by Mia Ford
I take the moment with my eyes closed to adjust from ‘meeting mode’ back to reality. I’ve fought so hard, all on my own, and now it’s time to bring myself back down. I know that I need to speak to Evan right away to let him know what’s going on, but I just need time to cool down first. I don’t want to speak to him all frantic and worried when he’s already going through so much.
God, I really hope that Liam is okay, I think as it all comes flooding back. That’s the most important thing here. All of this is nothing compared to that panic.
After a few moments, I collect myself together and I make my way outside. The cool air brushes past my skin and whips my hair around, waking me up a little bit. I wish I had a car since I have all this paper work with me, but I suppose a cab will have to do. I can’t complain that Evan drove me and he had to leave, that just is what it is. Can’t be helped.
I drop what I can to the ground by the side of the building and I tug my cell phone out of my pocket. I hit dial on the first number in my recent call list, which is Evan. It seems that I’ve been calling him a lot recently. I tap my foot on the ground as it rings, internally begging him to pick up. I know he said to leave him a voice mail, but I don’t know how I’ll handle not being able not knowing what’s going on. I need to know what’s happening with Liam, I can’t hack it.
“Hello?” As his stressed voice answers the phone, a little bit of me feels relieved. I don’t know what I would think if he didn’t answer the phone. “Katy?”
“Hi, Evan, I erm… I just wanted to talk to you about the meeting.” I shake my head. What’s the point of talking about that now when there’s so much else to worry about? “It went well, I’ll tell you the details later on. How are things with Liam? Is he okay?”
I bite down on my nail as I wait for him to answer, massively freaking out as I do. He seems to be taking far too long to answer which is horrible, it can only spell bad news. My brain flickers up the most horrific images it can find, almost as if I’m trying to prepare me for what might happen. It makes me sick and anxious, I can barely handle it at all.
Please don’t let this be anything, I beg silently inside my brain. Please let everything be okay.
“He needs a blood transfusion, Katy, and I’m scared,” he finally tells me. “He needs A positive blood and I don’t have that. They can’t seem to find any in the system either. The doctor told me that they might bring some over from another hospital, but it feels like that might take much too long.”
My heart pounds, this sounds serious, but it’s also something that I can help with. “I’m A positive,” I gasp. “I can donate some of my blood. Can I do that? Will they let me? Oh, my God, I need to call a cab right now…” I’m flapping, I can hear myself but I can’t seem to stop. The words are flooding out of my mouth at a million miles an hour. “I need to get to you.”
“Katy, I can’t ask you to do that,” Evan insists, but I can hear a tremor in his voice that means he needs this. “I mean the offer is amazing, but you can’t do this. It won’t be good for you.”
“Evan, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for Liam. Now I have to go because I need to call a cab. I need to get to you as soon as possible.”
I hit the hang up button on the phone despite the fact that I can hear Evan still speaking to me and I search for the nearest cab number. My whole body is shaking all over, I can feel it from my head to my toes, but it feels like it’s a good thing. I want to do this, I need to help. I’m pretty sure I would feel this way no matter what, but the fact that I have such strong feelings for both Liam and Evan really amps up my need. I have the right blood type, it’s like this is after.
I book a cab rapidly and move to the edge of the sidewalk while I wait impatiently for it to arrive. I’m all on edge, but in a really good way, like I can’t wait for this to happen.
***
The nerves don’t kick in until I step out the cab door and I stare up at the hospital. That’s when it all becomes very real. I haven’t spent a lot of time in hospitals, I haven’t had to have check ups or injections, or anything like that. I was never a sickly person, and no one in my family ever was either. I guess this will be the first time that I’ve ever really had to have something serious done.
You can do this, I convince myself as I struggle to keep hold of all the papers I still need to keep. You can do this for Liam, he needs you. I have to be strong, for him.
With that I start making the brave steps towards the hospital doors. My heart still pounds so hard against my rib cage I think it might burst out at any given moment, and my mouth might be so dry I can barely breathe, but I ignore all of that and I keep on moving. I have someone who needs me.
As I get inside I can see a massive queue waiting to speak to the receptionist, but since I don’t know how urgently I’m needed, I don’t bother to stand in it. I move to the front desk and I put on my best, most apologetic smile.
“Excuse me,” I call out to the lady sitting behind a computer screen. “I’m really sorry to interrupt and also to jump the queue, but I’ve just had a call about an urgent blood transfusion that’s needed for a child, and it’s one that I share the right blood type for. I need to get to that room quickly before the doctor starts calling around to other hospitals to get the blood delivered.”
“Oh right, well that’s just wonderful.” Her face lights up. “You are saving us a lot of hard work and money here. What room is it you need?”
“The room of Liam Debroils.” She gives me a funny look as I say this, but I chose to ignore that. “Thank you so much, your help has been invaluable.”
She taps on the computer screen for a few moments. “Your room is two four one. Good luck.”
I give her a grateful nod and say goodbye before I race off down the hallway to find the right room. I drop some papers as I go and they scatter to the ground, so I have to stop and pick them back up again. No matter what’s happening, I need to keep those in my hands. There’s some really private stuff in there.
