When Hayley woke up, she didn't know where she was. The room too clean, too white, too bright, and smelt like nasty cleaning chemicals – the type that would kill anything. She blinked trying to clear her foggy mind and work out what had happened. She lifted one hand to brush her hair back and found that she had a drip attached to her wrist. It wasn't hard to conclude that she was at the hospital.
Hayley sighed. She was alone and all she could remember was dinner at the Toretto's. That had been at night and now the sun was well up, judging by the way it was streaming in through the window. She swallowed and moved her hand around looking for the nurse's buzzer. Finding it, she pressed it and waited. It wasn't too long till someone came in.
"Hayley, how are you feeling? You had a lot of people worried about you," the nurse greeted, coming straight up her.
"Really?" she asked and found her throat dry and her voice not sounding like her own.
She swallowed and was surprised when the nurse handed her a cup of water. It tasted like pool water but she finished the whole thing.
"Yes, you are quite popular."
The female nurse checked her vitals and then went to find the doctor. He came in and Hayley knew it was serious. Well, serious that she couldn't ignore, not anymore.
"Hey doc,"
"Miss Jarrett, well I hoped we had been able to meet again under different circumstances,"
"Maybe I just like seeing you in your uniform,"
He gave her a small smile, but he didn't seem happy.
"I don't know if you're a very a lucky young woman or a very stupid one,"
She didn't say anything; she couldn't feel herself began to feel very embarrassed. If she had just–
"Hayley, that fluid bag is the only thing keeping you alive. You are a very sick young woman. If you keep ignoring your condition and not taking your medication, you will end up here permanently or deceased."
She felt herself nod, though she wasn't agreeing with him. He seemed to gather this and moved closer to her.
"This is a very serious problem you have. You will die if you continue to let this go on untreated. Then all those people out there will be going to a funeral, yours."
An image of Vince popped in her head of him wearing black and dark sunglasses. He was standing by a grave and he looked lost. She couldn't do that to him. She cared too much about him and Caleb and the Toretto's to die. She had so much that she wanted to do and she wanted to do those things with Vince.
"What do I have to do?" she asked, her voice tight – she felt like her throat was closing in.
"The road to recovery is a full time job and you will never be cured. There is no miracle cure and only way to get better is too look after yourself,"
"I understand,"
"Do you? Because you are very sick,"
Hayley swallowed and nodded.
"I do understand. I do,"
"Good. I have organised for a nutritionist to come and speak to you about your diet. And a nurse is going to come and talk to you about your medication. You're going to be in here at least a week and will only be released if I think that you will continue to take your medication, have a healthy diet, and won't relapse on purpose,"
"Can I have visitors?"
"Yes but Hayley, for the next couple of weeks you need to take it easy. This is going to be really hard on you and there is no easy way to recover. Especially where your vitals were,"
She nodded. It had finally hit home that she was not getting better and that her health was in a very fragile state. Maybe what had helped her understand was the fact that she could die – and that she had someone that she didn't want to leave behind. Being in the hospital, hardly able to move and having people worrying outside her door... Well that was enough to make her want to live and feel better all the time; not just a day here or there.
The doctor left and she laid back down. She knew Caleb and Linda would be on her case from now on and she wouldn't let her mother stress her anymore (or would she listen to her about how the disease was all in her mind).
But she worried about Vince. He had freaked out that day she had come out of the doctors. He was terrified of them and she still didn't know why. And for Vince to be scared of anything was pretty damn serious.
So how the hell was she meant to tell him that she's sick? Hayley got the feeling he wouldn't take it too well. Hayley frown. How would he take it? She had lied to him and the whole Toretto family. Neither would take it well and she didn't know how they would react.
Tired of thinking, she found the remote to the T.V. and flicked it on. She surfed through the channels before finding something she liked. Before she even realised, she had fallen asleep…
Second Chances
When Hayley woke up a few hours later, she found Caleb sitting by her. She gave him a sleepy smile as she sat up, slightly struggling.
"Hi," she said.
"You gave me a heart attack. I have never been more scared in my life," he told her seriously. "You scared a lot of people especially that boyfriend of yours,"
"Is Vincent around?"
