Changing Heart

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Daniel

The room was silent except the ticking of the clock. I was sitting on a chair beside her bed, waiting anxiously. My back was stiff from sitting so long, but I couldn't make myself leave.

       She looked so helpless lying there alone, and I still felt it was my responsibility to watch over her. I wondered who she was. Why hadn't any family or friends come to see her? Was she all alone?

       I threw a glance out the window. It was almost sunrise. I had been sitting here all night. Sighting, I rose from my chair, stretched my aching back and went closer to the bed.

       She looked pale covered with the white hospital linen, much too pale. Lying motionless like that, I suddenly realized she was quite pretty. Her face was round and cute, with white smooth skin. The hair was dark brown and was covering one of her eyes. As I reached out my hand to brush it away, she wrinkled her eyebrows as if in pain and groaned.

       Her eyes opened slowly and was locked with mine. I looked back warily, not knowing what to say. After some seconds she seemed to remember what had happened, and she blinked and groaned again.

       "Who are you?" she asked in a little voice, sounding so weak and sad and alone that I felt really sorry for her. I seated myself on the chair again, and took her hand.

       "My name is Daniel. I found you lying in the snow with no heartbeat, and called the hospital. That's where you are now." I cleared my throat and tried to smile. "You're gonna be fine. Your heart is working now." She looked weary up at me, and gave me a tiny smile as a reward. "I am Lucy. Thanks for... saving me."

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Lucy

I felt a bit uncomfortable as he carefully held my waist and shoulder and helped me sit up straight in the bed, as I always did when boys I didn't know came too close. At least he seemed like a nice guy, with his cute smile and curly brown hair.

       I stretched my arms again, feeling really weak and tired. My body was slow to react, and I felt like I had just recovered from an illness. I had an headache too.

       After some minutes of awkward silence, a young blond nurse walked in. She walked straight to me and put her hand on my forehead.

       "How are you feeling, honey? Does your head hurt?" she said in sweet voice, smiling wide. I started to feel uncomfortable again as her hand stayed as glued to my head. Why did she talk to me like I was a child? I am 18 years old, for Christ sake!

       The nurse was still looking expectantly at me, so I answered her in a repellent voice, hoping she would leave soon. I wasn't good with strangers. "I'm fine, just a bit tired. But I'll be okay."

       She stared at me with a doubting look, then nodded. Then she pulled out a paper clip board from the desk, and started flipping through the pages. "So... you are Lucy Hales, right?" She continued before I could nod. "And your parents is Annabelle Hales and Connor Hales?"

       I wrinkled my eyebrows. "My father is dead. From a heart attack. He died in this hospital." Surely they had that in their papers? Or had they "forgotten" it?

       "Yeah, of course. I'm really sorry," she said in that sweet voice again. She didn't sound a bit sorry.

       "Well, I guess you want to call your mum and tell her what happened. Since you're over 18 we have to ask you first, so that's the reason no one has come yet."

       I nodded slowly. So I could keep all this away from my mum if I wanted. She had always been a fragile woman, and after father's death everything had become ten times worse.

       She got CFS - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - when I was 14, and had to stay at home since then. When she got extremely tired and weak after even the smallest activity, having a daughter in the teens and having just lost her husband had made her what she was today.

       So maybe it would be better - for her own good - not to know that my heart was failing. My dad had died from an heart failure, after all. What if it was heritable?

       I decided to tell the nurse not to contact her. I didn't think I could keep this secret forever, but I could try. For mother's sake. Surely this was just some insignificant little thing, nothing that would happen again. I was gonna be okay.

       But inside, I had a really bad feeling.

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