Don't leave me, please

CAMILLA
~•~
He was hallucinating, and he needed my help.
"Mister Ivan?" I called out the first time, but I got no response.
"Mister Ivan?!" By this time, I was already across the room, seated beside him on the arm of his couch. He threw his head back against the couch and closed his eyes.
My heart pounded against my chest, my pulse raced, heartbeat picked up an insane pace.
I was not going to screw this up again.
I cupped the back of his head with my right palm and tapped his cheeks hard with my left. Desperation and urgency, all etched in my concerned gaze.
"Ivan, I need you to stay with me. I need you to…" I tapped both sides of his face again. I was beggining to get very scared. I could not have been passing out on my account.
I felt the skin of his neck, it was still warm, thank you Universe.
I tapped his cheeks again, this time, harder than I had done before.
"Ivan! Please!"
The faces of everyone I had ever failed flashed through my mind in that instant. I could see my mother, dangling from chandelier hoop, the rope to her neck, her feet not touching the ground. And the young man, the young man I failed. I should have been there for both of them, but I wasn't. I was going to be here for Ivan, he was not going to lose himself, not on my watch.
"Ivan!"
My fifth tapping forced his eyes open, and he turned to me immediately, seeking for his breath.
Relief washed over me like waves of water on a sea shore.
"Ivan, I need you to look at me."
"Huh?"
Fuck! Why was this being so hard? Beads of sweat trickled down my face, and so did strands of my hair.
"Look at me. I need you to breathe with me."
"Tina, Sarah. I…I saw them."
I dug my teeth into my lower lip. Fuck!
"Yes, yes, I know you did. Now, you need to breathe with me, come on."
His eyes wandered away from me again and I was forced to seize his chin to bring his gaze back to mine.
"Look at me! Goddamnit!"
He stayed quiet, his icy blue eyes locked with mine. For a moment, I felt cold chills run down my spine. There was something so…weak about him now. That shell, the hard one he hid himself in was gone. Now, he was just a man, a man who could feel. A man who sought for love, a man who needed his family.
I did not know what to make of this man.
"Come on, we can do this." I said, out loud.
"Breathe in…" I drew a deep breath in and he followed me.
"Breathe out." I exhaled, he watched me and did same.
We repeated the process three more times before his head corked to the side and rested on my shoulder.
My eyes widened, a fiery flame lit up in the pit of my stomach and rose to my cheeks, turning them from the bright shade of white to crimson red.
He was leaning on me. Was that a sign of trust? Or was I just seeing things?
"Don't…don't leave, please."
I could swear I had not heard that voice in my head.
His shaking hands stretched out and brushed the skin of my palm. I shuddered in effect. My eyes traveled down to my feet and I found my toes curled.
What was happening to me? This was not normal, it wasn't at all.
He squeezed my palm gently.
"Don't ever leave me again…"
Was he…was he talking to me?
"...Sarah."
His last word set off a missile in my head, and it hit my heart - straight for the target, no misses. My small, almost non existent heart - as I liked to call it - shrunk in my chest.
None of this was making any sense to me. What were these new feelings I was starting to grow? He had called me his wife's name whole holding on to me, and I could tell the mistaken identity was not the only thing that annoyed me.
The door swung open and Antonio rushed in, panting like he had just ran a marathon.
"I heard you scream, is he alright?"
He stood in front of me and stared down at us. Ivan against my right arm, holding on to my palm. I could see the millions of questions that ran through my mind, and I understood that.
I managed a weak smile.
"Yeah. He just needs to get to sleep. Can I take a look at his medication? You know, the drugs he's been having since?"
"That ought to be confidential." He snapped, leaning into me and seizing Ivan's head from my arm roughly.
"Yes, but I am his doctor now."
"He's not paying you, it doesn't count."
He raised Ivan up and wrapped his arm around his boss's waist.
"Now, if you'll excuse me…us, I have to cater to my boss."
I rose up.
"Do you need my hel…"
"No."
His reply was blunt, and it sent me staggering backwards, against the couch.
Wow! The man did not like me, not even a small bit. Could I blame him? If luck did not smile on me this morning, my freakshow was bad enough to cost him his job.
I rose up from my seat and walked behind him. As he led Ivan up, I headed towards the stairs.
"I would call to check in." I called out, from the front door.
He did not turn back to reply me.
~•~
IVAN
~•~
"Breathe with me!"
That word echoed in my head more times than I could count.
I did not know what had happened to me, but at some point, it felt like I had been raised from the dead.
I did not know what it felt like to die, you do not need to point that out, but it felt like death, passing over to some form of great beyond, where there was nothing but a numbness in your soul.
By the time I sprang up, forcing my head up from my pillow and fighting to sit up, it was already evening. I could tell by the light outside.
Antonio was seated by my side, his head back against the chair as he closed his eyes in sleep. I fought back the urge to chuckle, more because my head was threatening to split into two.
I groaned and reached out for my medicine bottle, but my hands accidentally kicked them to the ground. The noise startled Antonio, and caused him to spring up to his feet. I watched him dash to the ground for the pills on the floor.
My eyes narrowed at him. He had not even noticed I was awake and staring at him. All he did was rush and push the pills back into the bottle, he corked it and placed it on the table, before he turned to me.
He stared at me, wide eyed, before he rose up from the ground.
"Sir! You're awake!"
He was just noticing? Who did he think…? Never mind.
I forced a weak smile and nodded at him.
"Yes, I am. And fit as a fiddle."
I watched as he scoffed with relief.
"That…that doctor, ever since she's been here, you've…"
"She saved me." I cut in.
It was only after the words slipped out of my mouth, that I realized they were not the most "Ivan Holloway" thing to say.
Even Antonio was shocked.
He arched a brow and stared down at me.
"Sir?"
"I mean, I need to give her some credit, do I not? She…she really helped me today. Somehow, brought me back to consciousness."
"You passed out?!"
"I saw her again, Antonio." I blurted out. His hard, elderly eyes softened as he stared down at me.
"I lost it, and the doctor…she helped me. We, I am giving her a chance."
Antonio sighed, shook his head and rubbed his fingers against the creases on his forehead.
"You already did sir, you already did."
The next words that came out of my mouth surprised me, in as much as it surprised him.
"I think she should live with us."
The twenty seconds of silence that followed was thick and tense. Neither I nor Antonio said a word. I was grateful when he finally opened his mouth to speak.
"What?!"
I could not say I had not seen that coming.
"Come on Antonio, it would just be for the while she works. She is working for free, but she would need to pay bills and buy food and I can't be that heartless, not to my employee, I'm too rich for that." I really was.
Antonio looked away from me thoughtfully, and looked back at me again.
"You really want to do this, sir?"
I nodded eagerly, and he heaved another sigh.
"Very well then. I would send her a mail concerning…"
"I want to speak to her, personally."
He leered at me, before he nodded.
"Very well sir, very well."
I know what you are thinking.
Why all of a sudden?
I hated the world and everyone in it, why was I being nice?
I would not call seizing an opportunity an act of kindness, but, you would see in due time.