Breaking Point

Decisions Decisions Decisions

"Okay, Justin. Brace yourself. Jen's parents aren't known for being charming." Scooter warned, and Justin nodded.

Finally, a couple appeared in the hospital room, stone-faced and unemotional. The woman, Denise, had blonde hair and blue eyes, though her resemblance to Jennifer stopped there.

The man, Randy, didn't look anything like he even belonged in the family. With his muscular build, brown hair and brown eyes, he looked like Jennifer didn't even belong to him.

"Randy, Denise. How are you?"

Denise turned to Scooter, and cracked a small smile. "We're fine, how are you?"

"I've been better. Why don't you sit down? This is Pattie, Justin's mom, and this is Justin."

Denise turned and studied Justin. "We signed you years ago. How are you doing?"

Justin gave her a polite smile. "I'm all right." He lied, and Denise nodded.

"What are they doing here? Isn't he supposed to be on tour?"

"We postponed it, until Jen wakes up." Scooter answered, and Denise's mouth turned in an unpleasant way.

Suddenly, Jennifer's doctor walked in. "Are you two Jennifer's parents?" she asked, and Denise and Randy both nodded. "We have a few questions for you, regarding your daughter."

"All right," Randy said cautiously. "Like what?"

The doctor shifted nervously on her feet, feeling the tension in the room from an unknown source. Nonetheless, she looked over her clipboard, containing Jennifer's information.

"Well... there are just a few decisions that we leave to the parents. Such as D.N.R.'s, among other things."

Justin studied Jennifer's parents, who didn't even seem concerned about her. They didn't even look her way when they walked into her room. As everybody sat down, Justin immediately claimed his spot next to Jennifer and took her hand in his.

"Well, we just wanted to know... when the time came, would you like us to rescusitate if necessary?" the doctor asked.

"No," "Yes," Denise and Scooter said at the same time. They looked at each other in shock.

"Scooter... I believe she said it's the parents' decision." She said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Justin gaped at her in shock. Pattie walked over to Justin and sat on his lap for somewhere to sit.

"Denise... you don't want them to rescusitate on Jen?" Scooter asked, and shared a glance with Pattie, who was looking at Denise in disapproval.

"Why should they, Scott? If her heart stops, maybe that's the way it was meant to be." Justin stiffened under Pattie, who pat his arm reassuringly.

The doctor looked back and forth as they had their polite argument and stared at Pattie and Justin, eyes wide, causing the two to silently start laughing.

"Maybe we should just move on." The doctor suggested. "We can leave that one up for debate."

Scooter looked at Denise disapprovingly, then shared a glance with Justin. He sighed as he looked into Justin's eyes, seeing pain evident in them, the same way he'd see it in Jennifer's eyes oh, so long ago.

"Well, the neurologist and myself teamed together and, in the past week that Jennifer has been under Life Support, we saw that her brain function is degrading. Which means that each day she's been under Life Support decreases her chances of waking up. We'd like to know if you would want to take her off of the machine, to see if she comes back on her own."