A Lifetime

A Lifetime / Chapter 4 - Part 1 of 4

Dreams are curious. They can make total sense until you wake, and then suddenly the pieces no longer fit as they once had just seconds before. The dream was losing its grip on Katherine as she began to anticipate Grizzly's affection. She expected to feel his cold nose at any second, wanting to go out.

Then unfamiliar sounds began to manipulate the dream into something else. What was real?

Sleep wasn't letting go so easily as she tried to open her eyes. She began to look around, the foreign surroundings weren't causing any shock or alarm. The fuzziness that was weighing down her thoughts didn't allow clarity at first. She felt like she was still in the dream. It had just changed scenes as they can so abruptly do.

As her eyes began to focus, she began to remember her last thought, "The cold ground. It was so cold!"

She was no longer on the cold ground by the lake. She was covered with layers of white blankets. Warm blankets. Her eyes began to identify the bed, a large window, and a man talking to a woman in scrubs by the door.

"Ethan?" she asked. The figure, under the blur of sleepiness, resembled her brother.

"Well hello there," the nurse in scrubs said with a motherly tone, noticing her movement from over the man's shoulder.

"Hey," Kat said softly, as the word only partially came out but caused the man to quickly turn towards her.

"Kat!" he exclaimed as he approached her.

She knew that voice. There was no other voice, in the world, that even remotely sounded like "that" voice. But it couldn't be. She was straining to focus.

Her mind, the dream, something was distorting what she heard. Then she realized, it had to be Brett.

The figures walked closer, and the man's face became clear. "Chance?" she asked, confused.

The nurse's pace far outmatched Chance's, as she thought most nurses would when she moved around Chance to quickly assess her patient's status.

The nurse began to ask a series of questions about pain, nausea, chills, breathing, feeling in her extremities. The nurse smiled, satisfied with the answers, and took a step back.

"I'll be outside if you need anything. Just press the button here to call me." She placed her hand on the side rail of Kat's bed to show where the call button was positioned.

"You are one incredible lady," she said, smiling at Kat again as she left the room.

Nothing was making sense. But that is typical of a dream. That explained it. The dream was clearly not over.

Her eyes still felt weighted. Her eyes closed again. Her mind was still battling over reality. Like most dreams, details begin to fade, out of your control, until what felt so real and vivid just seconds ago, is now fully forgotten. She was going to hold onto the dream a little while longer. She could use the rest...she was still so tired.

Chance sat there staring at her. Waiting, begging her eyes to open again. Somewhere, deep inside, he longed for the torture that her glance impaled him with. He had stolen glances since he had arrived. But none longer than a second, to avoid being caught. There had been so many visitors and family that he hadn't had the first moment to look upon her and remember. Now, as she laid there with air dried hair, he knew she was even more beautiful than he remembered. So many years, he wondered how much she had changed. His eyelashes were now cautiously drifting over her closed eyelids, her slightly parted lips, her exposed neck and he could see that she looked the same. Even after all of these years.

A thought began to peek as he pushed it away, "Are her eyes the blue I remember?"

"Are you awake, Kat?" The voice said so softly that she wasn't sure if it had been part of the dream.

"You're still here," her voice spoke aloud. Weak. Sensual.

Her voice said it while her thoughts tricked her into thinking she was speaking in the dream alone.

The voice, just as softly, spoke again.

"Hey there."

He was smiling at her now. He reached for her, to touch her hand, and just as quickly, he withdrew his hand. He wanted so badly to feel the warmth of her hand with his own. But that right no longer belonged to him.

She opened her eyes and leaned her head, a little further to the side, towards the voice.

He sat there. Within just a few feet of her. It felt like a lifetime since she had been that close to him. Her eyes closed slightly again. Reality just didn't make any sense right now.

His smile grew bigger. Then he noticed the confused look on her face. Her eyebrows turned downward. Her face winced.

He wanted to sound encouraging. "Your mom just walked one of your cousins to the lobby. I told her I'd stay until she came back," he said as he slid his chair closer to Katherine's bedside.

"Why are you here? How are you here?" she said, trying to correct herself but still obviously confused. Her words startling her as she could hardly finish her own sentence. Her voice sounded weak.

He gave a soft laugh for her expense. He tried to keep the concern from his voice. "Kyle called me to tell me what happened. I got on the first plane I could."

She just stared at him for what seemed like minutes and neither said a word. He wondered if she was just dazed and tired from the trauma.

But she wasn't at all now. The weight of the moment. The truth that was now too real before her, caused her to be very much alert. She was in total shock that he was here, and she couldn't figure out why. She broke the stare and focused on her bedsheets. Not sure why. Just to look at anything but him.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he leaned closer. He was now mere inches from her.

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