Dreamer ~ A Daniel Seavey Fanfiction

Chapter 6

DANIEL'S POV

Waiting is making me crazy. Corbyn's been in surgery for about two and a half hours now, but it feels like it's been two and a half years.

"That's it," I say, standing up. "I need to get out of here. I'm going for a walk."

Jack and Zach have fallen asleep, but Jonah is awake and reading Harry Potter. He looks up at me and nods, promising to text me right away if anything changes.

I don't really know what turns I take or where I'm going. All I'm worried about is Corbyn. I mean, sure, it's a low risk surgery, but I'm an over-thinker. And right now, I'm doing what I do best - overthink.

I take another turn to open the door back into the waiting room. When the doorknob creaks, instead of being met with a sea of chairs and people waiting, a regular hospital room comes into view, and a doctor is looking right into my eyes.  "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just-" I pause, noticing exactly who is in that hospital bed. "Oh my God. Harper?" My heart skips. How can she be here? Why is she here?

"You know this girl?" The doctor stands and walks toward me and I nod, not looking away from her.

"Yeah, she, um...she goes to my school. It was her birthday a few weeks ago." I finally meet his eyes. "What happened?"

He studies me, and says, "She was involved in a car crash with two others, her parents."

I suck in a breath. "Did they survive?"

"They survived," the doctor says. "But they've been arrested for their third DUI each, along with reckless endangerment, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence. They're going to be locked up for a long time."

I'm shocked. But one of those charges puts a pit in my stomach, and I hate myself for asking, "Domestic violence? Who did they-?" When the look in his eyes changes, it hits me. "Oh my God. They didn't..."

The doctor nods. "They beat her. Nurses found bruises and shallow puncture wounds on her torso."

I sharply inhale. All the sweatshirts in the middle of August, all the long pants while everyone else was wearing shorts and t-shirts. She was hiding all the bruises her family had given her. My hands ball into fists. I want to hurt them for hurting her. "That's awful."

The doctor nods and says, "You can talk to her, if you want. We're going to be pulling her plug in a few days, but this might help."

"'Pulling her plug'?" I repeat as he moves past me in the doorway. "What? Why?"

The doctor sighs. "She's given us multiple scares before, and we've had to shock her back to life at least twice. Her organs keep failing, and it's taking a lot for us to keep her alive. But I think it's putting her through more pain than anything. There's no family left to decide what we should do, so it'll be up to the hospital board. Unless something changes, we'll be removing her from life support on Monday."

"That's the day after tomorrow!" I say, panicking. They can't do this. "Isn't there anything else you can do?"

"I'm sorry, son," the doctor says sympathetically. "But it's up to Harper now." He gestures toward her and says, "Talk to her. It might help more than you think." And with that, he's gone.

My mind is spinning. What are the odds that I find her here? What are the chances that I walk into this room? Not Jonah, not Zach or Jack...me. I have to try to help.

"Okay then." I wheel over the chair the doctor was sitting in and park myself right beside the bed. "Um...hey, Harper. It's Daniel, from fifth period? No, no that's stupid..."

I get up and walk around a little, trying to figure out what to say. Part of me says this whole thing is stupid. But part of me thinks that if she is listening, I better make whatever I say worth listening to. I rub a hand over my face and sit down on the edge of her hospital bed, taking her hand in mine.

"Okay, Harper, here's the deal..." I sigh, deciding to tell her the truth about what's happening and what's going to happen. "You're in the hospital, and they're going to remove you from life support in a little less than forty-eight hours - unless you just suddenly wake up or start doing a whole lot better than you are right now, so if you could just do me a huge favor and do one of those things, that would be great."

At the sound of my words, I hear someone laugh softly. I turn around to look in the doorway, but no one's there. Maybe it was only my wild imagination. But when I turn back to Harper, there's a smile on her face that wasn't there before. It could've been hopeful thinking. It could've been my eyes playing tricks on me. I shake my head, trying not to get my hopes up too high, and speak again. "Please Harper? Please wake up?"

Holding my breath, I wait for something, anything, to happen. Nothing.

I sigh. I feel my heart get heavy, and all the hope that I had just moments ago is now gone. I kiss her hand and lay it across her stomach, letting go of her. "Just try to keep fighting, okay?"

I get up and head toward the door, trying to make myself feel better. I tried. I just wasn't enough.

But then, I hear a tiny whisper that I almost mistake for being only in my head: "I'm trying, Daniel. I'm fighting."  And it sounds like her. It's like she's talking to me, like she's standing right behind me.

I stop dead cold and turn around, looking around the room. When I realize no one's there, I almost curse myself for being crazy. But I know I heard something, and I choose to believe that that something was Harper. So, I shake my head, and mutter, "I know you are."

And with that, I'm gone, and she's alone again. I hope she knows what she's doing.

~