Logan sat bolt upright in the couch he had fallen asleep on. His forehead had beads of sweat running down it and he felt very shaken up. Wiping his brow with the arm of his jacket, he shook his wife awake.
"Max?" A groan was the only response.
"Max, honey, wake up." Waking up slightly, she glanced at the clock.
"Logan, it's one AM, what's wrong?" A tray of untouched food sat next to her bed. He took her hand in his and kissed it lovingly.
"Thank you." A confused expression crossed her face.
"For what? And you woke me up at one in the morning to say thank you?"
"Well, maybe not thank you as much as I love you." Tears welled in her eyes.
"I'm sorry." She cast her eyes downward.
"For what?"
"Not being able to give you the family you have always wanted. I'm sorry that I can't give you two kids and normal in-laws." Her chin was tilted upward by Logan's hand as he laid a soft kiss on her lips.
"All I need is you. You are my reason for waking up in the morning, hell, you are the reason that I am still alive."
"And you don't care that I can't have your children?" He smiled.
"Not as long as I can still have you." She smiled weakly back. "Now, go back to sleep… the doctor will have a fit if he finds out that you are awake right now." They kissed again.
"Aiight, I will see you in the morning."
"And I will bring you medicine and five star hospital food."
"Goodnight." She sighed and cuddled back into the hospital bed.
"Goodnight." He mirrored while lying back down on the couch. He was surprising himself with his own actions. After finding out that her seizure had caused a miscarriage, he was not depressed, but rather relieved that Max was going to be all right.
It was then that Max's IV fluids needed to be changed again and the shrill beeping rang out, waking Logan from his dream. As sleep left him, he sat up and looked at his wife's broken body. Dr. Gibbs entered and began changing the fluids.
"Sir, I need to tell you something." He picked up a chart off the nightstand.
"What?"
"If we leave her on a respirator, there is almost no chance that she will wake up because of the medication we have to use. If we take her off life support, then she will have a much better chance of a recovery." He read through the information the nurse had written on the chart. "I'm about to give her more medication… if you would like, I could call a nurse and we could take her off right now."
"What are the chances that she will make it if you unplug her?"
"I would say that due to her blood's high plurypotent concentration, they are about 50/50." Logan sighed and was lost in thought for a good five minuets.
"Do you know where the woman who was in here earlier went?" His voice was steady and unchanging.
"I think I saw her in the cafeteria, why?"
"She needs to be here when we turn it off."
The respirator's hissing was Logan's safety blanket; he knew that as long as it continued Max would be alive. Now it was gone and he felt exposed and helpless.
"She has been on her own for 3 hours, 26 minuets, and 48 seconds." He thought to himself. "Cindy has been holding up well enough, but thank God Bling is here now, I think she was about to have a nervous breakdown. Jesus Christ, how did this happen?" Movement by the door caught his eye and drew his wrath.
"What the hell are you doing here?" He turned to face the familiar intruder.
"I came to see my sister." Was his curt reply. Bling could sense the friction between the two and stood to intervene if necessary.
"How did you find out she was here?"
"That's none of your business."
"Like hell it's not." They were ever so slowly nearing each other.
"I can protect her."
"Don't you lay a fucking hand on her." Both men's eyes shot sparks of fury.
"I tried that, and look how she ended up." Zack gestured to Max with one hand. The impact of his words made Logan back down. Seeing an opening to hurt him even more, Zack continued. "If you would have let her leave, none of this would have happened. She would be alive and well riding her motorcycle and having fun." Cindy entered the war of words on Logan's behalf.
"And she wouldda neva spent time married to the man she loves. Also, I remember her leavin yo ass by herself." Although true, Cindy's words were too few and too late. The damage had been done to Logan who had become abnormally quiet. As the three watched, he silently moved next to his wife and laid his head on her thighs.
"I am going have to ask you to leave." Bling said as he got into Zack's face.
"Can you back that up?" He replied, accepting the unspoken challenge.
"Will you two just shut the fuck up!" Was Cindy's demand. Both the volume and ferocity of her words took the two by surprise, causing them to draw apart. "My boo, is in a coma." Her words took on a quiet yet well punctuated tone. "The last thing she needs is to have you two kill each other. Zack. Bling. Go get something to eat."
"I'm not hungry." Zack stated.
"I wasn't askin'." Giving in, the two walked out of the room in a heated silence. Once they had left, her features softened and she gently strung an arm around Logan's shoulders. "Boo, you okay?" She got no reply. His eyes were shut and small tears were seeping from them. "Don't listen ta him, he's just an ass." There was still no response, so she began slowly rubbing his back. Her hand traveled in lazy circles across the textured shirt, causing it to rumple in a few places. The vibrations that emanated from him, was a telltale sign that he was trying to stop from crying like a baby. She began softly whispering encouraging things into his ear as time went by. His face remained buried in her thigh with his arms folded behind his head, as if he was hiding. Seemingly out of the blue, she got a pained response from the broken man.
"He's right you know."
"No, no, he is all wrong Logan." She continued to hold him and whisper.
"If it wasn't for me, she would be okay. Now look at her." He raised up to look at Max, and brushed a gentle kiss across her lips. Cindy was desperately trying to fight her own tears while consoling him.
"Look at me." She grasped his hands and looked him in the eyes. "If it wasn't for you, she would still be miserably waiting for life to end. Because of you, she learned what true happiness was. Even if…" she stumbled for the words to use, "she doesn't pull through, it would be okay, because you made her realize why she was here. You showed her that she wasn't just some lab rat, but a woman who was loved dearly."
"But she would still be okay." He turned from her to look at Max again. "Look at what I've done to the woman I love. This is all my fault Cindy. Look, I appreciate what you are trying to do, and that you are using English correctly, but right now, I need to be alone with her for awhile. Then I will talk to Zack and figure out what we are going to do."
"Aiight, I mean, alright. I will leave you two alone. Are you sure that you are going to be okay?"
"I'm sure."