Discovery of the Moment Ch. 05

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Author’s note: This chapter has absolutely no sex in it and is entirely story-driven. That said, the events which occur in this chapter are pivotal and important to the overall outcome.

I have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated all of the feedback and comments sent to me thus far. All of you have done a credible job of inspiring me to continue with this storyline. I shall do my utmost to give you the best that I can as long as you continue to keep a dialogue with me and let me know how I’m doing. Please vote and keep the feedback coming!

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Woe! Lament! Heartbreak! If a soul could speak, these are the words that mine would have uttered on Monday, August 22nd, 2007. My wife, my lovely woman and vibrant friend and the other half of my heart, is gone. Never again will she be by my side, act as my guide and refuge when I know not where to go or what to do. I saw my love, the mother of my only child, expire from this world and move on to the Next with my own two eyes and, as you might expect, I broke completely in two.

The day after my sordid and completely sinful day with Kelly, fullfilling her tawdry fantasy, I awoke in my bed. Again, Kelly was peacefully asleep next to me, breathing quietly as dawn’s early rays began to fill the room. After our tryst the day before, she allowed me to recover and relax from my exertions while she puttered around the house and cleaned up almost a week’s worth of my mess. In truth, there wasn’t much to clean up since I had kept after myself while I was Between, but there were some odds and ends that needed looking to while I slept. And, true to her word, she respected my wishes about having sex in the bed that Sarah and I shared- when she crawled into bed with me late that night, she didn’t lay a hand on me except to gently kiss me goodnight on my forehead and thank me again for making her dream come true. After that, though, she curled up next to me and went blissfully to sleep while I did the same.

My time in the Between had been long indeed, as I said almost a week, but it had taken its toll on me. I wasn’t necessarily tired, per se, but coming back to Normal Time, it seemed, took some adjustment on my part. My mind, I guess, had become accustomed to being in a perfectly still and quiet world and, when I came back to Normal Time, all the movement and activity of the outside world sort of taxed my mind a bit. My body was as fit as ever and I felt supremely better than I had in my entire life, but I was mentally drained and could think of nothing but sleep after I’d taken a nice, hot, long shower. It was strange, I must say, to work it out in my head that, while a week had passed for me, it had only been less than an hour for everyone else on Earth. Perhaps there’s some sort of strange time-dilation effect that occurs on a mental level, like my bioligical clock needed to be reset before I could truly reintegrate with the rest of the world. I’m not entirely sure, but I was definitely keen on getting as much rest as I humanly could, almost like having jet lag. So I slept all that night and woke up early the next morning, feeling much better and more aware of my surroundings. The most amazing thing, though, was a change that I hadn’t even really paid much attention to at the time: I’d quit smoking. It wasn’t an act of will to quit, either. I just… quit wanting them and they never entered my mind anymore, like I’d somehow forgotten that I ever smoked at all.

I glanced at the alarm clock next to me, sitting quietly and inobtrusively on the night stand table, and saw that it was only just after 6 AM. I’d gone to bed sometime around 6 PM the day before and enjoyed a deep, dreamless sleep. When I woke, however, my body began to send signals to my brain that could not be denied: bladder relief and hunger clamored in my head loudly, screaming for attention and priority. Not wanting to make a mess of things, I ambled into the master bathroom, leaving my beautiful and sultry daughter lifelessly asleep in bed, and did my first order of business. When I emerged, I regarded the messy bed in which I’d just left. Kelly was still in it, but she’d kicked off the covers to reveal a blessedly naked body. In that morning light Kelly glowed like a beacon and I felt such incredible pride for this amazing creature that Sarah and I had brought into this crazy world. So adorable in her slumber was she that I could not bring myself to wake her. Instead I quietly left the bedroom, not even bothering to get dressed (I was completely naked, too), and went downstairs to see if I could rustle up some breakfast. My stomach, it seemed, had begun to speak to me not just in one clear language, but in several- it would not be denied any longer.

While both Sarah and Kelly are masters in the kitchen, I’m no slouch, either. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes I had constructed a rather impressive meal of pancakes, eggs, bacon, freshly-squeezed orange juice and the coffee was well on its way to percolating, beşiktaş escort sending out its odiferous siren song throughout the house. As I cooked, I happily grazed and nibbled on the bacon until Kelly came into the kitchen, still naked, her hair a mess and somewhat slouched over. As she slowly made her way towards me, I could see that she walked with a slight limp. She approached me and hugged me tightly.