"Nah, the whole Toretto team were scaring the nurses. I'm meant to call when you woke up. Do you want me too?"
"Please Caleb, I need to let them know I'm okay,"
He nodded, got up and then stepped outside. Hayley watched him as he spoke on the phone and then came back in.
"So are you okay?"
"The doctor says as long as I take my meds and stabilise my diet, I'm going to be fine."
"And will you?"
"Yes; it's going to be hard to get well but within a few months, I'll be as good as ever,"
Caleb nodded, but he looked like he didn't believe her. Which was fair enough, she had told him that she was all better and now he was visiting her at the hospital. He stared at her and then grabbed her hand.
"You really scared me," he told her, his voice wavering slightly. "Hayls, I thought you were going to die,"
"And I'm so sorry. You were right and I'll take better care of myself. I promise. I realise now that you and Linda were right. I swear, I'll do better,"
"Good,"
They talked about the shop till he got a text from the Toretto's. Caleb went to get them and went to get them and went he return, her room got a whole lot louder. Hayley smiled and answered all their questions. She assured that she was fine but like Caleb, they didn't believe you.
"So if you're fine, why are ya in here?" Jesse asked.
No one butted in to say not to ask that question and when she looked to Vince, he wouldn't meet her eyes.
"Basically, I have anemia. It's where the red blood cells don't carry enough oxygen through my body. It causes my organs not to work how they meant too and my heart has to work more,"
"But there's meds that you take to help?" Jesse asked again.
It seemed that Jesse was the only one willing to ask, though everyone else was just as eager to hear what she had to say.
"I stopped taking them. I didn't think it was a problem,"
No one said anything.
"But you knew that this disease was causing problems. You just said that your body's not getting enough oxygen and that your heart's working more," Letty stated. "Surely you knew that that would cause additional problems,"
"I don't really have a reason why I stopped taking the medications, except for I thought that it would fix itself and that it wasn't a big problem. That the doctors were just overreacting,"
"But you don't think that now?" Mia asked, squeezing Hayley's hand.
"No I don't. This was the wakeup call I needed. I've organised to meet with a nutritionist to look at my diet and I'm going to speak with a nurse about my meds,"
"And you'll be okay?"
"I'm going to get better and something like this won't happen again. Not if I can help it,"
She looked to Vince but he didn't meet her eyes.
"Well, I'm glad," Mia declared. "And it looks like you need some rest,"
Everyone bar Vince left with promises they would return with real food. Vince stayed but didn't move – he was standing in the corner near the window.
"Vincent? I'm okay, really I-"
"So you're okay, that's great," he sounded almost sarcastic.
"Vincent–"
"You said you weren't sick. That you were healthy, with nothing wrong. So wanna explain why you're in the hospital?"
"I thought I was cured," she replied weakly.
"Cured? You're anemic who if goes off her meds, will die!"
"But I'm okay now!"
"You lied about being sick. I trusted you and you lied to me,"
"Because you freak when you picked me from the doctors! And I didn't believe I was sick!"
"So not only do you lie to me, you lie to yourself,"
"Vincent-"
"And I can't deal with sick people, not anymore. I'm sorry Hayley but I'm not doing this anymore."
"What?"
"I'm done."
And with that he walked out on her, leaving her shocked that he broke up with her because she was sick…
Second Chances
Author's Note: I'm on a roll! I hope everyone liked this and was able to understand what Hayley was saying about anemia. It is a real condition and over 3.5 million American women suffer from a form of anemia. Not all anemia is life threatening but without treatment it can be. Symptoms are often not presented straight away and it can take a while for someone to be diagnosed with anemia.
Anemia is a serious condition and anyone suffering from this, should talk to your doctor about your options. Sometimes it's as easy to treat as changing your diet or taking an iron tablet.
I personally have a form of anemia and while mine isn't as serious as Hayley's, I understand what it can be like living with anemia. If anyone is interested in finding more about anemia, please look at this website:
www . womenshealth . gov / publications / our – publications / fact – sheet / anemia . html # a
Please take out the spaces
If you think you may suffer from anemia or any other conditions, please talk to your doctor about it and not self diagnose.
Xoxo
