Aftermath

12~ John's POV

I'm there all night. 

I don't sleep. I know I should, but I can't. I also know I should talk to everyone in the waiting room. I can't. I can't even look at myself. 

I did this, I think. I walked away after he makes a confession of love. He was scared and upset and I walked away. 

Then the beeping increases, faster, faster, until...

"HELP!" I scream. The beeping is long, unceasing. I'm pushed against the wall, and they shock him, perform CPR, and push drugs into his system. 

Move, I think. You can't watch him die again. But I don't move. I'm stuck, as if the only thing in the world is this wall and if I move, I will die. 

I close my eyes waiting for it...to hear the time he dies. 

But I don't.

Instead, I hear him gasp, and then he's fight to intubation and they're talking out the tubes and he's alive and awake and he's there but I still can't move. His eyes find me on the wall, and as if in a trance, I walk over to him.

"John?" he gasps.

"I'm here. I'm never leaving again."

"John?"

"I'm here. I'm right here."

"John, I love you."

And then his eye roll back into his head.