The Way Your Heart Sounds

The next morning, Lauren was getting ready to go meet Zacky’s father. She talked on the phone with Zacky last night, and he said his father would love to have Lauren take care of him. When she heard a knock at the door, she smiled and grabbed her bag. Zacky grinned when she opened the door. He looked much happier than she had seen him look in weeks. He must have finally gotten a good night’s sleep.

“Ready?” he asked. Lauren nodded, and they headed out.

“How was your father yesterday?” she asked as they were driving. Zacky shrugged.

“He’s alright. He’s naturally kind of depressed. It’s hard to have your mind still sharp and not even be able to walk or take care of yourself. He knows he doesn’t have much longer.”

Lauren frowned, and made a mental note to ask Dr. Kramer if he knew someone that would be appropriate to help out in that kind of situation. When they pulled up to the house, Lauren started to feel butterflies in her stomach for some reason. Why was she so nervous?

“I hope he likes me,” she blurted out as Zacky shut the car off.

“Lauren, I really don’t think he’s going to mind a pretty young lady taking care of him, last time he was in the hospital, he kept asking to see all the young student nurses because they made him smile,” Zacky laughed. Lauren smiled and followed him inside.

Zacky’s dad was in his wheelchair, sitting in the living room watching TV. He wasn’t able to turn his head much, but he smiled when he heard Zacky’s voice at the door. His assistant was in the kitchen preparing lunch.

“Hey pop, how are you feeling today?” Zacky asked, walking over so he could see him.

“Good. Is that Lauren?” he asked. His speech was extremely slurred, but she could still make out what he was saying.

“That’s her. She’s going to pop in now and then to take care of you and give you your medication,” Zacky explained. Lauren kneeled down so she was at eye level with his father and smiled.

“I’m so glad to meet you,” she said, placing a hand on his knee.

“You too,” he replied. He didn’t seem to have much in the way of facial expressions, but he seemed happy.

“I’m going to go talk to her for a bit and let her know about your medications and stuff, okay? Sandra is in the kitchen getting you something for lunch.” His father hummed a positive response.

Zacky took her into another room and sat down. He pulled out a small folder filled with papers.

“This is pretty much everything you could possibly want to know about his medical history. He’s on five medications right now, two at noon, three in the morning. He can’t swallow well, but he has a speech and language pathologist that comes to work with him on that. You can crush his pills and put them in applesauce. He also can’t stand unless someone is holding him up, but Sandra usually tries to get him up a few times a day just to keep him loose… Let’s see… that’s everything I can think of for now. Do you have any questions?”

“Not right now, I think I’m alright. I’ll let you know if there’s anything, though,” she nodded.

“Good. So, how much do you want to be paid? I know we’re friends and all but I gotta pay you, and I sincerely have no idea what nurses make,” he said.

“Seriously, don’t even worry about it. You’ve done so much for me these past few weeks, the least I can do is take care of your father,” she answered.

“Are you positive?” he asked. She nodded.

“Well,” he started. “If you need anything at all, please tell me. Even if you just want me to cook your dinner or paint your nails or something silly like that.” Lauren smiled.

“I’ll take you up on that. You’re Italian, so you’re probably good in the kitchen,” she joked. Zacky laughed and nodded in agreement.

After their conversation, Lauren got to know his father for a bit, and gave him his medications for the day. Zacky hung around, wanting to spend some time with his father as well. Every moment counted, since there weren’t a ton of them left.

“Zachary,” his father says, out of the blue.

“I’m here, what’s up?” he asks, looking over at him.

“She’s pretty.”

“Who, Lauren?” Zacky laughs. His father mumbles an ‘uh huh.’ Lauren smiled and blushed, looking over at Zacky. Zacky smiled back at her and patted his father on the back.

“I know she is. You’re a lucky guy having her look after you, huh?” Zacky said. His father smiled.

Once his father was all taken care of for the day, Zacky drove Lauren home and walked her up to the door. He said he was going to go back and spend a little time with his father afterwards. She smiled and said that was a good idea. Suddenly, Zacky wrapped her in a very tight hug.

“Thank you so much. This means a lot to me,” he murmured into her shoulder. She returned the hug and rubbed his back.

“It’s my pleasure,” she replied.

Zacky left to go back to his father’s house, and Lauren was ready to call it a day. Even though it was early, she really just wanted to take a shower and snuggle up in bed. She wished that Jimmy was here to cuddle with, since he was the best cuddler. After a quick shower, Lauren climbed into bed and put on some recordings of Jimmy’s voice to fall asleep to.

Notes

Quick update, just a little bit of filler. Thank you all for the wonderful comments, they're such a pleasure to read! <3