Linstead - Broken hearts

Chapter 61

"FOUR DAYS! IT'S BEEN FOUR DAMN DAYS!"

"Sir..."

"Jay..."

"NO! YOU SAID SHE WAS RECOVERING, THAT THE SWELLING WAS GONE. THEN WHY ISN'T SHE WAKING UP?"

"Jay..." — Sam pulled him back a bit. "You need to calm down."

He hadn't slept in two days. He couldn't. He stayed awake, waiting for Erin to wake up. Since the doctors said she could wake up any moment, he had been waiting. He hoped that any moment now, she would open her eyes, but it had been two days since she should have woken up, and she wasn't responding.

"It's out of our hands. Her brain activity is showing responses. We just have to wait."

"How much longer do we have to wait? Is there nothing you can do?"

"Unfortunately, no." — That was always the answer to the same question. Just like the answer he always got: they had to wait, had to wait for her to decide to wake up. Jay didn't understand it. It was clear she wanted to wake up, so why wasn't she? He couldn't stand waiting a week, two weeks, a month, or until they declared her in a vegetative state or whatever it would be. He needed her to wake up now.

Jay managed to convince Sam to go home for a while, to eat and sleep. He promised he would stay by Erin's side whenever he could, and Sam believed him. She saw the change in him, probably after the nightmare, which is why she did what he asked. So, she seemed less shattered than him and sat beside Erin so Jay could rest. They didn't want her to wake up and feel alone, but every time Jay went home, he took a shower, changed clothes, and went back to the hospital. He was asking Sam to do what he couldn't.

He hadn't seen his kids in those two days. He couldn't. He talked to them on the phone and felt like trash for it, but he was afraid that if the kids saw him and asked about their mom in person, he'd break down in front of them.

Sam helped him with the kids, and maybe it was her that kept them from falling apart without Erin for four straight days. They thought that if Sam was there, Erin must have just been at work. That had to be enough.

Sam guided Jay back to the room, and they sat in silence, watching Erin in bed, just like they had for the past four days. Nothing had changed.

🖤☠️🖤

Dealing with the kids was the biggest challenge. They wanted to wait for Erin to wake up, but it wasn't happening, and the kids were getting harder to manage.

Distracting them with Greg was a great idea, but perhaps too hasty for the first day. They accepted Uncle Greg and their parents' work well enough until the next day. The following day, although they didn't like it, traveling wasn't so unusual for them to worry too much. But Maya noticed that if Erin had traveled, why hadn't she called? However, that concern was set aside because Sam was there and said that Erin was busy with work.

By the third day after the accident, Jesse was already frustrated with the fact that his mom hadn't called and Jay hadn't come home either. When Sam showed up, Maya noticed that her face looked just like her father's — not from sleep, but from sadness. Maya didn't think it was about Erin. If Erin was missing, Sam would be too, right?

But things changed on the fourth day. By the fourth day, Jesse was beyond impatient, and Maya was completely suspicious. Their dad and Sam were supposed to have shown up, but they hadn't.

"Why can't we see her?" Jesse asked sadly. He had woken from a nightmare and was now asking for his mom.

"She's in a case..." Aydan replied, sticking to the false story.