All Bets Are Off

Chapter Twenty - Ella Fordman: I Choose You

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            Dedicated to escapefromreality_ for the banner to the side! And happy birthday for yesterday. Hope you had an amazing day! Also, happy birthday to my gorgeous twinnie MyImmortalLover, as well as myself :D Wow, busy month!

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~Chapter Twenty – Ella Fordman: I Choose You~

“What?” I replied, as the breath left me. I stared at her wide-eyed, disbelieving of what my mother was saying to me. It sounded like it was coming out in gibberish, and I was helpless to understand the true meaning behind her words.

            “It was medically-induced,” she replied, as if that made it better. “Awake, his body would have sapped too much energy, and he needed that to heal. So they had to put him under a coma temporarily until the blood could heal him.”

            “How long will that take?” I replied.

            “Ideally, by tonight,” she replied. “But that’s a best-case scenario.”

            “What’s the worst-case scenario?” I asked worriedly. I needed to know that. I needed to know all of the facts before I jumped to any conclusions.

            She sighed. “You really don’t want to know, Ella.”

            “I do,” I persisted. “Mom, just tell me. What’s the worst-case scenario?”

            She ran a hand through her hair. “The worst-case scenario is that his body fights against the blood and they’re unable to pull him back from the coma.”

            “What?” I asked, horrified.

            “When you put somebody into a medically-induced coma, there’s always the chance that they won’t wake up again. If his body fights against your blood and doesn’t allow it to do the healing it needs to do to keep him alive, then when they try to pull him back from the coma, his body may resist that.”

            “Meaning…” I whispered.

            She nodded, knowing that I was catching on, but needing to say it anyway. “Yes. Meaning that when they try to pull him back, his body may fight. It may shut down. He may continue to stay in the coma.”

            “Isn’t there something they can do?” I asked desperately. There had to be an answer. This was the twenty-first century! We’d cured the bubonic plague! There had to be something they could do to make him fight against this.

            “Medicine won’t keep him awake,” Mom replied. “The only thing that can get him to wake up is Phoenix himself. Once they stop the fluids keeping him under, the only person who can decide whether or not they’re going to wake up is Phoenix. This isn’t about the medicine anymore, Ella. It’s about him. Right now, the only person who can keep himself alive is Phoenix. Once those fluids are out, there’s nothing we can do but wait for him to decide whether or not he’s ready to wake up. Medicine can’t help him now. It all rests on Phoenix. We can’t help him anymore. He has to save himself.”