An Elf's Rose

CHAPTER 15

Rose rushed down the hospital corridor towards Orlando’s room, feeling guilty that she let Thomas convince her to have dinner with him and some other students she was getting to know from her classes at the burger joint on campus. She had had fun and enjoyed herself, until they started asking her about Orlando, then she started to feel bad. Thomas had tried to steer the conversation away from the subject, which Rose was oddly grateful for. One of the girls had asked if she had a photo of him and Thomas had groaned and put his head in his hand.

The girls had gaped. “Wow, he reallyks lks like that?” one asked when she handed it over to them.

Rose had shrugged, a tiny involuntary smile on her lips. “It’s a good picture of him, yeah.” They started asking more questions and Rose began to really feel badly about not taking care of Maude and rushing on to the hospital. What with the traffic, she wouldn’t see him until after seven p.m. She quickly finished her meal and fled.

Rose slowed as she came to the connecting corridor she needed to turn at. She didn’t want to smack into anyone – she’d done it once already. Robert and Sean were standing outside Orlando’s room, but Rose frowned. Something didn’t seem right.

Robert was slumped against the wall, head in his hands, shoulders shaking. Sean was supporting himself by an outstretched arm against the same wall, leaning over Robert as if in comfort.

She felt a sudden spurt of panic jolt through her bones, and she ran full tilt.

Oh God! What’s happened? she thought desperately. She prayed it wasn’t an infection – at this point that could be deadly.

She reached them and had to grab Sean to stop herself from bowling over. Sean turned in surprise, eyes filled with tears.

“What?” Rose asked, her voice pitched high and breathless. “What’s happened?”

Sean opened his mouth, but it was Robert who answered. “I just got a call, Rose, from the surgeon at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati. He’s coming to see to Orli. He says –“ Robert’s voice broke, a sob escaping his lips. “He says he thinks that Orli is going to walk again.”

Rose felt faint. Dark splotches appeared in her peripheral vision and her legs went weak. Sean caught her before she fell to the linoleum.

“Oh God,” she whispered, clutching at Sean. “Please let it be true.”

~~~

In the event, they decided not to tell Orlando. It would get his hopes too high, and they thought that the doctor himself should talk to him. The surgeon would be flying in Saturday afternoon and the surgery was being planned for Sunday morning. The hospital was already churning its wheels to make it happen.

Rose could barely contain herself. She wanted to run up and down the corridor screaming. Nurse Tanya smiled and hugged her; all the nurses were thrilled. They had taken to both Orlando and Rose and treated them like family. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her thudding heart. Orlando would know something was up.

She took the perfume bottle he had given her out of her puand and dabbed it behind her ears. Both Sean and Robert complemented the scent, smiling enigmatically at each other.

“I want him to know I’m there, since he can’t see me,” she told them, remembering the night before when he hadn’t known it was her.

“Oh, I don’t think Orli’s going to have any problem knowing it’s you, my love,” Robert told her, grinning. She blushed and pushed open the door of the room.

He immediately turned in her direction and smiled. “Rosie. You’ve put on the perfume.”

His smile of joy lit up his face and she responded viscerally to it, her whole body tingling. “Orlando, I’m sorry I’m so late –“

“Don’t be. I’m glad you’re here now.” He reached out his left hand to her and she took it, positioning herself at that side. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the tips of her fingers.

Rose noticed that his head bandage had been reduced from total cover to just circling his head around the back and over his forehead. His jaggedly cut blond hair stuck out in all directions. She felt a qualm, thinking of his braid under her pillow. She slept with it in her grip every night.

Rose stroked his unruly silk locks, and felt them damp. “Your hair is wet.”

“Yeah, they washed it. Thank God, it was itching like fury.” He demonstrated by vigorously scratching the top of his head. Rose found herself hating the idea of someone washing Orlando’s hair. Especially a woman. She shook her head. What was she thinking? Tanya had probably done it.

“Are you upset they cut it?” she asked.

He smiled, looking somewhere past her shoulder. “I suppose I’d rather have it cut off than be buried with it intact.”

“God, don’t say that!” She laid her cheek against his chest, content to listen to his strong heartbeat.

“Rosie,” he said softly. “I’m sorry for the things I said yesterday –“

“Please, you were upset. Forget it.”

“Will you shut up and let me apologize? It’s hard enough for me to do it. The least you can do is make it easier.”

Rose giggled. “Oh, all right.”

He slid his long fingers behind her ear into her hair and caressed her cheek with his thumb. “Rose, what you did for me yesterday, I shall never forget it. Marc is right. I can be a hemorrhoid sometimes and I am ever grateful that you stuck by me.” He pulled his fingers through her curls and she shivered. “I’ve had lots of time to think today and I know the future is going to be pretty rocky, but I – I hope that – that you’ll stick around for a while, give me a chance.”

Rose lifted her head from his chest and looked at him. He held his face tightly controlled but she could see the emotion boiling underneath. Her heart was deeply moved at his vulnerable admission of need. He had given her a choice, a graceful exit if she wanted it. As if… she thought. As if my heart wot aot already yours.

“Rose?” his voice, small and diffident.

“I’m thinking…”

“Oh.” He turned his head away, a spasm of pain flaring and disappearing.

“I’m thinking that your short term memory must have been affected, too.”

“What?” He turned back, hope warring with doubt on his beautiful features.

“I thought I told you last night, fool. And sealed it with a kiss, if I remember correctly.”

“I – ah – remember something about a kiss,” he said, a sly smile stretching his lips. “Maybe I need a reminder.”

Rose grinned. “I know your game, Orlando Bloom. You’re not fooling me one bit.”

His hand found her neck and pulled her inexorably toward his mouth.

Rose felt that electric shock through her belly again when their lips touched. Will it feel this way every time? she wondered, and then wondered no more as he slid his tongue between her lips to caress hers. He explored her mouth gently but thoroughly, his hand gripping her hair. She exhaled explosively through her nose and had to grasp his other shoulder to keep from sliding down to the floor.

She responded tentatively with her own tongue and was rewarded by him with a soft groan. He pulled away and came back, taking her top lip between his and running his tongue along the edge. He did the same with the bottom, but lingered longer, gently sucking it. Rose thought she would faint again and locked her knees, bringing her closer to him and pressing her breasts against his chest.

“Oh God, Rosie…” he whispered, reluctantly letting her go. She regretted it as well, feeling the loss, wanting more. She stumbled backward, falling into the chair.