“Would you like a hand, ma’am?” A handsome doctor smiles at me as he bends down to pick some of the papers for me. He has sandy blond hair, high cheek bones, and nice blue eyes. Maybe once upon a time I would have found him attractive, but now, compared to Evan he’s just bland. Evan has ruined all other men for me! “Looks like you have some really important stuff there.”
“Oh right, yeah.” I’m too distracted to talk to him properly. I can barely think of anything aside from what’s about to happen next. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Are you okay, miss? You look like you’re shaking?” He grabs onto my arm and squeezes. “Are you sick? Do you need help?”
If I was going to be honest, I would tell him that yes, I feel dizzy and freaked out, but I don’t want to get stuck here talking to this doctor. I need to get to Liam, I need to see Evan, I need to help. I can’t get lost in fear and a slightly freaked out brain, I just need to be brave, that’s all.
“I’m fine.” I pull away from him. “Thank you. I have somewhere to be, but thank you for all your help.” I try to clutch the papers to my chest so I don’t make the same mistake again. “Bye.”
With that I turn on my heels and I continue running towards the room. As soon as I reach the door I don’t pause for even a second. I hammer my elbow against it and I push my way inside. There I see Evan slumped over a tiny little Liam stretched across a hospital bed, with his back shaking because of tears. He looks like a broken man which just tears my heart to shreds.
“Evan, I’m here,” I say quietly to him as I put all the paper work on the side. “I’m here to help, let’s get the doctor in so we can do this.”
He turns slowly, and with his red rimmed eyes he looks at me with sheer terror in his eyes. “Oh my God, Katy. Thank God you’re here.” He pushes himself up from his chair and he grabs hold of me to pull me in for a deep, unexpected hug. “Thank God you’re here, Katy. I can’t do it alone. I can’t do this without you.”
A
s he presses my head into his chest I can hear his terrified heart beat. He’s in an even worse state of panic than me. It makes me wrap my arms tightly around him, to comfort him in any way that I can. I cling to him, I hold him, and as I do I try to keep my tears inside.
“Go and get the doctor,” I hiss to him, needing to get this started now. “I’m here, I’m ready. Let’s get this started. Let’s save Liam.”
I can tell Evan is struggling as he hears my words, but thankfully he doesn’t try to fight me on it. He knows as well as I do that this is Liam’s best shot. Sure, it might leave me shaky for a while, but that’s hardly the worst thing that could happen, is it? The much worse option would happen if I decided not to do this and the hospital couldn’t get any blood sorted.
“You are everything,” he whispers softly to me. “I am so grateful to you.”
With that I push him off me and I point towards the door so he’ll go out to get the doctor. My nerves won’t hold forever and the last thing I want to do is back down now. How awful would that make me? No, I can’t do that.
Once Evan is gone, I move over to Liam’s bed and I stroke his hand sadly.
“Sorry this happened to you, buddy,” I mutter sadly. “This really sucks, Liam. But you need to be a superhero now, and guess what? So, do I.” I wipe a stray tear from my eye. “It’s just a good job that you showed me how the other day when we were playing. I think I can just about do it.” I gasp a couple of times trying to get some air into my lungs. “I can do it for you, buddy. We just need to get through this together.”
Chapter Twenty Three – Evan
I’m all over the place as me and Katy wait for the doctor to finally join us in Liam’s room again. She’s had a blood test and now we’re just waiting for the results to come back from the lab with the go ahead that we can finally do this. I just keep shooting her loving looks, wondering what I did to get so lucky. How did I deserve for someone so amazing to come into my life? I can’t help but wonder if Katy is the answer to all the please I sent to Victoria and God being answered.
“So, tell me more about this meeting,” I ask her quietly. “Since there’s nothing else we can do at the moment until the results come back, you might as well tell me what happened.” I don’t know how much I care at the moment, but I do need something else to talk about. I need something to occupy my brain before I go utterly mad. “Were they horrified that I wasn’t there?”
“I don’t think that they were happy,” Katy admits with a weak smile. “But once I explained the circumstances they came back around and let me represent you alone.”
“You told them?” I gulp back the thick ball of emotion that lodges in my throat at the idea of a load of stiffs in suits knowing my business, but Katy didn’t have any choice, did she? She had to tell them the truth just to get them to hear her out. “How did they take it? What did they say?”
“They understood.” She shrugs at me. “What were you supposed to do? I think even the heartless bankers have family so there must be a little bit of them that gets that we all have a life outside of work, and that sometimes we don’t have any choice. That has to come first.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I murmur, not entirely convinced that they understood. I’m sure they probably would have just left their children in the hands of the doctors, but that hardly matters. I don’t exactly regret my choice. I’m right where I need to be. “So, how did it go?”
“Well they love the plans.” Her eyes flash with excitement. “They were really keen once I made them fully get how the restructure will turn you into a profitable organization. Once I showed them all the monetary projections they agreed. Well, I mean they made some firm suggestions of their own as I’m sure you’d expect, but yes we sorted it out. It’s all good. You have some time anyway, and that’s the main thing you needed, isn’t it? Time to get yourself organized.”
