Chapter 233 of The Signature
I feel her hands on me before I really wake up. Cool fingers on my wrist, the blood pressure cuff squeezing my arm tight, the soft rustle of plastic. There’s a voice above me, low and calm, saying something about vitals, and I float there for a second, half‑asleep, letting it wash over me.
When I finally manage to drag my eyes open, the room swims into focus in pieces: the dim light, the IV pole, Riley slouched in the chair on the other side of the bed, hair a mess, eyes bloodshot. She straightens when she sees me looking at her.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” she says, voice rough but trying for light. “Nice to finally see your eyes again.”
The nurse leans into my line of sight, a kind face framed by a surgical mask and tired eyes. “Hi Aria,” she says. “Welcome back. I’m just checking your vitals, okay? How’s your pain right now, on a scale of one to ten?”
“Um… maybe a five,” I manage. The hip’s a deep, mean ache, but it’s not trying to rip me in half anymore. The nurse nods, tapping something into the computer.
“Good. That’s a lot better than before. Your pain meds are still running, so if it creeps up, let us know, okay?”
I try to nod and pull in a slightly deeper breath at the same time, and it catches halfway, a stupid little hitch that makes my chest squeeze. The nurse’s eyes flick back to me.
“Yeah,” I say too fast. “Yeah, I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
She watches me for a second longer, like she’s deciding whether to push it, then just gives a small nod. “Alright. I’ll be back to check on you in a bit,” she says, and turns to wheel the vitals cart out, the door clicking softly shut behind her.
The door shuts behind her and I let my eyes fall closed again, just for a second. It doesn’t help. The weird tight feeling in my chest is still there, every breath shallow and small, like somebody’s sitting on me.
“Hey.” Riley’s voice is closer now. I blink my eyes open to find her leaning over the rail, eyes searching my face. “You with me?”
“Mm.” It comes out more like a noise than a word. I manage the tiniest nod.
She hesitates, then glances over at the other side of the bed. “Okay,” she says softly. “Then I’m waking him up. He made me promise I’d wake him up if anything changed.”
She walks across the room and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Jamie,” she says, giving him a gentle shake. “Hey. Wake up. You told me to wake you up if anything changed.”
He snorts himself awake, blinking hard like he’s trying to remember where he is. Then his gaze follows Riley’s and lands on me, and his whole face changes.
“Aria,” he breathes, straightening in the chair. “Oh my god, it’s so good to see your face. How are you feeling?”
“Not… so great,” I get out, the words thin around the edges because I’m already short of air.
His body goes tight. “Are you in pain? Do we need to get the nurse back in here?”
I shake my head a little, the pillow rough under my hair. “No. It’s not… that.”
His hand finds mine on top of the blanket, fingers wrapping around my wrist like he’s afraid I’ll slip away. “Okay. Then what is it?”
I have to pause between each bit, chasing the air. “Just… feel off,” I say finally. “Chest is… tight. Can’t really… get a good breath.”
Riley’s eyes flick between my face and the rise and fall of my gown. “Do we think it’s from the pain medicine?” she asks, looking over at Jamie like he might have an answer.
He doesn’t take his eyes off me. “I don’t know,” he says, thumb rubbing over my knuckles. “They said it could make her drowsy, not… this.”
Riley’s already halfway to the call button. “I’m just gonna— I’m calling her back,” she says, jabbing it.
It’s barely a minute before the door opens again. Same nurse, same tired ponytail. “Hey there,” she says, eyes bouncing from the monitor to my face. “You guys okay? I just checked on her.”
Riley steps back so she isn’t in the way. “She’s saying her chest feels tight,” she says. “Like she can’t get a good breath.”
The nurse comes to my side, all business now. “All right, Aria, can you look at me for a second?” she asks.
I drag my gaze up to her. “Yeah,” I manage.
“I’m going to have you take a couple of deep breaths for me, okay?” She keeps her voice calm, like this is no big deal. “In through your nose, out through your mouth.”
