Reba had the perfect life for twenty years. She had an amazing husband who had blessed her with three beautiful children. Then one day everything changed. Reba had been cleaning the kitchen while the kids were at school and Brock was at work. It had been just like any other day until Reba received a phone call that would change her life forever.
"Mrs. Hart?" She heard a stranger ask her on the other end of the line. She hadn't recognized the voice but figured that the person could very easily be a teacher from Cheyanne's school. It wasn't uncommon to receive those types of phone calls.
"This is her. How may I help you?" Reba asked with her strong southern accent.
She heard a sigh from the other end of the phone and immediately got worried. "Mrs. Hart I'm afraid to inform you that your husband has been in a terrible car accident."
Once those words were spoken everything stopped. She could feel the anxiety build up in her chest as her heart began to pound loudly. She could hear a mumble but she couldn't focus long enough to hear what was being said. Had she heard the woman on the other line correctly? It couldn't be true. Not her husband. There had to be a mistake, but how did the hospital get her name and number?
Without saying a word Reba hung up the phone and walked out of the house. It appeared that the whole world had stopped. She got into her car and before she knew it she was at the hospital. There were probably plenty of stop signs and red lights that she had ignored but that was the least of her worry. She had just received a phone call saying her husband had been in a car accident so she couldn't focus on anything except getting to her husband's side.
Reba ran into the hospital with a green shirt and a pair of overalls on. Her short red hair was pulled back because of a bandana. She could feel her cold face and she could only imagine how white it was. The stares of concern from the people that passed by her made her well aware of the fact that she didn't look good.
She quickly ran to the front desk and could barely breathe when she reached it. "Brock- Hart- I'm here- here to see- Brock." The woman at the front desk looked at Reba. She was obviously panicked and wanting to see her husband.
"Yes. I was getting worried about you when you hung up earlier but I figured that you were on your way here." The lady said as her voice immediately sounded familiar. "He's in room 302. When you go up the stairs turn left and it's down that hallway."
Reba had two options; go up the elevator or go up the stairs. She could run up the stairs so that's what she decided to take. Reba looked at the woman and nodded. It never occurred to her to ask what had happened to cause the accident. Reba ran down the hallway looking at every room number until she found his room. Just as she was going to open the door the doctor grabbed her arm. "Are you Mrs. Hart?" Looking up at the doctor all Reba could do was nod her head. "He's been in and out of consciousness but that's completely normal for what he's been thought. That's his body trying to heal itself. He's currently in stable condition." This was a relief for Reba to hear.
"Doctor, what happened? I know that it was a car accident but that's all I know." Reba's voice was calmer now and she had gotten a little color back in her face.
The doctor looked at Reba and sighed. There were the things that he hated about his job; seeing people so heartbroken. "He was only about two minutes away from his dental practice when a drunk driver started swerving onto his side of the road. Brock did everything he could to try and avoid the collision but it just wasn't possible. When the other car hit him the car flipped and landed upside down. He almost hit another car and they were the ones that reported the accident. Your husband is pretty banged up but we're waiting for tests to come back to see the extent of his internal injuries."
Reba was too worried to ask if he was going to be okay and she knew that there was no guarantee so she avoided the question. As the two finished their conversation loud beeping started coming from Brock's room. Reba's eyes grew wide in terror as the doctor turned around and went into the room with four other nurses.
Reba sat in the chair outside of the hospital room for what seemed to be forever. It had only been ten minutes when the doctor came out. This had Reba filled with terror. Had they decided to give up on her husband? Was he that injured that even the doctors decided to give up? Reba stood up from the chair and looked at the doctor. "What's going on?"
The doctor looked at her and Reba could immediately tell that something was wrong. "Mrs. Hart, we had to place your husband into a medically induced coma. He is not allowing himself to heal but instead he's making things worse. He's stressing himself out by panicking every time he wakes up."
"So what does that mean?" Reba asked worried that the doctor was telling her that her husband was gone.
The doctor looked at the red head and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but when he saw that it wasn't helping his smile faded. "Right now all we can do is wait. His brain needs to heal and right now this is the only way that it can."
Reba felt as if her heart was broken. There was no promises for a future with Brock and that killed her. The last twenty years have been spent with him and that's how she wanted to spend the rest of her life. She was going to do everything in her power to save Brock's life. "May I go see him?"
The doctor looked at Reba and knew that he couldn't keep her away from him any longer. "Of course you can." The two didn't say anything else because as soon as he gave Reba permission she was in the hospital room.
Life felt like a dream. She was staring down at her husband who had marks all over him as well as having different machines hooked up to him. He appeared to be asleep but knowing that he wasn't mentally killed Reba. She wanted to walk up to her husband and ask him how he was feeling and hear him tell her he loved her.
