2 days later...
Maine was once more beside Baste, reading him a story from his favorite book of fairy tales. Sebastian was unresponsive but still – Maine continued on, trying for any sense of normalcy, even though she knew that nothing was ever going to be normal again.
"And the emperor remained clueless why everyone was laughing at him..."
RJ then came in the room, bringing with him lunch for the two of them, the smell of fried rice and orange chicken wafting around the room. Maine didn't acknowledge him. She couldn't. She was trying to forgive him but she couldn't forget. No, she couldn't. It wasn't that easy. Not when she saw how he almost killed her son.
"Maine, love, I brought lunch. Halika, kain na muna tayo."
She ignored him and continued on reading, her attention on the book in front of her. She heard him sigh in defeat behind her. She heard him fix the food that he brought. She heard him sit down, sighing again. Finally, after a few heartbeats, she heard him stand up, about to leave.
When before he left, she heard Sebastian take a deep gasp and exhale a long drawn out breath. Then finally, he remained still – his chest no longer going up and down.
She quickly turned around, her eyes suddenly wide and afraid, looking towards where RJ was standing by the door. "RJ... Baste – he..."
RJ immediately sprung into action, shouting at the nurse by the nurses' station to call on Sam or any doctor that was available that day to come quickly. Then he walked purposely towards Baste, administering a basic CPR to get him to breathe again.
Maine simply stood aside, tears once more flowing from her eyes.
//
A day later...
They got Baste to breathe again. Although the breathing tube and monitor were already in his room on standby, just in case he stops breathing again. He never woke up amidst all the chaos that happened around him.
Amidst all the crying, the shouting, the nerve wracking situation they were all in yesterday - he simply laid there, sleeping peacefully. Like nothing was wrong. Like everything was just normal. When it was anything but.
Maine sat beside him still, this time not reading anything anymore but simply staring at him. At her son. Crying silently.
She was about to touch his head and fix his hair when she heard the erratic beeping of his heart monitor. She tilted her head to the side and frowned, wondering what was going on. She was about to call for RJ, who was in the bathroom at that moment, when the heart monitor suddenly gave the sound that no one ever wanted to hear.
A flatline.
At that exact moment – RJ went out of the bathroom, hearing Maine's scream of "No! Baste!" and the unmistakable flatline sound of their son's heart monitor.
A few seconds later and there were nurses and Sam, together with a couple other interns, pushing him and Maine to the side so they could work on resuscitating Baste.
RJ approached Maine slowly and he was thankful that she didn't push him away when he reached out and wrapped his arms around her.
//
2 more days later...
Maine was already catatonic, like a zombie, staring into space, as she sat beside Baste's bed. She didn't get any decent sleep for the past days. She couldn't sleep, period. She couldn't even eat properly, no matter how much RJ had been trying to feed her.
Baste was still technically alive He was brain dead, as Sam and RJ already told her the day before, but still technically alive. He was breathing with the help of a breathing machine. His heart was pumping blood throughout his body because he was being helped by a monitor. There wasn't anything that will suggest that he was still going to come out from this. He was dying – no, he was actually dead, if she wanted to be honest with herself.
But she couldn't. She couldn't admit that her baby boy was... No. Baste was going to be...
She sobbed then. Her shoulders started shaking, as tears continually fell from her eyes. She bowed her head and covered her face with her hands, trying to muffle the cries that were getting louder by the minute.
That was how RJ found her, hunched over Baste's bed, crying over their son. He took a deep breath and went to her, sitting on the armrest of the chair she was sitting on. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards him. She in turn, wrapped her arms around his middle and buried her face on his stomach, drenching his shirt with her tears.
After a while, she straightened up and tried to compose herself. RJ slowly and gently wiped her tears, leaning down to kiss her forehead, then her nose, then finally her lips.
"Let's do it," she said when RJ pulled away. RJ continued to look at her, frowning – a bit confused with what she was referring to.
"Do what?"
"Pull the plug."
RJ was suddenly taken aback. Just a week ago – Maine was cursing the living shit out of him for deciding the same thing. He didn't speak though, waiting for Maine to say more.
"My baby is no longer here, RJ. Our baby is no longer here," she explained monotonously, looking towards Baste. She reached out and held his little hand in hers, tears once more cascading down her cheeks. "He's gone. He's up there with the angels na, love."
RJ bit back a sob when she called him 'love' since she hadn't been doing that since last week. He thought he wouldn't hear that from her ever again. But what tugged his heart more was the way Maine finally accepted that Baste was... Like she said, no longer there. With them.
"Ok, love. Ok," he whispered.
She turned to face him once more and smiled tearfully. "You know what he last said to me bago siya tuluyang pumasok sa coma?" she asked him to which he shook his head. "Sabi niya, napanaginipan daw niya si Lola Rosario niya. Na malapit na daw mawala ang mga sakit na nararamdaman niya. Yun daw sabi ng lola niya sa kanya."
At this, RJ totally let go and wept. Maine held him this time. Together – they cried for their baby boy.
//
A week later...
Maine was kneeling down in front of the recent gravestone that they just erected in the cemetery. She thought she was already out of tears but here she was again, crying albeit silently, as she traced the letters that were on the stone in front of her.
Sebastian Richard Faulkerson
Born: April 16, 2005
Died: August 24, 2016
Beloved son, loved by many
An angel on earth, now back in heaven
"I'll miss you baby," she whispered. "But I know you're in a better place now. Kasama mo na si Lola Rosario mo ngayon. Wala ng masakit sa iyo. Masaya ka na."
Her tears continued to fall, more so when she felt a large warm hand clamp gently on her shoulder. She then felt her husband kneel beside her, facing their son's newly raised grave marker as well.
"We love you, Baste. We will never forget you," he whispered, his other hand touching the letters on the stone also. "Watch over your mom and I, ok?" he continued softly, smiling even as tears were already falling down his cheeks. "Wait for us on the other side."
And Maine swore that when RJ said that last bit, they both felt a gentle breeze swirled around them.