“G’morning, Daddy,” she said sleepily. She looked past my shoulder and saw the food behind me on the counter. “Mmmm,” she cooed, “that looks good. But there sure is a lot of it.”

I chuckled as I returned the embrace, enjoying the feeling of my daughter’s soft skin beneath my hands. “What can I say, honey? I’m hungry. Your old man worked up one hell of an appetite yesterday. This is the first real meal I’ve had in almost a week, y’know?”

Kelly released me from the hug and stood back looking a little surprised. “Oh, wow,” she said. “That’s right. From your perspective, you’ve been gone a long time. I’m sorry, Dad. I should’ve prepared something for you last night.”

I smiled down at her sweetly and said, “It’s okay, Kelly. Last night I was more tired than I was hungry. I doubt I would’ve had the energy to wait. But now?” I turned and picked up the plate of eggs and bacon and handed them to her. “I could eat a bear.”

Kelly held up the plate of bacon. “Will a pig do?”

“In a pinch,” I said.

Kelly took a step back and gave a long, low whistle as she surveyed my body. “Wow, Dad, you really DID shape up, didn’t you? I mean, look at you: you’ve got six-pack abs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in better shape.” She raised a hand to feel my left pectoral muscle and nodded appreciatively. I just stood there as she examined my new physique, feeling a little self-conscious about it, but willing to let her admire for a minute. “Nice tone and definition, Dad. Seriously. There’s guys my age who would kill to have a bod like yours.” She gave me a stern look and added, “Now don’t you dare lose that. Keep working out and eat lots of protein. Take it from someone who knows: if you let yourself go now, everything will be ten times worse and you’ll gain more weight than before.”

I gave her a lopsided smile and said, “Sweetheart, if I didn’t know better, I’d think that you want me to stay like this for selfish reasons.”

“Oh, I most definitely do!” she said with unabashed honesty. “I mean, Dad, girls DREAM of finding a guy like you. Wise, honest, kind, strong, well-built, dependable, caring, handsome… Dad, you are, officially, a hottie. And when Mom sees the new you, well… lucky Mom. And, until she does, hell, lucky me!”

I gave my daughter a quick kiss on her forehead in thanks and then grabbed the stack of pancakes.

After we set the table, I started to fill my plate up with food and said, “I notice you’ve got a bit of a limp. Are you okay?”

Kelly blushed slightly, a sly grin emerging on her full lips. “I’m fine. I just got a bit of a charlie horse yesterday. Being in that position for so long is something that I wasn’t really used to. I’ve worked most of it out, but I am still a little sore.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, baby,” I started to say, but she cut me off.

“Don’t be, Dad,” she said quickly. “Listen, that was, hands down, the most incredible thing I’ve ever done in my life and I wouldn’t give up a second of it. It’s no big deal, really. I’ve had charlie horses before. And really, Dad, it’s not like you were overly rough on me. I mean, of all the ways that I could have gotten a charlie horse, that’s the best a girl could hope for. So don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

She flashed a bright, supportive smile at me and all I could do was smile back. From that point on, we ate in relative silence, the only sound to fill the room being the clink of our forks on our plates. How this amazing creature managed to exude so much care-free confidence and joy was (and still is) a matter of great awe to me.

As our plates became increasingly emptier, Kelly asked me what my plans were for the day. “Well,” I said between bites, “I expect that I’ll go visit with your mother some and then get on the phone with our lawyers and insurance company to make sure that everything is taken care of for her.”

“Can I go?”

I shrugged. “Well, sure. I don’t see why not. I think your mother would appreciate having both of us there. For once we get to mother-hen her instead of the other way around.”

Kelly nodded in agreement. Over the years, whenever Kelly or I had gotten sick, Sarah had always been the one to look after us with absolute care. Even if she, herself, was sick, she’d always made sure that we were comfortable. Blankets when we needed them, warm meals, prescriptions- the necessities were always provided by Sarah and she seemed to take it as a personal stake of duty. We’d sometimes protest, saying that we could manage on our own, most especially beşyol escort when she was sick, too, but she always insisted and often seemed offended if we protested too much. Now, however, the shoe was on the other foot. She was the one who needed our help the most and, by God, she was going to get it, whether she liked it or not.

