The Silver Lining

SEVEN

OLIVER glanced through the documents that were handed over to him by the nurses, who always seem to just rush in and out of the rooms. The folder containing those documents was filled with the bills, the MRI reports and the daily routine test reports.

Oliver blankly stared at those documents while making a long bitter face. He blankly glanced at the documents a couple more times and finally gave up.

He knew he understood nothing, or atleast that's what he kept telling himself to feed to his anxieties.

The graphs... the numbers... the percentile amounts...

Every word and details of methodology of conducting those tests that spoke nothing to him...

Every passing day, minute and second, all he wanted to know was when his brother would wake up.

Sadly, Doctors and those documents couldn't give him exactly that answer.

He wanted to wake Johnathan up from his deep, seemingly long-lasting sleep so that he could finally find out just a tad bit more about the incident. The real facts, the real details, something that wasn't a part of any narrations or 'storyline' of the police authorities and the media.

He sighed heavily while thinking about the past few days. Few events and people really annoyed him and he had to try to not let them get the best out of him and cause more damage.

He was fed up of the officers questioning him about Johnathan's day, for he had nothing to give any answers to, except Johnathan's routine.

He was really fed up of police officers wanting him to 'spill the beans' about the fights Johnathan might have had, just to determine his enemies and add 'juice' to their theories.

He was tired of the view of officers strolling up and down the hospital, with hopes of questioning and frying his brother for tying the loose ends in their so called 'Storyline'. Not to mention that he was fed up of that endless 'status quo' that felt like somebody had put a stopper to the dynamic 'running' tendency of time.

The only positive event happening around him was that somehow media was managed by Johnathan's bodyguards and PR Personnel of Spade & Right.

"Anytime now, bro. Don't test my patience!" Oliver mumbled while glancing briefly at his brother before focusing back at particularly nothing outside the window. "Not now, not ever again."

It was early morning when he walked in to the hospital room where his brother lay peacefully, deep in coma. Three days were gone... in silence... in pain... in dawdle... not to mention, in facing the horrible work-load that Johnathan would have easily cleared off of his desk in an hour.

He sipped the remainder of coffee that he had brought along, while glancing at the surroundings. Anger flikered in his eyes when he observed a uniform walking through the hospital gates. He thought of all the questions that that uniform might ask and in anger, he muttered certain unpleasant words to describe who those uniforms were.

"Perpetually angry, aren't we!" Lisa walked in to that hospital room with a bunch of white lilies that she placed beside the bedside table. She glanced at her boss and then back at Oliver who seemed surprised to see her at this hour.

Lisa stood in front of him and furthered a box of homemade cookies.

"What's the occasion?" Oliver mumbled while walking away from his seat.

"Just a gratitude offering..." Lisa placed the box on the table nearby. "Afterall, you re-organised Johnathan's desk!"

He simply scoffed away Lisa's gratitude as his mind was pre-occupied with a lot of things.

"I will give you a moment with Johnathan." Oliver glanced back at Lisa and decided to walk out of the room.

"Wait..." Lisa almost shreiked. "I need your help."

"What for?" Oliver didn't turn back.

"Ashton is missing. He isn't answering the calls, the texts and his entire team is like AWOL." Lisa finished her sentence in a breath. "I just need you to find him out with the help of those 'recruits' you referred to earlier."

"With due respect to your matters of 'heart'", Oliver hissed while walking back to Lisa, "I am pre-occupied with matters that do not matter to you and I cannot really spare any 'recruits' for your disposal at present."

"Fine." Lisa hissed.

Before they could throw any 'quality' adjectives at each other, Mr. Cooper walked in.

"Ready to go?" Mr. Cooper enquired while glancing at Lisa.

"Right behind you!" Lisa nodded in affirmation and waited until Mr. Cooper walked out.

"Let me know if you change your mind." She glanced at Oliver before walking out. "Take good care of him."

When Lisa brisk-walked out of the hospital, Mr. Cooper was waiting in his car for her.

"Did he ask anything about yesterday?" Mr. Cooper enquired while turning the ignition on.

"No." Lisa sighed and glanced back at Mr. Cooper. "Any update on the flash drive?"

Her question silenced Mr. Cooper. Though he was expecting that question, he did not have words to express what was on that drive. He cleared his throat. "Do you really want to know?"

Lisa didn't understand the question. She really wanted to find out about the drive. Not that she hadn't tried herself first. But the drive had passcode and it was really not Lisa's forte to crack the codes.

"Please, whatever it is, I am ready." Lisa exhaled and prepped her mind to process what Mr. Cooper might share.

"Lisa, honey, the drive has multiple folders. All are named with the date. we cracked just one folder and... " Mr. Cooper seemed edgy. He scratched his neck and parked his car outside his house.

Lisa was getting impatient by every passing minute. She had seen this man shooting couple of people who tried to break and enter his house. But she had never seen him this edgy or afraid.

"What...??" Lisa almost screeched. "What was in that folder?"

"Photographs..." Mr. Cooper mumbled under his breath. "...of your dead mother..."

Lisa was stunned.

She didn't move.

She couldn't move.

"Look, we shouldn't jump to conclusions, honey." Mr. Cooper tried to passify the shock and the pain that had covered her heart and eyes. "Considering the search of your house, undertaken yesterday night by some random people, You and your grandma are still not safe. Our priority today should be dealing with that."

She sat there for what seemed like an hour before Mr. Cooper actually pulled Lisa out of Car and helped her walk in to the house.

While closing the door, Mr. Cooper observed two men wearing black and grey suits who pulled their car out on the driveway. The glimpse itself made him shiver.

"They are coming, aren't they?!" Grandma Hall stood by the window, Mr. Cooper understood that her question was directed at him.

Mr. Cooper walked up to her and pulled the curtains out of her hands and led her to her bedroom. "Over my dead bod, Rose."