Chapter 239: Chapter 239: Got It, I’ll Do It Again
"Who is Grace Winslow’s family? Come and sign this." In the hospital, in the brightly lit corridor outside the operating room, the light illuminated Archer Rhys’s deathly pale face.
The moment he heard the voice, his entire body tensed up, trembling uncontrollably. It took him a long while to struggle to his feet and stumble toward the operating room door.
"She..."
The doctor frowned at Archer Rhys’s pale face. "Young man, all this blood on you... are you all right?"
"I’m fine. How is she?" Archer Rhys shook his head, fighting back a wave of dizziness as he asked in a deep voice.
The doctor glanced at the file in his hand and gave it to Archer Rhys. "Go pay the fees and get her admitted. She’ll be under observation for a night. If everything’s fine, she can be discharged."
"Her injury isn’t serious. The bullet just grazed her arm. She needed a few stitches. You..."
Before the doctor could finish, Archer Rhys, who had been wound tight with tension, instantly relaxed. No longer able to support himself, he collapsed right in front of him.
"Hey, young man! Young man!"
When Grace Winslow woke up, she was already in a hospital room.
She didn’t see Archer Rhys. The memory of finding him covered in wounds and looking so weak made her heart clench.
She threw back the covers and was about to get out of bed to find him.
A nurse, who had just come in to do her rounds, was startled to see her. She hurried over to stop her. "You can’t get up! What are you trying to do?"
"You’ve lost a lot of blood and you’re still very weak. You need to stay in bed and rest. Tell me what you need, I can help you."
Grace Winslow looked anxious. "The man who brought me to the hospital, where is he? How is he now? Where is he? Did he make it?"
"The man who brought you here?" The nurse scratched her head, then after a moment of thought, she remembered. "You don’t mean Commander Rhys, do you? He’s fine. He’s in another room right now. If you want to see him, you’ll have to wait a bit. He has some superiors visiting him."
Grace Winslow breathed a sigh of relief when she heard he was okay.
A searing pain shot through her arm, and she couldn’t help but frown.
She glanced at her arm and saw that blood was seeping through the bandage.
The nurse followed her gaze and let out a small cry. "See? I told you not to move around! The wound has probably split open. Quick, let me take care of it. This is a pretty big gash, you know. You need to let it heal properly, or you’ll be left with an ugly scar. It won’t look good when you wear dresses in the summer."
The young nurse chattered on.
Grace Winslow just smiled and watched as the nurse cut away the gauze on her arm, disinfected the wound, applied fresh medicine, and bandaged it up again.
"There. No more strenuous movement, okay? The wound hasn’t healed yet." After tying the bandage, the young nurse put on a stern face and reminded Grace Winslow seriously.
Grace Winslow nodded. "Could you take me to see him? I won’t be at ease until I see with my own eyes that he’s okay."
"You two have such a good relationship. He ignored his own injuries to carry you to the hospital for surgery, and he waited outside for over two hours. He didn’t collapse until after your surgery was over and you were out of the OR."
"And now you’ve just woken up and you’re already asking to see him. You two must be husband and wife, right?" the young nurse asked, looking at Grace Winslow with envy.
Grace Winslow’s face reddened. "Not yet. We’re dating, but we plan to get married in the future."
"That’s so wonderful. I’ll go get a wheelchair to take you there. You have other injuries, and the doctor said you should move as little as possible."
With that, the young nurse turned and left.
A short while later, she returned with a simple wheelchair, helped Grace Winslow into it, and then took her to find Archer Rhys.
Fortunately, his room was on the same floor. When they reached the door, they found two guards standing watch.
Grace Winslow and the young nurse were stopped. "Who are you? There’s an important person inside. No one is allowed to enter without permission."
The young nurse grumbled unhappily, "What do you mean, ’no one’? She’s the girlfriend of the man inside. What’s wrong with her coming to see him? Why can’t she go in?"
Grace Winslow forced a smile. "Could you please go in and pass on a message for me? I’d like to see how Archer Rhys is doing."
The two guards at the door glanced at Grace Winslow, hesitated for a moment, and then one of them turned and went inside.
He came out a moment later, his attitude toward Grace Winslow completely changed. "So you’re Commander Rhys’s wife. Please, come in. Come in."
The young nurse was stopped, while Grace Winslow was pushed into the hospital room in her wheelchair by the guard.
The hospital room was quite large, laid out like a suite with a sitting area and a bedroom. Archer Rhys was lying in the inner room.
The room was bright and clean. By the bedside stood two men in military uniforms.
Neither of them was young—both looked to be in their early fifties, exuding an air of authority and sharp discipline.
As Grace Winslow approached, she recognized one of them. In her past life, she had often seen him on the television news; he was a true, decorated war hero.
’I never thought I’d get the chance to see a living legend.’
She smiled and nodded at the two men before her gaze fell eagerly upon Archer Rhys.
Archer Rhys was sitting up against the headboard. Although his face was a little pale, he seemed to be in decent spirits.
Seeing that he was truly all right, Grace Winslow finally let out a deep breath of relief. "The nurse told me you ignored your own injuries—that you waited outside the operating room for over two hours and then fainted. How could you be so careless with your own body? We were at the hospital with doctors and nurses; I was never going to be in any real danger. You... if you ever do something like that again, I’m going to ignore you!"
Heaven knew how worried she had been when she woke up.
She had been so afraid that something terrible had happened to him.
She had just managed to open her heart to someone, had just started dreaming of a future with him, and then it seemed like he was about to be taken from her.
Archer Rhys managed a smile and held out his hand to her. "See? I’m fine, aren’t I? Come here, let me see your wound."
Grace Winslow huffed, and the guard behind her pushed the wheelchair forward.
Her arm had been re-bandaged, but a faint trace of blood was still visible. It was light, but it was enough to make Archer Rhys’s eyes darken for a moment. "I’m sorry. I let you get hurt because of me. I should have been the one protecting you, but instead, at the critical moment, you had to shield me."
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? If even one of his shots had hit you, you would have..."
Archer Rhys couldn’t bear to imagine the possibility. His voice choked with emotion as he held her hand. "Promise me, if something like this ever happens again, you won’t be so reckless. Okay?"
"No. How could I just stand by and watch something happen to you right in front of me? Besides, I am a daughter of China. If I die fighting a criminal, I’ll be a martyr, a hero. It would be a worthy death. But if I let my fear of death stop me and just watched you get hurt, I’d never be at peace for the rest of my life, even if I survived. If it ever happens again, I would do the same thing without a second thought."
"Archer Rhys, a relationship isn’t just about you standing in front of me, shielding me from the wind and rain. If two people choose to be together, they should support each other."
"I won’t be a flower raised in a greenhouse, forever protected under your wing. If I were that kind of person, you never would have fallen for me in the first place."
