Chapter 67: B

He looked so pale and lifeless and she wanted to wrap her arms around him until she cried to her fill. But she had to stay still too, it was part of saving his life. She wanted to lounge forward and touch his hand, but Maryam couldn't do that. She couldn't make the wrong move, afraid that when she did, she wouldn't be able to donate her blood to him anymore.
She had only fixed her eyes on him until it was done and shortly, the doctor came and immediately began to transfuse the blood into his system while she asked her to lay still until she was strong enough to stand. She excused herself as she had a lot of work to do and left. And Maryam thought, having the little time she did before they asked her to leave, she slightly rolled over to his side of the bed and was hesitant at first before she took his hand in hers and smiled sadly at how large and warm they still felt. Wordlessly, she slightly rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, even though her clenched eyelids didn't stop her tears from streaming down.
"I wish you'll wake up now, Captain. It hurts seeing you in pain, I've told you this times without number, you can't be sick because you're all I have now in this world and I need you more than I need anything in my life. Why is it that you have to get hurt at every given chance?" She was crying as badly as she could and if she remembered that he was obviously not hearing everything she was saying and if he were-Maryam knew for certain, he would have woken up by now.
"You've told everyone in shehuri that you love me and it gets around he palace, everyone is saying things about how you can't love someone like me. But you've never said that to me directly, Na'im. Can you please wake up and tell me all the things I'd want to hear from you? Please." She clenched her eyes shut as she cried even harder. How much more painful can this get?
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Hafiz stared at the cars that were parking in the VIP's wing and he turned to Saima with alarm in his eyes. "Isn't that Alan Gubro's entourage?" He asked and with one glance, she turned to him, equally alarmed as well as she immediately stood up.
"Yes, he didn't know what had happened to Maryam. I bribed Umma's driver into bringing us to this hospital and now he's gone. What should I do? He can't see her with Yarima Na'im or I'm dead, Soldier!" She was panicking and he knew he had to act as fast he could if they didn't want Alan Gubro to see her with Na'im.
"Can you bring her out and go to the room she was given here? I can send someone that will take you home, I can't leave his side, I would've done that myself." She was already running to the room and he just sat there, staring at her. Even though it was a situation at which he had to be worried and be panicking like she was too, Hafiz wouldn't help admiring the princess.
She met Maryam in that position as she cried her eyes out and for a moment, Saima's heart squeezed for them, but she knew she had to act as fast as the situation was moving. "Maryam, we have to leave. Alan Gubro will be in this room any minute from now and if he sees you here, we're both dead. Let's go back to your room." Maryam was about to protest but Saima was already helping her into her shoes. "Please Maryam, I promise that whenever I get the chance, I'll bring you to see him. I've done that now, right? I'll do it again."
As Saima struggled to get her out of the bed, alive, Maryam felt something had fallen from her body but the princess was so agitated to let her see what it was and in a flash, they were practically running off to her room. They sat on the bed and Saima was heaving breaths before she chuckled at that and turned to her, "You should lay down for some time before we leave, okay?"
"Will you really bring me back to see him? Maybe by then he has woken up, Saima." Her voice was choked with emotions and she stared at the warm smile Saima had flashed her before she nodded her head.
"I'll make sure I do, but hopefully, Alan Gubro will ask for you to be brought here himself." From her expression, Saima knew that she was about to argue about the possibility of that happening, "Let's all hope for the best, Maryam, okay?" She silently nodded her head and did as Saima had said, laid down because she was feeling a bit dizzy.
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Alan Gubro stared at Na'im's lifeless body and felt a twitch of pain in his heart. The doctor's didn't hide the truth from him, he might die and he might wake up as well. He felt his eyes twitching with the pain he felt in his heart, but a King should never cry in the presence of others. This was all his fault, he acknowledged. If he hadn't been so adamant a few hours ago, nothing would've happened.
