Surface Pressures {Fingers Crossed Series} [Isabella's Story] |1|

|PART TWO: HOW COULD YOU|

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Standing at the foot of Mom's hospital bed, I watched as the lines stayed steady on her machines. It'd been a few hours since we'd arrived and she was still fast asleep. The doctors kept reassuring us that she wasn't in a coma and that she'd wake up at any time. A part of me thought that it was too late for that. It was too late for her to wake up and too late for her to be in a coma. It was too late for her to be a parent.

"Why don't you go down and get yourself something to eat from the cafeteria." I pulled out money from my bag, "Take some time. I'm sure she's not going to wake up anytime soon."

Henley took the money but avoided looking at me. Andrea silently followed behind her, also avoiding eye contact with me. Once they were out of the room I moved to Mom's side and pulled a chair over. Taking a seat, I took her hand into mine and tried to bring myself to feel sorry for her. But the only people I could feel sorry for were us. We didn't do anything to deserve the way Mom acted towards us. Mom acted like we were so hard to take care of when we barely bothered her with anything.

"What did we do wrong?" I questioned her expecting no response, "How could you do this to us? Act like we're nothing. If you didn't want to take care of anyone then you shouldn't have had any children. You and Dad were married for years before I was born, you knew he wouldn't be around because of his career in the military. Henley and Andrea don't deserve to feel like their mother doesn't care about them. I've come to terms with the person you are but them...it isn't fair to them." My voice broke with anger, "Sometimes I wish that you'd just end it. We don't deserve the way you treat us. We don't deserve Dad leaving when things get to be too much for him and he needs a break. If neither of you wanted us then you should just give us up. I'm sure there's someone who can take us in. Someone who'd actually give a fuck about us."

Letting go of her hand, the machine started beeping loudly. Pushing the chair back I jumped to my feet. Before I could hit the call button doctors and nurses came rushing in. As they surrounded her, I slid into the corner and watched as they began doing chest compressions. As they tried bringing her back, a horrible part of me wished they wouldn't be able to. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to have her not wake up. There were a lot of successful foster kids and I knew it would be hard keeping the three of us together but it was possible.

After a few minutes the machine went normal again and some of the doctors walked out. Standing up next to the main doctor, I waited for him to tell me what happened. As he did another exam of her eyes and everything else he seemed to be confused.

"What happened?" I questioned after he didn't say anything.

The doctor shrugged, "I'm not really sure. It doesn't look like anything has changed but her heart rate has slowed down." He reset the machines, "If it happens again we'll bring her down to get a scan just to make sure there isn't any internal damage we can't see."

After a few moments, he walked out of the room too. Staring down at Mom it seemed like she was the cause of the machine freaking out. Maybe she could hear me and wanted to just end our suffering. Maybe deep down she knew that we'd be better off without her and this was her way to make things right. Either way it didn't go as planned and they were able to save her again.

"Ms. Gibbs, are you able to talk?" The officer from earlier questioned coming into the room.

"Is there something wrong?"

He politely took his hat off and held it under his arm, "Unfortunately we were unable to get in contact with your father. Going through your mother's medical file she does have another emergency contact that we could get in touch with. Her sister Penelope Garcia."

"We haven't seen her in years." I told him, "It wouldn't make any sense to send us to live with her. She's basically a stranger to us."

"Well she's currently on her way here from Virginia. She may not be close to your mother but she is your closest blood relative." The officer glanced over at Mom, "She won't be leaving here any time soon and if she does she'll be spending some time in a cell for child endangerment."