A blessing in disguise

Thirteen

I woke up around 1 a.m. like always, I was thinking about what the fans were saying when I heard John coughing in his crib. At first I thought it was normal coughing, but he continued after a few minutes or so.

"Zach, ZAch, ZACH! Come here Zach." I said while looking at John with tears in my eyes.

The half awake Zach stumbled in my room.

"What.. What's wrong?"

"It's John, I don't know what's wrong he's barley breathing and he hasn't stopped coughing."

Zach's father instincts must of kicked in because within 60 seconds John and I were in the car.

We arrived at the hospital and were checked into the emergency room. They took John immediately because of his difficultly breathing. Zach and I sat in the ER waiting area. He was beyond perfect. He held me while I cried and told me that everything was going to be ok.

After about 3 hours the nurse came out to talk to us. She sat down across from us and took a deep breath.

"I'm going to be very blunt about this, John is extremely ill and we don't know what is wrong with him. We are going to keep him in intensive care for a couple of days. I'm going to ask you two to go home and get some rest. We'll call you in if we discover anything new. This process is going to be extremely difficult and it will be easier for you to cope in your home environment."

Zach quickly got up and took my hand so he could lead me to the car before I had time to argue. We drove home in silence. It was raining outside, the perfect thing to top off the gloomy mood.

I decided to go to just trying and go back to sleep. But of course my thoughts overwhelmed me and sleep was not a option. I laid in bed staring out the window for awhile before my eyes traveled down to John's crib. What if I loose him? I'll never be able to face anyone ever again. I'll never be able to function normally. Going to the grocery store will even trigger thoughts of John.

I stopped myself, but the tears were already there. Zach must of heard me crying from the other room because before I knew it he was in my room. He lifted the covers and got in my bed. He lied down next to me and grabbed my waist, pulling me over to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed into his chest.

"Zach, what if we loose him?" I whispered.

"Shh.. don't say that. He's in good hands right now." he whispered back.

"He's the only boy I ever loved."

"And you're the only girl I've ever loved." Zach shot back.

I stared at him in disbelief, did he really just say that?