He had seen how desperate Na'im looked and sounded, how he kept begging him and was trudging to the door when he asked the guards to take him out. Why was it he hadn't even wanted to listen to him. What was so wrong about being married to her when she wasn't anything less of a human? And all that mattered was that Na'im loved her and once, he had begged him to join him in loving her.
What good would it do now if he had agreed with her and it turned out Na'im was in too much pain to live again? 'You can ask me to choose between her and the royal thobe, I'd choose her. You can ask me to choose between her and the army, I'd give up my uniform, Abba. Ask me to choose whether to keep on staying in shehuri or leave it for good unless for visitation, I'd gladly take her away with me. But it shouldn't be you, Abba. I can't choose between what is both life to me. You're my life, the same as Maryam is, and it would be like an invitation from death if you ask me to choose between you and her. Please, don't make me divorce her...' Na'im's words rang in his ears as though he hadn't been alive and healthy the few hours that had passed.
Maybe this time, he had invited the death upon his own blood and flesh, over something he should have rejoiced over because Na'im being married was the only thing he had been hoping to see in his life and now that that happened, what did he do? He pushed himself and handed him an invitation of death that looked so dark to be taken back. He knew if Na'im died this way, he would never be able to forgive himself and it would a matter of days or months before he died, too, himself.
Alan Gubro had asked the people that came with him to just leave, because he was going to stay with Na'im until he woke up. He knew a King shouldn't be in an hospital, but there was no way he would walk out on Na'im in this position he was in. They tried to protest, but a royal order was all they received to walked out reluctantly. He had always been there for him, giving and doing things he loved, why had it been so hard this time? When it had appeared that it could even be the last?
It was 3 in the morning when he heard the soft groan that escaped Na'im's lips and the male doctor that stayed with him incase something happened quickly jolted out of his sleep. "I'll take a look at that, Your Majesty." He didn't say anything, but his eyes were fixed on the doctor as he moved around the body and he looked up at him with joy dancing in his eyes. "He's finally out of the critical zone, Your Majesty. It wouldn't have been easy if this blood transfusion didn't happen on time. I heard it was a young girl that persisted to donate to him, he wouldn't have lived long enough to go looking for blood."
Alan Gubro sighed and closed his eyes, he didn't have to be told who it was. Certainly, it was the wife he loved so much and was willing to die for. He had asked for her when he was about to come to the hospital but had been told that she had been taken to a hospital, unconscious, when she heard about what had happened to Na'im. Maybe Saima brought her here, he knew she would.
"When do you think he will be able to wake up, Doctor?" That's what he was dying to see, he hadn't even closed his eyes since when he walked into the room.
"It could be in five hours, but if he doesn't do that, then we all have to wait and see how long it will take. Hopefully, he doesn't fall into a coma because of the wound in his head." He hated doctors, Alan Gubro thought, because they told you something to be hopeful about but then it wouldn't take upto a minute before they crushed all the hope they had just given you.
Five hours, Alan Gubro mused in his mind and silently wished for 8 in the morning to come. It would be five hours then and he couldn't wait to see the eyes of Na'im. And he would tell him what he thought and what was going to be of the wife he loved so much to die for.
He was on his feet by 7:30 am, anxious and wondering if Na'im didn't wake up at the said time, would that be because he had fallen into the coma? There was a soft knock on the door and he was about to ask whoever it was to back out when he saw that it was Ya Girema, looking as agitated as he had never seen her looked and the bloodshot color of her eyes was evident enough that she had cried herself throughout the night.
"How is he, Buba?" It was an endearment she used for him whenever they were alone and he sighed when she engulfed him into an embrace, offering him comfort the only way she knew would work now.
Alan Gubro sighed and closed his eyes a bit, "I just wish he would wake up so I can tell him that she can continue being his wife. I'd hate myself if something happens to Na'im, Sadiya." She knew he meant it, because he loved nothing more than he loved Na'im. And just like Na'im was willing to sacrifice his royal thobe for his wife, she knew he, too, was willing to give up his throne for that one child of his.