Jodee

Chapter 54 - Advocate

"It's all over. Your brother is stable again." The nurse came out of Ace's room, turning to speak to Caleb and I.

Everything was such a blur, when I was in hysterics of Ace just going limp that I hadn't realized Caleb and I were on the floor.

He was sitting with his back against the wall next to the hospital room door. His legs trapped my waist to his body and his arms held my shoulders and the back of my head, pushing it into his chest.

At first — from what I can remember — I was extremely mad at Caleb. He was forcing me down and not letting me make sure Ace is okay. I don't even fully understand what the doctors were doing to Ace while they were yelling and that alone freaks me out. But Caleb didn't let go, he just kept on holding me and now I'm grateful for it, because that really did help me to calm down.

My honorary brother quickly scrambled to his feet at the nurses words. His arms still wrapped around my shoulders, but now my feet were on the ground, my body completely molded to his and my head still smooshed on his chest.

"Ehm," Caleb cleared his throat. "What does that mean? What the fuck happened in there?" He demanded.

The nurse took a deep breath, peeling her eyes away from me to look Caleb in the eye and began to explain.

"Mr. Chambers's lung collapsed. We aren't sure why, there's not one thing that happened to him that made that happen. Just a result of the surgery. Due to your brother not having a ventilator inserted right after his surgery because his lung appeared to be supporting him on its own, we believe his lungs were overworked and therefore collapsed today."

"So why the fuck wasn't he put on a vent or fucking monitored for this!" Caleb roared.

"Caleb." I said, softly, taking my head off of his chest and peering up at him.

His hair was disheveled, his breathing coming out kicked as I felt his chest rise and fall rapidly. He was turned away from me and sent death glares towards the nurse, his eyes ablaze with a sort of hatred.

Caleb took a deep breath before turning to look at me, his face only softening slightly. "No, Jo. I wanna fucking know why they didn't take care of your brother properly."

"There was nothing we could have done to prevent the lung collapsing, you have to understand that." The nurse pleaded with my brother's best friend, trying to take a step towards him.

"I don't have to fucking understand anything." He roared, causing the nurse to step back a couple steps. "Do your fucking job, and I want to talk to Dr. Singh right the fuck now." He demanded, one of his hands loosening itself from my shoulders to wave his arm around for dramatic effect.

"I understand, sir. I will tell Dr. Singh, you are looking for him but he is in surgery at the moment." The nurse resigned, before quickly taking her leave.

"Caleb." I whispered, my eyes started to release water, even though I wasn't sure why.

The man in question looked down at me, his eyes softening and his lips parting when he saw my expression. "I know, honey. C'mon."

He lifted me up from under my armpits, wrapping my legs around his torso and my arms naturally found their ways to circle his neck. Caleb's grip was firm but didn't hurt as he secured me to himself and walked back into Ace's room.

I couldn't look at my brother again, not when I know he's going to look as pale and dead as he did when we first got to the hospital.

I can't do that again.

If Ace doesn't make it — which won't happen — but still, if he doesn't make it I want my memory of my brother to be as happy as possible. I want to remember him as my big brother who always thought of me and would cuddle and make me feel better when I was down. I do not want the memory of my brother to be is dead-ish body as he wasted away in a hospital bed.