Surf Club - The Gym - Day 6 Continued
"Babe, slow down, I can't walk that fast." Bianca says as she follows Heath into the office.
"You shouldn't be putting pressure on yourself right now, sit down." Heath says as he turns to face her..
"Talk to me." Bianca pleads, Heath merely staring back at her. "I'll sit down only if you join me."
"Fine." Heath huffs, sitting down in the chair opposite her.
"Why did you leave the hospital like that?" Bianca asks, needing to know what had happened.
"I didn't bring you here to talk, I just need some space." Heath says.
"Tough, I'm not letting you keep things to yourself." Bianca says. "You made a promise to me before this happened, what happened to that?" She asks, Heath taking a deep breath before looking at her, knowing he couldn't ruin things with her now.
"I've done some bad things in my time, things that are enough to scare anyone into hiding away for the rest of their lives but I never let it get to me. I've never been as terrified of something than I am right now and there's nothing I can do to stop it. What am I meant to do if he doesn't wake up? We've been through so much, had some bad fallouts but I knew we'd get over it because he was my brother he just understood me. I knew I wouldn't have to worry about whether I was a bad dad or not, because Kyle would be there and he would be the best uncle to make up for it." Heath says, shaking his head as he looks down at his hands.
"You won't be a bad dad." Bianca sighs. "But you're right, Kyle will be the best uncle to our baby. There's still time for something to change."
"Tell the doctors that." Heath mutters. "It's not even been a week and they're already talking about turning Kyle's life support off. How is that meant to fill me with hope that he'll wake up if they're not even willing to give up a couple weeks before thinking about that decision?"
"I don't have an answer for that. Maybe they don't want to fill you with false hope, but it doesn't mean you have to stop being positive about the outcome." Bianca says.
"Yeah, cause staying positive when the doctors aren't is really going to help me feel better ain't it." Heath shakes his head.
"What else do you suggest?" Bianca asks.
"I don't know. I just thought that because Nate said the surgeries went well, and Kyle was out of the critical stage, that it would mean he would wake up. I never expected him to say that it doesn't really mean anything, it just meant… I don't even know anymore." Heath sighs. "Are we just putting off the inevitable by waiting longer?"
"What?" Bianca frowns. "Are you saying if the doctors said to turn Kyle's life support off now instead of in a week or two, you'd agree?"
"No, I would never agree to it now or when it's due to happen soon. But by what the doctors are saying, it's going to happen and I don't want it to. I want to go back a week, before this happened, when Kyle was planning his and the boys 21st. When life was happy and we didn't have the thought of one of us dying."
"So what happens when you all need to come to a decision?" Bianca asks.
"I don't know." Heath croaks, trying to keep himself together. "Can we appeal it? Or maybe the doctors can't do anything if nothing gets signed. If they turn his life support off without our say, that would be murder, wouldn't it?"
"Woah, Heath! I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself. No, the doctors can't do a lot without Kyle's next of kins signature, but they wouldn't be murdering him. Where's this coming from?" Bianca frowns, wondering where he got this idea of the doctors murdering Kyle if they turned his life support off without their say.
"I've heard it happen before. The doctors turned a patients life support machines off without the family even knowing and they were charged with murder. What if the same happens to Kyle?"
"Where did you hear this from?" Bianca asks, never having heard of it happening to anyone.
"I saw it online when I looked up if there was anything we could do to help Kyle wake up."
"So you don't actually know anyone this has happened to?"
"Well no, but it doesn't mean they're thinking of doing it. Kyle's a Braxton and it's not like we've got a lot of people that like us after everything we did when we first moved here. I mean, you hated us."
"Yeah I did. What part of me being pregnant with your kid makes you think I still hate you?"
"You couldn't resist my charm." Heath shrugs.
"Sure, you keep believing that." Bianca lightly smiles. "Just stop reading articles online and focus on what's actually happening. We trust Nate, he's done a lot for this family and he's doing everything in his power to help Kyle as much as he can."
"Yeah, I know." Heath sighs. "I just want Kyle to wake up. We never got a chance to tell them our news, and he needs to know about our kid. He was pestering me for so long to find out the gender, I wish I just told him."
"You still can. Just because Kyle's in a coma, he still might be able to hear things. Even if he can't hear anything, you can still know you've told him, and it would be a perfect opportunity to bore him with all the surf talk without getting any complaints back." Bianca smiles, knowing it annoyed Kyle a lot when Heath did that to him.
"He picked up a lot of surfing lingo even though he made it clear he never listened." Heath smiles.
"Well he had you, Casey and Brax talking about it all the time. And he was the only one of you that couldn't surf, so I understand why it annoyed him so much." Bianca says.
"Yeah." Heath nods. "We never really worked out what we could do that included Kyle, apart from family meals. We couldn't even go out drinking in Yabbie Creek cause of the meds he was on. What if he still felt left out?"
"He wouldn't lie in his counselling sessions and you said he opened up a lot when you went with him. His counsellor would have picked up on something if he was acting different with you around, and you said he didn't." Bianca says. "You need to stop thinking of all the bad things, because there were a lot of great things Kyle can be remembered for."
"I know, I just feel like I'm going to forget the good stuff because of everything that's happened over the past couple months, or however long it's been now. Time has just faded into one." Heath says, rubbing his hands over his face.
"You're just stressed out and in need of some proper rest. Let's just shut the gym up and go home so you can sleep." Bianca says.
"I can't shut the gym, we need an income coming in and people who rely on their jobs here." Heath says.
"Then put your best employee in charge of things for the time being. You're going to burn yourself out if you don't take some time out for yourself, and I need you to be okay." Bianca says, rubbing her bump.
"Okay, you're right." Heath nods, knowing he couldn't just think of himself when Bianca's due date was nearing closer and closer without him even realising how much time had even past, things just got ahead of him. "I'm sorry, I haven't meant to neglect you during all of this. I've forgotten when our next scan was."
"It was meant to have been the other day but I managed to get it changed. The only appointment they had was in a few days time, so I had to take it." Bianca says.
"No, that's great. It gives me at least one thing to look forward to." Heath says, standing up and walking over to her. "I love you and I don't know what I would have done without you right now." He says, leaning down to kiss her.
"Just promise me, whatever the outcome, you won't do anything stupid. We need you." Bianca says, placing his hand on her bump.
"I promise. I know I don't have just myself to think about anymore. I'm not leaving you." Heath says.
"Good." Bianca smiles as she stands up. "Now let's go home so you can rest. We can go back to the hospital first thing tomorrow morning."
"Okay. I'll just see if Neilson is down doing the bootcamp. He can take charge until further notice then we can head off." Heath says as they leave the office in search of him.