Waiting.
Waiting was the hardest part.
It required patience, self restraint and trust.
Anna had to be patient for news on Sarah, had to restrain herself from going restless with fear, but most of all she had to trust the doctor that everything would be okay.
Liars, she had thought instead, the same words they said about my husband, why can't they ever change that?
It had been seven full days since Sarah and Lucas had been placed at Saint Mary's Oakwood hospital. An entire week of fear, crying, comforting herself and Lily from thoughts that wanted to plunge them into despair.
After signing in, giving her information and getting a promise to call from Lily, Anna had gone home, changed and packed an over night bag. She'd gone back to the hospital and not left since , her baby girl's life was her only concern.
Lily and her switched places by the children beds, to get food or relieve themselves, get clothes at home.
At present Anna sat on a chair by Sarah's bed, her head resting on the light blue sheets, her eyes closed and getting much needed sleep.
The room was wide with two beds, a curtain divider, a silent television on one wall, a window with curtains mostly shut and bland yet soothing cream wallpaper. The scent of disinfectant hung in the air, with machines humming in the room.
However, the machines existed along with some small bouquets and get well gifts that they had gotten from regular customers from the bakery, friends and a few schoolmates.
A sharp contrast was more gifts on Sarah's side than Lucas's, mostly from schoolmates, but neither mothers brought it up. That was a conversation for another day, another time and another place.
Two figures were resting on the beds; Sarah and Lucas.
Sarah's face was calm and serene, yet pale, like the sweet sleep only achieved by the dead. Her chest rose slowly, faintly, as if the breath of life was but a step from leaving her body. The doctors had said her pulse was slightly slowing down and heart rate monitor was constantly watched, fearing it would flat line.
However nothing happened, Sarah just breathed, brain activity registered at almost below average. She wasn't a vegetable, or a corpse, but she was almost between the two and that struck fear into Anna's heart.
Still, Sarah's state was nothing compared to Lucas's health.
If Sarah's health was hanging by a seemingly fragile thread, then Lucas's health was an unpredictable fluctuating nightmare.
Since he arrived, Lucas had suffered two more seizures before the doctors found the right medication to stop them, if only lessen the damages. Yet after solving his seizures, Lucas was struck with a fever, severe and almost life threatening.
Lily had cried in Anna's arms for what felt like hours, and might as well have been.
Luckily, yesterday his fever had broken and now, he was recovering, closely monitored like Sarah was.
Who knew that even asleep, they would still be their troublesome selves?
...
A soft wind fluttered from the window, lifting the curtain for a second and causing a bone numb chill to enter the room.
Anna groggily woke up and went to close it, before checking on Sarah and Lucas. She'd demanded to know what each machine did from the nurse, who bought carrot cakes at her bakery.
She wasn't a nurse but she knew if things were stable and that was enough.
"Anna?" Lily appeared by the door.
Lily Johnson, a robust woman with deep brown eyes and smooth skin had changed alot in that one week. Bags hung under her eyes like those of a professional basement gamer, while her firm arms were weak and nails bitten to the quick, a habit she'd dropped in her twenties that rose back with a vengeance.
Not that Anna looked any better with messy hair, red rimmed eyes and the disposition of a zombie.
"Visiting hours are over." Lily tapped the watch on her wrist," Time to go."
"Already? But I just closed my eyes for a second." Anna looked out the window, registering that it was late.
"Oh." Anna felt deflated as she did everytime visiting hours ended.
"Come on." Lily walked in and gave forehead kisses to both Sarah and Lucas," The bakery needs to be opened tommorow, so I'll take the morning shift."
"No!" Anna said more sharper than she intended," Frank gets back from work at late afternoon, you'll barely get an hour with Lucas."
"I know, but... life has to go on." Lily gave a sigh weighed by deep sadness, her hand stroking Lucas's sleeping face," Frank hasn't visited Lucas once. Not even once. If his mother can spare an hour, I know, I have to believe, that it would be enough."
