In Her Sleep

A Welcome Back Present

"Mavis would you know where my phone is?"

"Oh Mam, I don't think you have a phone now."

When Layla looks confused her maid explains.

"What I mean is after the accident we couldn't find it. And I think Mr. Simon was waiting for you to wake up to get you a new one." Mavis replies looking apologetic.

"Oh great. What am I going to do now?" Layla whines.

She is bored out of her mind right now. She is used to making herself busy so sitting around is not working for her. And to think it's only been a few hours with a couple more days to go she is sure going to go crazy in here. She throws her head back on her pillow in protest. If she didn't have that cast on her leg she would have walked herself to any other place away from here. She really needs to lay her eyes on anything else other than these white walls.

"Will a milkshake do?" Mavis asks her with a grin.

"Oh please please can I have one?" Its been a while since she had one and she is sure she is going to enjoy it after so long.

"Of course Miss Layla."

Her maid walks out with a smile on her face. Layla remains smiling too at how Mavis cares for her. She maybe her maid but she feels more like family.

She turns to her side to look at the view outside. The sun is hot but she would rather be out there than in here. She gets lost in thought as she remembers Caleb describing the beautiful morning views. She wonders if this is where he was when he was describing it and what made him do that for her.

"Must be someone special to make you smile like that"

A voice brings her out of her thoughts and she turns towards its source. Caleb is standing in the door way with arms crossed and smiling at her.

She turns away quickly as she is sure she is blushing right now.

"What brings you here?"

She avoids his eyes afraid she might just confess that she was thinking about him.

"Well its my lunch break and apparently my favourite patient is in this room so I wanted to check on her."

That does it, even if she wants to hide it she can't because the man is looking right at her and she is sure she must look like a tomato right now.

Caleb on the other hand just walks in and if he saw her blushing he doesn't show it and she is glad because she would be too embarrassed.

"So how is it going?"

"Boring" her voice is barely audible with what just happened.

"Any chance I might go home early?"

"Nope, until am sure that you are completely ok it's not happening."

She just huffs and sits up on the bed.

"I might have a small solution though." Caleb scratches his head looking slightly nervous and Layla wonders why. He is usually so sure of himself.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah.."

She sees him reach into his coat and brings out a medium sized box. When he hands it to her she is surprised and can't hide it.

"For me?"

"Go on open it" he nods towards the box encouraging her to open it.

"B..but It's not even my birthday" she stammers.

"Just open it, call it a welcome back to the land of the living present."

She looks up at him and he is smiling. She decides to open it, there is no way she can say no to that beautiful smile. The box is wrapped simply but it looks exquisite. When she picks it she is all giddy and she can't tell if it's because she got a present or because he got her a present. She can't unwrap it quickly enough as she waits to see what he got her.

When she finally opens it her eyes feel like they will pop out of her head when she lays her eyes on a brand new smart phone. She may have been in a coma for three months but she can clearly remember this was the latest Samsung smart phone at the time and she is speechless.

"I...I can't accept this." She looks up at him apologetically.

"I mean it's beautiful and all but I just can't."

"And why not?"

His smile has not faded even one bit and he is looking at her amused.

"I can't." She looks down trying to avoid his gaze. Her heart is racing and her mind is full of thoughts she is not even supposed to be entertaining right now. She has a fiancèe for crying out loud. How can she be feeling like this. And the man is her doctor. She tries to close her eyes as if that will chase all the thoughts away.

"Tell you what, why don't you use it just when you are here. If you still feel the same at the time am discharging you I will take it back okay?"

She looks at him and he looks so determined and she fears letting him down.

"Fair enough. But be ready to take it back because there is no way am keeping it."

"Go on switch it on and check it out." He urges her completely ignoring her words. His excitement makes her laugh. He is behaving as if he is the one that has just been gifted the phone. She picks it up and switches it on. She smiles at its sleek feel and she can see Caleb smiling along. The screen saver is a beautiful mountain view and she likes it. She checks out a few apps here and there and she loves it. She frowns though when she notices there is a new text message.

"There is a new message here and I dont think its mine." She looks at Caleb looking for an explanation.

"But it's your phone, better check it out."

She just clicks to open it knowing she won't get any other answer apart from what he just said.

She laughs when she sees who it's from and rolls her eyes.

"Dr. Young really?"

"That's me, pretty cool huh?"

"I thought you said I should call you Caleb, so why are you saving your number as Dr. Young?"

"Well I didn't know what you had decided so I just went with that."

"And why are you saving your number in here, what if I don't want to?"

"In case of an emergency?"

That cracks her up and she bursts out laughing and she is almost moved to tears.

"Ah much better."

His voice causes her laughter to die down.

"What's that?"

"My work here is done thank you."

She sees him walking out and before she can say anything he is out of the room.

She remains with her eyes on the door wondering what he meant.

A moment later his head pops right back in with a smile on his lips.

"Am sorry got to go. I will see you tomorrow and be ready to go out."

She is left stunned unable to understand what that was all about when he disappears again.

"And what does he mean go out?" She mumbles to herself.

Her eyes fall back on her phone as she thinks about it. She goes to the text and clicks it open.

"Hi, if you are reading this it means one way or another you've accepted my gift and you most likely think am weird but that's fine as long as I got you to smile."

Layla looks up from her phone with a big smile.

"You are definitely weird Caleb, good weird." She laughs to herself.