Katie had still not woken up from her coma. It had been almost a week now and the doctors were gradually at a loss. They were afraid that her body's condition would not regenerate and that the oxygen deprivation in her brain might have done too much damage.
John, Mary, Molly came by every day. David as often as work allowed. Greg and were also visitors at her bedside from time to time. They often spoke to her and hoped she would wake up. Mary told her a lot about the latest wedding preparations and that she would pray to welcome them as guests on their wedding day. John would read her a few new entries from his blog every now and then and often apologised that Sherlock was stuck in a case and couldn't come. Molly came by during each of her breaks and often begged and cried by her bed. David, her boyfriend usually came by before his shift to wish her a good morning and sometimes after his shift to tell her about his day.
When there was still no change in her condition after five days, slowly all hope in them faded. The doctors said it was unusual and she should have been awake by now.
Today was day number 6 and still no change. John had been with her very early and heard by chance that the doctors were talking about switching off the machines as they could hardly detect any brain activity.
He had just arrived home and fell onto his couch, exhausted. Mary was out and about. They also talked about postponing the wedding for the occasion but all her bookings could not be cancelled. Secretly, however, they were still hoping that all could turn out well and Katie could be there. There were just under 3 weeks to go.
He stared thoughtlessly into the room and thought about what he had heard. In front of him stood a glass of whiskey. He had poured one immediately on entering.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door and as he slurped slowly there and opened the door, he saw Sherlock standing in front of him.
"John, I need your -"
He paused when he saw the expression on the blond man's face in front of him. He was pale and his eyes were swollen.
"Did something happen?" he asked afterwards.
John sighed, stepped aside so the detective could enter and slurped back to the couch. He poured himself another glass and asked Sherlock with a gesture if he should pour one for him too.
But he refused.
He sat down again and breathed deeply.
"I heard this morning that the doctors are considering switching off the machines. It would hardly show any brain activity at all."
Tears came to his eyes.
"Sherlock, don't you see?! Katie is going to die!" he sobbed.
Sherlock sat motionless next to him, staring into the void, as John had done before. Suddenly he stood up and ran for the door.
John had a hard time calming down.
"Where are you going now?" he shouted after him but by then he heard his door slam shut.
Sherlock arrived outside the hospital in the late afternoon. With heavy steps he followed the path that would lead him to her room.
Arriving at her door, he stopped in his movements and took a deep breath. Then he finally pushed the door handle down and entered the room.
He had never been here before. Again and again he had been close to it, wandering up and down in front of her room, but then he left again.
He saw her for the first time now, since that day. It was a horrible sight. She lay in the hospital bed, a tube led out of her mouth, several wires went away from her body. The heart monitor was beeping. She was skinny, her face sunken. The pleasantly warm colour of her face had gradually faded.
He stood there and could not move. He did not know what to do.
At some point he slowly made his way towards her bed. Next to her bed stood a chair. Probably a visitor who had been here recently. He did not sit down. He just wandered through the room, his hands crossed behind his back and kept looking at the person he was about to lose.
Eventually he found his language again.
"Hello Katie. I honestly don't know what I'm doing here or what I should tell you. John told me to tell you about my day or say anything else"
'Phew, this is harder than I thought,' he thought to himself.
Then he finally sat down on the chair, because he noticed that his knees were slowly weakening.
"I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier but I had a lot to do."
There was a short break.
"No, sorry, that was a lie. I was not too busy, I was honestly afraid. Afraid of it because I feel guilty that I rejected you when you needed my help. Yeah, it sounds weird, doesn't it? I feel something. Or as you would say, the great master detective Sherlock Holmes has feelings.
I honestly didn't know how to deal with them and when I found them in that freezer and saw them almost dying, I couldn't bear it. They have awakened feelings in me that no one has ever managed to awaken in me."
As he spoke, he saw that the signal of their pulse on the monitor increased slightly. He also noticed a sudden twitch of a finger of her hand. He moved closer and now took this hand in his.
"I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. That I could lose you!
Please Katie, just wake up! I'm sitting here begging you! Just wake up!"
Tears came over him and he sobbed softly as he continued to hold her hand in his and squeeze it lightly.
He let his head fall. With his forehead against the hand he was holding and continued to beg for her to wake up.
He sat there for a few minutes when he suddenly heard a changed signal from the heart monitor. The regular sinus rhythm he had heard before had disappeared. Instead, the pulse increased rapidly and the frequency increased. The beeping became irregular.
Sherlock shot up his head instantly.
"No, oh no! Don't you dare give up and leave me here alone with my feelings. Please! I need you! I love you!" he continued to beg and shook her lightly on her shoulders.
Then suddenly the irregular beeping changed and a constant monotonous continuous tone could be heard. Only a straight line was left on the heart monitor...