If this is like depressing then blame Reidsfacts as this entire story is her fault, as much as I love the emotion caused by the prospect of losing a loved one, it is a bit depressing. Both her (and DowntonIsMyBestFriendsLife – unofficial name) have been bugging me to tell them the ending so I have to update quickly ;)

He sat with his head in his hands, the hustle and bustle of the hospital surpassed him. All he could think about was Elsie, how she was lying there on that steel table being operated on. He had driven past the scene of the accident, he couldn't bear to see his wife's Mercedes on it's side and smashed up, he could see that another car had gone into hers, there was no way the crash was her fault.

"Mr Carson?"

He looked up, a man stood before him; he was tall and dressed in police uniform. He had an unnerving serious expression on his face.

"Yes, sorry" he stood up to shake the man's hand.

"Chief Constable Murray, I'm so sorry about all of this"

"You shouldn't be saying sorry, did you see it happen?"

"I did yes, I was parked by the road and saw it, it … it wasn't nice"

His stomach dropped, he hadn't yet heard the extent of her injuries, only that she was in surgery.

"Wha..what happened?"

"Nothing on her part, she was just driving, a car coming the other way was hit from behind, it swerved and hit your wife's. The first driver's fine, but the one that hit your wife unfortunately died on the scene. Your wife's sustained some pretty serious injuries, her windscreen smashed and a lot of glass impaled her, luckily her eyes were protected by her sunglasses, I think that saved her life"

'Those wonderful sunglasses' he thought.

They were then joined by the doctor who was taking off his surgery coat.

"Mr Carson, I'm Dr Richard Clarkson, your wife's out of surgery now, but she's still unconscious, you'll be able to see her in a minute but I warn you, it might be quite, distressing."

"I just want to see her doctor"

Both men looked at him and gave him a sad smile before looking at the floor. A few minutes past and a young dark haired nurse came out of her room,

"You can see her now"

"Thank you nurse Crawley" Dr Clarkson went first closely followed by Charles.

The site of her, lying there in the bed, wired up to all manner of machines. She had cuts and bruises on her face, her usual perfect complexion and happy expression was now replaced with one of pain and torture. He felt his heart break and a stabbing constricted feeling in his chest returned. Dr Clarkson was talking to him but all he could here was the slow beeping of her heart monitor.

"…the surgery was fine, it's her recovery that'll be important. Even if she recovers from surgery, her body sustained a lot of damage and trauma. We won't know anything until she wakes up, but she's stable for now." He left them alone, Charles just stood there watching her, he wanted to go and hold her, hold her in his arms to let her know she was safe.
He turned as he heard the door open and Nurse Crawley came back in, she went over to Elsie and injected something into a tube connected to her wrist. They were silent as she worked, but when she stood up, she faced him.

"You can talk to her, she won't respond but she can hear you" she smiled sympathetically and went to leave, "you mustn't worry about her too much, usually patients like this make a full recovery"

"But there are those that don't?"

"Don't think like that, the time to face it is if it happens, not before. Trust me, I know more than you'd think." With that she left, he turned to face Elsie again before slowly going over to her bed and sitting on the chair next to it. He took her hand in his and whispered softly,

"Elsie?…" her heart rate monitor suddenly increased and he smiled knowing she must recognise the sound of his voice. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it, stroking it lovingly and holding it against his forehead. He sat there for a minute, saying a silent prayer for her, he wasn't particularly religious but he knew she was, whatever God or force was out there, he wanted them to help her.

He looked up, keeping her fingers by his lips, he felt tears begin to fall down his cheeks, making pools on her knuckles. He never cried, he'd only ever cried a couple of times and never in front of people, not even her but now he didn't care who saw him, his wife was lying in front of him, verging on both life and death, he couldn't bear to lose her.

"Elsie" he said again, he just wanted to say her name, he didn't know what else to say, "my wonderful wonderful Elsie" he couldn't continue as he repeated his words from earlier, he simply held her hand to his forehead again and tried to hold back his tears.

"Don't leave me my dear, you cant … I need you … I cant live without you Elsie. Please… stay with me"

He didn't speak anymore, simply held her hand against his head. A while later he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see Nurse Crawley looking at him then nodding her head towards the clock, he'd been there for an hour simply holding her hand.

"Are you alright Mr Carson?" she asked as he stood up, he towered over her but she wasn't fazed and had an air of authority about her despite her size, rather like Elsie he thought, she did seem like a younger version of her.

"Perfectly Nurse Crawley, thank you"

"You don't have to lie and put on a brave face around me Mr Carson, like I said, I understand more than you'd know"

He followed her out of the room to find Dr Clarkson standing there waiting for him,

"Mr Carson, we've had the results from Mrs Carson's X-ray back. I'm afraid it's not good, she suffered some severe impact when the car tipped over. There is some possible fatal internal damage that we're not going to be able to repair through surgery. We will try though."

"Possibly fatal?"

"It could be, chances are it'll be partially repairable and she'll be on medication for most of the foreseeable future, but there is the chance it wont work and it will become excrutiating…"

"…and eventually … kill her" Charles finished for him, whispering the last two words.

"There's that chance, there's always a tiny chance it can go wrong but I can assure you Mr Carson we'll do everything we can for her" Nurse Crawley reassured him

Happy Birthday to the amazing Phyllis Logan, sorry that your character's been hit by a car (blame Reidsfacts), but it's supposedly more exciting. Hope you all like it, as much as you can when it's depressing ;)