Authors note

thanks for reading and commenting.


Buddy

Jackson wakes up to the sound of the heart monitor alarm and checks on Matthew. "Hey, buddy, hey!"

He sees his unmoving body and tries harder to wake him, and he also notices that no nurse has come yet like they usually would. Used to it, he carries on himself.

Jackson knows it may be a false alarm again, and they may be assuming the same. They also know he will shout if it's something new. The problem could be the heart monitor, which is getting replaced today because it gave several false alarms in one day. They decided to turn it on only when Matthew is sleeping or Jackson is not in the room as they don't have any extra ones to spare.

"Matthew, are you awake?" He tries again and reads his monitor, noticing no change.

Confused and thinking something must be wrong this time, he feels his pulse manually. Not understanding, he takes a second to look at him thinking he may be feeling his wrist pulse wrong. He touches his neck instead and feels nothing.

Panicking now, he tries to shake him again. "Matthew, Matthew, Matthew! Wake up, buddy, come on, nurse!" He checks his pupils and runs out himself remembering the last few times they took too long to respond. He gets the electric machine thingy, its name escaping him to shock Matthew's heart into beating again.

Not remembering how anything works and his hands shaking, he takes a second to close his eyes.

Harriet, Ruby, and April's grief-stricken faces haunt him, so he opens them again and gets back to work, his hands having no choice but to be steady.

Jackson works for a long time trying to save Matthew, not believing it's a lost cause, even as people that could help have come and gone.

Left with only a few nurses that wait for him to call it but not willing to face the truth yet, he carries on trying. Tears he's unaware of run down his face when April walks in.

"Hey Jackson," she says, cheerfully and upon hearing her voice, all of his strength leaves him, and he slumps over, finally accepting that Matthew died on his watch.

After several months of fighting and winning, just as things were looking up, he's just gone. "I closed my eyes for only a second," he begs in a whisper, noticing for the first time that not only is Matthew's skin pale, but his body is cool to the touch.

"Hey, why are?.." April tries getting closer to Matthew, and Jackson hides him with his body.

Nurses there now, he looks up at one and, understanding his gesture, ushers April out.

"Jackson, what's going on?" She asks, getting worried. "Jackson, I have a right to know!" Jackson is not able to face her and call Matthews time of death too.

He stays in his slumped position a little longer, his heart rate finally slowing down and functioning at a normal pace, he calls it.

"Time of death, 7:46 am." He says and stares at Matthew, not able to understand how this happened, "you were fine when I closed my eyes." he says accusingly, not understanding at all...

Looking at him one last time and wiping stray tears away, he goes to April.