it'd been quiet, a little too quiet, as the nurses made their rounds, checking up on all the children in the emergency room. half of them were waiting to be moved actual hospital rooms while the other half just waited to be discharged. it was like the calm before a storm. and then the ambulance pulled up, bringing the rain, lightning and thunder all at once.
"female, seventeen years old, one oh five pounds and b.p. is rising, she's going into cardiac arrest, convulsing severely! mom should be here soon, says the girl's got arrhythmia. small head injury from when she collapsed but its been 20 minutes!" one of the paramedics yelled as they rushed ruby inside, motioning for all the nurses to come over.
"who was with her when she fell?" the attending on call asked, looking through the charts hurriedly.
"her sister. called her dad while we were en route. she's still in the truck."
as the doctors and nurses made their best efforts to stabilize her, nothing was working. one of the nurses took nova into the waiting room and tried to ask her what type of medication she'd been taken but it was no use.
"i-i didn't even know she was sick." she sniffed quietly, hugging her knees as she tried to sink even further into the plastic chair she'd been sitting in. "i don't think anyone knew..."
"nova!" jenna exclaimed as she rushed into the building, eyes undoubtedly puffy from the hysterical crying she'd been doing. "sweetie, are you okay? where's ruby? what happened?" she asked, tears once again building up.
"ma'am, is there any medication your daughter is taking? pills, injections?" the nurse asked gently, trying not to frighten the poor mother any further. jenna nodded and took out a small list of the medications she'd managed to find scattered around the loft.
"where's my baby?" she asked quietly as the nurse called in the different medication. "what happened? is she going to be okay?"
"ma'am, your daughter is going to be fine. we've got our finest doctors tending to her right now."
"but is she okay now? is she awake?" she shut her eyes, anger slowly building up. "i want to see my daughter! all i want to see is ruby!"
"mrs. joseph, i cannot answer that question honestly." a doctor replied as he walked up, running his fingers through his hair. "im dr. melendez, the surgeon who's going to work with ruby. we're at the point where her heart is still beating too fast but we've managed to stop the seizure. once we've completed an MRI, we may need to proceed with surgery. has your cardiologist spoken to you about this procedure?"
"yes but she said it was ruby's decision." jenna shook her head. "i-is the surgery needed right now? because i doubt we can ask ruby right now if she wants to go through with heart surgery!"
"ma'am, i don't think its appropriate to talk about this in front of nova. she's been through lot already. we're doing nothing more than scaring her. but I need a decision now: are you going to give us the consent or not? ruby doesn't have the time to wait."
jenna bit her lip, looking back at the smaller girl. she hadn't said a word since she got here but she was no doubt hearing what dr. melendez was saying. of all the family members ruby had to have an attack in front of, it had to be nova, the one who idolized her older sister with a passion. the one who never missed a recital, who didn't push ruby away when she was panicking.
"go through with it." jenna found herself saying, no longer looking back at the doctor. "go through with the sur-"
"sir, she's crashing! b.p. is going through the roof again!"