~~~

With perfect timing, Robert entered at that moment and stopped, seeing Rose’s flushed face and swollen mouth. He smiled happily and continued in, taking in his son’s heaving chest and closed eyes. He’s definitely back with us. Thank you, Rose. I owe you a big one.

~~~

Orli lay on his Frankenstein slab, as Rose called it, as always that Saturday morning, content to listen to her type on her laptop and listen to her read aloud from her English Poetry book. It was soothing. She would ask him questions occasionally, but he had no clue as to the answers.

“I regret to inform you, love, that even though I’m English, I have absolutely no knowledge of poetry. In fact, I was never into poetry. Except for naughty limericks,” he told her, grig. “g. “ ‘There once was a lady from Kent…’ ”

“Infidel,” she muttered, smacking his hand. Faster than she could react, he grabbed her hand in his.

He grinned. “I’m good with my hands, though.”

Her silence was telling. He could feel her embarrassment like a red cloud.

“You want me to show you?” He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it, then slowly licked the palm with the tip of his tongue. She yanked it away.

“Orlando, I am trying to concentrate. You’re not helping.”

He sighed and scratched his chest through the hospital gown. The strap was chafing his skin terribly. He couldn’t feel the ones lower down. Better not think on that, mate. He frowned, wondering when the hell they were going to let him out. If he was going to be in a damn wheel chair for the rest of his life, why couldn’t he get on with it already? He was sick of the needles, the prodding. What the hell were they looking for?

He was dying of boredom – when Rose wasn’t there to distract him of course. He smiled at the way she could distract him, but then had a horrible thought. Would he be able to – make love to her? Would he feel anything at all, even if he could get his body to resp

His mind was whirling into a panic when Rose interrupted his thoughts.

“Orlando, listen to this. It’s a Shakespeare sonnet.

“Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Breath’d forth the sound that said ‘I hate’
To me that languish’d for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet:
‘I hate’ she altered with an end
That followed it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away:
‘I hate’ from hate way she threw,
And saved my life, saying ‘not you.’ ”

Tears pricked at Orlando’s eyes. “ ‘Woeful state,’ that’s me.” He turned to her, even though all he could see was light and shadows. “I hope that you don’t just not hate me.”

He heard her move and felt her hand on his chest and in his hair, stroking, caressing.

“Orlando, for good or ill,” her voice trembling. “my heart is yours. God help you.”

Orli’s heart swelled with an almost overwhelming sensation. “Love,” he whispered, pulling her face to his and kissing her ear. “My love, I don’t deserve you but, God, I want you anyway. Je t'aime, ma chere, Je t'aime.”

He found her mouth and gently kissed her. It quickly turned much more passionate, their lips clinging together, tongues gently warring in each other’s warm wetness. Rose moaned into his mouth, and his hand slithered down her back and came around the front to cup a breast and squeeze gently. She whimpered and he knew without a shadow of a doubt he wanted to be the one to cause all those beautiful little noises and more for the rest of her life.

They were lost in each other, oblivious to their surroundings, so it came as quite a shock to hear someone speak behind them.

“I see the patient is getting his own personalized therapy,” a stranger’s voice said, full of humor.

Rose cried out in alarm and pulled away, her face red as a beet. She covered her mouth and collapsed in one of the chairs, almost knocking over the laptop.

Orli laughed, completely unrepentant. “Who’s that?” he asked.

His father answered, his voice full of repressed excitement. “Orli, this is Doctor Fletcher. He has come from Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, to see you.”

A strong warm hand gripped his. “Orlando. Pleased to meet you.”

“I don’t understand. Why are you here to see me?”

“Your father contacted my office. I’ve seen your charts and your x-rays. There’s a new surgery technique that I’ve been working with for spinal cord injuries like yours. It has been very successful in restoring nerve function to the lower regions of the body.”

Orli’s heart started to pound, his head almost unable to grasp what was being said to him. He groped towards Rose and she grabbed his hand in both of hers.

“God!” he gasped. “Are you saying --?” He couldn’t continue.

“Yes. I’m very optimistic that after you recuperate from the surgery tomorrow, you will leave this hospital on your own two legs.”

Orli squeezed his eyes and began to sob uncontrollably.