Reba walked over to his bedside. Just because he couldn't talk to her didn't mean that she couldn't talk to him. With a deep breath Reba started talking to her unresponsive husband. "Hey sweetheart. I don't know if you can hear me or not but I just wanted to tell you that I love you. You were in a pretty bad car accident but I have faith that you'll be fine. After all we're in this together." Reba said as she pressed her lips to his forehead. It killed her not receiving a response from Brock.
She had called and left a voice message for the kids for when they got home. Reba didn't want to leave Brock's side until she absolutely had to. She wasn't used to going home and knowing that she would be sleeping alone.
Reba didn't do much. There really wasn't much to do. She didn't feel like turning on the tv even though the doctor had told her many times that she could. All Reba did was sit in the chair that was next to the hospital bed. Reba just wanted to stare at her husband and pray that everything was going to work out. She knew that she didn't want to go through life without Brock by her side.
Seven thirty came quickly and Reba knew that it was time to go home. She had to take care of the children. If she left the house without leaving them something to eat for very long then there was no telling what would happen to them. They'd probably all starve because Cheyanne's boyfriend Van would eat everything. Reba sighed as she got out of the chair and looked at her helpless husband lying in the hospital bed. She leaned down and pressed her lips against his forehead. "I'll be back as soon as possible sweetheart. Either tonight or in the morning." Reba then walked to the door and turned around. "Please don't leave me Brock. I love you."
The car ride home seemed to last forever. She wasn't quite sure what to tell the kids. Cheyanne was seventeen, Kyra was thirteen, and Jake was only seven. It was going to be a lot easier to explain this to Cheyanne and Kyra than Jake. He was so young that that he would have trouble understanding his father's condition. I have to find a way to tell them what happened, Reba thought to herself. She hadn't said over voicemail that he was in a car accident because she didn't want them to be alone when they got the news. She wanted to be there for them.
When Reba walked through the front door Cheyanne was sitting on the couch. There was no way this was going to be easy. "Mom what's going on? Don't say nothing because I can tell by your face that something happened."
"Where's your brother and sister?" Reba asked as she sat her purse down by the door. Cheyanne yelled for the other two kids as they came running down the steps. Reba looked at the three children not wanting to tell them what she was going to next because she knew that it would destroy them. "Daddy has been in a car accident. He won't be home for a while." Reba said as she saw the immediate shock on the kid's face.
"Is he going to be alright?" Cheyanne asked.
Reba looked at Cheyanne and sighed. "We just have to wait and see how everything goes. Right now daddy is resting and we're hoping that in a couple of days he will be healed enough to wake up."
Jake, not knowing what that meant, looked at his mom. "Wow! Sleeping for a couple of days! That must be nice!" Reba didn't want to tell Jake the truth. Not at age seven. She just smiled at Jake and kissed his head.
"Why don't you all go play or get ready for bed? I'll go cook dinner and will call for you when it's ready." Reba said as she got up, tried to give her kids a reassuring smile, and then walked into the kitchen. Getting dinner ready was at least something that could help her get her mind off of the car accident, at least that's what it was supposed to do. Reba found out that even cooking wasn't successful because she was still thinking about what had happened. About how her husband was by himself lying unconscious in a hospital bed. That killed Reba, but she couldn't do anything about it. Someone had to be there with the kids and both Brock and Reba's parents lived in Oklahoma. She was not yet about to ask them to travel to Houston just to stay with their grandkids while she was at the hospital.
Cheyanne walked into the kitchen and broke Reba out of her thoughts. "Mom, you don't have to do this."
Reba looked up from the stove at Cheyanne. "Do what Cheyanne? I have to cook dinner because someone's got to feed you kids." Reba always tried to lighten the mood, even when she was in pain. That was the type of woman she was, and that was one of the reasons Brock loved her so much.
"You don't have to pretend to be so strong. I know that this is not easy for you." Cheyanne said as Reba was shocked. Cheyanne didn't always act her age, but when she did it always seemed to shock Reba. She was filled with wonderful advice, she just lacked book smart and sometimes even common sense.
Reba let out a sigh but refused to let any tears fall from her eyes. "Cheyanne, I am a mother and one day when you become one you will understand that as a mom you do everything in your power to be strong for the kids."
Cheyanne looked at her mother and sighed. "You don't have to be strong for me though. I'm old enough that I know what can happen. I understand why you want to be strong for Jake since he is so young, and maybe even Kyra, but not me. I'm almost eighteen."
"Regardless of how old you are I am still your mom. All we can do right now is be there for each other and hope for the best. The thing with hoping for the best is that you have to prepare for the worst." Reba said as she walked over and wrapped her arms around her oldest daughter. "I plan on going to see your father either tonight or in the morning."
