There it was: '300 - 325 Intensive care'
Callie's breathe caught in her throat as she stared up at the sign. This had to be some sort of sick joke right? Hadn't Lena said they were optimistic? She thought he'd have been moved by now?! Had something happened?
"Callie? Callie sweetie?" waved her hand in front of Callie's face frozen in fear. "Callie, we have to go see him. Do you want to stay here and wait?" Lena asked to no response. Eventually Callie snapped out of the daze just in time to let out a whispered "I need to see him" that Lena had only barely heard.
Together the six of them walked through the corridors, silence washed over them once more leaving the family alone with they're troubled thoughts and nervous habits. Callie felt suffocated by the white walls around her; there were only bad memories in hospitals. Her mother's death. Stef's shooting. Brandon with Talya. And now this, just another memory to plague her sleep with vivid nightmares.
Finally they reached the white door, outside it a woman stood with a clipboard looking over the writing thoughtfully. As the group approached she looked up at their worried looks and lowered the clipboard revealing a name tag: Dr Holmes. Callie looked up at her face in shock and disbelief. There she was, the same doctor who had been in charge of her mother. The woman who had told both Callie and Jude that their mother had passed away.
The woman looked at Callie for a brief second with a hint of recognition before turning away, seemingly dismissing the resemblance. "How is he?" Stef was the first to ask the question that everybody wanted to know the answer to but had been dreading since they heard what had happened to Brandon.
"He's still in a coma due to his injuries, he lot quite a lot of blood before he was found and it seems he may have hit his head when he fell. There was also serious damage to his right hand. I'm afraid he may not be able to regain his full use of it again" They all stood like statues absorbing this information as Dr Holmes looked over the clipboard again checking for anything she'd missed.
"Can I go see him?" Callie mumbled looked at the woman as she tried to stop the tears that threatened to spill over. The doctor nodded before adding "only two at a time I'm afraid, the rest of you can either wait here or I'd recommend the waiting room down the hall and to your right." Stef and Lena looked at each other, a silent conversation with their eyes.
"It's fine, you two should see him first" Callie admitted reluctantly, the truth was that she knew that if she went in there now she'd never be able to leave. The two women looked at her sympathy in their eyes. "We'll only be in there quickly, you all should get to see him, meanwhile go get some drinks or something" Lena opened her purse pulling out a few coins and notes without checking its value. Jesus and Mariana took the money and walked towards the waiting room, Jesus wrapping a comforting arm around Mariana as she cried silently.
Jude stayed next to Callie looking up at her face as she stared at the door Stef and Lena had just walked through as it swung shut. Callie looked down at him as she felt his warm hand wrap around hers, looking down at his scared face.
