Breathe (h.s.)

Chapter 4

As I walk into the hospital, horrible memories of my mom’s final days are filled inside of my head, but I push them out. I do not need those memories in the back of my head while I am here. We walk up to the front desk and there is a young woman, wearing a mint green pair of scrubs, sitting behind the desk. She gives me a warm smile and asks, “ What can I do for you today?”

I hesitate for a few seconds and then gulp and answer, “Um, yes. My dad was, uh, involved in an accident yesterday. Yeah, I’m his daughter, so yeah. Oh, I should probably mention that his name is, I mean was, Rick Cook.” My face turns the color of a tomato as I nervously speak. I should really keep my mouth shut.

The nurse must be able to tell how unstable I am right now, so she grabs my hand and squeezes it and remains very cheerful, surprisingly. She turns towards Kori and Beth and starts talking, “I am very sorry, but I assume that you all are not family,” they shake their heads no and the nurse starts talking again,”Again, I’m sorry, but only family will be allowed to come with me.”

Kori gives the nurse an understanding smile and turns to me and gives me a big hug and Beth does the same thing. Kori then whispers into my ear, “Just remember how much that we both love you.”

The nurse, who I learns name is Jen, leads me to the double doors that take us to the rest of the hospital. We walk side by side and are silent for a little bit, before Jen says “You are going to have to make several difficult decisions today, but first off I wanted to tell you that I am so sorry for your loss.”

I manage to give her a weak smile and say, “Thanks, but we were not really that close, so it’s fine.” After the words come out of my mouth, I realize how harsh that sounds, but I shrug it off. We keep walking down the long, white hallways and finally we reach a room that resembles something used for meetings or conferences. She nods to a chair that surrounds a big table and I sit down.

She sits down next to me and puts her left hand on my right shoulder and says, “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go get the doctor, okay?” I nod my head and sink into the chair. I think I am still in shock from everything that is happening. I expect that it will be a few minutes before the doctor and Jen come back, it always is slower when you are waiting for a doctor, so I close my eyes and try to relax. Who I am kidding, I cannot “relax” during a time like this.

About fifteen minutes later, Jen comes back with a woman, who I assume is the doctor. Jen sits next to me at the table and the doctor, whose name I do not know, sits directly across from me.

I see that her name , Dr. Riley, is on her white lab coat. As she starts going through some paperwork I get a good look at her. She seems to be fairly young, especially for a doctor. She has curly, dirty blonde hair and crystal blue colored eyes.

Dr. Riley clears her throat and asks if I am ready to begin. I am brought back to reality and nod my head as a yes. “Ok, so I have some questions for you.”

I mentally roll my eyes at her, I know that it’s not her fault she has to ask questions, but really, the last thing I want to do right now is get interrogated by a doctor. Instead, I decide to cooperate and give her a small smile and reply with yet another nod.

“ From my understanding, you are Morgan Cook, Rick Cook’s daughter, correct? May I see your ID for some verification, please?”

I let out a sigh and rummage through purse, in attempt to locate my trusty wallet. I start to panic a little when I cannot seem to find it in my purse. My heart rate settled when I found my wallet at the very bottom of my large bag. I show it to her and we move to the next question.

The questions seem to go on for hours and hours, but by the time we have finished, I look at the clock and see it only had been about two and a half hours. After all of those dreadful questions, I was finally done. Luckily, the nurse, Jen, helped me the entire way through. I must remind myself to thank her a lot before I leave. Now, all I have left to do today is make funeral arrangements and speak with my father’s life insurance company about his policy. How fun.

Before I leave, I really want to go see the family that were injured from my father’s accident. So, I walk up to the front desk, where Jen has returned to sitting, and ask if I can go visit the room. Once again she gives me a sweet smile and replies, “Of course sweetheart, I’ll take you myself!”

I let out a little chuckle, but quickly become nervous and clammy as we get closer and closer to the door of the room. I wipe my sweaty hands on my shorts and try to take a deep breath. Jen must be able to tell how nervous I am, once again, because she puts a hand on my shoulder and gives me a few words of encouragement, “I know this must be so hard for you, but you are a strong girl and you will make it through this.”

I knock on the door and slowly turn the handle to walk inside. I see a woman lying unconscious on a hospital bed and a man sitting in a chair right next to the bed. I also see two children sitting on the floor next to bed playing with some toys. As I take a step into the room, the man looks up and gives me a confused look. I don’t blame him, it is pretty odd for a young girl, let alone a stranger, to walk into a random hospital room.

I slowly, but surely begin to speak,” Um, hello. I am Morgan Cook, the daughter of Rick Cook, who is responsible for the, uh, accident your wife was involved in yesterday. I just wanted to say how deeply-”

“Stop, right there! Don’t come in here and expect any of your ‘apologies’ to be accepted, because they certainly will not be! Don’t you understand that how much this could have ruined my life,” the man screamed. By now he has risen from his chair and his face is flushed.

I feel a few tears threatening to fall out a my eyes, but I gulp and push them back. I will not let this man make me feel so terrible for something that I did not cause. He has some nerve too. How could he say that accident could have ruined his life, when he was not even involved in the accident! His poor wife was! I almost walk out of the room in complete disgust, because of his selfishness, but I don’t let myself do that. Instead, I gain what little confidence that I have and give this man a piece of my mind,“Who do you think you are? I came in here to apologize for my late father’s idiotic actions, but instead I get ridiculed for this! I did not come here for any pity, but really? I am apologizing for something that I didn’t even do! Oh, and also I hope your wife has a good recovery.”

With that being said I turn around and storm out of the room, I pass Jen and thank her for everything she has done today. I also give her bear hug, before I hastily walk to the lobby to find Kori and Beth.

*Author's Note: SO SO sorry for such a long wait! I have been a lot busier this summer than I expected and suffered from a little writer's block, so hopfully there will be more frequent updates soon! :) ALSO THANKS FOR OVER 100 VIEWS GUYS! that's pretty cool! thanks again for all of the support and remember to tell your friends about "Breathe"! also please vote and comment with feedback! lastly, I've seen other fanfictions have a "song of the day" thing and was wondering if it would cool if I did something like that! maybe like 2-4 songs that I listened to while writing the chapter( does not have to be related to the chapter at all)! and any music suggestions are great as well! THANKS AGAIN GUYS!! LOVE YOU! :D (woah that is a REALLY long authors note)