"Go see him tonight mom. Spend the night there so you can be with him. I'll take care of everything here." Cheyanne said as Reba's eyes grew wide.
That made Reba a little nervous because if Reba spent the night at the hospital then that meant that Cheyanne would be responsible for not only getting the kids to bed on time but for the morning routine as well. "Cheyanne it's really okay. I'll go in the morning when I drop you kids off at school." Reba couldn't stand the thought of leaving her kids while something so serious was going on. What if Kyra woke up in the middle of the night worried, or if Jake had questions to ask after he got over the whole sleeping for days thing.
Cheyanne didn't want to argue with her mother. She knew that it was the last thing that she needed. Instead of saying anything she just nodded her head as Reba finished making dinner. "Cheyanne honey will you please go get your brother and sister." Nodding her head Cheyanne walked out of the kitchen to tell her siblings that it was time for dinner.
After dinner Reba didn't really feel like doing much. She would much rather be at the hospital with Brock than be home but she had motherly duties that she had to attend to. When she got the kids to bed she walked into her bedroom and immediately felt like she had been punched in the face. There were pictures of her and Brock throughout the room and everything that she looked at reminded her of him. Reba sat on her bed and sighed. There was no way she was going to get any sleep.
Reba changed into her pajamas and then walked over to the side of her bed. She knew exactly what she had to do and that was pray. She slowly dropped down to her knees and bowed her heads with her hands together. "Lord, please watch over my husband and let everything turn out okay. You've blessed me with him and now I don't know what I would do without him. Please watch over not only Brock but our kids as well. This is hurting them just as well as anyone else. I also pray that you watch over the drunk driver if he lived as well as his family. In your name I pray, Amen."
With saying a prayer Reba then crawled into bed and got under the covers. There was no way sleeping was going to be easy, but she just had to tell herself that the sooner she got to sleep the sooner she would be able to see Brock. Brock; the man that she had loved since she met him. The man that gave her three beautiful children. The man that she knew she needed in her life. It took forever for Reba to finally fall asleep but once she did all she could dream about was Brock and their life together.
When the morning came Reba got the kids up and ready for school and cooked them breakfast. She was trying to speed up their morning routine so she could get them to school and so she could get to the hospital. It was roughly eight thirty when she arrived at the hospital, and this time she looked a little nicer. Her face wasn't as pale as it had been the day before. This time she didn't talk to anyone at the desk. Reba walked straight to Brock's room when she saw the doctor looking at one of the machines that was plugged up to her husband. "Is everything okay?" Reba said softly.
The doctor turned around and smiled at Reba. "Everything is fine. He's improving. We took a scan of his brain earlier and he is showing significant improvement. He's healed quicker than many patients in very similar situations. I'm very impressed. I think it's because he has such a beautiful wife by his side."
Reba smiled as the doctor left the room. She noticed a wedding ring on his finger so she wasn't very threatened by what he had said. She then walked over to Brock's bed and sat on the edge of it while running her hand through his blonde hair. "You gave us quite the scare honey. It appears as if you're going to be alright though. I miss you and can't wait for you to wake up." Reba then pressed her lips on his forehead.
Today Reba decided to turn on the television, but she would only watch shows that Brock liked. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until, while holding Brock's hand, she felt something move. She looked over at Brock. His eyes were still closed so she thought maybe her arm had twitched on its own and she hadn't realized it, but then it happened again. She looked back at Brock as his eyes started to slowly open. Reba looked down at her husband and smiled. "Hey honey. It's okay you can wake up now."
Brock's eyes finally opened all the way and the first thing he saw was his beautiful wife staring down at him. "Hey. W-what's going on?"
Reba looked down at her husband and smiled softly. "You were in a bad car accident and they had to put you in a coma, but you're awake now and I couldn't be happier. We were expecting you to stay asleep for a few days."
Brock looked up at Reba and slowly lifted his hand to touch her face. "I'm so sorry that I scared you like that."
Reba looked at him and placed a hand against his. "Don't be Brock. You're awake now and now we just need to focus on getting you better."
"I love you Reba." Brock said as Reba smiled. Those were the words that she feared she would never hear, but hearing them now seemed to mean so much more than it had before. Now she had almost lost what was hers and life had more meaning. Reba was going to make sure that Brock always knew how much she loved him because she didn't want to be one of the people that didn't know what they had until it was gone.
With a smile Reba looked down at Brock. "I love you too." She said as she pressed her lips to his, and she was thankful that she got to kiss her husband again. She was thankful that she was going to be able to continue life with her husband. Reba laid on the bed wrapped in Brock's arms as she caught Brock up on everything that had happened and the two enjoyed being in each other's arms. She was never going to take advantage of anything because Reba knew how easily everything could change.