My heart swells with pride and also something that feels suspiciously like love. Katy has saved my business, she’s brought it back from the brink of despair. Of course, there’s still a lot of hard work to be done, I’m not turning my back on that, but I have hope now. I have a chance.
And not only that. Now Katy is about to save my son as well. She truly is perfect.
“Thank you for that,” I tell her sincerely. “It means so much to me that you would step up and do that for me. I know you didn’t have to, you could have rescheduled…”
“Oh well I didn’t think that you’d be in the right frame of mind for it any time soon so I assumed that I was better just getting in there and doing what I can… I hope I’ve done well for you.”
As she peers up at me under her eyelashes all I want to do is cup my hands around her cheeks. I want to kiss her hard and never stop. I can even feel my body leaning in to make that move for me, despite the fact that it’s probably a little crazy to kiss her in the middle of the hospital in this very tense situation, but before I get the chance to actually connect with her, the door swings open and the doctor reenters the room. Relief floods me as she breaks the magic of the moment. It’s probably a good thing that we didn’t kiss just then, it could have really complicated all of this.
“The blood tests have come back okay,” the doctor tells us both gravely. “I rushed them through so we can get the results quickly, so now we need to get things moving if that’s fine with you, Miss Atwater?” I hold my breath, but I don’t really need to because Katy nods without hesitation. “Perfect. Okay, I shall take you down to the surgery room now and get you prepped, then someone will be up to wheel Liam down. The faster we get moving, the better right now.”
Just before Katy goes along with the doctor, I take her hand in mine and I squeeze it tight. A million thoughts race through my brain as our skin connects and I hope at least some of it goes through to Katy. I want her to know how much she means to me, I want her to know how grateful I am to her, I want her to know that right now I could easily fall head over heels for her…
But before I can really communicate any of that effectively, the doctors swiftly moves from the room and Katy is gone too. It’s just me and Liam left, waiting for the biggest moment of his life so far. I turn to see his fragile little body lying in the bed, with a prayer filling my heart.
“You’re going to be okay,” I tell him softly. “Katy is going to look after you, okay? We’re going to have to say a big thank you to her once all of this is over. She’s been amazing.”
This time as tears fall down my face, they’re filled with utter hope. This might not be as bad as before, we might have a chance this time. I just need to keep on hoping and wishing…
***
I don’t know how much time passes, it could be one hour, it could be twenty, my brain is all over the place while I wait for the results. Two people who hold the utmost importance in my heart are both in surgery and I have absolutely no control over what’s happening. I’m standing out in the hospital hallway feeling utterly useless. I hate it, I want to be doing something to help, I wish they would even let me watch so I feel more involved in what’s going on, but instead I’m stuck out here with no one to talk to and no information whatsoever. I feel like I might explode.
Every single time a doctor walks past me, my heart leaps up into my throat, then sinks when I notice that they aren’t here for me. They must all be able to see it, the way my shoulders hunch up around my ears, then come crashing back down when they don’t want me at all. But I suppose they’re used to this. Frantic family members are what they deal with all day and night long.
I move over to the water machine and grab a tepid glass of liquid in one of those horrible, tiny plastic cups. I don’t even want it really, but I need something to hold in my hands, I need something to do. Plus, I suppose my mouth and throat is dry with terror, so it’ll only help…
“Mr. Debroils?” As a grave voice calls out to me I almost leap into the air in shock. Trust it to be the one second that I’m not looking for a doctor, one comes to find me. “Can you come with me?”
I can glean anything from his voice, or his facial expression which scares me. I don’t know if he’d give me more of a clue if it was bad news or if he wouldn’t want me to break down in front of all these people. Either way my hand shakes so much that the water I’ve just poured into the cup spills over the side and slashes to the ground. The doctor sees this, but does nothing about it.
“Yes,” I whisper while staring at my shoes. “Where are we going?”
She doesn’t give me an answer, she simply turns on her heels and walks off. I follow her in a direction I don’t recognize. It’s a part of the hospital that I don’t think I’ve ever been in before. That freaks me out even more. What if there’s a specific room that’s set up to give bad news in? One with padded walls and tissue boxes everywhere so people call fall apart in private? What if that’s where I’m headed right now? I don’t think I’ll be able to come back from this, this will kill me…
“Your son is in here.” As soon as Liam is mentioned I feel all strange again. I got so wrapped up in the idea that I needed to expect the worst that I almost forgot this could be good news. “He’s coming around now, the transfusion was a success. It might take him a whole to come back around fully, but right now his prospects are good. I would expect a full recovery very soon…”
“He’s okay?” I gush in shock as emotions bulldoze through me. “He’s actually alright? The transfusion worked?” I can’t seem to rap my head around the good news, it’s almost all too much.
“He’s okay.” She pushes the door open. “You can go and see him for yourself right now, but like I said he might seem a bit woozy for a while so don’t expect too much from him…”