A Love So Absolutely Clear {Crowen} ✔️

28: i can't breathe

"get them out of here!" doctor patel was frantically throwing orders at nurses, telling them to hand him things. his hands were constantly injecting fluids or drugs in novella's body and checking the e.k.g. afterwards.

"no!" owen yelled setting the tray of food onto the couch, as ringing noises accompanied his voice. he rushed over to novella's side while the nurses tried to push him away but his strong body pushed past them. cristina put a hand on her mouth, a pang of nausea invading her body as she tried her best to stand on her own two feet.

"her stats are dropping. what did you do?!" his heart was racing so fast he had to put a hand on his chest in attempts to slow it down, but he couldn't. "novella wake up!"

"get him out of here!" doctor patel shouted at the top of his lungs, resulting in two nurses dragging him away as he tried to resist. he wasn't strong enough, though. he was in distress and he was scared out of his mind.

the two nurses closed the door on their way out, returning back to novella. he watched as the doctor in the room continued to push drugs into her body and nurses setting it up for him. when he finally couldn't watch any longer, his eyes went straight down to cristina, who was hugging her knees tightly as she sat down on the cold hospital floor.

he sat down beside her, looking at her features that were even more frightened than his. novella looked closer to death than she had ever looked before. at that very moment, it looked like their daughter was going to die.

his arm snaked around her and her small body immediately fell into his. she didn't cry, nor was she going to. instead, her face froze, and her whole body froze along with it. she couldn't blink, she couldn't think, she couldn't even move.

he couldn't move, either, but he did anyway. his hands shook slightly and his knees had already collapsed if he hadn't been sitting down. they could still hear the beeping and the yelling of voices inside novella's room, but they didn't want to be a part of it. it scared them too much.

when the noises from inside got too hard to handle, cristina closed her eyes shut and buried her head deeper into owen's chest, hugging him with all the strength that she had. she didn't have much, but neither did he.

this time, he couldn't move. the only thing that did was his hand that looked for her smaller hand to interlace with. when they finally found each other's, they could feel the intense shaking that was at least a little relieved after they held onto each other tightly.

they never spoke a word, and they couldn't speak a word. not even to foil the noises from within that they couldn't stand in the slightest.

when all the nurses including doctor patel opened the door to explain to novella's parents what was going on, it already felt like an eternity.

the nurses walked away from the room one by one until only doctor patel was left standing right in front of them.

a few seconds they could barely even breathe, but now they were standing up from their spot, looking at the doctor and what he had to say. the door to novella's room was wide open, but they didn't have the courage to even look in her direction. she could have been alive and okay, alive and seriously ill, or dead. it was better not to know until they had to.

"she's been put on ventilation." he informed them, with his hands together in front of himself. he looked back at her, but novella was still a mystery to cristina and owen's eyes. the second the word 'ventilation' had come up, a lump had formed in their throats that both of them tried to gulp away.

owen grabbed hold of cristina's hand first. she quickly accepted it and held onto it tightly.

"her heart stopped very briefly. she paged me and right when i got there, she had a high fever with chills." his voice was low, but he kept it professional.