ADAM
Sitting us down in the waiting room, I pull her onto my lap, hold her in my arms and let her cry. She buries her face into my neck and holds onto me tightly. Christine walks through the door with coffee in her hand but her step falters as she walks in. “What’s happened?” She asks quietly, the fright in her voice evident.
“His monitor started beeping like crazy while Darcy was in there with him, the doctor and nurses kicked her out to work on him but no-one has come back out yet.”
“Oh no.” She places her coffee on the table and buries her face in her hands. I wish I could comfort them both but I can’t, I feel helpless. Darcy hears her Mum’s voice and looks up. She moves from my lap and walks towards her. Darcy pulls Christine to her and they hug. Standing to stretch my legs, I walk towards the window and look out. It’s raining, in fact it’s pissing down. Good old British weather! But it matches the sombre mood in the room.
The door opens, I turn to see the doctor walk in. Darcy is up and out of her seat and standing in front of him.
“Please, let us sit.” We all sit back down and wait for the good doctor to deliver the news. “Ok, your husband’s heart stopped. We’ve got him back…” Darcy grabs onto my hand and clutches it to her as I tuck her into my side. “but I warn you, we don’t know how long for. His heart’s very weak now, I think it’ll just be a matter of time now. As you know, his liver is damaged and the only way to get it to function is a transplant but he’s very sick and his heart, in my opinion wouldn’t hold out.” Placing my lips against her temple, I kiss her softly. Her soft sobs are killing me inside... I want to pull her out of the room and protect from all this but I can’t.
“So, Mrs Ambrose, Miss, if his heart stops again do you want us to revive him and keep him alive? If you say no we’ll place a DNR on his notes.”
“What do you think doctor?” Darcy asks. “How long do you think he has?”
“Honestly, I really couldn’t put a time on it. It really could be anytime.”
“Mum?” Christine looks at Darcy before looking at the doctor.
“Don’t resuscitate. Please, just let him go. I can’t stand to see him suffer anymore.” The doctor opens his file and writes ‘DNR’, Do not resuscitate.
“I’m sorry there wasn’t a better outcome. I’m sorry but we’ve done everything we can.” Darcy’s head lifts from my chest and steps towards her Mum again. I stand with my hand out to the doctor and we shake.
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“You’re welcome.” The Doctor leaves the room and it’s just the three of us again.
“Christine, is their anyone I can ring for you, save you doing it?”
“Um, he has a brother but he lives in Australia, you may just get him if you ring now.” She fishes her phone from her bag and pulls up his contact number.
“Yeah, I’ll do this now. The emotion in the room is stifling, I feel bad leaving them both but I need a breather. “Darcy?” She looks up, her eyes red with tears. “I’ll only be a minute, okay?” She nods. I walk towards the coffee machine and wait for someone to pick up but they don’t. I end the call and grab coffee for me and Darcy. I push the phone into my pocket as I go to grab both cups. I see Taylor and Todd walk through the double doors.
“What are you guys doing here?”
Taylor walks towards me and throws her arms around my neck. “We thought you might need some support.” She kisses my cheek.
“Thanks.”
“So, what have the doctors said?” I sit them down and explain everything before we go back to Darcy so they know what’s going on.
“Oh Adam, I’m sorry.” Says Taylor gravely.
“I’m sorry too.” Todd says with a tight smile. He slaps me on the back as he pulls me into a hug. Some stray tears seep from my eyes as it all becomes too much but I wipe them away quickly. I grab the coffee’s again and return to Darcy.
When we go in, Christine isn’t there. “Where’s your Mum, babe?”
“She’s gone in to see Dad.” She says sniffing and wiping her eyes.
“Look who’s here.” Taylor walks through the door with her coffee at the same time. Darcy gets up and hugs Taylor, then hugs Todd.
“Thank you both for being here, you didn’t have to come though.”
“We’re family and we stick together.” Says Taylor, knowing what it’s like to have none.
We all take a seat and wait. Taylor sits with Darcy and hugs her. “Where’s Chris?”
“He’s sleeping, he says he’ll be up later. He had a night shift last night. Oh, I have something to show you...” Taylor holds out her hand and on her finger, sits a sparkling diamond on a platinum band.
“He’s finally done it then. I thought the pussy was never gonna pop the question.” I add smiling slightly.
“Hey, he was making sure the timing was right, if you must know. He proposed at the weekend while we were away.”
“Taylor, that is gorgeous. I love it!” Darcy wipes her eyes again and sniffs loudly before speaking. She takes a sip of her coffee and spits it back in the cup.
“Ugh, I can’t drink that it’s disgusting. Oh my God, I think I’m going to be sick.” She says as she holds her hand over her mouth.
“It’s bad I know but not that bad.” I joke as she gets up to run to the toilet.
“Is she okay?” Taylor stands and watches after her.
“Yeah I think so. She keeps being sick and the other day she passed out, but I think it’s all the stress with her Dad you know.”
“I’ll go after and make sure she’s okay.” I thank her as she walks from the room, leaving me and Todd to chat about normal crap. To be honest it’s nice to be able to talk crap after the heaviness of the last couple of days.