Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 57

"They're taking her to LA Children's," Sarah said, running up to us. "Come on. Let's gather everything up and hurry over there."

I couldn't focus on what Sarah was saying. I was still crying and calling for Samantha.

"Tyler, Ty," Brendon said, loosening his grip on me. "Let's get to the hospital."

He helped me up and led me to the car. I assume Sarah had collected up all our belongings because I didn't see them on the beach.

Brendon helped me into the car and handed me something. I looked at it and saw it was a shirt and a pair of sandals. My shirt and sandals. I pulled my t-shirt on and put the sandals on the floor and put my feet in them. Sarah was driving and I willed her to go faster.

After what felt like hours we pulled into the emergency bay of a hospital. I ran out of the car and through the doors. Jenna came running up to me.

"Tyler, they won't let me go in with her!" She cried, hugging me.

Sarah went over to a desk and spoke with the woman, a nurse? there.

She came over to us.

"They're assessing her. They have her in a trauma room. Once they've assessed her, they'll let you back."

I sank into a chair and covered my face with my hands. The tears that had been threatening the entire car ride spilled over.

Jenna held me as I cried. She cried as well.

Sarah and Brendon milled about around us, sitting with us as we waited for news.

"She wasn't breathing," I said. "She wasn't breathing."

"They worked on her the whole way here," Jenna said through her tears.

"I can't sit here and wait!" I cried.

I went through the double doors. Screw then. I needed to see my daughter. I needed to be with her.

I ran through looking for the more urgent areas. No one tried to stop me.

I found a room that said 'trauma' on the door and looked in the window. Doctors and nurses were surrounding a body. One of them moved and I saw it was Samantha. I threw open the door and ran over.

"Samantha! It's Dad!  I'm here baby!"

"Someone get him out of here!" Someone said.

Arms pulled me back and slammed the door in my face. I looked in the window and watched as they put paddles on Samantha's chest and shocked her. I moved away from the door and sank to the floor across from it, crying.

I don't know how long I sat there before a security guard came over.

"You shouldn't be back here. Who let you back here?"

I didn't answer. I just shook my head.

He put out his hand and pulled me up.

"That your kid in there?" He asked, indicating the room where doctors were trying to restart her heart.

I nodded.

"Okay. Let's get you back out to the waiting room then I'll come back and see what info I can get for you, okay?"

I nodded. The guard led me out to where Sarah and Brendon and Jenna were still standing or sitting. I sat beside Jenna and cried as she held me.

"They were shocking her heart," I said. "We're going to lose her."

"Tyler Robert Joseph," Jenna said angrily. "I refuse to let you give up on her. She will make it."

The security guard came back out.

"Sir?" He said. I looked up at him.

"They got her back. They're just going to take her for an MRI and then send her up to the ICU. But they said you could come back and see her while they wait to take her down."

Jenna and I jumped up and followed the guard. He led us back to the room where I'd seen them working on Samantha.

A nurse let us in. And we ran over to Samantha's unconscious body.

"Samantha, it's Mom and Dad, sweetheart," Jenna said picking up Samantha's hand. A tube was coming out of her mouth, a machine breathing for her. Wires came out from under the hospital gown they'd covered her in. Her bathing suit was in tatters on the floor. Presumably they'd had to cut it off her. The heart monitor beeped in a slow rhythm. She had an IV in one hand and her eyes were closed.

"Samantha. Baby," I cried, picking up her hand and kissing it. I squeezed it, hoping she'd squeeze me back. She didn't.

A couple of people came into the room and said they were taking Sam for her MRI, and she'd be going to the ICU from there. That we could meet them up there.

The security guard came back and took us back to where Brendon and Sarah were waiting. The four of us cried on each other.

The security guard told us how to get up to the ICU and we all went up. Samantha was still downstairs but the staff told us what room she'd be in but that we'd have to wait in the parents' lounge and someone would get us when she was back.

We sat in the room, just the four of us.

"She's going to be okay," Brendon said.

I tried to be as positive. But he hadn't seen Samantha's small body being jolted by electricity trying to restart a heart that had stopped. He hadn't tried to blow life into her body. He hadn't pressed on her rib cage trying to convince her heart to start beating. He hadn't carried her lifeless body out of the water. He hadn't felt the life draining away from her.

A nurse came in to get us and led us to Samantha's room. She looked so pale. The machines keeping her alive were depressing. I went straight over to her and picked up her hand. I squeezed it and hoped she'd squeeze back. She didn't.

I sat beside her and cried. Jenna sat on her other side and held her other hand and cried.