a moment, "The universe seems to have left a handprint. What can I help you with?"

"Can you find out if it's too late for my physical therapy to be done today and if it is, are the any exercises I can do in the room safely?" he asked.

"Sure thing, let me go call down to the physical therapy department," the nurse answered before he walked off.