Ready-Made Family

Chapter Two

Madison paced across the floor of a sterile, alcohol smelling hospital waiting room. It had been hours since the ambulance rolled in with a near stranger named Brandon – a stranger who was kind enough to buy her dinner and tragically got in a car accident. This wasn't the way she had envisioned the night of her son's graduation going. In fact if she had it her way she would have had a BBQ dinner at home and spend the night watching a movie snuggled with her kids.

But instead she suffered a fate of sitting uncomfortably in the waiting room surrounded by strangers from other families that were mourning their own tragedies. She felt as though she was intruding on everyone's alone time. But there wasn't anything she could do. She had given the nurses Brandon's name and they were in the process of tracking his family down. But it just didn't feel right to her to leave him there alone.

She took a deep sigh and seated herself in the uncomfortable plastic chair. She glanced over at her children. It was well pass midnight and the girls had long since fallen asleep. But Noah sat awake with his phone open and texting away. "Noah" Madison said softly "you should really be getting some rest".

Noah shrugged it off and kept looking at his phone. His face looked as though he had quickly come down with some incurable illness. It was sunken and pale, for his young age he had worry lines along his forehead.

Madison couldn't help but wonder what was so interesting on his phone that could be affecting him so much. She glanced over his shoulder to see if she could get a better look. She knew it was wrong to do that, as a mother she should have given her son his space but she was concerned.

"Hey" Noah grumbled and leaned away from her "what do you think you're doing" he said sternly.

"I just wanted to see what you were doing" she said softly, her voice filled with guilt "I was concerned".

"You don't have to hover mom" Noah said, "I'm fine". But by the crack in his voice he didn't seem to be very fine.

Madison was going to say something more but an elderly man dressed in a long white lab coat walking towards them interrupted her. He must be Brandon's doctor. "Are you here for mister Haywood?" he asked softly glancing at the sleeping children.

She nodded and stood in order to address him better "I am sir".

He glanced her up and down "we can only give information out to family and I am afraid that only family can go back to see him".

Madison didn't know what came over her. She wasn't usually so impulsive but it appeared as though the events of the night was getting to her because she jumped into her words without really thinking about them first. "We are family," she said quickly. But now she needed an excuse "I'm uh I'm his wife".

The doctor pressed his lips in straight line for a moment. She was starting to think he wasn't going to believe her but eventually he stepped aside and held his arm out in direction "follow me".

She lifted Ella into her arms and Noah took hold of Emma. Together with the little girls they followed after the doctor to a room in the ICU. The doctor nodded to them when they reached the door "I'll leave you all alone".

With a deep breath Madison walked into the room. The room was bare with the exception of the medical tools and the bed with Brandon laying on it. Slowly she walked over to the man and looked down at him. His body was bandaged and stitched. His face was scrunched in pain but was otherwise clear from any blood. His hair was in tatters and fell over his face. Slowly and carefully she reached down and brushed his hair to the side.

"I heard his wife and kids were back here" a middle aged plump woman rolled a cot into the room. "Its nice to see the family reunited again. I'm nurse Margret. I'll be our husbands primary caregiver".