Never There ~ A Jelsa Story~

Twenty Five; Broken

*present tense now!*

I bite my lip to stop from crying, and Lily puts her arm around me. The doctors say they are doing all the can. The nurse is nearby, and she is trying her best to comfort me, but if Jack dies, I don't think I will be OK ever again. I was ushered out of the room, so the doctors could concentrate, but I know that if Jack doesn't make it, I won't be there in his last minutes.

"Lily, you can stop pretending. He's not going to survive the night, is he?"

"They are going to do everything they can. They told me that if he makes it, they'll put him onto a machine that gives him oxygen, because they're not sure he is getting enough from his weak heart."

"His heart will stop before that, though, won't it? They can't save him. Look, there's one of the nurses who was in the room. She doesn't look happy, does she? She's gonna say that they've lost Jack."

"I'm so sorry, Elsa, we tried our very best," the nurse begins, and I interrupt her.

"No, please, don't tell me," I reply, choking on my tears. Lily pulls me close into a tight hug and tells me that she is so sorry for everything that has happened. "I'll never see him again! He died with a broken heart, Lily!" I say, but I can hardly pronounce the words because I hiccup each word. 

"Ellie, look up," Lily tells me, and I frown, but look at the nurse. 

"Elsa Frost, Jack isn't dead, but it isn't great news. The doctors have had to put him onto a specialist machine, and if he is taken off, they believe his heart will stop. It was a very close call, though, that time. It was good that you called for us when you did. We think that it would be nice for him to have someone to talk to. Possibly, Elsa, you could talk to him about some fun times that you have had? He won't reply, obviously, but there are some theories that being with loved ones can sometimes help recovery."

"So, he's alive?" I ask again, my eyes filling with tears of joy. Obviously I wasn't glad that Jack was very ill, but at least his life was spared. "Can I go now?"

"I believe they are almost finished, so, yes, go now," the nurse smiles at me. 

"By the way, do you know if a Rapunzel has called in? To ask how Jack is?"

"Rapunzel... Rapunzel Moore, is it? We identified her as Jack's girlfriend, and we called her, but she seemed to imply that they were enemies! Perhaps she didn't want to be with him when she believed that he was on the verge of death. You have the name Frost, don't you? Are you his sister?"

"N-no..." I reply, the words Jack's girlfriend circling around in my head. So it was true. "I-I was - am - his husband..."

"Oh," the nurse sighs, shaking her head at me, "Was it an affair?"

I nod. "I'd prefer not to talk about it."

"I understand. You did know that Jack had an accident similar to this when he was younger? Though it is a lot worse now. He is very much below body temperature, and he is thin. He was slim before, but now it has been nearly 3 weeks, I should say, since he has eaten. He is also very dehydrated, and unclean. The police found a few changes of clothes, so they have decided that he ran away to the park. He probably slept on the nearby tree."

I stare at her in shock. 3 weeks? I left home 3 weeks ago almost. Could he have run away because of me? But surely he had Punzie? "What happened when he was little?"

"Well... he was ice skating with his little sister. He was about 8. His sister was scared, and so he helped her to overcome her fear, but instead he slipped. The ice broke beneath him and he fell into the freezing water. Needless to say, his body temperature drastically dropped. If he was in there much longer, it would have been the end for him. His sister managed to get help and so we recovered him. He almost died, and in fact, because of some misunderstandings, his parents committed suicide." So this was the full story that Jack was talking about. It had happened to him before.

"He had a sister, you say? What happened to her?"

"Oh, she was put into a foster home. But she soon ran away. Jack ended up being cared for by a distant cousin. I believe he had an aunt. She and her boyfriend lived in Australia at the time, but her boyfriend's daughter - not hers, the girl was her step-daughter - lived near him. So he went there."

"So they never found the little girl?"

"No. It was such a shame. We had to tell Jack that she had killed herself too, after finding out about both her parents."

"How old would she be now?"

"Well, she was 5 when Jack had his accident, so she would be 18 now. But she's dead, that is obvious." But is she dead? It would be wonderful to tell Jack that his sister was alive. But how could I find out for definite? I needed to tell that the little girl was actually dead.