Beautiful Broken Brain

Part 1

"Hey babe," Chloe said as she walked into the house. "I brought some lunch." She stepped in and didn't hear Beca. "Beca? Are you home?" She threw her bags down and went upstairs, finding Beca laying in bed. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"My head," Beca whispered. "It's throbbing."

"Did you hit it?" Chloe asked, kneeling down next to the bed.

"I don't think so, I can't really remember," Beca said. "My vision is blurry and my ears are-" Beca cut herself off and stared blankly into space.

"What's wrong with your ears?" Chloe asked gently.

"I-I don't know," Beca said, suddenly really confused. "Where were you?"

"Baby you were up. I told you I was going to the store. What's going on?" Chloe asked. She was all of a sudden really afraid for her wife.

"I feel numb," Beca said. "I'm gonna take some...medicine."

Chloe nodded and Beca stood up, almost immediately collapsing to the floor and falling unconscious. "Beca, oh my god!" Chloe screamed, pulling out her phone and calling 911. "My wife," Chloe sobbed into the phone. "Her head was hurting and she just collapsed."

"Is she conscious?" The man asked.

"Semi-conscious," Chloe said, looking down at her wife who appeared to be waking up.

"I need your address and we'll send an ambulance. For now just make her comfortable and try to keep her awake."

Chloe gave him her address and hung up, focusing all her attention on Beca. "Beca, I need you to listen to me. Can you hear me?"

Beca slowly nodded and closed her eyes again.

"Listen Beca, I need you to stay awake for me," Chloe said through her tears. "I'm going to lift you onto the bed and then I'm going to keep talking to you. You need to join in the conversation, okay?"

Beca didn't respond this time, but Chloe lifted her into bed anyway. She couldn't help but notice that the smaller girl felt so limp in her arms. "I need you to tell me if you hit your head or not," Chloe said.

"I..." Beca said, closing her eyes again.

"Baby, I can't lose you," Chloe sobbed. "Try to remember."

"Don't think so," Beca said softly. She kept trying her best to keep her eyes open, but was completely unaware of what was happening unless Chloe was asking her questions.

When the ambulance arrived, Chloe climbed in the back and held Beca's hand the entire time they were running tests. When they got to the hospital, Chloe was asked to wait in the waiting room while they ran brain scans and blood tests. After about a half hour, a doctor came out. "Rebeca Mitchell-Beale?"

Chloe immediately stood up and walked over to him. "Hi I'm Chloe, I'm her wife."

"Hi Chloe," he said nervously.

"Is she okay? What's going on?" Chloe asked.

"We ran tests and concluded that she had an ischemic stroke."

"She had a stroke?" Chloe choked out. "Oh my god, how? She's only 27."

"An ischemic stroke is basically a blood clot in the brain, so it can be caused by many things and can happen at any age. The most common ones are stress and high blood pressure."

"Is she going to be alright?" Chloe asked.

"We're about to perform surgery to release the clot, I just need you to sign the forms."