"What, like an hour into it?" Meg asked one of the surgical team that had started wheeling Grace down the corridor towards the operating theatre.
"Someone will come out and tell you intermittently. Excuse me." The surgeon reassured Meg that the family would be kept as up to date as possible before moving ahead so that he could check whether the rest of the arrangements were in place.
"Oh! He's here," Meg suddenly smiled as she caught sight of Marty rushing through the unit, anxious to get a glimpse of Grace before she went in. The nurses pushing the trolley stopped so that they could have a brief conversation.
"Isn't she beautiful?" Marty took off his hat and bent over to kiss Grace's forehead, she reached over to grasp his hand.
"Grandpa, thank you for always taking care of me. And if I don't come out…I love you so much."
"Oh, you've got to come out. If those tulips you planted come up and see only me standin' there, they'll go right back into the ground again!"
"Thanks. Can you give me a kiss?" Grace whispered, squeezing Marty's hand for trying to make her laugh when she was so scared that she'd never wake up.
"OK, folks. Here we go." At the nod from the surgical director the team pushing the trolley started wheeling her towards the operating theatre.
"Pray, Grandpa. See you later…" Grace whispered as she took one last look at her Grandpa and best friend before the doors closed, cutting them off from her sight.
Five hours later, the weary heart surgeon looked up to check the monitors; nothing.
"Come on Grace, we've worked too hard on you to loose you now. I know your Grandpa's been praying to St Michael; let's see if we can't give him a helping hand..." The surgeon held his breath for a moment and then heaved a sigh of relief when a single wave appeared, followed by another and then a steady trend on the monitor had him turning and exchanging nods with the rest of his hardworking theatre staff.
"Well done, Gracie. The rest is up to you..." The heart surgeon stepped away from the table, letting his registrar do the closing up. "Good job, everybody."
Six miles away, Bob's eyes opened from where he had fallen asleep next to his front door; he was certain that he'd heard someone thumping on the door; but it was close to four o'clock in the morning and his parents weren't due in from the airport until after nine. Thump...thump...thump; there it was again; to faint to be someone at the door. It was like he could hear his own heartbeat coming from outside of his body...Speaking of which, he looked down to see he was still wearing his tuxedo shirt and trousers from the fundraiser - it was hard to believe that less than 12 hours ago, Elizabeth was laughing at him for trying to dry the rain off the bottom of his trousers from where he had taken Mel out for a quick run...Elizabeth; Bob crumpled against the door again, Mel crawling onto his lap in an attempt to offer him comfort.
"She's not coming home, Mel. It's just you and me now." Bob stroked the tips of Mel's ears and then slowly got up off of the cold tiled floor of the hallway. "I'm gonna hit the shower, you coming?" Mel just looked up at Bob and whined, before sinking back down to lay straight across the doorway once more. Bob shook his head, certain that he was hearing things; there was that thump, thump again; and left the dog along to mourn in his own way.