A Reason to Stay by Gilbert Kellie Coates

Author:Gilbert, Kellie Coates [Gilbert, Kellie Coates]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: FIC042000, FIC044000
ISBN: 9781441228222
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-08-26T07:00:00+00:00

In the predawn hours of the following morning, two women entered her room dressed in blue scrubs and caps. One held a clipboard and moved to the monitors near her bed, looking over the top of her reading glasses at the graphs and numbers displayed.

“Looks like you had a rough night,” she noted.

How could the nurse come to that conclusion from simply viewing data? Did those machines record what it felt like to wake in a fog, to be told life had been forever altered? Did those little flashes and beeps, the machines and bags of body fluids hanging from her bed, so easily decipher this terror?

In less than an hour she would undergo a surgical procedure where a piece of her skull stored in specialized refrigeration would be replaced with tiny plates and screws. The whole idea sounded like something out of a science fiction novel.

Yes—she’d had a very bad night.

The nurse with the clipboard left and a white-coated attendant swooped into her room, carrying a large white cover. “Here,” he said. “This will keep you warm until we get you down to the surgery unit.”

After giving Faith something to take the edge off her building anxiety, the nurse leaned across and patted her good shoulder. “Are we ready?”

She closed her eyes and nodded, suddenly feeling very alone.

“Okay, Faith. This young man is going to take you on down to surgery. We’ll see you when you get back on the floor.”

She heard a loud click and the bed began to move.

Despite the slight sedation she’d been given earlier, she pushed her right hand against the white sheet tucked around her body. Her eyes searched frantically back and forth. “Wait!” she managed to say through the fog of sedation.

The white-coated attendant pushing the metal gurney paused. “What’s that?” he said.

She heard pounding footsteps—growing closer.

“Faith—Faith, I’m here!”

The helmet kept her from turning her head. Geary rushed up alongside. He pulled the sheet down and grabbed her hand. “Sorry, babe. Traffic.” He tried to catch his breath. “I’m here now.”

His presence calmed her, made her feel safe somehow. Geary walked alongside the gurney, holding her hand.

Seconds later, they were outside the surgical suite. “I’m afraid this is where you have to say goodbye,” the attendant told Geary, who nodded.

Her husband brought her hand to his lips. “You’re going to be all right,” he promised, almost more to convince himself than her.

Suddenly, she could barely keep her eyes open. Despite earlier reservations, she looked at him in desperation. “Don’t—leave—me.”

“I won’t. I promise. I won’t leave you.”

Minutes later, she lifted her heavy lids to see a man in matching blue cap and scrubs. He smiled. “Faith, it’s Dr. Wimberly. I’m going to take good care of you.” He nodded at the anesthesiologist, who administered something into her PIC line. Dr. Wimberly’s face softened. “Time to go night-night.”

Before the thick darkness completely swept her away, she saw Geary’s face in her mind. As unconsciousness closed in, her thoughts strangely sharpened.

A television guest had once explained

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