CHAPTER 1
A tear trickled down her cheek as she watched his face flinch on the hospital bed. She closed her eyes and looked away; she just couldn’t bear to see him in pain. She took one deep breath and sat down on the bench in the waiting room, and buried her face in her palms, sobbing.
Lynette entered the room with two cups of coffee in her hands and sat on the bench beside Jennifer. She sat there quietly without attempting to make her stop crying. Jennifer had to let it out of herself. They were both broken by the sudden accident, so the outburst was more than understandable. Jennifer looked up at Lynette, rubbed off the tears from her own cheeks, and took the cup of coffee from her hands, with a very low “Thanks.” She could barely speak. She took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down yet again. Lynette softly put on hand on her shoulders, “He’s gonna be fine.” She knew that too, but it didn’t stop her from replaying the last few hours of her life in her head again and again, and unconsciously starting to cry every now and then.
Lynette got up as her phone rang. She received the call and moved out of the room. She was close to the door, so Jennifer could clearly hear her saying,
“Hi mom… I’m good, how are you?”
“Yes, I’m at the office”
“He’s good too… I met him yesterday”
“Yeah…mm-hmm”
Jennifer sighed. She knew Lynette was not going to worry her mother by telling her about Luke's accident. Luke. Just the name alone sent shivers down her spine. Warm tears welled up in her eyes, and rolled down her cheeks for the hundredth time in the last 48 hours. She constantly blamed herself for all that was going on, and it was killing her. She held the cup tightly in her hand and shut her eyes in hopeless attempt to block away last night’s memories. The doctor’s loud voice, shouting to people blocking the way in the hospital corridor when Luke was being brought in in a stretcher, echoed in her ears. She was almost being pulled back into the day before when the same voice interrupted her thoughts.
It was Dr. Hanson, “Jenny? I think u can go in now.” He said it with a smile of relief that quickly spread across her lips as well. She got up from the bench and went behind him. Lynette was still on the phone when she left the room.
Dr. Hanson opened the door to the private cabin where Luke had been shifted to. He left them alone, since, knowing Luke ever since he was a teenager, he very well knew they needed the time to themselves. Jennifer stared at the man lying feeble on the bed, with pipes attached to his wrists. All she could think of was pulling him into her arms at that moment, even though she could barely move her feet and walk forward. She took a few hesitant steps and went closer to see his face light up at the sight of her. Despite the bruises and bandages covering his face, it was clearly visible how happy he was to see her. A faint smile spread across his wounded face as she came closer and sat on the stool right beside the bed. Her cheeks were dampened with tears and she looked away when she saw he was looking at her directly in the eye. She quickly rubbed off the droplets and took a deep breath, and smiled at him. He could clearly see how much she was struggling to look happy. He gestured her with his hand to sit on the bed beside him. She grabbed his hands as she sat down beside him.
“How’re you feeling now?” she asked with a voice that could break into tears at any moment, although she would not let that happen in front of him. She brought his hands up to her face and softly kissed the back of his palm. He watched her try to hide the pain behind smiles, and slowly stroke her cheek with his knuckles. His touch was more than enough to break her down. She could not help it anymore. She held his hand with both her hands and burst into tears.
When Lynette walked in a few minutes later, she saw Jennifer sobbing and saying ‘I’m sorry… I’m so very sorry’ again and again. She went in and placed one hand on Jennifer's shoulder, and smiled at Luke, “You okay?”
Luke, still too weak to talk, smiled at his little sister to assure her that he is, indeed, fine. He rubbed off the tears from Jennifer's cheeks, smiled at her, and whispered words that she heard even before they hit her ears. Even though almost no sound escaped his throat, she could tell from the movement of his lips that he said ‘I love you’.
“We’ll come back in the evening, you should rest” saying that Lynette gestured Jennifer to get up and they left the hospital.
