Surfacing

Chapter 1

Earth One

August 28th, 2005

A beautiful garden at sunset is where the wedding is taking place. The flowers all around are soft pink, cream and gold painted roses. The seats are adorned with peonies and baby's breath along with ivy. (not the poison kind). The people are filing in taking their seats while soft jazz music plays through hidden speakers. The women are in a bathroom that really doesn't feel like a bathroom because of how it's decorated. There is a large sitting area with a round gold couch and is accented with splashes of black. The other chairs are black velvet, the stalls are off towards the back of the next room.

Then men are in a room usually used for small gatherings getting ready. The room they are in has blue and gold carpet with gold inlaid wallpaper. The room has a long blue couch and gold accents chairs. The tables are glass and there are a few liquor bottles on the table. The guys are just ready to get the ceremony over with.

"Are you excited?" asks Tamar while helping Toni get dressed.

"I'm beyond excited I finally get my happily ever after."

"Are you nervous?" asks Trina.

"No, I'm more excited than anything."

A knock sounds on the door and Toni says come in. Janet enters the room and starts to tear up seeing her best friend in her wedding gown.

"Ah-uh, Ms. Jackson no tears. We just got done fixing Toni's face, mmmkay. Wipe them tears baby girl."

Towanda hands Janet some tissues and helps her to wipe her face. Janet and Toni have been friends for years and she is Toni's maid of honor. Toni choose Janet because she didn't want her sisters arguing about why she chose a certain sister. They are all dressed as another knock sounds on the door. Gil peeks his head in and gives them the five-minute warning. All the ladies did a quick check of each other.

"Hey Ken, you finally got the woman you've wanted. Are you ready?" LA Reid who's the best man asks.

"Man I been ready. I can't wait to see her."

"Well you guys will finally get to being happy for the rest of your lives."

The guys have been dressed for about an hour. It's always the women who take forever to get ready. They took a shot of Hennessy to celebrate the wedding. Gil knocks and goes in telling the guys to go get into their places.

Everyone turns around when the music begins as the maid of honor and brides' maids make their way down the aisle to the song "Love" by MusiqSoulchild. As they take their places the song changes to "As" by Stevie Wonder but the Marsha Ambrosius and Anthony Hamilton version. Toni takes her father's arm and they start walking. Kenny, Janet, Momma E and Tamar are all crying.

Five steps down the aisle Toni starts feeling really hot and dizzy. She takes a few more steps and suddenly everything goes black. Gil sees what's happening and immediately calls 911. As soon as she went down Kenny ran to her catching her head before it hit the floor. He's cradling her head in his lap and crying.

"Toni, wake up please. Please baby wake up." He pleads.

Everyone else is looking at them with tears and waiting for the paramedics to get there. It seems like it took forever but it only took them about 5 minutes to get to the garden. Kenny rides in the ambulance with Toni. He's holding her hand just wishing she would wake up.

When they get to the hospital Toni is whisked away by the nurses. One nurse stays behind to quickly talk to the paramedics about Toni. Then she runs back into the Emergency Room. The doors shut in Kenny's face as another nurse shows him the private waiting room where the whole family is already there. Momma E is still crying and Traci is holding her. Mike Sr. and Jr. are pacing the floor. Tamar's laying on Janet's shoulder wiping her tears. Trina and Towanda are hugging each other no longer crying just in shock.

All of them trying to process what happened in their own ways. Each one in their own heads trying to figure out why this happened. It seems like they waited in the room for hours but it had only been about 30 minutes when a doctor approaches them.

"Family of Ms. Braxton?" They all look up at the tall light skinned man with curly hair, who looks biracial. "We are in the process of trying to figure out what is going with Toni. As of right now she still hasn't woken up. We are running tests to try to figure what caused this. As soon as we know what is going on, I will come back to update you all."

"Thank you Dr..." Michael Sr. says.

"I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself, I'm Dr. Keys. I will be personally handling Toni. I am the top Neurologist in California."

"Thank you, Dr. Keys." Kenny says and Dr. Keys walks away. "Okay. There's no sense in us all being here still in dresses and tuxes. Why don't we do a rotation where everyone goes and changes and comes back. Kevon can you bring me some clothes? And Trina bring Momma E some clothes. Who are the first ones leaving?"

Of the women Janet and Tamar leave first, of the men Kevon and Michael Jr. Within 20 minutes both groups return, and another group goes. It took about two hours for everybody to change clothes. Everyone in the waiting room was stubborn, so Kenny knew suggesting they leave wouldn't work. Within that two hours a nurse had approached them with paperwork to perform surgery. As he was pacing, Dr. Keys returned. Every eye in the room was on him.

"We know what caused Toni to pass out. She has a small aneurysm that we caught just in time or this would be a different conversation. I did the surgery to stop the bleeding. Toni is currently in a coma, we don't know how long she'll be in the coma it's all up to her brain. It needs time to heal itself. When she does wake up, she may have some neurological defects, some can be healed with therapy others are permanent. We just won't know until she wakes up what we are dealing with. You all may see her two at a time. Oh and she can hear you, her brain activity is off the charts. She just hasn't woken up."