I try. The first one catches halfway, that same stupid hitch. Her eyes flick to the monitor, then back to my chest. “Good,” she says anyway. “One more.”
By the second one, my lungs feel like they’ve hit a wall. I let it out too fast and end up coughing once, sharp and useless.
The nurse presses her lips together, reading the screen over my head. “Your oxygen looks fine,” she says finally. “Heart rate’s a little elevated, but that can be from pain and the medication.”
Jamie’s grip on my hand tightens. “So this is… normal?” he asks. “For after surgery?”
“It can be,” she says, already smoothing the blanket near my shoulder like she’s wrapping this up. “The pain meds and lying flat can make your chest feel tight or weird. Try to keep taking slow breaths when you can, and we’ll keep an eye on it.”
She glances between the three of us. “If it gets a lot worse, or she starts feeling dizzy or really short of breath, hit the button again, okay?”
Riley looks anything but convinced. “So we’re just… supposed to watch her feel like she can’t breathe?”
“I promise, if her lungs weren’t happy, the monitor would be yelling at us,” the nurse says, a little edge of final in her voice. “I’ll be back in a bit to check on her again.”
And then she’s gone, the door swinging shut behind her, leaving the room too quiet except for the beeping and my thin, shallow breaths.
The door clicks shut and I can feel Riley’s eyes on me. Another little shiver runs through me and my teeth almost knock. “You’re freezing,” she mutters, like she’s mad at the air. “Hang on.”
She’s up at the cabinet, yanking out an extra blanket and then another. “We’re doing layers,” she says, shaking one out and tucking it over my legs, then my chest, careful of the IV lines. “Tell me if anything pulls, okay?”
The weight helps a little, but it doesn’t touch the weird heavy feeling in my ribs. Every breath still feels too shallow, like there’s only so far my lungs are willing to stretch.
Riley’s eyes flick to the plastic cup on the tray. “You want some water?” she asks. “Your mouth’s gotta be, like, sandpaper.”
“Yes,” I say immediately. My voice comes out rough. “God, yes. I’m so thirsty.”
Riley reaches for the cup, fingers shaking just a little as she adjusts the bendy straw toward my mouth. “Okay, sip slow,” she says. “You don’t wanna puke on me after all this.”
The first sip hits my tongue and I almost groan. It’s just hospital tap water in a plastic cup, but it might as well be the best thing I’ve ever tasted. My mouth soaks it up so fast it’s like it disappears.
“Slow,” Riley reminds me, but I’m already chasing the straw for another pull.
“I wanna drink the whole thing,” I mumble around it. “That’s so good.”
“Easy,” Jamie says, voice low. “You’ve not had anything for hours, you’ll make yourself sick.”
Riley glances at him, then eases the cup back a little so I have to stop. “You can have more in a second,” she says, softer this time. “Just… let it hit your stomach first, okay?”
There’s a soft knock on the doorframe, and all three of us look over. A woman in light blue scrubs steps just inside, hugging a clipboard to her chest.
“Hi, Aria Shay?” she asks, eyes flicking to the board to double‑check. “I was just coming in to see if you think you’ll be up for dinner. We’ll be bringing trays around in about an hour.”
I have to swallow twice before I can answer. “No,” I say. “I’m… I’m not hungry.”
Her brows lift a little. Before she can say anything, Jamie leans forward in his chair. “Could you bring it anyway, please? Just in case she changes her mind.”
Riley nods, backing him up. “Yeah. We can see how she’s doing when it gets here.”
She starts to tap something in, then her eyes finally land on Jamie. You can almost see the moment it clicks. “Sorry, this is… random, but… are you Jamie Campbell Bower?”
“Yes,” he says, sounding a little out of breath. “Yeah. I am.”
Her eyes go huge. “I knew it. I am so sorry, this is so unprofessional, but I just have to tell you, I loved you in Stranger Things. You were so good.”
Something in his face softens a little, like muscle memory. “That’s really kind of you, thank you,” he says, actually meaning it even though he looks wrecked.
