A Bond Never Broken

Chapter 29

"Luke," I weeped. "My best friend is slowly dying in there! I need to be in there!"

Luke held onto me tighter. "Hey, Caroline, shh." He tried soothing me. "God is in control. If it's His will, He'll help those doctors and nurses to revive her. If not, He's got something better in store."

"But I need her Luke. She's my other half!" I cried.

The door shot open and Luke and I immediately got to our feet. Not even a second later, the doctors quickly wheeled Brooke out and down the hall. A nurse was at her side with a breathing mask and others were trying to help. They all ran down the hall and disappeared to the right. 

I turned to Luke dreading the worst. My whole body had been overtaken by fear. My adrenaline was pumping and my heart was racing like a Russian race horse. 

"Luke," I said. "Where are they taking her?"

He squeezed my shoulder. "I don't know."

I just stood there, looking in the direction my dying best friend had been wheeled away. I suddenly became aware of the medicine odor, the fluorescent lights, the white tile. It all felt suffocating. I felt trapped. My world was slowly falling apart yet another was just beginning and she was right inside Brooke's hospital room.

"Excuse me," I heard a woman say.

I turned around to see a nurse with curly blonde hair in blue scrubs. She was holding a clipboard and wore a hesitant smile.

"Are you Caroline Boyer and," she lifted a page up on her clipboard and scanned the page underneath. "Luke Bryan?"

Luke answered. "Yes, we are."

The nurse gave a weary smile. "Good, can you please follow me?"

All I could do was nod my head. I couldn't seem to form words anymore. Luke and I followed her down the corridor a little ways until she came to a halt it front of a door. She opened the door and ushered us inside before closing it. 

"You can take a seat anywhere." She said.

I looked around the wood paneled room, hating the fluorescent lights. It was like an office boardroom. There was a large, wooden, oval table with many swiveling chairs around it. In the center of the table was a pitcher of water and a stack  of foam cups. Magazines were stacked atop an end table that was sandwiched between two chairs in the back of the room. I felt alone. I felt nauseated. I felt as if the walls were squeezing me in.

The nurse turned to leave, but I found my voice and called out to her. "Is Brooke going to be okay?"

The nurse slowly turned her head and frowned. "I'm not sure at this time."

Then she left, closing the door behind her. Now it was just Luke and I with our own thoughts. This all seemed so surreal. I tried imagining Brooke and I back at Luke's house, hanging out. I tried remembering her long, flowing brown hair and green eyes; her dashing smile, and loud booming laugh. I tried placing us at a different time. A time and place where everything was all right. 

I watched the clock that hung beside the door. An hour slowly ticked by. I hadn't cried in twenty minutes. My eyes held no more tears. All I could do was hold onto Luke who was trying his best to comfort me. 

I shot my head up as I heard the door handle clicked. The same nurse as well as the doctor who had helped Brooke give birth walked in and sat at the table across from us. The nurse laid out some paperwork and a birth certificate. My heart shattered as my eyes landed on Ava's birth certificate. Brooke hadn't made it. My best friend was gon from this world in a flash.