Clash Into Clasp

CHAPTER 14 - Settled

"Alexis?" Carl gently shook the woman in his arms but he received no response. Seeing the familiar condition, his heart thumped heavily as he quickly scooped her and dashingly brought her into his car. Driving as fast as he can, he immediately arrived at the nearest hospital.

Memories aroused in his mind as the familiar structure, color, and smell met him when he carried her inside. He fought hard to bring them out of his mind and focused to get help for the woman he was holding tightly.

Soon, someone attended to him and he brought her down to a bed as he let the medical people do their work.

He slumped in a chair as he waited, his heart's beating fast. He was anxious and he felt it weird. Why would he feel that way for her?

He reasoned that she was with him when she fainted, and the blame will be on him if she won't wake up.

He sighed. Why did she faint anyway? Is she sick or something?

He took a deep breath as he stood and paced.

Minutes later, the doctor stepped out of the room where they brought her in.

He approached him immediately.

"Are you her family?" the doctor asked.

Carl looked at him and thought of the question before giving a slow nod. "A friend. She doesn't have a family here."

The doctor nodded.

"How is she?" he spoke ahead of the man in white.

"She's fine and she will wake up soon," the doctor replied casually.

The door opened and some nurses brought her out, still lying unconsciously in the hospital bed.

"Is she sick or does she has some sort of a disease?" he glanced back at the doctor. "I mean, what could be the cause of why she fainted suddenly?"

The doctor looked at him for a while before he spoke. "Do you live with her?"

The question surprised him but he was quick to answer, "No, no doctor."

"Well, I had some questions about her current lifestyle to assess what's the cause. Since you don't live with her, surely you don't know, so let's just wait until she wakes up."

"But fainting is a symptom of a serious brain problem, right?" he asked curiously. He clearly remembers how his mother also fainted before. She told him it was because she was overly fatigued and stressed, but it was a lie. She lied to him about her real situation. She had a tumor on her brain, and it was rapidly increasing at the time she learned about it.

"Yes it is, but we're unsure of that until we ran some further tests. If she wanted to, we can do that," the doctor replied. "It all depends on her."

Carl nodded.

"Sir, can you sign up here to acknowledge her admission," a nurse handed him a paper on a clipboard.

Without hesitation, he signed as they pushed the bed away.

"Thanks, doc. I'll see you after she wakes up," he faced the doctor then followed the pair that brings Alexis to a room.

After the nurses settled her, he was left alone with her. Watching her in the bed reminded him of her mother and melancholy pricked his heart.

Other than surgery, there was no other way out for his dear mother. In short, she was dying and she cannot afford the price of surgery. Furthermore, it was too risky. She wrote it all down, which he read after she died. The last words of her letter flashed back into his mind.