As Carrie’s hospitalization drags on, Harrison meets a young man who reminds him of himself.
It hadn’t even occurred to Joey that his girlfriend would be in the same hospital as Carrie Fisher, and it certainly hadn’t occurred to him that Harrison Ford would be there too. Ford was a legend, a franchise in himself. He’d always seemed larger than life on screen, and he was just as imposing in person. But as he sat, hunched over a cup of coffee in the fluorescently lit closet the hospital called a “visitor lounge,” the legend was just a man, sitting in a metal chair, worried about the woman he loves.
“Amy?” Harrison asked simply.
Joey rubbed his tired eyes. “She’s in and out. Her parents are here now, which is good. Poor thing, she was fighting so hard to try and seem ok for them. It’s funny...” Joey smiled to himself, then shook his head. “It’s not, sorry.”
“No, what?” Harrison put his hand in the younger man’s shoulder.
“Looking at her like this - it makes me wanna marry her now, today. I don’t wanna wait.”
They sat there in silence for a while, sipping coffee and watching the sun slip behind the Los Angeles skyline. “I remember the first time I saw Carrie here,” Harrison said, taking a long gulp of coffee. “I thought, either both of us leave or neither of us do.” He smiled at Joey, who snickered. “Bought a ring right after they sent her home.”
The room fell silent again, the only sound was the squeaking of Joey’s finger as it circled the mouth of his styrofoam coffee cup. “She was awake, her parents were there,” he repeated. “Kicked me out because of the two visitor rule. I don’t like leaving her, but I’d rather do it when she’s awake than when she’s sleeping. I always wanna be there when she wakes up.”
Harrison nodded. “You getting any sleep?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “No. Shit, sorry, how’s Carrie?”
Harrison’s eyes lit up at the mention of his wife’s name. “She’s good. It was touch and go for a minute there, but she’s stable. We’re hoping they’ll put Amy in one of the rooms nearby, once it’s time for her to move up out of the ICU.” Joey was silent, and Harrison placed his hand gently on top his friend’s. “She’ll be OK. It’s tough, it’s a long haul, but she’ll make it. Trust me, before you know it they’ll be taking walks around the ward together.” He stood up slowly, patting Jason on the shoulder reassuringly. “Keep me updated? I’ll see you soon.”
“Of course... I’ll let you know how Amy’s doing once we hear.” Joey stood up too, unwilling to be in the sterile room alone. “Where are you off to?”
The older man smiled. “Gonna go see my girl.”
Carrie felt groggy and drugged. The medications they gave her for pain were effective, but they made her exhausted, feverish, and restless. She blinked open her eyes and slowly creaked her head to the side to see her husband, smiling, leaning in the doorframe smiling at her.
“Hey pretty girl,” he drawled. “Did I wake you?”
She shook her head and smiled back at him. “Not really... where’d you go.”
“Didn’t go far, sweetheart.” He sauntered the first few steps to her bed and reached for her hand. She grabbed it instantly and laced her fingers through his, pulling him closer. “Just down to the coffee machine. Ran into that kid, Joey.”
Carrie nodded and pressed her lips to the back of her husband’s hand. “How is he? How’s Amy?”
“He’s exhausted. She’s awake and stable, they’ll be transferring her out of the ICU soon. Hoping they bring her up here, we could be neighbors.” He wound his fingers through her hair as he spoke, twisting strands around his fingers and softly tickling her skin. “Maybe later I’ll send him in here, I’ll go in there - we’ll do a wife swap.”
“A wife swap? Really?” Carrie perked up and sat a little straighter, wincing as she did. “Is that where they’re heading, ‘wife’ness?”
Harrison smiled. “Don’t know... hope so.” He reached behind his wife and adjusted her pillow; she rewarded him with a chaste kiss on his stubbled cheek. “They’re a lot like us,” he remarked as his ran his thumb across her jaw.
She smirked. “Pulled together by franchise and circumstance?”
“Among other things.” He kissed her, and Carrie smiled against his lips. “Look, sweetheart, all I saw down there was a man so in love with a woman he’d do anything for her. And I’ve been there.”
Carrie gasped dramatically. “BEEN?”
“Since the moment I met you.” He kissed her, softly and slowly, then pulled back to look at her. “Know what I told him the other day?”
“What’d you tell the young stallion, you ol’ plough horse?”
Harrison laughed. “I told him when you had long stays here, havin’ the girls or the other stuff, when we were in rooms like this with a window seat over there...”
Carrie smiled and reached up to wrap her arms around Harrison’s shoulders. “Yeah?”
He smiled and moved to scoop her up. “And I’d pick you up and carry you over to the window, and we’d watch the people, or the sunset, or the rain.”
“Of course I remember.” She leaned over and melted into his kiss.
He moved to pick her up, gently and slowly so she was steady in his arms. “You good, sweetheart?”
“I’m so good,” she sighed.
