How to save a life

Chapter 12

Waiting. It takes longer than you think. Seconds feel like minutes, minutes feels like hours, hours feels like days. Waiting sucks. That's how Rick felt. He felt scared and he was waiting for hours.

Rick was waiting in the waiting room. It was his third cup of coffee, he needed to be awake.
A doctor walked to him. It was the same doctor he had been seeing a lot of times. He still had his surgery clothes on.
"Mr. Castle?" He said. Rick stood up.
"How is she?" Rick asked concerned. And he had every right to be. His girlfriend had a lot of surgery in these past 2 months, and this time it was a brain surgery. One wrong move and she could be paralized.
"She is great. We got the tumor out. No complications. She should make a full recovery." The doctor said and it made Rick happy. It doesn't mean she's cancer free now, but the tumor's out. It's out. He smiled. "But, have tk be carefull. There were little pieces that were causing her to see her mother, and we had to carefully remove them. That was the most dangerous part. Now, it went well, but she might have short memory. It could be that she doesn't remember you, or anyone. It also could be that her memory resets every 10 minutes. We don't know that yet." Rick's heart stopped a second.
"You said that she was going to be okay."
"I know what I said. But it could he temporary."
"You sure?"
"Yes. I've seen this before."
Rick wiped away his tears and took a deep breath.
"When can I see her?"
"Soon. She just got out of surgery. I'll come back when you can see her. Deal?" Rick just nodded and sat back down. The doctor walked back. The first thing Rick did was text his mother, Alexis and Jim. He had promised to keep them in the loop. Even Martha. But Kate had already made clear that she didn't really want anyone to know. If they didn't bother to check up on her, why bother telling them how she's feeling?

Soon later, Rick sat in his chair again. Kate was sleeping, which was normal. He was holding her hand and just looking at her.
After a couple of minutes Kate woke up. The doctor was there, and Rick was there.
"Is it out?" Was the first thing she said.
"Yes. We succesfully removed the tumor." The doctor said and continued to write in the chart.
Kate looked at Rick and smiled. He smiled back.
"It's out." She said. Rick kissed her head. For that second she closed her eyes.
"It's out." Rick said when he sat back in his chair. Kate looked back at the doctor and she all of the sudden looked serious again.
"Is it out?" She asked again. The doctor looked at her and smiled.
"Yes. We've succesfully removed the tumor." Before the doctor looked back at the chart, he checked Rick. Rick was surprised. Kate looked at Rick.
"It's out." She said again and smiled. Again.
"It's out." Rick said and smiled. This time he kissed her hand. This kept going for an hour.

Kate's memory did reset sometimes. But everytime it was a bit longer. One time Rick told a whole story before it reset.

After a couple of days, Kate's memory was back to normal. Some things she did forget, but those were small things. Like where she hides her key, or where she had her cookies. But that didn't matter. She knew all important stuff.
Rick was getting food for them. Hospital food tastes like crap.
"Hey." Kate said when Rick returned.
"Hey." Rick said and put the pizza box on the counter. He walked to Kate and kissed her. When they parted he took off his jacket and took 2 plates out of another bag. He put a slice on it and gave it to Kate. "Here you go sweetie."
"Thanks babe."
They ate dinner and talked a lot. Kate got tired soon, so she went to sleep. Rick just stayed and he wasn't planning in leaving. His phone rang. He read the caller ID. Gina.
"Hi, Gina." Rick said and walked out the room.
"Rick. Where are you? You're supposed to have 3 chapters done by now!"
"Something came up. I want to take a break from writing."
"No. Declined. Not gonna happen. Not in this world."
"I have a reason."
"It better be a good one."
"The one person I love and just started dating just heard that she got cancer and no one but me is here for her."
Gina was silent for a second.
"Sorry, I didn't know. I'll make some calls."
"Okay. Thanks."
Rick hung up. He got his way, and he liked it.

Kate was fast asleep. Even though it was 7PM, Rick was tired. But still, he didn't want to leave Kate alone. He did want his own bed, and a more comfortable chair, but leaving Kate was something he couldn't do. Not today, not tomorrow. What Kate's going through now, she can't do it alone. Rick knew that she needed him. Now more than ever. Kate basiclly lost her job, lost her faith. She might not ever hear the end of her mother's murder, and this will get her killed. This couldn't be the end. It couldn't.

A sound woke Rick up. But this wasn't the sound Rick wanted to hear. It was one tone, and it kept going. Even before he had a chance to open his eyes, doctors and nurses walked inside. Rick immidialty got out of the way. He didn't really see what was happening, but he could hear what they were saying. "She's crashing." "Get 5millititer....." "Get the....." "Charge to 20." "What is the...." "Clear!" Some words he couldn't hear. But now he knew exactly what was going on.