Bucking Bear (Pounding Hearts 3)

“Yeah, I am pretty sure I am me,” I say with a grin. I walk over to the chair beside her bed and motion to it. “Mind if I sit for a while?”

She is slowly turning more and more red as she holds in her breath.

“Relax, Krissy,” I hear Julie say from behind me. She says it though in a playful voice and I can see Krissy give her a quick glance. They share look, I have no clue what it means, but Krista looks back at me.

“Please sit. I just need to get this…” She reaches to her side and gets one of those bed riser remotes. Raising it up, she comes to a full sitting position.

I wait for her to get comfortable again as her family helps, then smile when she turns back to me. “Sorry… It’s getting hard to sit up on my own.”

“Don’t be, there is no need to apologize,” I say, and then lift the bear up in my hand.

I feel stupid all of a sudden for bringing her a teddy bear, she’s fifteen for shit’s sake. But her eyes light up as she sees it.

“Is that for… me?”

“Yeah, sorry… kinda corny maybe.”

“No, it’s totally awesome!” she says taking it from me. She wraps it up in one arm as she says, “I can’t believe you are here. Thank you so much for coming! I didn’t think you would be able to.”

“I had to once I heard you were my biggest fan. From the letter your dad sent them, I heard you have been watching my fights since I started.”

“Oh, I have been. I still remember your first televised fight. We were sitting on the couch watching and you come out into the ring looking like some giant monster…”

As we talk about my career, and her thoughts on all the matches she has seen of me, I doubt there is a more knowledgeable fan than she is. Fuck, even I don’t remember some of the details, then again it’s different when you are getting hit pretty damn hard.

I look around the room from time to time as we talk and I see a poster of myself standing up in a fighting position. Fuck, that is awesome, and if I am being honest with myself, a huge ego boost.

We talk about a lot over the next few hours. She is a pretty girly girl in every aspect except for her devotion to MMA. I mean it too, she is girly. I find myself fascinated by her though as she has so many facets to her life.

At one point her mom comes in to remind her that it’s time for her to take a quick injection of medicine. Thankfully it’s not one of the bad ones, Krissy says. I am guessing she means the stuff trying to kill the leukemia

or the heavy pain meds they pump into her when the pain hits.

I step out of the room as they help her take a personal break. My throat is sore from all the talking. I don’t think I have talked this much in a long time—at least not all in one go.

She doesn’t let my usual quiet stop her. She is way too good at getting people to talk. She already had me explain my whole change in training recently, and she was right up to speed on why I would want to. Hell, she even told me I should watch out for how often the guy will probably try to go for arm locks.

Going back into the room, I look out her bedroom window and see that the skies are darkening. Shit. I can’t believe we have been here this long, it feels like it’s only been a little while.

I can see Krissy is looking refreshed but tired. She smiles but she is flagging. I can tell she is so full of happiness but the day is wearing on her.

“So I brought you some stuff…” I say as I pull out five shirts. One is from Chase’s dojo and one is from the company I fight for. The other three are the ones I like to wear to the ring, each has my name on it or a picture of me.

Holding up the last one though it has my name and a grizzly bear standing up, roaring on it. “This one is the one I wore last time I fought. Took it off right before I entered the ring. I’ve washed it since then…”

Snatching it from my hands, she holds it tight to her chest with the bear I have brought. “Oh my god, that is so cool!”

Damn she is an ego boost.

Then I pull out a phone. It’s brand spanking new, still in its white box but has the cellophane taken off. I loaded it up before I left home.

“That has my home number and address in it. If you ever need to write to someone, call or text someone or talk I am there for ya. No worries about data or calls on it, use it as much as you want. I got it covered, okay?”

Nodding to me, her eyes brim over with tears. She reaches out and I stand up for her. Leaning over her small, frail looking body, I hug her tight to my chest. Her skin is hot to the touch, like a smoldering flame. She is so thin when I wrap my arms around her, I can’t believe I didn’t notice how small she really is.

She hugs me with all her strength and I can feel her start sobbing.

Fuck. I don’t know what to do with a crying girl. I lightly pat her back, and consider saying there, there, but don’t. Instead, I just hold her as I feel another pair of arms wrap around us both. It’s her sister Julie, she and her parents have been floating in an out of the room all day and evening. I am not sure what causes them all to come in but I notice they all surround us, hugging us in one giant group.