divulgence // luke hemmings au

7

Luke was standing in the lobby by himself waiting for his mother in law to bring Elsie and Eloise so they'd be able to see him.

He paced checking his phone, soon enough he heard Eloise's voice and he looked up. "Oh good you're all here!" He was a bit more cheery now than before.

He thanked his mother in law for bringing his daughters, she gave him some well wishes and went on her way.

"Can we see Elliot now?" Eloise was impatient starting to walk away heading for the elevators while Elsie was further back, arms folded she seemed to be a bit withdrawn.

"Yes, Mommy's with Elliot right now." He explained and he started walking with Eloise , he looked back seeing Elsie dragging behind "come on Elsie, there isn't much visiting hours left." He explained and she went "ugh" rolled her eyes and stomped toward the elevator.

Luke tried to play off Elsie's behavior by having small talk with Eloise instead.

When the elevator stopped at the correct floor Eloise got out first then Luke, then Elsie who had to be told to get off.

Sabrina was outside in the hallway when the three arrived at the room she seemed to perk up a bit seeing the rest of her kids. "Mommy can we see Elliot now?" Eloise begged, Sabrina gave Luke the "look."

Luke paused blocking the door, "listen girls before you got in there I want to explicitly warn you.. what you're about to see is quite intense. There's wires and tubes and machines making noises, don't touch anything. Those are there to help your brother. I also want you to know that it's okay to feel upset or uncomfortable by what you see. If it's too much you can leave and come into the hallway. Do you both understand?"

Luke made eye contact with both of his daughters "yes daddy I understand" Eloise replied, "okay that's good, and what about you elsie?"

Elsie got set off when her father said her name, Luke was surprised when she started screaming no.

"Elsie what's wrong?"

"I can't go in there!"

"Can't go in where?"

"The room! Elliot's room"

"Why?"

"I don't want to!"

"Why don't you want to?"

"I don't want to see him like that."

"You don't want to see Elliot like what?"

"I don't want to see him with tubes and wires coming out of his body!"

Luke frowned, "Elsie it's okay, I can come in with you" Luke offered but Elsie stomped away. Luke looked at Sabrina and mouthed "take Eloise in the room, I'll deal with Elsie"

Luke jogged in the direction Elsie went eventually catching up to her she tried to lock herself in the family restroom but Luke managed to stop her from doing so.

He forced the door open and was met with his sixteen year old daughter sitting on the tiled floor with her face buried in her knees.

Luke flipped on the light switch and shut the door, "Elsie.. please.. talk to me.." he whined feeling bad.

"I don't wanna see Elliot!" She shouted, causing Luke to back up a little.

"I promise you Elsie it all sounds scary and looks scary at first but then after a few minutes it's okay. He's been stable for a while now, he's not scary to look at."

"No dad, no."

"I never seen you like this, there's obviously more going on than what you've mentioned."

A silence fell over the room for a solid minute.

"Grandma said that something horrible happened to Elliot and that they're not sure if he's gonna make it." Luke facial expression changed.

"What? Grandma told you that?" He furrowed one of his brows.

"Yeah Grandma was saying all these crazy things about him, I don't want to loose him. I can't say goodbye to my big brother."

Luke now had both eyebrows furrowed. "What? Why would Grandma say that?"

"I don't know, I guess it's because what ever Mom told her when Grandma came to babysit."

Luke had to remain civil, "grandma is wrong. She shouldn't have said any of that to you because it isn't true."

"If Grandma isn't lying then why is Elliot in the ICU, Dad?" Elsie shot back, Luke gulped hard.

"Elsie plenty of people go into the ICU who aren't dying.. they're helping him in there, they're keeping a close eye. Everything's all good."

"Dad, I'm not a child anymore. Stop playing games, what happened to Elliot?"

Elsie was still sitting on the tiled floor her legs still bent, she was hugging her knees staring intently at her anxious father.

Luke gulped hard again, "Elsie uh, he uh."

Elsie gestured him to get the words out.

"Elliot's heart stopped today Elsie. Steph found him.. she called me. I went to the apartment and there I saw him." Luke finally admitted sighing deeply.

Elsie just had this look of shock on her face.

"I saw him laying there on the middle of the living room carpet, Steph doing compressions on your brother. I decided to do a round and I'll never forget everything about it." He sighed again.

"Elliot's what? His heart?" She was all shocked trying to grasp everything. Luke was still looking at her arms loosely folded, but this time he was completely unaware that a tear fell down his left cheek. Elsie noticed it quickly.

"His heart stopped, don't know for how long or why. It took such a long time to get a pulse back.. it feels like a blur I don't know how I did this." He whispered, the tear had completely ran down his face and dripped onto the floor he didn't bother to wipe it.

Elsie stood up, "you saved his life dad. you got him back."

"Yeah but he's not awake and we don't know the extent of the damage yet." He explained this time using his hand to try and clear away the few tears forming.

"But dad, he's alive. You got him breathing again. He's here with us.  Be proud of your self for that." At this point she finally hugged him rubbing his back, it was so obvious that he needed someone to hold him during this time.

"I didn't mean for this to happen. I hope I didn't hurt him too badly. He doesn't deserve pain."

"You didn't hurt him, you did not hurt him, Dad. You saved him."

"I know but his chest-" Elsie cut him off.

"His chest will heal. Chests heal dad, deaths permanent." His daughters words rang through out his head.

Eventually they peeled away from each other, Elsie proceeded to open the door and started to walk out. "Where are you going?"

She paused, smiling softly. "I think it's time to see, Elliot. Life's short, it can be over in a blink of an eye."