Kelly and I ate our breakfasts quickly and got dressed (in our own rooms). Both of us had put on some casual clothes, blue jeans and the like, but I had made quite sure to cover up my torso as much as possible. During my time in Between, I had done quite a bit of working out and it now showed very clearly in certain types of clothing, so I had chosen to wear a loose-fitting sweatshirt and a button-down shirt (unbuttoned, of course). Kelly, however, was dressed as well as ever to show off her incredible curves without showing off too much skin- tight blue jeans, a tank top and a form-fitting button-down green camisole with ankle-high hiking boots. As we met in the foyer, Kelly giggled a little at how dressed-down I was, joking at how “poor Daddy has to cover up the fact that he’s now a hunk.”

When we got to Sarah’s hospital room, my wife seemed fit to be tied. She absolutely loved it that both her husband and her daughter were there to visit with her. Her color was good and she seemed like she was more than ready to get out of that damned hospital bed.

“It’s just so boring here!” Sarah complained as she waved her hands wildly. “There’s absolutely nothing to do here except watch TV and wait for the nurse to come in and check on me. Bitches. They don’t even stay around long enough to carry on a decent conversation.”

I gave my wife a reproachful look. “Now, honey, don’t be mean. You’re not the only patient here, you know…”

Sarah huffed in exasperation. “Oh, I know. I just get lonely here sometimes. I feel so… useless, like I’ve forgotten that there’s something important that I need to do. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve crawled out of this damned bed just to pace around the room a little bit. And, of course,” she added drily, “every time I do, some nurse walks in and tells me to get back into bed. They won’t even let me walk around for Christ’s sake!”

“Honey,” I said soothingly, “these people know what they’re doing. If they tell you to get back into bed, it’s for your own good. I mean, you were shot just two days ago. Don’t push yourself so hard, okay?”

Sarah waved me off dismissively. “Well, it’s a moot point now,” she said. “I’ve had a small headache in the last hour that’s done nothing but get worse. I’m not sure I could get out of bed now without getting dizzy and passing out.”

I sat up promptly at that. “Have you told a nurse about that?” I asked with concern.

Sarah made a face of distaste. “No. They’d just go tell a doctor and start testing me all over again. I’m tired of those damned tests. All I want to do is get out of here and get back to my life.”

I frowned at that. My wife, what for all her fire and inner strength, wasn’t normally one to ignore her own health. I stood up. “I’m going to go get a nurse and let them know about this.” Sarah started to protest, but thought better of it when I gave her a stern look and she snapped her mouth shut, fixing me with a gloomy, thin-lipped stare. Suddenly, she frowned and her hand quickly went to her forehead, indicating that the headache was indeed getting worse. She blinked a couple of times, as though to clear her vision some.

“Okay,” she said with some trouble. “Go get the nurse.”

“I’ll keep her company, Dad,” Kelly said calmly, but I could already see the alarm in her eyes. She knew that something was wrong, too. She scooted her chair closer to my wife’s bed and smiled sweetly at her.

As I began to walk hurriedly out of the room, I heard Kelly try to start a breezy conversation with her mother. Now I was extremely worried, but I couldn’t quite figure out why. Headaches are common enough, not normally something to get worked up about. Perhaps it was the increasing intensity of them that bothered me, but something about the fact that she had a headache at all, even though she had a Morphine drip, seemed just wrong. I got to the end of the hallway, almost to the nurse’s station when I heard my daughter cry out in alarm. I quickly ran to the nurse’s station and told the young woman sitting at the desk to come to my wife’s room, that something was wrong. I didn’t wait around for questions and went back to Sarah’s room at a full run.

By the time I got there, Kelly was frantic. The heart monitor whined shrilly, signifying that my wife’s heart was no longer beating. She was leaning over her mother and crying out, “Mom? Mom! What’s wrong, Mom! Talk to me! Mom!” When she heard me come back into the room, the look on her face was one of utter terror. I could see, just past her shoulder, that Sarah’s eyes had rolled back up into her skull and that she was beykent escort shaking uncontrollably, lost in a fit of some sort as her body was wracked with convulsions. Blood poured out of her nose at an alarming rate, some of which got into Kelly’s hands. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH HER?!” Kelly screamed.

