Chapter Three - Sorrow
Stacey Slater sat in the waiting room at Walford General Hospital. She had been sitting there for the past god knows how many hours and her mind was spinning. She was ready to collapse but she new she had to stay strong for her baby daughter.
At that very moment little Lily Branning lay in the childrens' intensive care unit being prodded and poked by doctors. No one yet knew what was wrong with her and why this was happening.
Stacey could not bear to see her baby in so much pain. She had gone through so much to be here, with her baby, and now she couldn't live with the idea that she could be taken away. She silently prayed to Bradley, her dead husband, to watch over her little girl. She had to be ok.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her Uncle Charlie gently tapping her shoulder. "Stacey, do you want to go and get something to eat darling", he whispered gently.
"No thanks Uncle Charlie."
"Stacey I really think that it would be a good idea to eat something. You look exhausted and you haven't eaten since last night."
"I said no Uncle Charlie", Stacey snapped.
"Please Stacey, do it for Lily. You're no use to her in this state", Stacey's mum added, who until that moment had stayed quiet.
Stacey could not cope any longer. She let out all the emotions she had been feeling over the past few months with one massive explosion. "How many bloody times do I have to tell you? I don't want any food. I just want to be left alone. I have been sitting in here for hours with no idea what is wrong with my baby and all you can think about is food. Don't you dare tell me what is best for me and Lily. She is my baby and I need to be here for her. I've had enough of you and your constant nagging. Will you just leave us in peace for once, you are doing my head in", Stacey screamed at her mum and Uncle Charlie.
Stacey began to run out of the room when she was stopped in her tracks by someone entering. The man that stood in the doorway Stacey recognized as doctor Lambert, he had been the one who had come in and said that Lily was in a critical condition.
As Stacey looked up and in to the doctors face she saw that look. The look she had seen on the face of he own doctor when she had been diagnosed with bi-polar syndrome, the look her mum had given her when she told her that her dad was dead and the look the woman at the morgue had given her when she had gone to see Bradley's body.
A look of sorrow.