A New Life

Chapter 46

Another sleepless night fell over me.
I'm heading to the airport to pick Katy's mom up. I don't even know how to do this. How do I meet her for the first time in person over something so awful? How do I pretend to be okay and expect her to be the same?
I walk into the arrivals terminal and sit and wait for her to walk through.
My thoughts taking over of what we talk about, how I should act, what I say when I first see her... my thoughts get interrupted by a short rather round woman with short blonde hair calling my name.
I walk over to greet her, putting my best smile forward. "Lyn! It's so good to finally meet you in person!" I say as she pulls me in for a hug. That's when I feel my tears coming through... I try to push them down and for now I succeed. "Oh Chris, the same to you my dear. How is she doing?" She says pulling back from the hug. "There's not a whole lot I can say. She's in an induced coma until tomorrow. Her body seems to be responding well though. She seems to be really peaceful. Like she's getting a good rest." I explain grabbing her bags. "And you?" She asks walking with me. "I'm okay. How was the flight?" Changing the subject. "The flight was long, the seats are small, the food was okay but the air hostesses were absolutely lovely. Thank you so much for helping me get here." She says with a grateful smile. "I totally get that" I laugh.

We pull up outside the house. "So this is it." I say turning the car off. She sits a looks at the house. "Oh it looks just like the pictures she sent through." She smiles halfheartedly.
I get out and grab her bags, she follows me inside. "So we don't really have a spare room at the moment, so you can sleep in our bedroom." I say leading her to our bedroom.
"Where will you sleep?" She asks.
"I've been sleeping on the couch, it's quite comfortable." I smile. I put her bags beside the bed. I know I should tell her about why I haven't been able to sleep in here but I don't think that'd be fair on her.
"You're too kind, now what time can we go up to the hospital?" She asks almost impatiently. Understandably so. I look at my phone for the time. "Well it's 6:30, and visiting hours don't start until 8:30 so you can get some rest if you'd like, or the cafe opens in a half hour if you'd like to go see that and get some breakfast." I offer, she smiles at me. "I think we should do that. Just let me freshen up and we'll go." She says opening her bags. "I'll leave you to it. Oh and uh, that bathrooms not functioning at the moment, so you might have to use the downstairs bathroom." I lie. I couldn't let her use the same bathroom that she... I just couldn't. It'd be cruel.

Within 45 minutes, we're on the road heading towards the cafe. We pull up and see Crystal and Danielle out front serving customers. Busy as always. We park and walk into the cafe. Danielle's face visibly lights up. "Hey you!" She says coming over to greet us. "Hey Danielle, this is Lyn, Katy's mom." I introduce them. "Oh Danielle, it's nice to put the faces to the names." Lyn says pulling her into a hug. "So how's she doing?" Danielle asks looking at me. I assume Ricky told them. "She'll be okay." I say giving her a half smile. She just nods. "So what can I get you?" She asks walking over to the register. "I'll have my usual black coffee and a vege bagel please". "And I'll take a flat white with an extra shot and ohh the what do you guys say? The flapjacks?" I laugh. "Just pancakes." "Oh yes, well I'll have the pancakes." She giggles. She pulls out some cash. "No don't worry, it just goes onto the business account." I say before thanking Danielle and walking over to a table.

Lyn and I chat, and eat our breakfast trying to keep it lighthearted. She asks about touring, "I just don't know how you fly all the time in those small seats and the jetlag.." I laugh, "as much as I want to say you get past it, you don't... but it's so much fun and so worth it to see fans around the world dancing, singing and telling us how much our music has helped them." I say bringing a small smile to my face and taking a sip of my coffee. "You really do love what you do don't you?" She asks smiling. "I do, it's been my life for well over ten years and I honestly can't say I'd rather do something else. It's the only thing I want to do."
"So what happens when you need to go on tour again? Surely your band and staff need to go out again." She asks getting a little more serious. Fuck. I haven't even thought about that. "Well uhh, the tour was supposed to end last week. The next tour isn't for another threeish months so I guess once we see what's going on with Katy, we'll re evaluate and figure out what to do. The guys all understand what's going on and none of them are overly concerned with going back until Katy's ready for that." I try my best to explain, but I felt my heart break saying it. Knowing there will come a time when I have to actually leave her to go work.
We chat a little more and finish off our breakfast before heading to the hospital.

As we walk into her room, Lyn takes my hand and squeezes it a little. When she finally sees her daughter she breaks. She goes over to her and pretty much collapses. I put my hand on her back reassuringly, letting her know she's not alone in this, and allow my tears to fall too. After what felt like an hour of staying like that, the doctor comes in. He greets us both and explains what's been happening in all his doctor terms. "So we will be withdrawing the drugs that we have used to keep her in the coma, and hopefully within 12 hours she will be waking. She might take a little longer, but not too much as she hasn't been under for a long time. She will be agitated and confused, might not recognise you straight away. But we do ask that you stay with her during this process. If she does recognise you, it will help her come out of it easier." He explains. "So when will you be starting the process?" Lyn asks. "We can start in a half hour. We just need to prepare our staff and the medications." he smiles. She gives my hand a tight squeeze again. This time it seems happier.

After the doctor leaves, I decide to give Lyn and Katy some alone time. I walk out into the waiting room and message the guys to let them know what's happening.

Rick: That's awesome dude, keep us updated and let us know what we can do.
Ryan: Oh man, that's so good!
Justin: I'm so stoked for you bro, keep your head up
Vinny: Yooo, thats great news my dude 🙌🏻

I stay outside for a little while longer until the doctor comes out to tell me they're starting.

Here we go...