The girl backs out of the room, still smiling to herself, and a few seconds later it hits. Pain spikes deep in my hip, white‑hot and mean, and I can’t stop the little gasp that slips out.
Jamie straightens so fast his chair creaks. “Easy,” he says quietly. “Hit your button, love. Remember? You can top it off.”
I press the little button with my thumb, harder than I need to, and try to curl in on myself. The bolt of pain that tears through my hip makes me freeze halfway, breath hissing out between my teeth. I end up flat again, staring up at the ceiling tiles. “I hate this so much,” I mutter.
“I know, honey,” he says quietly. His fingers wrap around mine again, warm and careful. “I know. It’s going to ease off in a minute, I promise.”
The pain in my hip starts to back off, inch by inch, from blinding white‑hot to something I can almost breathe around. My shoulders loosen a little against the pillow, and I drag in a shaky breath that doesn’t catch quite as hard in mt chest.
There’s another knock at the door, and a woman in light blue scrubs eases it open with her hip. “Hi, Aria,” she says, stepping in with a quick glance at the monitor. “Good to see you awake. You’re about four hours post‑op now, so we’re going to go ahead and get that catheter out so you can try to get up and use the bathroom, alright?”
My stomach lurches. “No, I— I can’t,” I blurt, shaking my head against the pillow. “I’m not ready, there’s just no way. I literally just thought I was gonna pass out from that pain, how am I supposed to stand up? If I move it’s just gonna do that again.”
Jamie squeezes my hand. “Is that not a bit early for her to be getting up?” he asks, looking over at the nurse.
She keeps that firm, practiced tone. “I know it feels fast, but this is routine, Aria. We really do have to get you up and moving, it’s part of keeping you safe and helping that hip heal.” She glances down at the tubing. “Taking the catheter out doesn’t mean you have to stand up this second, okay? Your bladder still needs time to wake up, so you’ll have a little while before you even feel like you need to go.”
The nurse pulls on a pair of gloves and comes to my side, lowering the rail with a clack. “Alright, I’m just going to get you a bit more uncovered here,” she says, tugging the blanket down and tucking a smaller sheet across my hips so it still covers me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Riley jolt to attention.
“I’m, uh… I’m just gonna be over here,” she mumbles, backing toward the chair and suddenly finding something very interesting to do with my phone charger.
I wet my lips. “Is this gonna hurt?” I ask, staring up at the ceiling instead of at her hands.
“No, it shouldn’t hurt,” she says. “You might feel a bit of pressure or some discomfort, but no pain, alright?”
“Alright, first I’ve got to get this tape off your leg,” she says, peeling the blanket back a little more. “It sticks better than we want it to, so it’s actually easier if I do it quick instead of dragging it.”
I tense. “Okay. Just… tell me when.”
“I’m going to do it on three, alright? One… two—”
“Jesus—” I jerk, feeling every tiny hair scream. “You said three.”
She smiles a little. “I know. That part stings, but that’s the worst of it, I promise.”
“Okay, next I’m just going to hold onto this little tube here and slide it out, alright?” she says, matter‑of‑fact. “You shouldn’t feel any pain with this, maybe just a bit of pressure or a funny feeling for a second, but it’ll be over really quickly.”
I feel Jamie’s fingers tighten around mine, that familiar death grip we fall into together. “Hey, hey, it’s alright,” he says softly, leaning into my line of sight. “Just look at me, okay? I’ve got you.”
I lock onto his face, counting the little freckles by his eye while he keeps talking about nothing and everything, voice low and steady.
“Okay, all done,” the nurse says a second later, snapping a glove off.
I blink. “It’s… done?” I rasp. “I didn’t even feel anything.”
She tosses the bag and tubing, peels her gloves off, and comes back to the bedside. “See? I told you, no pain,” she says, giving me a quick smile. “Alright, I’m gonna give your bladder a bit of time to wake up. If you start feeling like you need to go, just hit that call button and we’ll come in and help you get up, alright?”
I let my head fall back into the pillow, fingers still laced with Jamie’s. The idea of standing feels a hundred miles away.
