Walk the Line

five

~Your laugh echoes down the hallway, carves into my hollow chest, spreads over the emptiness. It's bliss. It's so simple but we can't stay, overanalyze again. Would it really kill you if we kissed?~

It feels like they are waiting hours at the hospital and they hardly know anything.

The Quinn's are there too, even Jill, with Robert distraught over the fact of another depressed daughter, muttering to himself that it's his fault because he should've been around more.

Everyone sits in chairs, except for Brandon. He can't stop pacing. His mom tries to get him to sit down, but he has too much nervous energy to stop moving.

Finally, finally, a doctor comes out, which brings everyone else out of their seats and over to him.

"She clearly tried to commit suicide," he starts. "She lost enough blood to pass out, but not to kill her, though we still transfused some more into her system. We're confident, though, that she will fully recover."

Everyone sighs out in relief.

"Did you know that she was this depressed?" He asks them.

"No," Stef answers for everyone. "We didn't."

"Well, it's not unusual for cancer patients to develop depression. Has she been going to cancer support groups?"

"No-" Stef starts.

"You haven't been taking her?" Robert cuts her off, clearly upset.

"She hasn't ever wanted to go!"

Lena tells Stef to calm down, that everyone's stressed and fighting isn't going to help anything.

"You need to force her to go," the doctor says once Stef had calmed down. "And she also needs to go to therapy. They'll help her, I promise."

Stef and Lena both nod in understanding and the doctor now lets everyone go in her room to see her.

Stef and Lena go in first, then the Quinn's. Brandon walks back and forth in the hallway in anxiety. He needs to see her, he needs to be assured that she is okay.

When the Quinn's come out, Sophia tells Brandon that she wants to see him.

He mumbles a quick "thank you" and runs to the room. She turns her head to him and he can't get over how hollow and pale she looks.

"Callie..." he sighs out, tearing up. He walks the rest of the way to the side of her bed.

"Brandon..." He grabs onto the sides of her face and looks at her.

"Please, don't ever do that again," he begs her, the tears spilling over. "Don't ever try anything like that again. I've never been so terrified in my life."

She starts to cry. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, just promise me."

She doesn't say anything, not wanting to promise him something she's not sure she can keep.

He tries again. "Callie, promise me. Please."

And she loves him too much to hurt him more so she just says, "I promise."

He leans down and just holds her as she clings to him.

"I can't lose you," he whispers.

And she almost tells him that he could still lose her, that this cancer could end her yet, but she doesn't because his body is racking with sobs and she doesn't want to upset him more.