I immediately went to my wife’s side and grabbed one of her hands as it flopped uselessly of its own accord. “Sarah? Sarah! Can you hear me?” I glanced at Kelly. “What the hell happened?”

Kelly’s eyes were wide with fear. “I don’t know!” she cried, tears already forming in her eyes. “I don’t know! One second we were talking about you and, then, the next second she was like this. Dad, help her!”

At that precise moment, two nurses and a doctor came into the room, followed by an orderly coming after them with a crash-cart. I pulled Kelly away from Sarah’s violently shaking body and held her tight as the medical staff sent themselves into a flurry of activity.

“BP’s crashing, respiration ragged,” the doctor announced as he held a stethescope to my wife’s chest. He stood up quickly, dropping the instrument from his ears and looking pale-faced. “Full cardiac arrest! We’ve got to defib NOW!” he barked at the orderly, who was already plugging the machine into the wall while the two nurses pulled out trays of various liquids.

“Ten CC’s of adrenaline push prepped,” one of the nurses announced. She grabbed a syrenge and, with amazing alacrity, filled it with a clear fluid and set it aside on the table. The needle looked both impossibly long and nasty.

“Let’s pray that we don’t have to use it just yet,” the doctor said. He produced a pen-light and peeled back one of my wife’s eyelids. Her eyes were still rolled back in her head and he manually rolled one of them with his finger so that he could check the pupil dilation. “Fully dilated,” he called as he literally ripped open the front of her gown. “She’s not responding. Crank it up to 400,” he ordered as the other nurse handed him the defibrilator paddles. He held them up for her to smear some sort of gel on them, turned to look at my wife and shouted, “CLEAR!”

As he placed the paddles on my wife’s chest, I heard the machine squeal loudly and then there was an immense THUMP as my wife’s body jerked upward of its own volition. The heart monitor bleeped once loudly, seemed to half-start on its own, and then went back to its evil whine of alarm. One of the nurses pushed in to place a pump over Sarah’s mouth and began to squeeze it repeatedly, forcing air into her lungs. The doctor glanced up at us and asked what had happened.

“She complained of a headache, that it was getting worse and it looked like she couldn’t see straight. I was going to get a nurse when I heard my daughter scream,” I answered without hesitation. The doctor then glanced at Kelly, waiting for the rest of the story.

Kelly stuttered for a second and then spit out, “I-I-I don’t know. She just went into convulsions for no reason at all and the- then the blood. No warning. Just… oh, Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with her?!” She turned into me and began to sob uncontrollably into my shoulder. I held her there as I looked questioningly at the doctor.

“A headache?” the doctor prompted me. “You’re absolutely certain that it was a headache? No tightness in the chest, shortness of breath?”

I simply nodded in reply, trying my best to console my daughter as Sarah lay on the bed, unresponsive and lifeless. I silently thanked God that the convulsions had at least stopped.

The doctor then turned to the other nurse. “Get Turkin, stat. And Goyle. I want her in CAT five minutes ago!” As she ran out of the room, he grabbed the syringe filled with adrenaline and, without ceremony, shoved it to the hilt into my wife’s chest, right into her heart, and sent the plunger home. He stared at her for a long moment and then got a far-away look in his eyes. “She should’ve responded by now,” he said hollowly. The nurse who was forcing air into my wife’s lungs didn’t stop what she was doing, however.

“Moooooooom!” Kelly howled when she heard that. She started to reach for her mother, but I held her back, not wanting her to get in the way of the doctor and his staff.

“Get her out of here!” the doctor bellowed. “NOW!”

I hurried my sobbing Kelly out of the room, almost dragging her, and refused to look over my shoulder as I heard the doctor say, “Crank it up to 500, I wanna try it one more time.”

When I got Kelly out of the room and into the hallway, she was already crying her heart out. I felt tears welling up in my own eyes, too, but did my best to hold them back, trying to focus my attention on my frightened daughter.

“Noooo!” Kelly howled into my chest as I held her close. “She’s NOT dead! NO!” She pounded on my chest forcefully in protest at what she already knew was the truth. There was absolutely no denying the fact that, at that moment, my wife was dead.

Damn me, I couldn’t think of anything to say or do. All I could do was hold onto my daughter for dear life, helpless to change anything and feeling totally powerless. I was scared for my wife, for my daughter and for myself, frightened out of my mind and at a loss for any explanation as to what had gone so horribly wrong in such a short amount of time.

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