Broken Web

Hospital Bed

Tony

"I'm sorry but He's barely stable" The words hit me hard. The ever-growing stomach falling feeling worsened and the hole in my chest worsened.

We walked in silence for the rest of the way. I kept trying to swallow the evergrowing lump in my throat and blink away the tears in my liquid.

When we reached the room the sight was tragic.

He laid lifeless on a bed, pale, a tube stuck down his throat, more wires than I could count connecting his chest to a heart monitor and other various equipment, IV tubes hooking up to many liquid-filled bags.

I could see his rib cage very clearly.... Bruce said he was getting better...

The man immediately went to his side and started stroking his hair.

"What's wrong with him?" He asked

"Hart failure that resulted in a cardiac arrest. Most likely to malnutrition. " The nurse states.

There's a long pause. Silence feels the room once again only to be filled with a weak beep of the heart monitor and the boom of the clock. The silence was long enough for the nurse to start to leave the room.

"Will he live?." The words tumble out of my mouth. 

The nurse turned around to face me. Her tired eyes hid the ice blue, both covered by a fallen out bangs and small wisps of brown hair that had collapsed from a messy bun.

"We'll try," she said with a sympathetic frown. And left the room.

I slowly made my way towards the empty chair on the opposite side of the bed. It creaked as I sat down filling the room with noise again.

I felt tears fill my vision as I held back a sob.

I hadn't cried in years.

"Dont hold it back." The other male's voice came.

I looked over and from behind my glasses, I noticed a stray tear roll down his face.

"If you dont let it out it makes the therapy bill higher." He swallowed   "It also makes you less of a dick."

Ouch. Okay.

"I... I didn't mean... I didn't know..." I tried.

"No, you didn't. Let this be a lesson." I felt like I was a bad kid being lectured.

"He tried so hard to please you. Make you proud." I bit my lip as the saltwater polled in eyes. "Yet you decided to be ignorant and selfish." He left us in silence.

I desperately tried to form words in my mouth but kept falling short.

He had tried exactly what I tried with my Dad...

I tried to please him so much that I turned cold.

So cold I froze over.

"How did you kn-" The man cut me off. "He was sent to a hospital specifically for his and your kind. Gum Tree is actually known as Gifted Teens. The informal name for 'The Home For Mutants' although the term is outdated and unused. A part of the home was converted into a hospital to specifically deal with people with powers, mutant or not." He took a breath.

"Only recently he was getting better he opened up to me. Told me who he was, granted I already knew, but it showed he trusted me enough to tell me what he kept privet...."

He turned to look at me completely.

"You were his role model.

He saw you as a father figure"