Chapter 12

"Abby, it has been three weeks honey, come on, give us some kind of sign." Susan said looking down at her best friend. The past three weeks had been hard on all of them and it didn't seem that she was making any improvement. Abby had been holding her own, but that was about it, they couldn't take her off the vent, her breathing was still erratic and was not able to support life. The pressure in her brain had resolved itself over time just like they thought it would, but with Abby still being unconscious there was little that they could do but sit and wait, and the waiting game could take forever.

The monitors frantically started to beep, something was wrong and that wasn't the sign that Susan had been wanting from her friend, "I meant open your eyes Abby." She said trying to stay calm in a very difficult situation. Susan was pushed aside as the code team came running into the room, there was a sense of urgency in all of there actions and Susan found it hard to stand there and watch them knowing that jumping in would be the wrong thing to do. Her stomach started to churn as she watched them start to perform CPR once more on Abby, the monitor showing no heart activity of it's own. "Dear God Abby don't' die on us, please don't die." The shocked her once, there was no response and again the barrage of CPR, drugs, and shocking her now seemingly lifeless body started over again. Five minutes passed with no response from Abby.

For Susan, time had never seemed to pass so quickly, they had gone from five minutes to ten minutes in what felt like the blink of an eye. Crying now, Susan was desperately watching and waiting for some response from Abby's frail body that her friend was still in there, still fighting to hold onto her own life.

"Abby, you need to wake up, come on." Tom's voice carried a sense of urgency as he shook Abby awake.

Slowly she opened her eyes. "Abby, this is the time, you need to make your decision now, if you don't make it in one minute, the team will stop, as will your heart." Abby just stared at him, not knowing what to do.

"Okay Abby, tell me now what is it going to be, life or death?" Tom reached out and grabbed her hand, as flash of bright light hit them.

"This is it" Abby thought to herself, did she want to die and end it all right then, or risk going back? She looked into Tom's eyes silently begging him to make the decision for her.

"NOW ABBY!" he practically yelled at her. She took one more look at the white light and at Tom, and then made her decision.