Anna shut her eyes at Frank's name, her mind swarming with thoughts not nice for an adult woman to have for another human being. Unlike herself, who married a caring, amusing man, Lily had married her highschool sweet heart, Frank Johnson.
He'd been a bitter pill to swallow, but for her friend she'd accepted him.
Yet now, when the kids were in a coma, their health experiencing complications that were baffling the doctors and death seemed to be looming in the hallway, where was the man?
'Someone's gotta put food on the table.' he'd said,' And get money for the hospital bill for that uptown place, you couldn't have taken him to Central hospital or something?'
Anna had almost lost her polite composure, but when Lily cried, she put her anger on hold and comforted her best friend.
The man's a blooming cad, Anna had thought, but I won't judge. Not now.
"Anna?" Lily's voice brought Anna back to the present," I said you'll take the afternoon shift, then we'll close early."
"Lily, are you sure about this?" I could take the morning and afternoon shifts, I have literally nothing else to do." Anna offered but Lily shook her head.
"Your daughter needs you here, if Sarah wakes up in a hospital without you near by who knows what'll happen." Lily walked to Anna and held her hand," Come on, say goodnight, then we'll go home."
"Okay." Anna walked to Lucas and gave his forehead a kiss, ignoring the heated skin, almost like a sack of boiled water.
Next she kissed Sarah's forehead, ignoring the numb and thin feel of the skin, like a cadaver.
The two mothers gave a farewell glance at the kids and walked to the door, one going to her empty chested husband, and the other going to an empty house.
Neither one would truly say it but; They didn't want to go home.
Barely had they taken two steps when a chilling wind swept through the room.
"Huh? I could have sworn I closed the window." Anna asked in confusion.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Huh!?
Both of them turned in fright, and Anna's eyes went wide as she saw what was before her.
I sat upright in bed, my eyes frantically looking around, mouth open and gasping like a person who had been plucked from a rapid river.
"M...om?" I gasped, my voice dry and hoarse from a week of non use," Wh...ere is Luc...Lucas?"
"Sarah? Sarah! Oh my baby!" Anna rushed to me, giving me a bear hug that would make a grizzly question itself.
"Mom... can't br...eathe." I gasped and Anna hastily let me go, then grabbed my cheeks before giving me loads of kisses on the cheek.
"Mom!" I eventually escaped the onslaught," Lucas? Where?"
"Hey honey, you scared the bread and butter out of us." Lily walked up with a wry smile, her sad eyes showing a spark of joy," A week in a coma, a new Sarah spectacular, for sure."
A week?
Did they just say a Glob damn week? I thought incredulously.
I couldn't believe it, it didn't make any sense to me at all.
From the moment we touched the cards till the incident in New York, it was barely five hours tops.
I looked at them, noticing the bags under their eyes and the evidence of crying.
My eyes travelled to the room, taking note of the IV attached to me, and the machine nearby showing the pulse of my heart. I wore a white shirt, with brown shorts and remembered this wasn't what I had been wearing when we touched the cards.
A second beeping machine got my attention, and that was when I saw him;
Lucas.
Lucas lay on the bed next to mine, with a blank and serene expression of slumber, his curled hair combed back and showing his eyes more.
He's not gonna like that, I thought as I looked at his hair cut.
There was an IV attached to him aswell, along with the heart monitor like mine. However, he looked thinner than before, so did I as I would find out later, his eyes seemed a bit sunken in aswell.
A week couldn't do that to someone, I wondered, could it?
I looked at my arms, seeing the pale skin and noticing the chill in my bones for the first time, yet strangely I didn't find it uncomfortable. This coldness was equal to stepping into a meat cellar, but I hadn't shivered this whole time.
Weird, I thought before looking at my mom and asking her a very important question;
"Did you bring Sweet buns?" I asked them.
"Oh, she's Sarah alright ." Lily chuckled softly.