Chapter Five:
After about ten minutes, the doctor helped Cory to his feet and carried him to another room where a nurse gave him a shot. ("It'll calm you down, honey.") She helped him fill out forms and he gave her numbers of people to call. Cory felt numb, like someone bathing in ice water must feel. The kind nurse led him to a conference room, where the same cop and Doctor Lucas sat. She helped him into the chair and shook her head at the doctor. Cory didn't care. He didn't care about anything anymore.
"It was a drunk driver," the cops voice began in a tone obviously meant to be soothing. "He was driving on the wrong side of the road, at around 100 Miles per hour. He hit your wife head on. It wasn't her fault Cory. There was nothing she could do."
Cory sneered angrily at the cop and his foolish notion that Cory could ever blame Topanga.
"I have to go back to the station, Doc," the cop said to the doctor.
He left, and Cory and the doctor just stared at each other.
"The nurse talked to your mother, Cory. She said that she's on the next flight out of Philadelphia. She'll probably be here in a few hours. We also called a Mr. Shawn Hunter who lives in Miami, I assume. He said he's on his way. He'll be here in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, Cory, we must discuss something rather painful. You're wife is dead. But her body is in decent shape. We don't want your wife's death to be for nothing Cory. We want to ask you if you would be willing to donate her organs to patients in need of transplants."
Cory stared at the doctor.
"It is a simple procedure Cory. You can save lives. Your wife's death could save the life of someone else's wife. Her body wouldn't be harmed in any way. The funeral could even be open casket, if you wish. Please Cory. I'm sure Topanga would want it that way."
Cory was unable to say a word. He put his head in his hands and wept, overtaken by grief and sorrow. The door opened and a nurse led in Shawn Hunter.
Shawn had changed little since their days at Penbrook. He had married and had three children, and when Cory and Topanga moved to Miami he moved also. He knew he was nothing without Cory. The two families never went so much as a week without seeing each other.
Shawn took one look at Cory and began to weep also.
"She's dead, isn't she?" he asked.
The doctor nodded his head.
"I'm discussing the possibility of organ donation with Cory right now."
Shawn fell into the chair next to Cory. The two men cried together.
Suddenly Shawn got up and walked right up to the doctor. He began to yell, and scream, begging to know why they didn't save her, and how dare they ask about cutting her open and taking her organs like some kind of sick twisted Frankenstein. The same nurse came in and took Shawn away.
She brought him back several minutes later, obviously sedated. Cory and Shawn, best friends their whole lives, sat next to each other and cried silently, careful not to interrupt the silence death had left behind.